Maria Short

How to

Make Caramel from Sweetened Condensed Milk

Most of the time, people cook caramel by heating up regular or brown sugar until it turns into a smooth and creamy substance. However, you can also make caramel out of sweetened condensed milk, creating the same great sa...

How to

Make a Piping Bag

A piping bag, also known as a pastry bag, is a cone-shaped bag that you fill with icing, frosting, or sauce. You apply pressure to the bag to dispense frosting, icing, or sauce in a specific pattern to make your dish bea...

How to

Tie an Apron

Tying an apron may seem like a puzzle when you’re doing it for the first time. If your apron has a bib, start by tying the neck loop. Then determine whether you want to tie your apron in the front or the back based on ...

How to

Make Brown Food Coloring

If you don't have brown food coloring on hand or don't want to go with the store-bought variety, there are ways to mix it up yourself at home. Read on to learn how to blend colors for that perfect brown and how to use co...

How to

Make Black Food Coloring

Black food coloring can be hard to find in stores. Luckily, you can prepare your own black food coloring right at home.

Beginner-Friendly Cake Recipes to Make From Scratch

A step-by-step guide to baking vanilla, chocolate, and apple cakes (plus tips and tricks)There's nothing like the taste of a cake you made in your own kitchen. But is the delicious reward really worth all the work? Belie...

How to

Keep Cornbread from Crumbling

Cornbread is a classic Southern side dish, and there are hundreds of different recipes for it! One of the most common problems with homemade cornbread is crumbliness--dry, crumbly bread falls apart when you cut it. Learn...

How to

Hold a Bake Off

Who can resist a piece of delicious, rich cake or fudgy brownies? For avid bakers, making tasty desserts that everyone raves over is a badge of honor -- that's why bake offs have become so popular. A bake off can be a fu...

3 Delicious Ways to Melt Marshmallows

From stovetop to oven-roasted, to fire-roasted, we’ve got you coveredSometimes, a recipe calls for melted marshmallows, but it does not always tell you how to melt them. This article will show you three different ways ...

How to

Keep a Baguette Fresh

It's always a little sad when a perfectly good baguette goes stale before you can eat it. Fortunately, there are a few simple things you can do to keep your baguette fresh. If you know you won't eat an entire baguette on...

How to

Prepare a Pop Tart

Pop Tarts are delicious small pastries that you can eat for breakfast or as a snack. Although you can eat Pop Tarts straight out of the package, they taste a little better when they’re warmed up. You can use the tools ...

How to

Thicken Custard

Custard is typically an egg-yolk-based sweet cream dessert that can stand on its own or as an ingredient in other desserts (like creme brulee or pie, for example). If you've tried making custard from scratch, you already...

How to

Cut a Round Cake

Round cakes are tasty treats that, at times, can be difficult to cut into enough pieces to serve everyone. In addition to the typical method of cutting a round cake into triangle-like slices, round cakes can also be cut ...

How to

Measure Butter

Whether you’re baking a cake or making a family dinner, many recipes call for butter. But there are all kinds of measurements for using butter—weighing scale, sticks, pounds, tablespoons, cups. This can get confusing...

How to

Thicken Caramel Sauce

If you’ve already made a batch of caramel sauce but find that it’s too thin for your tastes, you’ll need to thicken the sauce. The most efficient way to thicken a dessert sauce is by simmering it on the stove, so t...

How to

Tell if a Cheesecake is Done

Cheesecake, whether you like New York or Italian style, is a light and delicious dessert. Because it contains a fair amount of milk or cream in addition to soft cheese, it can be hard to tell when it is done. However, th...

How to

Thin Caramel

Caramel is a deliciously sweet sauce that can turn up the volume on any dessert it’s added to. But if you’re hoping to drizzle caramel over vanilla ice cream or getting ready to dip apples for a fall celebration, you...

How to

Defrost a Cake

Freezing cake is a good way of saving it for later. Whether you froze the cake whole or in layers, you defrost it basically the same way. Place the cake in the fridge for at least a day to thaw, then set it on the counte...

How to

Make Wheat Paste

This mixture of vegetable starch and water has been used as an adhesive for centuries. Street artists and concert promoters use wheat paste to put up posters, craftspeople use it in papier-mâché or decoupage, and prof...

How to

Bake Cakes in Springform Pans

Springform pans can be used in place of regular cake pans and allow you to bake some fun specialty items. The detachable base and outer ring make removing your cake from the pan a simple process. By preparing your pan an...