Editorial Team

32 Posts
How to Make Perfect Cupcake

How to Make Perfect Cupcake

1. Read every recipe through before starting and follow the instruction to the letter. 2. Use the ingredients called for (for instance, do not substitute jumbo eggs for large eggs). 3. Take time to measure accurately with the proper tools. 4. Use time cues and visual cues, when given, for best results. 5. Do not overbake! Most cupcakes are ready when moist crumbs still cling to a wooden toothpick. 6. Most cupcakes taste best when eaten the same day they are baked and decorated. 7. Relax and enjoy the cupcake making process.
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New Uses for Rice Cooker

New Uses for Rice Cooker

Your Rice Cooker can do more than just to cook rice or warm it. Check this simple tips below: 1. Layer an entire meal in your cooker. As rice cooks in your machine, you can use a steamer basket to harness the stream and heat from the cooking rice to preapre vegetables and marinated fish or chicken for a complete meal that requires little work and very few dishes. 2. Prepare steel-cut oats. Before bed, add the oats to your rice cooker and program the timer so they are finished cooking as you are ready for breakfast. Since milk should…
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Baking Tips: As Easy as Pie

Baking Tips: As Easy as Pie

The old saying goes “easy as pie”, so why are so many of us reluctant to try baking our own? Most of us just don’t have the time to spend hours shopping for ingredients, making the pastry from scratch and preparing the filling, especially during the holidays. Some recognized brand names are making it easy. You can now get, for example, two lines of frozen, unbaked pies, Oven Fresh and the Signature Selections by Sara Lee that are ready to pop into the oven. Here are some additional hints from Sara Lee for baking all kinds of pies: 1. If…
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Cleaning and Storing Dutch Oven

Cleaning and Storing Dutch Oven

There are many opinions on cleaning a Dutch Oven. Not all Dutch Oven cooks believe you can use soap in your Dutch Oven. Some cooks suggest never to wash them, others wash them, but not with detergent. We have found that a well-seasoned oven will not be damaged by using a few drops of dishwashing soap if you have been cooking something really greasy. Just be sure to rinse several times to make sure there is no soap residue. If your oven is not well-seasoned, whatever you put in the oven will be absorbed into the pot and become part…
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About Nutmeg

About Nutmeg

Highly aromatic nutmeg is one og the oldest cultivated spices. It is the hard stone of the fruit of the nutmeg tree and is covered with a lacy, red webbing that is harvested as a separate spice, mace. Once nutmeg is grated, its volatile oils quickly begin to evaporate and its flavor diminish. So it is better to buy whole nutmegs, rather than pre-ground, and you can grate nutmeg as needed. Use nutmeg grater, a tool with fine, sharp rasps and a small compartment for storing one or two nutmegs, or the finest rasps on a shredder-grater.
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Whipping Egg Whites

Whipping Egg Whites

Whipped egg whites act as the leavening for angel food and other sponge cakes. For successful whipping, the bowl and the beaters must be perfectly clean, because even a trace of fat prevents good loft. It is also important to start with room temperature egg whites. Sugar or cream of tartart is often added during whipping to help stabilize the egg whites. To test if the egg whites are whipped to the desired finish, lift the beaters and if you want to have soft peaks form, it should droop over gently and look wet. But if you want to have…
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How to Use Coconut Milk

How to Use Coconut Milk

Coconut milk, which is made by soaking grated coconut in water, is sold in cans or frozen in well stocked grocery stores. It is available in full-fat and reduced-fat forms. Do not confuse it with sweetened coconut cream, sometimes labeled "cream of coconut", Use unsweetened desiccated or dried, coconut for the buttercream and for decorating the sides of the cake. To toast dried coconut, spread on a baking pan lined with parchment paper or baking paper and toast in 180 C or 350 F oven for about 3 minutes.
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Seasoning An Oven

Seasoning An Oven

Untreated cast iron rusts, especially around water. To prevent metal from oxidising in the presence of moisture, cast iron requires a process called seasoning. Seasoning is simply the procedure of baking oil into the oven's pores, and on top of the iron pores. This baked on coating will darken and eventually turn black with age. Darkening is the sign of a well kept oven, and of it's use. This coating forms a barrier between moisture in the air and the surface of the metal. It also provides a non-stick coating on the inside of the oven that is easy to…
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What is Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder?

What is Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder?

Chocolate is made by crushing roasted cocoa beans into bits or nibs, to produce what is known as chocolate liquor. To make unsweetened cocoa powder, much of the cocoa butter (the fat of chocolate) is removed from the liquor and what remains is ground. Dutch processed cocoa, or alkalized cocoa, has a mild flavor and a rich, dark color due to the addition of potassium carbonate. Non-alkalized cocoa has a bolder taste and lighter color. Dutch processed cocoa reacts with the baking soda in devil's food cake batter to give the cake its distinctive reddish brown color.
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Tips Adding Eggs to Cake Batter

Tips Adding Eggs to Cake Batter

One of the secrets to making a good cake is blending the eggs well into the batter. You have to start with room temperature eggs. If the eggs are cold, the batter will separate, resulting in a heavier cake. Do not add the eggs directly to the mixer bowl. Instead, crack them into a separate bowl then break them up with the fork, and with the mixer on medium speed, drizzle them in slowly, stopping frequently to let the batter absorb them. If the batter begins to look curdled, increase the mixer speed to high and beat until the batter…
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