Bakers tend to go through a lot of vanilla because the majority of dessert recipes call for it. It’s not that recipes can’t be made without vanilla – they can be and many are – but it is because vanilla is so delicious, adding a uniquely sweet, subtle flavor of its own …
Summer is a great season for grilling, since the weather is gorgeous outside and it is often too hot to bake in the house. I tend to save cakes and more labor intensive desserts for cooler weather, and opt for quicker and simpler desserts in the summer. I also favor desserts that showcase …
Sheet cakes are wonderful because they can serve a crowd much more easily and efficiently than any other shape of cake. Most home sheet cakes are rectangular – typically 9×13-inches or so – and the size of a sheet cake can make it difficult to handle when it comes time to serve …
Custard is a cooked mixture of eggs and milk that can be made sweet or savory and used in a wide variety of culinary preparations. Custards can be cooked on the stovetop to make pudding or a vanilla ice cream base. They can also be baked in the oven …
While not every baking recipe starts with softened butter, the majority of cookie, cake and bar recipes do. Softened butter should be about room temperature, which will make it easy to cream together with butter and other ingredients to form a batter or dough. Room temperature can vary, but it is generally considered …
A classic pineapple upside down cake is made with rings of canned pineapple and has maraschino cherries placed into the center of each ring. I typically leave out the cherries – unless cherries are an integral part of the cake flavor I’m making – and replace them with more pineapple (or something …
Rolling pins are an essential piece of kitchen equipment for a variety of different cooking tasks. You need them to roll out pie dough, puff pastry and cookie dough for cut-out cookies. They can also be used for other kitchen tasks, like crushing nuts, pepper and ice, or tenderizing meat. You may …
Brown sugar can become hard when exposed to air, making it difficult to measure and to incorporate into recipes. As delicious as it is, you don’t really want to find a chunk of unincorporated brown sugar in your next cake or cookie! Brown sugar’s high moisture content is what keeps it soft and …
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