9 Baking No-No’s That May Leave You With A Doughy Mess

Some consider baking a science, while some consider it an art. Do it right, and you’re rewarded with a beautiful cake, an adorable batch of cupcakes or a heavenly smelling loaf of bread. Do it wrong, and you’re rewarded with a pile of soggy dough. Unlike cooking, it’s very hard to salvage baked goods that have gone wrong. If you’ve ever been faced with a baking disaster, then you may be making one of these mistakes. Watch yourself!

Not Following The Recipe To The T

Baking allows for less margins of error than cooking does. If the recipe says to add two tablespoons of sugar, do just that. Keep doing just that until you’ve successfully baked a couple of times. Then we give you permission to try and shake things up a little

Not Taking The Ingredients Out Of The Fridge

About a half hour before you begin baking, take all refrigerated ingredients such as eggs and butter out of the fridge and allow them to come to room temperature. You’ll taste the difference.

Over whipping Cream

You want to get your whipped cream to that soft airy texture. But, if you whip it for even a second more than required it’s likely to crumble. Add a few tablespoons of fresh cream to your whipped cream if this happens and whisk gently using a fork for a few minutes.

Careful With The Substitutes

If you’re health conscious, you may try to substitute butter with low fat margarine, or full fat milk with skimmed milk. Be warned; this might lead to drastic changes in the taste of your final product. You’d be better off using a recipe that uses low fat ingredients in the first place.

Grease, grease, grease!

Even if you’re using a non-stick pan, be sure to grease your baking tray with flour, butter or whatever the recipe suggests. It will make your cake fall out of the pan easier in the end.

Forgetting To Preheat

Before you start assembling the ingredients, remember to preheat your oven to the desired temperature. Leaving a baking mixture sitting out while you wait for the oven to heat could mess with the texture and taste of the dish.

Don’t Overfill Your Pan

While baking, most goods rise because of the heat. Leave a little space in the top of the pan to allow that to happen. Filling your pan to the brim will cause a giant bump in the middle of your cake, and that’s never a good look.

Taking a Peek

No matter how tempting, don’t open the oven to survey your masterpiece unless the recipe tells you to do so. That’s valuable heat being lost!

Not Allowing The Cake To Cool

Don’t cut into the cake as soon as it’s been taken from the oven. Allow it to sit out for a while and finish using up the heat to cook perfectly. Once it’s cool, frost and enjoy!