Measure your flour correctly
The easiest ingredient to mis-measure is flour. That’s because it can be so easily compacted into a container or measuring cup without you even realizing. Too much flour results in dry, dense, and even crumbly desserts. Check out my article for How to Measure Flour here.
Use the correct kind of baking pan
I highly recommend avoiding dark colored nonstick pans as well as most glass pans. I use light colored aluminum for just about everything!
Dark metal pans will dry out the edges of your desserts, often before the center can cook through. Glass or ceramic baking pans will take LONGER to bake most desserts, and can even result in gummy textures.
If you’re curious about all my recommended baking equipment and tools, check out my Magic of Baking Course.
Your dessert will NOT turn out the same if you make substitutions
Here at Handle the Heat, we believe butter, eggs, flour, and sugar are magical specimens and should never be replaced (unless medically necessary due to an allergy/intolerance).
Dairy ingredients like cream cheese and sour cream are also difficult to substitute.
We highly recommend making all recipes exactly as written. If you do decide to substitute an ingredient(s), just know the final result won’t be the same in texture and/or flavor.