If there is an budding baker in you, here are some basic tips for getting that cake to turn out just right!  Some of these tips are from Wilton Cake Decorating.

• A pan with a lighter color (finish) like a shiny metal will result in a lighter colored crust.  I don’t like the dark non-stick pans, they always make my cookies and cakes too dark on the outside.
• Two really cool tools to make your baking more successful:  Cake Release (a product you brush lightly on the bottom and sides of pan) and Bake-Even Strips (wrap these around outside of pan before baking to bake more even cakes without that puffy crown.)
• Measure liquid ingredients at eye level and always level off dry ingredients.
• Fill prepared pans only half full.
• Bake cakes immediately after mixing in the center of oven.
• Allow at least 1 inch of space on all sides and between pans.
• Don’t open the oven door during the first 20 minutes of baking.
• Test cakes for doneness while they are still in the oven.
• Cool cakes in pans for only 10 minutes, using a cooling rack.
• Plain Crisco is the only kind of shortening I will use in a cake.
• To remove cake from a pan, place waxed paper over top of cake and place a second grid (cooling rack) on top of the paper.  Flip it over and remove bottom pan.  The wax paper keeps grid from making marks on the cake.

Did you know?
-3 teaspoons equals 1 tablespoon
-The number of X’s on confectioner’s sugar indicates the number of times it has been sifted.