6 Practical Tips For The Novice Baker
If you’re ready to try your hand at baking a cake or making some cookies, congratulations!
Here are some practical tips for making your baking attempt successful and pleasant.
Wash the dishes and take out the garbage before you start.
- You don’t want to be caught without a measuring cup.
- Running out of room in the garbage to scrape out strawberry tops and toss eggshells is even worse!
- It’s not glamorous, but taking ten minutes to clean up the kitchen will make baking much easier.
Set out the ingredients.
- Put out all the ingredients that your recipe calls for, and put them in the order in which you’ll be using them.
- Do this, and you won’t be halfway through a recipe only to discover that you don’t have a vital ingredient.
Read the recipe all the way through beforehand.
- You’ll want to know in advance which pieces of equipment you’ll need and which techniques you’ll perform.
- If you don’t have an electric mixer, for example, you can figure out a workaround in advance.
- You also have the option to turn to a different recipe before you’ve wasted any ingredients.
Make sure to preheat the oven.
- Give your oven ten to fifteen minutes to heat up.
- Start the process before you begin measuring and mixing.
- This way you won’t have to wait extra time before you can put the food in the oven.
Put away your ingredients as soon as you use them.
- Get in the habit of putting away your ingredients as soon as you use them.
- Chuck that cocoa powder back into the cabinet once you add it to the flour.
- Put the milk back into the fridge after you add it to the batter. The same goes for empty containers and produce scraps – recycle or throw them away as soon as you’re done with them.
- Get them out of your hair – it makes your workspace less cluttered and helps you keep track of what you’ve done already.
Wash the dishes as soon as you’re done.
- Washing the dishes while your delicious goods bake is ideal.
- If you don’t, the batter may harden on the bowl, creating a crusty layer of hardened-on glue that you’ll have to scrub off.
- Getting your equipment cleaned up and put back away won’t take that long. Plus you’ll feel more peaceful knowing that you don’t have a huge cleaning job waiting for you.
Now that you’ve finished your baking project, sit down and enjoy the fruit of your labors. (Sharing is optional.)
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10 Comments
Fatima
Very Practical Tips… I can not count how many times i started something then noticed halfway through that an ingredient is missing…
Lindsey | Greenmamalife
Great tips for keeping things organized and peaceful while baking!
Tolu
Very nice infor
Helen
Very good tips on vacation planning especially with a large family, I will be adopting these on my next vacation.😊😊
Xx
Tessy
Great and easy read, desperate to get into baking especially whilst we have this ‘free time’s so will definitely apply some of these tips!
Best wishes, Tessy
Amber
So helpful! I’m the worst baker in America and need all the tips!
Jen
These are really great tips! I would love to be good at baking, but I always feel so overwhelmed by the project. Thanks for sharing.
Melissa
These are such great tips!! I hope people are rediscovering their kitchen during this quarantine!
Alanda
I always forget to set out all the ingredients ahead of time! Such good practical tips.
Jess
Like a lot of people, I started baking during quarantine. I wasn’t much of a baker before, but it has turned into something fun for all of us to do together. These are wonderful tips and I am going to use them next time. Especially the “read it all before” and “set up ingredients” first. Thanks!