Baking Tips That I've learned from YOU!

Guess what? I'm sharing baking tips that I've learned from you! That includes cake baking tips, cookie hacks and tips, and even brownie cutting tips. 

I hope to continue to add great tips to this post so feel free to let me know a tip that you want to share too! You can e-mail me, comment on this post, or message me on my facebook page.

Here's something you may not know about me. I love to join baking groups on facebook and read what everyone has to say. I occasionally chime in, but most of the time just read. It's probably the introvert in me, I don't know. Anyway, I've made a little list and want to share the tips.

Cake Baking Tips

I'm always up for some cake hacks and tips. I've had a few AH-HA moments hanging out in facebook cake groups and baking groups.

• To prevent your cupcake liners from becoming greasy while the cake is baking, add rice to cover the bottom of each cupcake cavity before placing a cupcake baking cups in it.
• For fun drips on a layered cake, use Pillsbury canned frosting. Chill the cake and heat the frosting in the microwave in 20-second intervals, stirring after each interval until the frosting is pourable. Color the frosting, add it in a squeeze bottle and drop it on the cold cake.
• When making a chocolate cake recipe, use chocolate milk instead of water in the recipe.
• To easily cover the side of a cake with sprinkles without making a big mess, cut a piece of parchment paper in a strip the height of your cake and lightly spray it with nonstick baking spray. I wouldn't make the parchment paper too wide though because it needs to be manageable. Cover the parchment paper that's been coated with the baking spray with the sprinkles. Pick the parchment paper up and press it against the cake. Repeat until the cake is covered.
• Do you have several colors of frosting you want to use? Wrap the frosting in plastic wrap and then add it to a piping bag fitted with a coupler. Pull the plastic wrap through the coupler and cut off the plastic that's sticking out of the coupler. It prevents messes and makes it incredibly easy to switch colors. 
• To get clean cake and cheesecake slices, keep a knife in hot water for several seconds, wipe off water, and slice. Repeat with each cut.

Cookie Hacks and Tips

• Oops! You've made overbaked hard cookies! That can be fixed. Place the cookies in a container with a lid with a piece of bread. Pop the lid on and let sit for several hours. That should soften the cookies up.
• When rolling out cookie dough for cut-out cookies, use powdered sugar or wondra flour to dust the countertop, rolling pan, and dough. The wondra flour doesn't change the texture of the cookies.

Pie Baking Tips

When blind baking your pie crust, here's a quick tip for your foil. Fold a piece of foil in half and then on more time. You should have a piece of foil that will cover a quarter of your pie plate. Hold it in the center of the pie crust and cut a quarter circle just past the edge of the pie plate. Center it on the crust and gently press down and loosely wrap around the edges of the plate. to  Add your rice or pie weights. You can also just grab this neat tool that I use and forget the foil altogether.

Brownie Cutting Hack

Gently place that sharp knife on the counter and grab a plastic knife instead. I need to focus on homemade brownies because I hardly ever make them even though they're one of my favorites to eat. Since I hardly make the brownies, I'm pretty clueless on how to cut them. Lucky me for me though, I have you guys to share your tips.

Baking Ingredient Hacks

• Keep a large marshmallow in with your brown sugar to keep it soft. You can also use a piece of bread.
• To quickly soften butter or cream cheese, put boiling water in a glass to heat it up.  Dump the water out and cover the butter or cream cheese with the hot glass to quickly soften it.
• Do you want to keep your ganache shiny after it cools down? Add a small amount of corn syrup or golden syrup to your ganache recipe.  I would add 2 to 3 tablespoons of corn syrup to the ganache that I use in this recipe.
• Do you have extra buttermilk, heavy cream, or half and half? Pop it in the freezer in a container. Be sure to leave extra space for the buttermilk, heavy cream, or half and half to expand as it freezes. The couple of things to remember is that you will need to use it all after it's thawed, so maybe freeze it in smaller servings and you may need to whisk the milk after it's thawed to redistribute any fat that has separated in the milk.
• If you need room temperature eggs quickly, pop some eggs in a glass of hot water for 5 to 10 minutes.
• If using honey, corn syrup, or molasses, spray measuring cup or spoon with nonstick baking spray first. It will help the 
• The easiest way to peel ginger is with the side of a spoon. It works every time and always just peels the skin without taking any of the ginger with it.
• Do you have extra ginger on hand? Peel and grate it into teaspoon-sized scoops and freeze it on a piece of parchment paper until frozen solid. Store in a freezer bag and use as needed.

More Baking Tips to try

• Oops! Did an eggshell slip into your batter? Wet your finger or use another eggshell to fish out the broken piece.
• Do you plan on using raisins in one of your desserts? Soak the raisins in hot water to plump them up. This works great for cookies!
• Making these lemon poppy seed scones or any scones? Chill the bowl with the flour in it in the freezer.
• For extra flaky biscuits and scones, first freeze the butter and then grate it into the flour instead of cutting it with a pastry cutter.
• Easily cut cinnamon rolls with some unflavored floss. Slide the floss under the cinnamon roll dough and make sure the floss is straight across the dough. Grab both sides of the floss, cross them, and keep pulling until the cinnamon roll is sliced. This keeps the cinnamon rolls from being squished down.
• To stabilize whipped cream, try adding in sweetened condensed milk instead of gelatin.