New to Baking? This Is What You Need to Know

Oftentimes, butter and eggs need to come to room temperature for a recipe. Pull out those ingredients, and store them on the counter several hours prior to making the recipe. Forgot this step? Grate butter, and it'll come to room temperature much faster; try this trick for room-temperature eggs in a flash.

It can be a pain, but sifting the dry ingredients improves the overall texture of the baked good plus gets rid of any lumps and clumps. Sift the ingredients into a large bowl or onto wax paper to avoid a mess.

It's a bad idea to crack eggs directly into the batter bowl, because there's a greater risk of tainting it with eggshell shards or a rotten egg. Instead, crack each egg individually into a separate bowl, check for any shell, and make sure the yolk isn't broken before pouring the raw egg into the batter bowl. Remove shards by taking the empty eggshell half and using it to scoop the shell bits out of the gelatinous egg.

I've seen it more than once — some newbies to baking will dump all the ingredients together in the same bowl at the same time. It sounds obvious, but consult the recipe, then slowly and carefully add each ingredient into the bowl.