Tuesday's Tips

I baked a pound cake yesterday for a neighbor and it reminded me of a few good tips to share that might make your baking a little easier.

1. When baking a cake, you'll know it's ready to take out of the oven when you can stick a toothpick in it and it comes out clean. Then, let it rest for 10 minutes before turning it out of the pan. It you don't let it cool any, it will probably fall apart when you turn it out. If you let it cool too much, it will stick to pan and not look very pretty (this has happened to me several times!).

2. Always break your eggs one at a time into a clear dish and then add them to your mixture. I had been hearing this for a long time before I really understood the importance of this step. One time in college I was baking a cake (and had just enough ingredients) and was cracking the eggs directly into the batter. One of these eggs was red on the inside, which seems to mean that some blood vessels popped while the egg was developing. Apparently, these are not dangerous to eat - but I certainly didn't want to eat it! So I had to throw all of the batter out! You should also look for any pink or green/blue tints which would mean that the eggs are spoiled. Cloudy egg whites generally mean that the eggs are extremely fresh, but some people prefer to stay away from those as well.