When melting chocolate, it’s always best to go low and slow – use gentle heat and melt it gradually.

There are two main methods for melting chocolate: either in a double boiler (bain-marie) or in the microwave. No matter the method, your chocolate should always be cut into small pieces if you’re not using chocolate callets or buttons.

To use a double boiler (bain-marie): select a heatproof bowl that fits snugly over a saucepan. Add about 5cm (2in) of water to the pan, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Place the chopped chocolate in the bowl and stir continuously until it melts and reaches a smooth, even consistency.

For the microwave, place the chopped chocolate in a plastic bowl (glass or ceramic can get too hot). Heat on HIGH in 30-second intervals, stirring well between each, until the chocolate is fully melted and smooth.

Chocolate can also be melted by adding it to hot liquid ingredients (such as scalded milk or cream) letting it stand for a few minutes and then stirring until melted and well combined.

Alternatively, chocolate can also be melted in a saucepan with other ingredients such as butter. In this case, make sure the saucepan is set over the lowest possible heat and stir it frequently to prevent the chocolate from overheating and seizing.

With these methods, you’ll have perfectly smooth chocolate every time, ready for baking.

The best way to store chocolate is in a cool, dry, dark spot to help maintain its optimal quality, flavour and texture.

Wrap it in its original packaging (if you still have it) and pop it into an airtight container. This protects it from moisture and light and stops it absorbing any strong pantry aromas.

For the best results, aim for a storage temperature between 15–23°C (59–73°F).

If your pizza dough keeps springing back or feels tight and hard to stretch, it’s simply telling you it needs a little rest before you continue!

Good pizza dough has a strong gluten network, which gives it what’s called a viscoelastic nature — meaning it can stretch, but will also bounce back when the pressure’s released. That’s what gives your pizza base its lovely chewy texture, but it can also make the dough a bit springy and tricky to shape.

If this happens, just let it rest on the bench, lightly covered, for 5–10 minutes. During that time, the gluten will relax, and the dough will become softer, more supple, and much easier to shape.

So, if your dough’s fighting back — take a break! A short rest makes all the difference.

Would you like softer, juicier fruit in your cakes every time?

Here’s a simple trick: Before adding the fruit to your cake batter, first toss it in a little sugar.

This light sugar coating will immediately start breaking down the fruit’s cell walls and then, in the oven, it draws out the juices and creates a hot syrup that gently poaches the fruit inside the cake. The fruit will soften more quickly as the cake bakes, giving you tender, juicy, almost jammy pieces – especially with stone fruit and berries.

This method also works particularly well with apples and pears.

However, if your fruit is already very ripe or delicate, too much sugar or letting it sit for too long can turn it from soft to collapsed. In that case, just give it a quick toss right before adding it to the batter.

Recipes will sometimes call for a dish or ramekin with a specific capacity – like when making a soufflé or creme brûlée. The easiest way to check your dish capacity is to fill it with water while weighing it. One millilitre of water equals one gram, so if it holds 250 grams, that means holds 250 millilitres – or 1 cup. And a handy tip is to write the capacity on the base of your dish to reference next time.

Often cake, biscuit and pudding recipes will specify that the butter needs to be ‘softened’ which means it should be soft enough that you can lightly press your finger into it and leave an imprint easily. When the temperature is about 20°C/68°F or above you can either cut the butter in small cubes or coarsely grate it and then leave it at room temperature to soften. But in the depths of winter, or in cool climates, this won’t help the butter soften as the room temperature will be too cold!

But there is an easy solution...

Cut the butter into small cubes (about 1cm/½in is a good size) and place it on a plate or board.

Then fill a heatproof bowl with very hot tap water and let stand for a minute or two.

Pour out the water and dry the inside of the bowl.

Immediately turn the bowl upside down over the plate or board to cover the butter (making sure it isn’t touching any of the butter) and let it stand for 1-5 minutes or until the butter softens.

Toasting and then peeling nuts not only enhances and deepens their flavour, but also reduces their bitterness, especially walnuts.

Here’s an easy way to peel nuts of any kind before using them in your baking:

1. Spread the nuts out on a baking tray and place them in an oven preheated to 180°C/350°F (160°C/315°F fan-forced) for 8–10 minutes, or until lightly toasted and fragrant.
2. Tip the hot nuts onto a clean tea towel, wrap them up, and set aside for 5 minutes — the steam will help loosen the skins.
3. Rub the nuts through the tea towel to remove the skins.

With some nuts, such a walnuts, with their knobbly nature, It’s  often difficult to remove the skins completely. But if most of them look pale and naked, that’s perfect.

You’ll also find that with some soft nuts, like walnuts, the rubbing naturally breaks them into smaller pieces so you may not have to chop them before.

And remember, let them cool completely before adding to your mixture or grinding into a meal.

If a cake batter is too thick to settle evenly on its own in the tin, it’s always a good idea to smooth it out before baking. A metal tablespoon works perfectly for this — it’s small enough to give you good control and sturdy enough to glide over the batter with ease.

As you spread the batter, it’s really common to accidentally leave a little mound in the centre. Try to resist this! Instead, aim to level the surface so the batter is the same depth across the whole tin — especially in the centre. This will help your cake bake and rise evenly.

Have you ever noticed when making a cake or pudding that the batter looks a little curdled? Well, don’t worry, it’s just how the butter and eggs work together.

However, a badly curdled base can lead to a heavy, dense or greasy texture in your finished cake – so it’s worth knowing how to fix it.

When you beat eggs into butter and sugar, you’re actually creating an emulsion – bringing the fat in the butter together with the water in the eggs.

At first, when you add an egg, the mixture will almost always look split or “slippy”. That’s just the emulsion not formed yet.

The fix? Just keep beating! As the mixture thickens, the emulsion will develop, and everything will come together into a smooth, creamy batter.

In cooler weather, this can take a little longer because cold butter resists forming an emulsion. If needed, you can gently warm the bowl to help things along.

When making shortcrust pastry, it is important not to overdo the rubbing in!

The term ‘rubbing in the butter’ can be a bit misleading — what you’re really wanting to do is break and flatten the butter between your fingertips and thumbs, coating it in flour to create small, flaky pieces. Not actually rubbing it into the flour.

At first, your mixture will look a bit patchy – you’ll see big chunks of butter and dry bits of flour. As you keep going, it’ll start to come together – more even, finer in texture, and slightly darker.

The key is to stop when it looks like breadcrumbs, but with some larger flakes of butter still visible. Those flakes are what give your pastry that gorgeous, short and flaky texture once baked.

If you go too far and the butter starts to melt, the mixture can clump together – and that’s when your pastry can end up tough and greasy. You also will have less flakiness.
If you keep going, the butter can start to melt, and your pastry may end up tough and greasy. So remember: less is more!

I often get asked ‘how full do I need to fill my tin’ when making muffins or cupcakes? It really does depend on the recipe and the type of mixture, as things like how much it will rise will vary. I usually recommend that you just divide the total quantity of mixture evenly among the number of holes specified. And, if it’s a good recipe, this should give you perfectly-sized muffins or cupcakes without the mixture overflowing.

But, if you really want to know a ‘quantity’, as a loose guide, you will usually find that filling the holes about ⅔ – ¾ full is generally a good amount for most recipes.

If you ever need to fully line a Swiss roll tin or slice tin, this is the simplest way to do it:

1. Take a single piece of non-stick baking paper that is about 8cm/3¼in larger than the base of the tin.
2. Then grease the tin so the paper will stick to it.
3. Take the paper and smooth it over the base of the tin and press it into the corners so that these points are marked.
4. Use scissors to cut slits from the corners of the paper towards the centre just to the point where the corners of the tin are marked on it.
5. Finally, smooth the paper over the base and up the sides of the tin - the slits will allow the paper to line the tin neatly without it buckling.

And then your tin will be ready to use!

PS: If you’d like try out this method, why not bake my yummy Chocolate Caramel Slice. 

Have you ever wanted to replace crystal sugar (like caster sugar, raw sugar or brown sugar) with honey or golden syrup?

To do this, here is a simple, and general, 2-step rule to follow:

1. Substitute the same amount by weight. For example, use 220g honey or golden syrup to replace 220g sugar.
2. Reduce the amount of liquid ingredient (such as milk, buttermilk or water) by 1 tablespoon for every 110g (½ cup) sugar in the original recipe. If a recipe doesn’t contain any added liquid at all, such as in a biscuit dough, You’ll also need to add an extra 1 tablespoon flour for every ½ cup honey or golden syrup used.

These steps will account for both the higher moisture content of these liquid sweeteners as well as their intense sweetness.

Using your food processor when making shortcrust pastry is dead easy and super quick. It's a particularly good technique to use when the weather is warm, or you have warm hands, as the butter is less likely to soften and melt while making the pastry.
To make shortcrust pastry in the food processor, follow these three simple steps:

1. Put the flour, salt, chilled butter and sugar (if the pastry is sweet) in the bowl of your food processor. Use the pulse button to process until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
2. Sprinkle over the water/whisked egg yolk (you’ll generally find that you need a little less than if making the pastry by hand) and then use the pulse button to process briefly until the mixture just starts to cling together. Don’t let it get to the stage that it forms a ball as you may overwork the pastry and make it ‘tough’ when baked.
3. Turn the pastry out onto a lightly floured, cool bench top and bring it together with your hands. Lightly knead the pastry with your fingertips for about 10 seconds or until comes together but isn’t completely smooth. Shape the pastry into a disc, wrap well in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes or as directed in the recipe.

Did you know that when sandwiching two separate cookies together with jam, the trick is to make sure the jam is warm? Warm jam will not only mean it will be easy to spread evenly over the base cookie, but when it cools, it will set firmly helping to hold the two cookies together without them sliding apart.

PS: You'll find the recipe for these Spitzbuben (German Jam Cookies) here.

When making cheesecakes or frostings using cream cheese it’s a good idea bring the cream cheese to room temperature before you start. If you use it straight from the fridge it will be far more difficult, and take a lot more beating or processing, for it to become lump-free, smooth and creamy. Also make sure you scrape the sides and base of the bowl often and add any liquid ingredients gradually to ensure it remains really smooth.

Small batch baking recipes often require less than one egg to be used. Here are some useful tips to help portion your eggs.

Eggs used in BakeClub recipes are 59-60g/2oz eggs (with shell) and are sold in a 700g/1lb 8oz carton.

• With the shell removed weight of the whole egg = 52g
• Approximately ⅔ of the weight of each egg is the white = 35g
• Approximately ⅓ of the weight of each egg is the yolk = 17g

When using recipes that specify less than 1 egg always whisk the whole egg together before measuring out the quantity required.

If a recipe calls for just egg yolk/s or egg white/s the remainder of the egg can be portioned and frozen in ice cube trays for use later on as required (whisk egg yolks with a good pinch of salt before freezing). Once frozen, transfer to a snap lock bag, label and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge. Use egg whites for meringue and Swiss meringue buttercream, and egg yolks in custard, curds or to add extra richness to your cookies and cakes.

If you don't have buttermilk on hand when a recipe asks for it (or only need a small amount which doesn’t warrants buying a whole carton), you can simply make your own version!

Add 3 teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice to 1 cup (250ml/9fl oz) of full-cream milk and stir well. Let it sit for a couple of minutes before using - you’ll notice the milk will curdle and thicken. It’s perfect to use in in place of milk in any bakes like scones, banana bread and muffins to add a little flavour tang!

The only thing to be aware of is that this mixture will be thinner in consistency than commercially made buttermilk so when using more than 125ml (½ cup/4fl oz) use 1 tablespoon less of your homemade buttermilk for every 125ml (½ cup/4fl oz) in the recipe so that the consistency of the batter isn't affected.