Baking Tips

These are some tips that I feel some beginner bakers can use! Hope you find it helpful!

1) Never grease cookie sheets, the cookies will spread into one huge cookie!
2) Always grease cake pans or your cake will almost always stick
3) Grease bundt pans VERY VERY well
4) If a recipe includes buttermilk/milk you can replace with the following: Water, heavy whipping cream, soy milk, almond milk, coffee creamer, or juice if it is something that will benefit from the sweetness .. You can also replace with other liquid which I can not think of right now.
5) When a recipe says "vanilla" it means vanilla extract unless otherwise specified
6) Margarine and butter can be substituted for one another.
7) Oil and margarine/butter can not always be substituted for one another.
8) Oil can be replaced by applesauce in cake/cupcakes but not in cookies
9) If you are making cupcakes and you are not using all the cupcake spots in the pan, fill the empty ones with a little bit of water
10) When in doubt bake at 350 degrees
11) To fill a piping bag "neatly", place the piping bag inside and around the edge of a tall glass and fill.
12) You can use ANY plastic bag as a piping bag, you do not need real piping bags!
13) When in doubt top dessert with oreos  or drizzle with melted chocolate
14) Unsure how to glaze a cake? Never go wrong with simply mixing confectioners sugar with water until the desired consistency
15) When making a confectioners sugar based glaze add a very small amount of liquid at a time!
16) When in doubt use a piping bag! Piping batters and icing makes everything easier! Just fill piping bag with batter, glaze, icing , whatever and cut to the desired size depending on what you are using it for.
17) When unsure about cooking time, always cook for a shorter amount of time and check!
18) No matter what anyone tells you it does not matter what time of cocoa you use when baking! Any cocoa is perfectly fabulous!
Remember you can always add time but can't go back and take away time!
More to come!