Basic Baking Tips

Having an awesome recipe is only half the battle. What you choose to do with those ingredients can make a world of difference. Here are some basic tips that can help:

• Make sure your ingredients such as butter, milk and eggs are at room temperature before you start baking
• Use the creaming method when making cakes or muffins!
•  This is essential when making high fat cakes (pretty much any cake that isn't a sponge cake; like angel food, chiffon, etc.)
• Use the ingredients that the recipe calls for.
• If the recipe calls for real butter and you use shortening or margarine it will change the taste or texture of the cookie, so just keep that in mind. (Really sucks that butter is so expensive eh?)
• Parchment paper:
• Easy release for cakes:
• Cut out parchment paper in the shape of your cake pan. Place it in the bottom of the pan and then spray the whole thing with cooking spray. 
• When you get the cake out of the oven, let it cool for about 15 minutes in the pan, and then use a knife to carefully separate the sides of the cake from the pan.
•  Carefully flip the pan onto a cooling rack and let cool completely before decorating. 
• Easy clean up for cookies:
• Cut out a piece of parchment paper to fit the size of your cookie sheet
• You can re-use the parchment paper, don't have to wash the pan and there is no need for cooking spray, meaning less greasy cookies!