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

[AndHarry]

I love making cakes from scratch so no shortcuts from me! I'm too impatient to eat cake to decorate properly though so I just tend to melt a big bar of chocolate and spoon it over the top of a Madeira or Victoria sponge cake, then stick on some berries while it's still warm. I haven't had any complaints yet!

[barbarianoftheuniverse]

Replace a tablespoon of sugar with 1/2 of golden syrup- makes a cake that stays moist much longer.

[SaltySeaBird]

Ooh going to try that barbarian!

[MollyBerry]

Best shortcut when making anything that requires 'sifting' flour. Don't bother pre-sifting it into a separate bowl. Just sieve it straight into your wet mix ie creamed butter and eggs and save yourself washing up a bowl!

[LittleBallOfFur]

I'll only really bake now as an 'activity' to do with DS (although I end up making most of it!). I bake simple things that I know work for me - choc cake, sponge cakes, banana cake. Simple recipes and ingredients i tend to have in the house. And yes to ready made pastry for pies!!

I did make DS's birthday cake this year though and really enjoyed it, so may do more, especially now it's getting wintery and it feels all homely to have baked things.

[mindlessmama]

Ohh love these suggestions.
Baking parchment, tin liners or cake cases for everything.
Use cookie cutters to decorate top of pastry pies.
Post it notes on inside of cupboard doors for pastry/bread/ everyday recipes to save time flicking through books.
Double up on everything and freeze half. (biscuit dough etc).
Warm tins and oven before baking, always helps somehow.
Hot water for spooning treacle or golden syrup ( or smother spoon in veggie oil so syrup slips off).
Give kids there own bowl and ingredients for mixing. Or old scraps of pastry to cut and re roll.
Put bread or dough in airing cupboard with cling film on or a coating of oil to prove without forming a 'skin'.
Melt everything in the microwave in 30 second bursts with a quick stir.
Use 2 sheets of making parchment to roll out dough/pastry to avoid flour cloud. (easy to roll up and freeze for later too)
Have a stash of milk and marg in freezer (thaw quickly under warm water)
Refresh homemade bread by popping in a warm oven with a tray of water under it.
If no weighing scales/ measuring jug to hand look at weight on packet and guesstimate accordingly.
Oven can lose so much heat by opening door and takes time to heat up again to right temp so do as little as possible.
Macaroons and meringues need to cool in oven after it's switched off or it'll crack.
Ice cakes upside down for a flatter surface... The list goes on

[Taffeta]

When making cakes that you just want a small slice of, eg Christmas cake, make a square cake, much easier to cut a small slice from.

I use food processor for crumbles and pastry.

Good old lemon curd makes a fantastic filling for a lemon cake.

[Taffeta]

Oh thought of another for pastry that's difficult to handle eg sweet pastry.

Roll out between two large sheets of cling film.

[LittleH78]

I noticed that Lakeland sell an (rather expensive) 'quick release' spray for greasing baking tins, but I use the flora spray instead which is a fraction of the price and gives a nice even coating to the tin without having to mess around with marg or butter and kitchen roll. Brilliant!

[Kipsy]

I used to bake everything from scratch, now I mainly use Betty Crocker cake mixes - no more baking disasters! There is a huge variety of baking mixes available - lemon cakes, choc cakes, white cakes for making rainbow cakes - craving to cupcake in just 15 mins!

I use a tray filled with hot water at the bottom of the oven to keep cakes soft, and use parchment paper always - I have parchment "templates" and pre-cut linings to use in the baking drawer. I use silicone "tins" for cakes, and paper cupcake cases to make clean up easier. I switched from cupcake tins to mini-muffin tins - less calories per treat, and faster baking!

[Kipsy]

Oh, and I open and split the cake mix pack into 1-egg portions. For example, a 500g cake mix pack uses 3 eggs and makes about 36 cupcakes, far too many for me my child! So I sieve, weigh and split into 3 ziplock bags and pop it back into the cake mix box. I calculate 1/3 of the oil and milk or water or whatever the other ingredients are and note it on the box as well (Saves time on doing the calculations).
The same for pancake mixes or any homemade mixes as well.

[Pistillate]

Use a really light mixing bowl and hold it at arms length (above your knees). Then you can use all the strength in your arms to beat the mixture really thoroughly.

[timidviper]

Children are rarely looking for a perfect birthday cake and enjoy one they help to make far more. I always baked a chocolate cake, filled and coated it with chocolate buttercream then let them decorate it with all kinds of sweets, icings and decorations. it could send you into a sugar coma just looking at it but they loved it!

I use paper circles and tin liners, so much easier than greasing tins and trying to get cakes out without breaking them

[flamingtoaster]

I make everything from scratch due to family allergies. Mince pies take ages to make so replace the "lid" with a sponge mixture which can quickly be spooned on.

For favourite recipes save time by working out where various ingredients come up to in your measuring jug. Much faster than weighing.

[okthen]

There's no need to line cake tins with baking parchment- I just grease then flour the tin. The cake comes out easily every time. A tip picked up by my dp in his days as a pastry chef.

[LaVitaBellissima]

Love baking, I've found reducing the sugar in recipes doesn't seem to make any difference to the flavour so I often do that.

I love letting my twins 'help' too, they get so much enjoyment out of it. Especially the decorating at the end. I have fabulous memories of cooking with my mum, so it's a joy to do it with my own children.

Bread machines are brilliant!

[Lent1l]

My cheats are:-

I always have a large tub of stork in the fridge, can be used in cakes straight from the firdge and cake tastes just as good - no need for room temp butter. Also works well in buttercream.

When cutting out the discs for the bottom of a cake tin from greaseproof paper I don't draw round then cut, I fold the paper in half and half again until I have a triangle then cut across the top in a semi circle shape.

Pastry I make in a food processor - less handling and made in about 30 seconds. You also get really short pastry as you add very little water to get it to form a ball.

[CheeseTMouse]

Batch cooking... I made a load of muffins just before my baby was born. They froze really well and it meant that I had some nice homemade goodies to eat at a point my hands were rather full!

[dorothyparka]

Make a scone round instead of individual scones--far less faff and you don't end up with an odd bit of dough at the end. And when making crumble topping 1) add oats for extra crunch and 2) make more than you need and freeze the surplus (add it straight from the freezer to some fruit and stick it in the oven for a really easy pud)

[10thingsihateaboutpoo]

When baking with DD I do it all from scratch but keep it very simple, so recipes with a minimal number of recipes and simply steps like mixing/pouring etc. Fun times (but messy!).

[michelleblane]

Baking parchment is a must for lining tins (even so called non stick ones)
Brilliant when making things like brandysnaps.
Read the tub before using so called healthy spreads in baking as some of them are 'unsuitable for baking'
Shower caps (like the ones in hotels) are brilliant for popping over the bowl when leaning dough to prove.
Digital scales are brilliant as you can zero them and add to ingredients already in the bowl.
Bendy spatula is perfect for getting every scrap of mixture from bowl.....not very popular with children waiting to 'lick out the bowl'
Have a special recipe notebook to write down successsful recipes, or their location (I have masses of recipe books and forget which one I have used sometimes, so I write it down now)

[Hopezibah]

I can bake a cake in 4 minutes flat in a microwave!

It does come out paler than oven baked but for the time-saving it is totally worth it and by the time it is decorated it doesn't even show.

Tastes just as good!

A mini mug-size cake can be done even quicker in less than 2 minutes!

amaze your friends - give it a try!

[Bubbles85]

When adding 'butter' to recipes I tend to use spread instead as otherwise it's hard to mix and it takes forever! Even the spread can do with a few seconds in the microwave sometimes.

[glosgran]

When a recipe needs sifted flour I hate the mess and fine powder all over work surface and the time it takes to sift using a sieve. I put the flour into the bowl and then use a balloon whisk to stir through it until it's light and fluffy. So quick and easy and no mess on the work surface. When making a chocolate cake I add the cocoa powder to the flour before mixing with the whisk and this also blends the cocoa into the flour beautifully.

[glosgran]

I've cut non-stick liners to the correct size for my baking tins so when making cakes I no longer need to spend a long time greasing and lining the tins with greaseproof paper or parchment.