What are your top baking tips? Share your top cheats, shortcuts and tips with Flora and you could win a £200 John Lewis voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

Flora have asked us to find out about Mumsnetters top baking tips and tricks.

Here's what Flora have to say, "At Flora were real fans of baking, but we're always on the lookout for tips and cheats to speed up the creation of cakes. We'd love to hear how you fit time to bake into your busy lives and how you make your cakes extra special with brilliant decorating designs that wow. (We'd also love to see photos of your creations, and we're running a great competition over on our Facebook page with some fantastic prizes, so pop over and upload your pics for a chance to win!)"

What are your top baking tips? Do you take any shortcuts when baking? Maybe you buy ready-made icing? Perhaps you use pastry from a packet? Or do you prefer making everything from scratch? Have you ever bought a cake and pretended that you baked it yourself?

Whatever your top baking tricks are, Flora would love to hear them.

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will receive a £200 John Lewis voucher (in time for Christmas).

Please note your comments may be included on Flora's social media channels, and possibly elsewhere, so please only post if you're comfortable with this.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

[nextphase]

Oven liner - best thing to make the mess on the bottom of the oven really easy to clear up.
The only thing that I sue flora for is sponge cake. Butter all the way for everything else - and most importantly BUTTER icing should never be made with marge.

[VivaLeBeaver]

Use proper measuring spoons rather than a tea spoon out the drawer for more accuracy.

A decent oven makes a big difference to cakes. Mine is hotter on one side than the other which is annoying.

Keep flour in airtight jars to keep the bugs out.

I've never used a mixer in my life, just a wooden spoon. Doesn't take long to mix stuff.

My main tip would be to not be afraid, try different recipes and have fun. If you get the quantities right and follow the instructions you can't go far wrong.

[serin]

Don't bother with mince pies....too much faff! I use shop bought all butter puff pastry, throw grated apple, mincemeat and a few chopped nuts over it, roll up, slice and bake.

Lovely with lemon icing drizzled over.

[joanofarchitrave]

Don't forget that you can use milk that's very much on the turn in scones. Also that you can be eating scones 15 minutes after deciding to make them.

Frozen fruit (defrosted) and really thick Greek yogurt makes a fantastic filling for a sponge cake.

[VestaCurry]

Making up biscuit dough in rolls and freezing it in batches is my trick. I then defrost the batches and have homemade biscuits on tap.

[kateandme]

silicone cake tins are a godsend.much easier to clean and cake comes out easier.
fondant for birthday cakes.
if you know when you need a cake bake the sponge the evening before you need to deocorate.iot can be wrapped in foil for the next day or even frozen.then the next day you will be aure your cake is cooled completely ready to deocrate.
if using buttercream prepare beforehand if you can and keep in fridge.this insures it will sitffen to keep the cake stable in its layers.
ALWAYS COOL UR CAKES.
A super celebration cake is a tired cupcake tower.you couold make the top layer a whole larger cake for the right effect too then the next ayer cupcakes.much easier.
baking is exact.
if the kids are round and want to make cupcakes.buy ready made icing in the squirty cNS OR TUBS.the little ones wont mind the more sacrine taste and will jsut enjoy decorating.

[stealthsquiggle]

Parchment paper circles or, even better, tin liners (especially for loaf cakes) save so much faff.

As for golden syrup, I buy it in squeezy bottles. More expensive, admittedly, but so much less mess that it is worth it (for me).

The defrost setting on the microwave is ideal for softening butter.

[Tyranasaurus]

I'm a from scratch type person, so no particular shortcuts or tricks

Real cream always makes a difference in cakes.
Make proper buttercream if you have the time it's so much nicer
Put pastry in the freezer before cooking

[HerlockSholmes]

save old "squeezy"sauce bottles and wash them out. fill them with buttercream and let the kids use them to ice cupcakes- much easier and more fun for wee ones. also works well for writing on cakes.

[Mrdarcyswife]

My top tip for baking with a small child is get a fun pod. They can stand up at the surface and be fully involved, but there's no chance of them falling. Also means they can "help" with the washing up!

We regularly make 123 biscuits (1oz butter, 2oz sugar and 3oz flour). V quick and easy and no raw egg, so perfect when your helper likes to eat the mix/ lick the bowl.

[whatsthecraic]

If your cake is domed and you want a flat top to decorate, instead of cutting loads off the top just trim the worst of it off then turn it over and use the bottom as the top. Perfectly flat every time

[mousmous]

when your cake is more doomed to be able to use craic's method, just cut it into lots of little pieces an gently press into tin with some icing. fridge. take it out and decorate as planned.

[secretscwirrels]

My DC liked birthday cakes shaped in the number of their age. I seem to remember eight was a tricky one.
If you are cutting out a shape from a large cake, for example for a number, use a very short, pointy knife rather than a long one.

[pumpkinsweetie]

When melting chocolate, always do it the old fashioned way- pan, hot water and ban marie. The microwave can spoil a whole 200g chocolate bar if you forget the short bursts

[CheeryCherry]

I bake a lot with simple ingredients, a squirt of lemon juice ensures a moist sponge. A grated bar of chocolate makes a quick bun topping on top of water icing. I use cadbury highlights for chocolate flavouring, it makes a high rise! I recently bought Betty crocker ready made butter cream, made good topping for piping, not too sweet.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

I agree about melting the chocolate the old fashioned way, I find it far easier than having to keep opening and shutting the microwave and lifting a jug in and out to see how its getting on, also I burnt chocolate in the microwave once and the stench was unbelievable.

Watch out for "convenience" ingredients, Ii picked up a resealable bag of icing sugar thinking it might be free-er flowing that the normal sort in boxes but weight for weight it was about twice the price.

[Chulita]

I use the simple sponge recipe (3 eggs/180g of everything else) and add flavours depending on what we fancy - lemon/orange/satsuma zest, chocolate chips, cocoa, vanilla, coconut, chopped nuts. The cake takes about 5 minutes to make once you've thrown everything in the mixer, in the tin and it's cooked in 25 minutes. You can go from nothing to cake in 30 minutes and you don't need to get the recipe book out...mmmm!

[DXBMermaid]

I am not very good at baking, especially not at making pastry. However I have recently discovered that lots of recipes can be adapted to have a 'biscuit' base. I use digestives for sweet recipes and oat cakes for savoury recipes.

The GOLDEN tip when making a biscuit base is to NOT melt the butter. You can use Flora straight out of the tub as you just need it to be soft and at room temperature. By doing this you need less butter and it's easier to make the base quite firm.

[IHadADreamThatWasNotAllADream]

Couldn't disagree more about melting chocolate. The stress of keeping the water out of the chocolate in a Bain Marie is much worse than checking that it's not overdone in a microwave. Once you've got a good instinctive sense of the timings a microwave is miles easier.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

I don't find the melting chocolate over a pan stressful at all, I use a glass bowl which is bigger than the pan of water so there's no possibility of water getting in the chocolate and have never had a problem.

[AliceinWinterWonderland]

syrup in squeezy bottles - just buy one and keep refilling it from jarred syrup which is less expensive.

silicone pans - great to use - no sticking and clean up is easier. We also make Yorkshire puddings in them, no grease needed.

[Titsalinabumsquash]

I too have squeeze bottles in the cupboard (like the ketchup ones from diners) that I refill with golden syrup, honey etc.

I make cookie dough and shale into a long cylinder, then cool them in the fridge before cutting into discs and freezing so if come ones coming over I can pull out however many cookies I need and stick them in the oven. Loads of people comment on how I always have fresh baked cookies on the go when rather come in

I also freezer brownies and muffins and a ton of banana bread in slices so I can pull out for lunch boxes and snacks.

Pastry is super easy to make (even easier in the magimix) but I do freeze some of that too for really quick pasties and pies. (Not puff pastry though, I have a life!)

Things like crumble topping and pizza dough are also made in bat he's and frozen for when I'm strapped for time.

[Tikkamasala]

I sometimes use ready made icing, I like the fudge one from Betty Crocker, but I usually just make quite simple cakes so it doesn't take long anyway. I like a good old Victoria sponge, put all the ingredients in together, whisk it up and bung it in the oven, job done!

[forcookssake]

Create your own 'sanding' / decorating sugar by putting a small quantity of granulated sugar in a strong plastic bag with a dab of food colourant and smush it round in the sealed bad to distribute the colour. Voila! Whatever colour you need for decorating cookies, sprinkling on cupcakes or wherever else you need it

[BarfaStewart]

I keep my rolling pin and clingfilm in the fridge, so that when I make pastry it keeps it cool. I also freeze the ends so that I can make a few extra things.

I use marg for just about all baking goodies. Even buttercream.