Baking seriously falls in both the art and science category — and it’s hard. Even though everyone loves to laugh at the bakers on Nailed It!, one of the reasons the Netflix show is so popular is because it’s way too relatable. When baking, even the smallest mistake can turn a masterpiece into a hot mess. But since the holidays are coming up, it’s important to get things right. Even if you use a store-bought mix, there are still plenty of ways you can screw up your desserts.
Now, when looking through these, you may think, “I’ve done this plenty of times, and things have ended up okay!”
That means that your good desserts could have very well been great desserts if you followed all the rules. Just make sure to pay close attention the next time you bake. Who knows? With some fine-tuning, you might actually be a better baker than you think.
Here are the most popular baking fails that you need to keep a lookout for. (And again, don’t worry — everyone’s made these mistakes at some point.)
1. Adding ingredients in the wrong order.
This is super common, and also something you may not think about.
But again, science is involved in baking, and someone out there has created the formula just right. It’s likely not the end of the world if you screw this step up, but your dough may be chunkier or airier if you fail to follow the instructions exactly. Plus, going down the line of ingredients in the recipe makes the instructions easier to follow, since it typically goes in order by ingredients.
2. Beating eggs too early.
If you think you might save time by beating your eggs outside of the other ingredients well before they need to be mixed, you’re actually sabotaging your desserts a little bit.
Remember — when you beat your eggs, you’re adding air.
You also want to make sure you don’t overdo it. “You don’t want to over-beat them and have too thick a mixture that it won’t fold into your souffle or your batter or your sponge,” chef Jeffrey Buben stated in an interview with NPR.
3. Forgetting to preheat the oven.
When you think about heat, think about it as one of the most important ingredients in your recipe.
It’s important to make sure everything’s heated right, and being impatient and sticking your cookies in there before the oven is ready will likely undercook them. Sometimes, depending on what you’re making, it can also overcook the outsides, leaving the insides raw. Not very fun. Try to remember to preheat it before you even get your other ingredients mixed. If you do forget, just preheat it and try to prep some other ingredients or wash some dishes in the meantime (your future self will thank you for this).
4. Not chilling the dough.
It stinks to get into the spirit of cookie-making just to learn last minute that you need to chill your dough overnight.
However, this step is essential — especially if you’re using cookie cutters.
The longer you chill your cookie dough, the softer and chewier they get. Keeping the fats cold in your doughs will make a better textured final product, which is definitely worth it. If butter melts in your cookie dough, you’ll end up with crunchy cookies. And maybe that’s your thing, but if that’s not the goal, don’t forget to chill! Remember, temperature is important when baking successful desserts.
5. Frosting cakes before they cool.
This is a big one, and we’ve all done it before. If you’re in a rush, or simply just want to get to the really fun part of cake making, you might frost well before the cake is ready for that. In doing so, you might melt frosting or even worse, mix in cake crumbs.
(There’s a reason a crumb coat of frosting exists, and that’s even after the cake has been cooled).
If you’re not sure if the cake is cool enough, stick it in the fridge for good measure — you don’t want it to be warm to the touch, but it shouldn’t be too cold, either. The best cakes involve patience.
6. Not setting a timer.
“Oh, I’ll remember when five minutes passes!” you say. But then your favorite group chat heats up, and you lose track of time. Or my personal favorite: checking the time before putting cookies in, adding the cook time to that, and thinking you’ll remember what specific time the batch needs to be taken out.
Our minds go a mile a minute, and that extra four minutes might very well mean a ruined batch of chocolate chip cookies.
Why risk it? If you don’t have a kitchen timer, your phone will likely work as a backup.
7. Opening the oven door way too much.
It’s so tempting to take a good peek at your desserts, but every time you do that, heat escapes.
Once may be fine, but after that, you’ll want to keep your hands off.
This is one of the reasons why you have an oven light — so you can see inside without sabotaging anything. Some older ovens don’t, unfortunately, have an oven light (let alone a window), so you just have to spend some time learning about your oven strength and build a bond through trust (no, I’m not joking).
8. Mixing up baking powder and baking soda.
They look similar, and sound similar, and are somewhat in the same family, but be careful — these two have different purposes. Baking soda is made up only of sodium bicarbonate, which helps things rise. Baking powder contains the same, along with two acids that interact with it — monocalcium phosphate and either sodium acid pyrophosphate or sodium aluminum sulfate.
Usually if a recipe has an acid (buttermilk, lemon, etc.), it won’t call for baking powder.
But like all things, there are some exceptions to this rule. Like I said, baking is a science.
9. Not using room temperature ingredients.
Like you probably know by now, temperature is everything. If something calls for room temperature butter, try not to pull it directly from the fridge. Make sure your ingredients are prepared well before the baking begins — not only will you make sure you have everything you need before getting started, but you can make sure everything is at the required temperature.
It’s important, because it affects your cooking time.
It can also change the entire way your food comes out — crispy, soft, caramelized, which is all determined by the temperature of your ingredients. In some more complex recipes, cold ingredients can also curdle faster, and no one wants that.
10. Skipping steps.
If you don’t follow the recipe as-is, don’t expect to get stellar results. They’re all on there for a reason. It sounds like common sense, but if you’re looking to cut some time, you may very well think that your ingredients don’t need to beat for as long as stated, or that it’s fine for something to bake for a shorter time than stated.
Sure, it might work a few times if you don’t chill some dough or slowly incorporate flour into wet ingredients.
But most of the time, it’s a safer bet to just follow every step on the recipe.
11. Using the wrong baking sheets.
It’s important to know the difference between baking sheets. Darker baking sheets absorb more heat, while lighter baking sheets will help ensure your cakes and cookies and most baked desserts don’t burn on the bottom.
Dark is much better for items like potatoes or pizza.
Some baking sheets are completely flat, others have high sides. All of these factors are considered when baking specific things (bake your cookies in flat sheets!!!), so don’t just grab and go when it comes to baking sheets.
12. Confusing salt and sugar.
This one may seem funny, and is definitely a bigger problem than some of the others, but again — we’ve all been there. If your containers look similar, just make sure you do a brief taste test before accidentally dumping a cup of salt into your cookie batter. Salt can definitely accentuate the flavor in your cookies, but… not that much of it
And sometimes, you don’t want that much sugar in your biscuit dough.
Just to extra make sure you won’t mix them up, add labels to your jars, bottles, and containers.
13. Not using a scale.
Europe (and majority of other places that’s not the U.S.) got it right when it comes to their metric system ways. Instead of measuring with mix-matched cups and spoons, measuring ingredients on the scale is much more accurate, even though it’s less commonly used in the U.S.Not every kitchen comes equipped with a scale, but if you’re serious about baking, you may want to invest in one.
Reason being, a scale is literally the best way to make sure you’re measuring your ingredients right.
Cups are usually pretty good, but not as exact. Here’s the good news — you can pick up your own scale on Amazon for just around $13.
14. Forgetting to grease your cake pan.
Unless you want your delicious cake to stick inside your pan, you’ll want to make sure it’s greased with butter, oil, or even flour, before going in the oven if the recipe requires it.
The good news is that this step is ridiculously easy — you just need to remember to do it.
And don’t put all of your trust in non-stick pans and sheets — over time, the non-stick quality wears away and your beloved baked treats will not come off so easily.
15. Not scraping down your bowl when mixing ingredients.
Even if you’ve got an incredible stand mixer, it can’t do one thing — scrape the bowl post-mix. It’s super important to make sure all of the ingredients are actually in your final batter, so you’ll want to take the time to make sure everything is equally distributed when creating the batter for your desserts. The more batter you leave in the bowl, the more tempted you’ll be to just eat it all (don’t worry — once you’ve scraped down the bowl, the spoon is fair game).
