As a new baker, you’ll get lots of tips for saving time and money—buy in bulk, reuse liners, make double batches, and clean as you go.
I’m not here to give you any of that obvious stuff.
Today’s post is all about the unconventional hacks that are harder to come by.
5 Time-Saving Baking Hacks
Here are five tricks for cutting down your baking time:
1. Proof Your Bread Dough in the Dryer
Warmer temperatures speed up the proofing process.
Still, you can’t actively heat the dough because that will cook it. You can, however, look for warm, dry spots around your house and put your dough there.
If you’ve just finished a laundry load, your dryer should be warm enough.
2. Try Melt n’ Mix Recipes
Creaming softened butter with sugar helps you get that light and fluffy texture, but it has its time and place.
A simple melt-and-mix recipe could save you in a pinch. Bonus points if it’s also a one-bowl recipe!
3. Beat Your Butter and Soak Your Eggs
If you do decide to use a recipe that calls for softened butter, you could speed things up by:
- Grating/dicing your butter to increase the surface area.
- Wrapping your butter in wax paper and hitting it with a rolling pin.
- Covering the butter stick with a hot glass/bowl.
Odds are, the recipe will call for room-temperature eggs, too. In this case, you could fill a bowl with warm tap water and soak the eggs for 5–10 minutes.
Without these hacks, you would have had to wait at least 30 minutes!
4. Use (Your Own) Baking Mixes
There’s no shame in grabbing a boxed mix.
No, I don’t just mean when you’re short on time. Some pros approve of cake mixes and see them as a decent jumping-off point—at least for home baking.
But I would add another layer here: Make your own dry mix.
I know it seems counterintuitive when the goal is to save time.
However, if you make them in bulk and store them in your pantry, you’ll be saving both time and money!
Here are some bulk mix recipes to try:
5. Chop Chocolate in Your Free Time
I hate having to break my baking flow just to chop a chocolate bar.
Enter ready-to-go toppings.
You don’t have to buy them ready to go, either. Just chop some whenever you get a free minute.
In a few days, you’ll have a container full of chopped chocolate. Feel free to take things to the next step and pre-mix the chocolate with nuts.
3 Thrifty Baking Hack
Done saving time? Let’s save some bucks next!
1. Downsize Your Pan Using Foil
Maybe you don’t have enough ingredients to fill your pan. Or maybe you just need half the servings.
Now, you have two options:
- Look for a smaller pan. You might have to buy one.
- Downsize with a bit of aluminum foil.
The second option sounds better, doesn’t it?
All you need to do is cut a piece of foil that’s as slightly wider as your pan and fold it over and over again until you get a thick, sturdy strip. Then, squeeze this strip in your pan to create a separating wall.
Repeat the process to make a few “supports” if your baked goods are heavy enough to push the wall down.
2. Round Pan + Soup Can = Makeshift Bundt Pan
Rather than spend money on two separate pans, turn your round cake pan into a Bundt.
Just put a can in the middle to create the centerpiece. Make sure to fill it with uncooked rice or beans so it doesn’t move around when you pour the batter.
This is technically a tube pan, but it’s a bit of a “potayto/potahto” situation.
3. Add Mashed Potatoes to Your Cake
Speaking of potatoes, did you know you could use mashed potatoes in your cake batter?
It sounds weird but tastes surprisingly delicious.
The potatoes add moisture while increasing the total volume of the batter.
Final Thoughts
Baking shortcuts are always welcome. So, which hack are you going to try first?
Sarah is the founder of Baking Kneads, LLC, a blog sharing guides, tips, and recipes for those learning how to bake. Growing up as the daughter of a baker, she spent much of her childhood learning the basics in a local bakery.