Putting Out Fires: Carla's Baking Fixes

Baking can be tough.  Often one small mistake can ruin an entire dish, but before you throw away that plate of stake muffins take a look at some of Carla’s quick fixes and you might be able to save it after all.

1. Broken Cake Quick Fix

When a cake breaks while you’re removing it from the pan or when cookies are crumbling when you take them off of the sheet tray, don’t stress out; turn your disaster into a trifle or parfait. Just layer the broken pieces with whipped cream and any fresh fruit of your choice in a bowl or individual glasses and chill until serving time.  The disaster is averted, and your old crumbled confection is turned into a whole new delicious dessert.

2. Reviving Stale Muffins   

Carla loves muffins so much; she can’t bear to throw them away! So in an effort not to waste food Carla has developed a technique to revive day-old muffins. Sprinkle them with water, place in a paper bag, and pop in a hot oven at 350 degrees F. for 5 - 10 minutes. The steam created by the water will restore moisture to the muffins.

3. Getting Dough to Rise

What do you do when your bread dough doesn't rise? First of all, don’t fret cause it’s going to be okay.  Place your dough in a warmer place, for example, an oven that was preheated at 350 degrees for five minutes then turned off. Hopefully that will work, if it doesn’t you can always bloom more yeast into warm milk or water and remix it into your dough.