The Daily Rush

A French culinary term, that simply means leafy green herbs or greens that have been cut into very thin strips.

One of the most basic tips (and perhaps the most important) is to be sure to let your cake cool completely before frosting!

With a long, serrated knife cut off any “bumps or humps” so that the cake will lay flat on the plate and so the second layer will lay flat on the first layer.

Brush off any loose crumbs before applying frosting.

Use a flexible palette-knife-style spatula to apply the frosting.

Use 1/2 cup frosting for between the layers. Then frost sides and finish with the top last.

For a smooth finish you can dip the spatula in hot water and gently run it around the sides of the cake to smooth the frosting.

For easy release of cakes from their baking pans, you must prep the pans before baking – the traditional way is to lightly grease them with shortening (NOT butter, margarine, or oil) and then dust with flour to coat the bottom and sides of the pan (shaking off any excess), before filling with batter.

Or use a baking spray, such as Pam® Baking Non-stick Spray with Flour!  Since its original non-stick spray, Pam® has come up with a variety of sprays to accommodate our every cooking need and taste.

A great little appliance to have “two of” is that high powered mini-midget of a coffee grinder … one for the coffee beans at time of brewing and one for nuts, and spices, and everything nice. Small amounts of nuts and spices can readily be ground in a coffee grinder, rather than pulling out a big blender or food processor — but do keep them apart though, or you might start coming up with some weird tasting coffees or, vice versa. Some coffee-tasting herbs and spices-as the oils that accumulate, especially from grinding coffee beans and/or nuts are difficult to clean completely out.

If you don’t have a traditional biscuit cutter … cut your biscuits with the rim of a drinking glass, or the rim of a clean glass jar (such as a mason jar), or even the rim of a washed and cleaned-out empty tin can! (Biscuit cutters come in assorted circumferences, with the standard size being about 2 to 2 1/2 inches across, but the biggest difference between a biscuit cutter and a cookie cutter is the depth of the sides. Cookie cutters are shallow–biscuit cutters have deeper sides, to accommodate cutting out thicker dough.)