My hubby was very impressed with me the other day when he was watching me prepare a springform pan for a cake. I don’t remember where I learned this but for many years now, this is how I have been lining a round baking pan.

grease your pan well, I use cook-n-bake spray and a liberal spread of margarine or butter

tear off a sheet of wax paper that covers the whole top of your pan, it needn’t be much bigger

fold the sheet in half with the shinier, smoother side of the wax paper on the inside, then fold it in half again (on the fold) to make it more or less square

forming a point on the corner of the fold, fold it again diagonally

you can add another fold if you like, so it looks like this

now level off the top open side- it doesn’t have to be perfectly round

open it up- it’ll be roughly circular and bigger than the inside of your pan- and keeping the inside shiny side up, press it into your baking pan

(FYI the pan in my picture is not greased) you will be able to smooth the paper against the greased sides and base of the pan to make it as smooth as possible

You can now pour in the batter you want to bake into a cake and bake as you usually would. When your cake is baked, let it cool for a few minutes inside your baking pan before you turn it out. Pull the wax paper off the cake very gently so as not to pull the cake apart. You shouldn’t battle to do so and you will be left with a remarkably easy to clean- and longer lasting- baking pan, and one that you can use again almost immediately should you need to do so!

If you’re anything like me, you have several sets of measuring cups and spoons. Either because you can’t have enough of them, or they have different measurement markings on them, or you need more than one set because they’re always in use!

When you are baking though, its best to use only one set of spoons and/or cups for a recipe at a time.

Even if you have 3 sets with the same sort of cups (1 cup, ½ cup, ¼ cup, etc.) there just may be small differences in the way the measuring cups were manufactured and whilst it probably won’t matter, it is this stickler-for-accuracy’s opinion that chancing it isn’t a good idea.

I often get asked for 3D decorations by my customers, but they are quick to say they don’t like marzipan. A lot of people are under the impression that handmade icing decorations for cupcake and cake toppers are made with marzipan, but this is not so. Whilst marzipan can be moulded into all sorts of shapes, these days the handmade or moulded decorations are mostly made of fondant (AKA pettinice or plastic icing).

Marzipan is made of almond meal and sugar, and occasionally flavoured with rose water. Its definitely an acquired taste and its pretty much standard practice to cover a fruitcake with a layer of marzipan before the rolled fondant covering is put on.

Fondant actually has two different forms. There is pouring fondant- boiled sugar and water- which is often used for sweet fillings like creme eggs, and can be used to cover petits fours for example. It can also be rolled out to cover a cake with. And then there is rolled fondant. This type of fondant often includes gelatin (or agar) and glycerine to make it pliable and dough-like. It can be rolled or moulded by hand into all sorts of shapes- much like play dough. And it can be coloured or flavoured should you wish to do so.

For your butter icing- whether you use margarine or butter- use water instead of milk if it gets too thick and difficult to spread. Milk can go sour and change the taste of your icing.

Unless you’re following a recipe of course.

If you want bright colours without overloading your baking with artifical colourants, add a bit of vinegar or yoghurt to your coloured batter. Not too much, unless you like a little tanginess.

The acidity of the extra ingredients will make your colours pop!

Thank you to Ms Cupcake for this tip!