— Linda Danforth

Yeah, what I do is when I'm assembling my mise en place, and I think many of you know what that is, but if you don't, it means having everything ready before you start so that you aren't aggravated or you know, if you don't have a quarter of a teaspoon of cinnamon, you can probably make your recipe. But if you don't have baking powder or baking, excuse me, soda, you're gonna have a problem if you're making a cake. So you wanna have everything done. If your recipe calls for roasting nuts and cooling them, that's a step that you have to do away. Over my shoulder, I've got my sweeteners, I will process my organic vegan cane sugar lightly to make the size equivalent to a white sugar. I get that done ahead or powder it aquafaba, get it reduced and chilled. So yeah, all those things are done. When I'm ready to bake in this case I've got my dry ingredients, we discuss that on the counter and I look at the note and make sure everything's in there. And then I take the liquid ingredients out of the refrigerator while the oven is preheating. And so it doesn't take very long for the ingredients to come to room temperature at all. They don't have to be warm, they don't have to be warm, but you don't want them ice cold unless for some cookies, some cookie batters have to be cold. So that's something. But that's a really, that's a good question. And since I said I'm leaving the um, you know, I'm keeping the, the liquid ingredients on the counter while I'm preheating the oven, my oven has two thermometers in it and it jing a particular way that's going to say, say to me, oh, your oven is at temperature. I know it's not. So allow enough time for your oven to come to temperature before you mix the batter. So it's a great idea, it's a great time saver to do your dry ingredients, do your liquid ingredients. All you have to add is your vinegar if that's a part of your recipe. But make sure that you've got your oven preheated that before you preheat the oven, that the rack is in the correct place in the oven. For pies. Let's say we're making an apple pie, we want the bottom heat to set that pie dough quickly, then we might move the pie up cake. Most cakes bake on the middle rack of your oven and sometimes cupcakes. Sometimes I bake cupcakes in the upper third of my oven when I want a nice rounded top. So I get the oven racks where they should be. I get my oven preheating. I take my liquid ingredients out of the refrigerator. I don't add the vinegar until I'm ready to mix the batter. The pan has to be prepared. You need to oil the pan, you need to put your parchment paper in the bottom of the pan and that's ready. And only when I know the oven is at tenture will I add the acid, which is going to help the cake rise, mix it. Once you have made batter, it's time to get your cake into the oven.