This is a common problem many people face! You’ve finally gone through all the steps of make that delicious dessert, but how do we know when it’s completely baked?

PIES

If you are cooking a fruit pie make sure you add your butter! The butter combined with the flour is what will give your pie and nice thick filling and keeps it from all pouring out of your pie shell. If you find that when you cut into your pie it is watery, or your filling is pouring it you either didn’t add the butter or you simply didn’t let it cook long enough. Make sure before you take your pie out of the oven, you look and listen to see that your pie is bubbling! When your pie is bubbling that means the butter and the flour and combined and thickened and your pie is ready to be taken out and cooled!

How can you tell when your pumpkin pie or other non fruit pies are finished? Here you are looking to see that your pie filling has set! What does that mean? It should be firm but still giggly. Take a knife or toothpick to the centre of the pie. If your toothpick or knife comes out wet , it’s not finished baking. If it comes out clean, or with a tiny pit of filling on it, it is finished!

MUFFINS & CAKES

How can you tell when your muffins and cakes are finished baking? These are the easiest to tell! Simply insert a tooth pick or smooth knife into the centre of your cake or muffin and it should come out clean! Remember if there is fruit or chocolate chips in the recipe then it’s okay to have that come off on your knife or toothpick. You are looking to see that there is no batter on it! If there is batter then amount of batter on your toothpick will tell you how much time it needs. If it is wet and covered then put it in for at least 15 min for a 8inch cake and 10 minutes for muffins. If there is only a little batter on your toothpick keep testing every 5 minutes. Another way to tell is to gently press your cake or muffin and it should spring back! These are easy but essential methods when baking.

ENJOY!