3 Baking mistakes you may be making (and how to fix them)

Ever wonder why your cakes don’t rise or your cookies flop. Learn how to fix these common baking blunders in no time.

Mistake #1: Not greasing your pans properly

Do your cakes stick to your pans like superglue? You likely have not prepped your pans properly. Preparing your pans is essential for a break-free (and delicious) bake. The solution is to generously grease the inside of your pans with oil, butter or baking spray then line your pans with baking paper. Grease the baking paper again and dust with flour. Once done, turn the lined pan upside down and tap the bottom to get rid of any excess flour. And voila – your tins are ready for your yummy bakes!

Use this trick to line your pans with baking paper:

Mistake #2: Icing a warm cake

As tempting as it is to ice a cake as soon as your baked goods are fresh from the oven, it is best to wait until everything is completely cool before you with your decoration process. If you ice your cake when it’s hot, the icing will melt and can pull up lumps from the soft cake. If you want to speed up the cooling process, let your warm cakes rest upside down on wire racks for 30 minutes before letting it cool off completely in the fridge.

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Mistake #3: Baking with cold ingredients

Did you know that you should always use room temperature ingredients to bake with? (Unless instructed otherwise, of course). “Soft but cool butter has a nice, creamy texture that makes it easy to beat with sugar, which incorporates air into batters and doughs that rely on the creaming method,” says Stella Parks, author of BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts.

But what can happen when you bake with cold ingredients? Adding cold milk or eggs to the batter can cause curdling. “Curdled cake batters tend to rise poorly, so the finished cake will be rather dense. Cold, curdled batters tend to dome rather than bake up flat – and they’re often riddled with tunnels and holes,” adds Parks.