The Apple Cake Collection

1. Chocolate chips contain additives that help them hold their shape while baking. 2. Semisweet and Bittersweet Chocolate are interchangeable in recipes. 3. 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon. 4 tablespoons = 1/4 cup. 5 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon = 1/3 cup, 2 cups = 1 pint, 2 pints = 1 quart, 4 quarts = 1 gallon. 4. Bread (or other yeast doughs) usually call for two rise times. 5. Full-fat buttermilk, sour cream, and greek yogurt can be interchanged in equal proportion. 6. If a recipe calls for whole milk and you only have skim, add 2 tablespoons of melted butter. 7. Place 2-3 marshmallows in your bag of brown sugar to keep it from hardening. 8. Always cool your baked treats to room temperature before wrapping or covering them. 9. When a recipe calls for sifting, measure first, then sift. 10. Don’t give up!

1. Creaming butter and sugar is a highly important baking step that people like to skimp on. 2. After baking, insert a long wooden skewer into the center-most part of the cake. If it comes out clean, turn off the oven and cool the cake on the counter. 3. Don’t overbake. 4. Use cooled baking sheets. 5. A combination of Baking Soda and Baking Powder is usually your best bet. 6. Invest in quality bakeware. 7. Toasting nuts. 8. Don’t over fill your pans. 9. The best chocolate contains only cocoa butter and no other fats. 10. When adding melted chocolate to a recipe, remember you are adding extra density and fat.

1. Roll your pastry dough on a sheet of lightly floured wax paper. Invert the pastry right over the pan, or filling, and peel the paper off. 2. You can patch tears in pastry by pinching or pressing it back together. 3. Don’t ever stretch pastry dough. 4. For added colour and luster, brush the top of crusts, scones, rolls or biscuits with cream just before baking. 5. For conventional and convection baking, resist opening the oven door until the minimum baking time has passed, or you will release the oven heat and upset the baking time. 6. Preheat like your life depends on it. 7. Cool before frosting. 8. Bake in advance. 9. Mix in order. 10. Don’t overbeat or underbeat the batter.

1. Rotate pans while baking. 2. For level layer cake stacking, evenly slice off the dome top with a serrated knife. 3. Don’t doctor the oven temperature and cooking time for faster baking. 4. Substitute at your own risk. 5. If using egg whites for meringues, make sure to keep your fingers out of the egg whites, as oils from your hands can flatten the meringue. 6. Unless otherwise stated in a recipe, always start a baked recipe with room temperature eggs and room temperature butter. 7. Be gentle with pie crust (and other pastry dough) and bread for that matter. 8. For pie crust and quick breads (like scones and biscuits) let the dough rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, to make it easier to handle. 9. For pie crust and quick breads, roll and cut the dough quickly, so you get it in the oven while it’s still cool. 10. Always flour your work surface, rolling pin, hands, cookie cutters, or knife before rolling and cutting doug...

1. Cooking is an Art, Baking is a Science. 2. Measuring matters. 3. Quality ingredients. 4. Ingredient temperature. 5. Mood matters. 6. Parchment paper is your BFF. 7.  Invest in a good mixer. 8. Scrape your bowl. 9. Invest in good spatulas. 10. Bake in the centre.

1. If a cake recipe calls for butter, get it almost to room temperature, but slightly cooler. It’ll warm up when mixed. 2. Don’t substitute baking soda and baking powder. 3. When measuring flour, don’t pack it down into the measuring cup. 4. Prepare your pans well, so you don’t waste time making the perfect cake, only to have it stuck in the pan. 5. Check your oven temperature. 6. When adding chocolate chips or fruit bits into your cake batter, coat them with flour to help keep them from sinking to the bottom of the pan. 7. Do freeze your baked cakes. 8. Stop worrying about getting flat tops on your baked cakes. 9. When mixing up your cake batter, don’t skip out on scraping down the bowl. 10. When baking cakes with fruit in them like banana, carrot, zucchini or pumpkin, let them sit overnight before serving them.

1. Use room-temperature ingredients. 2. Invest in quality bake ware. 3. Butter and flour your pans generously. 4. Toss the old stuff. 5. Take your time to fully complete each step. 6. Use salt. 7. Rotate halfway through. 8. Don't mess with the oven temperature and cooking time (unless you should). 9. Let it cool completely (unless you shouldn't). 10. Use substitutions at your own risk.

1. Weigh the ingredients carefully. 2. Take the recipe as a pretty full guide, but not an absolute blueprint. 3. Embrace any equipment that makes baking easier. 4. Keep a close eye on how much baking powder you add. 5. Don’t rush the process of cake baking. 6. Ensure you’re using the right type of tin. 7. Don’t put yourself under pressure by worrying about onlookers. 8. Don’t let the ‘toothpick trick’ be your only guide. 9. To create a thick and uninterrupted layer of icing, brush the cake mixture with a jam coating first. 10. A high fat content is essential in the butter or margarine you choose to use.