3 Baking Tips for the Rushed Baker

Do you need to bake something for a bake sale? Did you forget about the church potluck tomorrow morning? Or did you burn the cookies and you don't have time to bake another batch? Take these baking shortcuts to impress everyone with your baked treats.

Add Streusel Topping to Your Baking Arsenal

Purchase muffin mixes that only require you to add milk. These are easy and quick to mix up. You can even hand this baking task over to you kids. Before you pop the muffin batter into the oven, mix up some streusel topping to make these baked goods special.

Streusel topping is easy to make. Combine equal parts all-purpose flour, brown sugar and butter. The mix will look like crumbs when it's ready. Sprinkle it on top of the muffin batter before you bake. You can also add cinnamon or other spices to your streusel mix.

Icing Covers a Multitude of Baking Sins

I have never been able to bake a cake that doesn't puff up in the middle. I've tried all sorts of tricks, but I am doomed to bake cake mountains. So, I take a knife, slice off the top and cover everything with icing. This is much faster than trying to make cake after cake until they turn out right. Just make sure the cake it completely cooled before frosting it. Otherwise, you will wind up with cake crumbs in your icing.

Did you over bake the sugar cookies a little? No one will notice the cookies are a little too brown if you cover them with icing. Not only will the frosting cover your baking mishap, but it will add something extra to your baked goods.

Icing isn't just for covering mistakes. You can easily decorate a cake with plain white icing without it looking plain. Use a knife or spatula to make a pattern in the icing. You can swirl a patter in the cake icing or you can use your baking utensil to add texture by lightly smacking the icing so that it forms small peaks all over the cake.

Take Inventory

Before you begin baking, make sure you have all the ingredients. This is very basic advice, but worth mentioning. Recently, I had just dumped some yeast into a bowl of warm water and flour when I realized we were out of salt. I had to scrap that batch and run to the store, wasting the ingredients and my time.

Simple ingredients can be overlooked. Assemble everything you will need for baking on the counter or table before you begin. This way, if you are missing an ingredient or two, you can either run to the store or choose a different recipe to bake.