“Do baking rules really matter?” questioned a reader of Southern Living. Our response: If you aim for perfect baked treats, then yes! When we inquired about the cooking or baking rules our readers tend to break, the responses were not entirely unexpected. Comments varied widely, with many confessing to disregarding recipes altogether and others favoring salted butter over unsalted. One reader shared, “I always tweak a recipe by adding more vanilla and an extra egg, and I sometimes skip preheating the oven,” echoing sentiments found in a majority of the 248 responses. After analyzing these comments, we’ve identified the five most common baking rules that our readers enjoy flouting. While some deviations make sense, others are recipes for disaster. (The Test Kitchen experts would likely attribute dry, deflated cakes and crumbly cookies to these rule-breaking habits.)
Related: Valuable Cooking and Baking Tips from Our Southern Readers
Playing It Loose with Measurements
Who needs measuring cups? Southerners prefer to trust their instincts when it comes to ingredients like vanilla, cinnamon, or chocolate chips. “I measure ingredients the Southern way…to suit my taste,” shared a reader. “I tend to use more vanilla and cinnamon than the recipe suggests.” We can agree with this approach… most of the time! While it may not be the standard practice in cookbooks, if you peek at Mama’s handwritten recipe card, you’ll likely find terms like “dash,” “smidge,” or “pinch” instead of precise measurements. As one reader aptly put it, “Cinnamon and vanilla—why measure? You can never have too much!” Another added, “If it looks about right, just go for it.” This casual measuring style extends to ingredients like garlic, cheese, salt, and pepper.
Frederick Hardy II; Food Styling: Chelsea Zimmer; Prop Styling: Mat Gibilisco
Skipping the Preheat Step
Believe it or not, many Southern bakers choose to forgo preheating the oven! “I pop whatever I’m baking in and keep an eye on it,” shared a reader. Another chimed in, “I place the goods in a cold oven, set the temperature and timer, and walk away. Staying in the warm oven after the timer goes off seems to make up for the lack of preheating.” While some recipes, like our Cold-Oven Black Walnut Cake, require starting in a cold oven, we generally advise against skipping this crucial step. Preheating ensures even baking, especially important for baked goods or recipes with eggs. While it may not be essential for roasting veggies on a sheet pan, it significantly affects the rise of baked goods. It’s a simple task to preheat the oven while preparing your dish, ensuring proper and efficient cooking.
Choosing the Right Measuring Tools
Are you using the correct measuring cups for oil or milk as
“I never use separate bowls for dry and wet ingredients. So stupid! I cream butter and sugar first and then add everything all at once,” says one reader. Sure, you can get away with this sometimes—and we know dirtying up an extra dish is never fun—but it’s also important to properly incorporate everything. No one wants flour lumps in their cake!
There were too many comments in the vein of “I don’t bother sifting or leveling flour” to count. One reader said, “I never level the flour in the measuring cup before pouring it in my bowl,” while another admits “I’m an anti-sifter.”
If you’ve ever followed a recipe to a T and your cake or cookies still came out wrong, the culprit is likely your flour measuring technique. Digging your measuring cup into the bag of flour and dumping it in your bowl is not the way to go. Always use a spoon to scoop the flour into your measuring cup, then level it off with a knife or spatula for the most accurate measurement. And if you’re adamantly against the spoon-and-level method, consider weighing your ingredients instead.
As for sifting, you certainly don’t always need to sift your flour, but if the recipe (like Chiffon Cake or Angel Food Cake) specifically calls for it, I’d heed the advice. Sifting a dry ingredient before measuring it not only helps break up and clumps, but helps the measurement to be more accurate and leads to a lighter, airier end product.
I was genuinely shocked by how many readers said they always add an extra egg. One noted, “I always add an extra egg when it only calls for two,” and another said they “Never measure vanilla extract and always add an extra egg.”
Some say this helps make your cake fluffier and rise better. Sometimes adding an extra egg is okay, but most of the time it’s not the best idea. Unless you only have tiny eggs and the recipe calls for two large ones so you add a third to make up for the difference, then maybe we can get behind breaking this rule. Otherwise stick to the recipe as it’s written.
