Baking Guides

There's a noise every baker knows and nobody enjoys: the metallic pop from inside the oven, ten minutes into a bake, as a thin tray gives up and buckles. If you've heard it, the tray was almost certai …

read more

In June, Ella of Ella's Better Bakes got in touch and asked whether we would send her our 12-cup mini cheesecake tin to test. The arrangement was simple: we send the tin, she gives an honest review, g …

read more

Most non-stick tins start brilliantly. Loaves slide out, washing-up takes ten seconds, and you wonder why anyone bothers with anything else. Then, somewhere around the end of the first year, the coati …

read more

There's a particular sound a cheap baking tray makes a couple of minutes after it goes into a hot oven: a sharp metallic crack as the base buckles. If you've heard it, you already know what this guide …

read more

Every piece of bakeware I've looked at recently seems to carry the label "PFOA-free." It's printed on the box, listed in the bullet points, sometimes mentioned twice. And that's fine — but it's al …

read more

Short answer: it depends entirely on what the tin is made of — and for most tins sold today, the answer is no. If your new tin has a non-stick coating, seasoning it does nothing useful and event …

read more

You greased it. You bought the one labelled non-stick. And you still ended up prising muffins out with a knife while the tops tore off at the rim. If that sounds familiar, the problem probably isn't y …

read more

There's a question I get asked more often than I expected when I started writing about baking. Not how do you get crumpets to rise properly, or what temperature is right for a loaf — but a more fu …

read more

If you've ever pulled a tray of pale, sunken puddings out of the oven and blamed the recipe, the tin probably had more to do with it than the batter. A good Yorkshire pudding tin holds its heat throug …

read more

If you've got a glut of bananas going black on the side and you can't quite face heating the whole oven for one small loaf, the air fryer is the answer. It bakes banana bread beautifully — a prop …

read more

If you've ever pulled a loaf out of the oven and found the base pale while the top is already over-coloured, or wrestled a tin out of the cupboard only to find it's buckled on one side — you a …

read more

You do not need to go hunting for a special mini muffin recipe just because the holes in the tin are smaller. The internet makes it look as though every tin, tray and spoon needs its own separate re …

read more