Baking is so much fun and you get some delicious cakes or cookies at the end of it, but it can be quite time consuming and messy. A lot of people find that they just don’t have the time to bake and then deal with all of the cleanup afterward. But baking doesn’t have to be as time-consuming or messy as you think it does because there are some great little tricks that you can use to make life easier for yourself. These are some of the best baking hacks that everybody should try.
Box Cake Mix
A lot of people turn their nose up at boxed cake mix and they say that it’s nothing compared to the real thing. But not everybody has time to bake from scratch, so you shouldn’t feel bad about using a box mix if you want to bake a cake. You can use this great boxed cake mix hack to boost the flavors in the box mix and make it taste just like homemade. Some boxed cake mixes have a bit of an artificial taste, but with a few additions, you can make it taste great and it takes less time. This is still a good option even if you have allergy concerns. You can find cake mixes that use gluten-free ingredients quite readily at the grocery store. This is also a good option if you haven’t got all of the ingredients that you need. Or you can turn that cake mix into a batch of cookies. It is always a good idea to keep a boxed cake mix in the back of the cupboard.
Use Paper Plates To Stop Spills
When you start using a hand mixer to combine all of your ingredients, you’re likely to get some spillage, which increases your clean up time afterwards. However, there is a great little trick that you can use to stop spillages. Just get some paper plates and poke a few holes in them, then put the whisks on the mixer through the holes. The plate will act as a shield and catch all of the splatters. This is a great trick to use if you are baking with kids because that can get incredibly messy.
Grating Butter
If you ever need to work butter into flour for a recipe, it can take you a long while. It’s especially time-consuming if you forgot to take the butter out of the fridge and it’s rock solid. However, if you do make this mistake, you should get the grater out and grate the butter into the flour instead. The smaller pieces will rub into the flour easily, and the whole process will be a lot quicker.
Use Olive Oil To Make Measuring Easier
When you measure sticky ingredients, like honey, it can be a real pain to get them out of your measuring cups, and you may need to keep washing them between each ingredient. However, you can make measuring a lot easier and cut down on the washing up if you coat the measuring cups in a thin layer of olive oil. It won’t be enough to affect the taste and the sticky ingredients will come off easily. Alternatively, you could invest in this measuring cup that has a sliding bottom to push out stick ingredients. We love this measuring cup so much we have had to order replacements (the markings were faded after 10+ years of regular use) and additional sizes. It is amazing! Order from a local consultant and you support a small business, too!
These simple baking hacks will save you a lot of time and mess, so you can bake whenever you like.