5 Easy Ways to Ruin Baked Goods

Hi friends, I thought it would be fun to share with you 5 easy ways to ruin baked goods. After spending 8 hours in the kitchen last weekend making scones, muffins, cupcakes, shortcake, and tea sandwiches I was reminded that there’s a heck of a lot of things that can go wrong while you’re baking.

Some of these things may seem obvious, but they definitely all make the list of things that I do wrong over and over again. I’ll learn, one day, really, she said unconvinced.

Forget to set the timer.

Yes, forgetting to set the timer when you put something in the oven can easily make or break the recipe, but that’s not the time I’m talking about. I’m talking about when the first timer has already gone off and you think to yourself, “90 seconds more” and then forget until four minutes later. Just set the damn timer, even if it’s only for 90 seconds.

Rush through the recipe.

I remember the first time I made a cake recipe and actually followed the directions. It was junior year of high school. I actually beat the cake mix for the full 3 minutes the box told me I should. IT WAS SO SMOOTH. Unbelivable. And so delicious. I now always follow the directions for the full time it tells me to mix something. I even count to 30 in my head if it says 30 seconds.

Use the oven racks at whatever height they started at.

Made this mistake last weekend. Look at where the oven racks are before you put the food in the oven. Maybe that wording is wrong. How about, consider where the oven racks are before you put the food in the oven. You’re definitely going to look at them, you’re putting them in a hot oven. But if you’re putting two things in the oven and the bottom rack is all the way at the bottom of the oven, those are sure as heck going to burn. Silly extra brown scone edges.

Assume your oven is the temperature you set it to.

Ha. I’m guessing it’s because my stove is so gosh darn old, but if I set my oven to 350 degrees it will range from 325 to 400 degrees during the cooking process. It’s a gas oven so I’m assuming it overshoots the temperature so that it can cool down to the correct one? Unclear, I grew up with an electric stove. That said, I always set the temperature about 30 degrees less than what it should be at – and if I feel like the gas kicks on for too long while it’s cooking I’ll even turn it down mid-bake.

You can find these thermometers easily on Amazon.

Read the directions while you’re baking.

Don’t wait until you start baking to read the directions. I read the entire ingredient list for the cupcakes I was going to bake and then when I sat down to bake them the first line of the recipe said “make sure all ingreidents are at room termpature unless otherwise noted” – then I had to wait two additional hours to make the cupcakes. Know what you’re getting yourself into ahead of time so you’re prepared to make it happen.

What mistakes do you always catch yourself making in the kitchen? Any of the above ones? Any new ones I should be watching out for? I’d love to know before it happens (mainly so after it happens I can say – damnit, I’ll have to tell Jess she was right).