Top 10 Baking Tips

We all love a good slice of cake, but have you ever wondered how it's made? Well, it's time to dust off your mixing bowls and start baking in your kitchen. I want to teach you what I've learned from my years as a baker. These top 10 baking tips are designed to help you become a better and more confident baker.

Top 10 Baking Tips

• Confidence is key! Stop saying "Oh I can't bake." Well of course you can't with that attitude! It's time to show your mixer who is boss. My pastry instructor at Le Cordon Bleu use to tell me "You are in charge of the rolling pin!" Now get back to it, and go make that rectangle of dough! I listed this as number one of the top 10 baking tips for a reason. Confidence is so important, not only for professional bakers, but for the home baker as well.
• Read the recipe. This is such an important step. Before you even start grabbing things or getting stuff from the cupboard, read the recipe and make sure you have the ingredients the recipe calls for. People make mistakes, sometimes ingredients are missing in the instructions, etc. Make sure you know what you are doing before jumping into the recipe. If you are a beginner baker this is especially important since you don't have much experience to draw from.
• Do the research. This is so important now a days. There are so many recipes on the internet, and I'd like to say all of them are great, but that's not always the case. Read the reviews, lots of times people have great baking tips or other great options if they find something didn't work.
• Use top quality ingredients and mise en place. You can't expect a great product by using bad ingredients. We use chocolate A LOT. And we almost 100% of the time use Valrhona. Yes, it's expensive, but it's damn good and always yields a great tasting product. Next, use a kitchen scale and weigh all your ingredients. Have them out and ready to use before starting any baking process.
• Make accurate measurements. What's that old saying? Measure twice, cut once! The same thing goes for baking. If you want a moist cake don't guess how much flour, get out your scale and weigh it. Baking is a science, and for the best results, accuracy is key.
• Ensure you have correct oven temperature. Always have an oven thermometer in your oven. You want to ensure the oven temperature shown on the oven dial is the same as the temperature on the thermometer. Calibrate your oven if they are always off. I listed this in the top 10 baking tips because even if you do everything else correctly, if your temperature is off, your creation is doomed to fail.
• Preheat the oven. Unless otherwise instructed always preheat your oven and make sure it is at the proper temperature before using it.
• Use correct pan sizes. Try to always use the type of pan specified in the recipe. Recipes are usually created to yield a specific amount and changing cake pan sizes will alter the baking time and temperature needed. And place your pans in the center of the oven when cooking.
• Have a do it right attitude & practice. Always remember, how you do things some of the time, is how you do things all the time. Baking requires accuracy. Use your practice and time to build great baking habits. Put in the hard work up front and you will enjoy years of baking.
• Have fun! Continue to practice as often as you can. "Learn from your mistakes! Be fearless and above all, have fun." ~Julia Child

Other Baking Resources

If you are looking for more top baking tips and resources you can find a few here. We have a great list of essential baking tools to get you started. Also we have a bakers guide to chocolate if you have any ingredients questions. We are continuing to add to our baking resources weekly, so keep checking if you don't see what you are looking for. Or even better, ask the question in the comments.

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