The Butter Hack You Should Use For Coating Cake Pans
If TikTok has taught us anything, it's that the market for life hacks is still going strong. Just when you think life can't get any easier, you learn you've been boiling potatoes wrong this whole time! However, while they're always interesting, it's rare that a life hack actually works well enough to become a part of your regular routine. For those, it's best to skip past the apps and go straight to the source: grandmothers. After all, who knows better than badass women who have raised, and fed their families for generations?
Take, for example, this simple but brilliant baking hack from Taste of Home to keep any cake from sticking to the pan. Instead of lining the baking dish with parchment paper and greasing it, only to have the cake somehow stick anyway, Noalene Shows of Inverness, Mississippi recommended a much simpler trick to the site. After melting two tablespoons of fat (whether it be butter or shortening), she instructs bakers to pour it into the pan and ensure the surface is evenly coated. "Put the pan in the freezer and the butter or margarine hardens in a few minutes. Pour the batter into the pan and bake," (via Taste of Home).
The result? Your cake will never stick to the sides of the pan again! Plus, no more peculiar puckering from the pieces of parchment. But this is just one of countless tips we can all stand to learn from our grandmothers.
More cooking hacks from grandmothers you need to know
Whether you're a seasoned veteran in the kitchen or a complete beginner, there's undoubtedly something you can learn from the sage advice or great examples from a grandmother or two (even if they're not yours!). Taste of Home discovered another fabulous cake tip through Mrs. N. Dagerin of Levy County, Florida. To prevent a perfectly prepared cake from falling apart when you go to slice and serve, she recommended dusting your plate to keep the freshly baked good from sticking. So simple, and yet so effective!
BuzzFeed also rounded up some concrete kitchen hacks from grandparents, which include keeping a piece of bread in the cookie jar to prevent the cookies from going stale, adding fish sauce to scrambled eggs for more flavor, and finding the sweetest watermelon by checking the bottom for a yellow patch. However, while tips and hacks are always fun, the most important lessons to learn from watching (and wolfing down) our grandmothers' unparalleled cooking are still to take your time, make things from scratch, and to find joy cooking, eating, and sharing what you learn with those you love (via The Daily Meal).