I have been cooking and baking A LOT these past couple of weeks. Between Thanksgiving, trying out recipes for two cookbooks I am co-authoring, and creating the ultimate Thanksgiving cupcake for an Iron Cupcake Challenge, I have pretty much been living in our kitchen. I needed a break this week.

So, instead of showcasing my latest Everything in Moderation baking endeavor, I’d like to try something a little different this week. This flurry of activity in the kitchen over this past week, and over these past couple of years, has, inevitably, been accompanied by many mistakes and lessons learned. In hopes that I can save you all from a few kitchen disasters, I’d like to share my top 10 lessons with you all:

1. Always read through the ENTIRE recipe before starting.
There have been many times where I’ve found a recipe, decided to make it, and jumped right in only to discover that the cookie dough needed to be refrigerated overnight before baking or the cheese cake needed to set for several hours before serving. These discoveries don’t work out very well when you are baking for an event that starts in an hour! Always read through a recipe to make sure you have the time and materials to see it through to the end.

2. Always take out all of your ingredients before starting.
I credit this lesson to my mom. She always told me this when we baked together during my childhood. As an adult, there have been a few times I decided to be a rebel and skip this step only to discover half-way through the recipe that I didn’t have a key ingredient and had to run out to the store in the middle of the baking process. Always make sure you have all of the necessary ingredients before you start – it will make the process a lot less stressful!

3. Temperature matters.
You may have noticed that some recipes specify the temperature of certain ingredients. Butter and eggs are the two ingredients that are most often specified to be at room temperature or cold. These temperatures do matter as they will affect whether or not your batter or dough is the right consistency.

4. A stand mixer is a great investment.
You might think your hand mixer works fine, but baking is so much more enjoyable when you don’t have to stand there holding a mixer for for 10 minutes. A stand mixer is definitely a worthwhile investment for anyone who likes to bake.

5. The real thing works best.
I’ve tried every substitute possible – powdered egg-replacers, light butter, oil-replacers, etc. Many of these yield baked goods that are an acquired taste, whereas others yield baked goods that are just plain bad. I’ve come to believe that it is best to use the real thing, just make smaller portions. You’ll be more satisfied with your final product, and it will likely be worth the couple of extra calories.

6. Don’t over-fill your muffin tin or cookie sheet.
You might cringe at the thought of not using up all of the batter or dough you worked so hard to create, but overfilling your baking sheets will only lead to disaster. Your cupcakes or muffins will overflow out of their tins and the tops will be more prone to break, or your cookies will run together and will look funky when you have to break them apart. In the end, you are wasting even more batter or dough by ruining your baking masterpieces. Never fill your muffin or cupcake tins more than 1/2 to 2/3 full and limit the number of cookies on your tray to 12. It is always okay to bake another round. Silicon baking cups are great for when you have just enough batter for a few muffins or cupcakes.

7. Wipe up batter than drips on the bottom of the oven before turning on or cleaning the oven.
This may be a no-brainer to some, but I thought the “let it burn off” principle would work just fine this past weekend when some of the cake batter dripped out of the cake pan (that I overfilled – see lesson 6!). I was wrong. Through the duration of the cake baking, the house smelled of burnt cake and the oven smoked like crazy. When I removed the cake and turned on the self-cleaning option of the oven the smell and smokiness was ten times worse! We had to turn off the oven, remove the batteries from our smoke detectors, and leave the house for an hour to let it all air out. A simple wiping up of the dripped batter would have prevented all of this drama!

8. Freezing is your friend.
Most cakes, cookies, and even frostings can be frozen! If you ever make to much of anything or have too many leftovers after a party, throw it all in the freezer (instead of trying hard to eat it up or throwing it in the trash). You can then have these leftovers on hand for single-serve treats, or for a time when you need a baked good in a pinch. Frozen baked goods will last for 3-6 months.

9. Evening-out the top and sides, and applying a crumb layer are two worthwhile steps when making a cake.
Professional bakers use a serrated or cake knife to slice thin layers off the tops and sides of their cakes to ensure the cake is smooth and symmetrical before frosting, They then apply what is called a “crumb layer.” This is when you apply a thin layer of frosting to catch and hold all of the crumbs, then place your cake in the fridge or freezer until the this layer of frosting has hardened. Remove the cake and apply a new, thicker layer of frosting on top of this; this layer will be smoother and crumb-free because you’ve both evened-out the top and sides of the cake and applied a crumb layer before frosting. Check out this YouTube video for a crumb layer demo.

10. You can always make a trifle.
Sometimes cakes or cupcakes are a flop – whether you overfilled, didn’t wait until they cooled completely, or weren’t careful enough when removing them from their pan, it’s always very sad when you put effort into making a delicious treat, only to see it crumble before your very eyes. Trifles are the perfect way to make a broken cake into a delicious dessert. Grab some pudding, fruit, whipped cream and a large glass bowl. Layer the fruit, pudding, and cake until the bowl is full, then top with whipped cream. Trifles are beautiful, tasty, and no one will ever suspect it was a quick fix!

What are the most valuable lessons you have learned in the kitchen?