Marta On A Mission: Tool Talk: Piece of Cake

I know it may seem a little soon for another Tool Talk, but it has been a crazy weekend. The youngest has a chest cough and cold and after a quick trip to the after hours clinic I spent a good part of the weekend rocking a sick baby. What does that mean? It means another Tool Talk, yay!

This is about kitchen tools; a few that I simply could not live without. Even with all the baby rocking this weekend, I found time to bake a cake for my nephew. He is in the Navy, and about to be stationed in Japan for two years. I made him the strawberry cake found here, and I decided to highlight a few things that made this job easier.

Let’s start with the Kitchen Aid. The Kitchen Aid really deserves a post all its own, and doesn’t require much said except I don’t know why I waited so long to add this one to my arsenal.

The star of this post is parchment paper. This one gets a lot of use in my kitchen. Because of parchment paper I rarely ever have to wash a cookie sheet in my house, I never worry about cakes sticking, and it even makes an occasional appearance in craft projects.

If I’m using a round pan I grab a pencil and trace my pan, I fold the paper in half until the pencil marks line up and I channel my inner kindergartner and cut a circle just inside the pencil lines. I pop it into the pan and I’m good to go. Today I am using a 9x13 so the process it slightly different. I roll the paper up and hold it in the pan to estimate the size, I then use my kitchen scissors the snip the rolled up paper to the proper width.

I unroll and roll it in the other direction and repeat for the length. I use Pam for Baking on the sides and a little spray in the middle to keep the paper from moving while I pour.