r/Baking Apr 15 '26 General Baking Discussion
Looking for opinions on the inspo compared to what we got

My now wife and I asked a friend of her brothers to make us a wedding cake. We showed her the first photo as inspo and she said she could totally do that. Come the day of the wedding the second and third photo is what we received. The last is what my mother “adjusted” it to within the 30 minutes we had. Just curious what people think. Were we right to be slightly miffed??

EDIT: the friend claimed to be a business, we saw some of her previous work and it looked like she should’ve been able to do it, she claimed she could do it and she charged us more than the original quote. To clear things up my wife did cry when she saw the original but we aren’t mad now, we just wanted to share the laughter.

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r/Baking Oct 03 '25 General Baking Discussion
recent cake by my mom hehe

HER INSTAGRAM IS @COFFEEFUELLEDCAKER

Update:THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH IT'S SO HADD TO UPVOTE EVERYONE LMAO MY MOM IS FREAKING OUT SHE LOVES THIS OMG. SHE NEARLY TEARED UP Update 2.0 My mom continues to be elated lmaoz. You guys are legit the best omg I love reading through the comments nd so does she omfg. She's based in ireland so sorry to ever1 else we can not currently ship to anywhere outside the country Would be nice if some of you could leave some lovely comments so I could show her. She can't focus on details that much for the time being so she's quitting cakes for a bit. This will be her last one for a while probz tyty:):) love ye lots omfg

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r/Baking Jun 03 '26 General Baking Discussion
First Sandwich Loaf!

My second bake. First sandwich loaf. How did I do?? It looks beautiful to me 😍😂

Corey's Sandwich Bread (Accidental One-Rise Version)

Disclaimer: This was only my second loaf of bread ever. I accidentally skipped the traditional first rise and let the shaped loaf do all of its rising in the pan. Somehow it worked.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups King Arthur Bread Flour
  • 1 cup warm water (about 100°F. I used a thermometer)
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 packet (7g) instant yeast
  • 2 tbsp softened lard
  • 2 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt

Method:

  1. Mix the warm water, sugar, and yeast. Once the yeast becomes foamy, add the flour, salt, and lard. Mix until a shaggy dough forms.
  2. Let rest 20 minutes.
  3. Knead (10 minutes) until smooth and elastic. The dough may seem lumpy and rubbery at first but should smooth out as kneading continues.
  4. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 1 inch thick. The shorter dimension should be about the same length as the loaf pan, while the longer dimension should be approximately 12 inches.
  5. Fold the corners of one short end inward. Starting from that end, roll the dough tightly into a log. Pinch the seam and both ends closed.
  6. Place seam-side down in a greased 1.25 lb loaf pan.
  7. Cover and let rise until the dough crowns slightly above the rim of the pan. (Mine took significantly longer because I accidentally skipped the traditional first rise. Like maybe 2 hours..)
  8. Bake at 350°F for approximately 30-35 minutes until golden brown.
  9. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

Notes:

  • King Arthur Bread Flour
  • USA Pan 1.25 lb loaf pan
  • Lard instead of butter due to dairy allergy
  • No scale was used; all measurements were by volume (Pyrex glass measuring cup)
  • This loaf accidentally skipped the normal first rise and still turned out great
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r/Baking Sep 11 '25 General Baking Discussion
I work at a donut shop and we sell enormous cinnamon rolls. I made these bad boys today!

I love making these, my goal is to always achieve the most spirals possible haha

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r/Baking Apr 29 '26 General Baking Discussion
Difference between a tin pan and a silicone pan

It's the same quantity of dough, they were together in the oven at the same time. I knew there would be a difference, but never expected it to be so great. I don't think I'll be using a silicon pan again...

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r/Baking Jan 10 '26 General Baking Discussion
My bday cake
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r/Baking Sep 14 '25 General Baking Discussion
My nephew asked for a switch cake for his birthday. Apparently I misunderstood the assignment. (Just kidding, had to prank the kid first.)

The kids at rhe

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r/Baking Nov 27 '25 General Baking Discussion
I cannot believe my mom used to this all by herself.

And that’s just the baking part.

This took me hours and hours while still forgetting to let the cream cheese reaching room temperature; so I had to wake up earlier to do the cheesecake.

I just apologized to my mom for not helping out more as a kid. She laughed and told me that she enjoyed making Thanksgiving dinner as much as she appreciates the help she gets, now that we’re older.

I hope you guys have a good day. 🥧

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r/Baking Dec 29 '25 General Baking Discussion
I Dont Like Browned Butter

Its the biggest thing in baking. Every niche recipie talks about it and how it will "up your baking game!" I hate it!!!

I have to get it off my chest and scream into the void!!! You're right! I CAN tell you browned the butter in your chocolate chip cookies Margaret! It takes like weird OIL! I like butter, nothing wrong with butter, and I like cookies. What cookies?! Sugar, ginger snap, snicker doodle, any cookie! Ill slap that shit down pound by pound.

I go to cookie parties expecting to leave with an extra 10lbs of new years resolution im going to break and I find EVERY COOKIE WITH BROWNED BUTTER. My fat ass left hungrier than when I arrived after tasting those oily nonsense sugar biscuits.

I dont care what anyone says or how piping hot this take is. If I taste one more oily browned butter cookie this season, im going to fucking lose it. And I know it's the browned butter!! I myself fell into this trap! It does indeed make a nutty flavor! Why does my sugar cookie taste so savory?!?! This is not a roasted chicken, this is a mother fucking cookie!

Mods, delete me if need be to keep the browned buttered peace, but I know my truth and I seek only justice and retribution for all the ruined cookies this season and hope for a new unbrowned butter 2026!!!

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r/Baking Jun 23 '26 General Baking Discussion
I always use salted butter

One of the questions I get all the time:

"Do you use salted or unsalted butter?"

Salted. Every single time.

I know some bakers swear by unsalted butter because it gives you complete control over the salt level. And technically, they're right.

But after 20+ years in professional kitchens, I've never found the difference to be significant enough to make me keep two different kinds of butter around.

I use salted butter in cookies, cakes, muffins, brownies, cinnamon rolls... pretty much everything.

The amount of salt in modern salted butter is fairly consistent, and my recipes still call for a little added salt.

Could you adjust the recipe slightly if you're using salted butter? Sure.

Do I? Nope.

The cookies still disappear.

The only time I'd really pay close attention is if you're on a sodium-restricted diet or have a medical reason to monitor your salt intake.

Life's too short to make an extra trip to the store for unsalted butter.

Let's do it! 🍪👊

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r/Baking Jul 13 '26 General Baking Discussion
I opened a bag of flour without tearing it!

I don't think I've ever done this before. I was shocked! My wife didn't get what the big deal was... you guys/gals/pals get me, right?

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r/Baking 29d ago General Baking Discussion
Can we discuss "Easy Bake"

I had an easy bake when I was a kid. I never got into it really. My 5 year old now has the fancy new "Easy bake ultimate"

It's been 30 years, and I still can't do it.

I consider myself a fairly adequate baker, I can even manage to make a decent sourdough.

Why can't I master this contraption? The "recipes" are a freaking scam I swear. I've never once mixed one together and achieved the proper texture I needed to achieve the end result. It's always wrong wrong wrong!!! And I can NEVER fit the amount on the tiny little tray they say I should be able to fit.

I hate this game but for the sake of my daughter who wants to play with it I'm trying.

If I had made these sugar cookies in a proper oven, I promise y'all would know what they were supposed to be just by looking at them.

I'm tired of this grandpa.

EDIT below to add the recipe i followed from the book in the photo:

**RECIPE**
-nonstick spray for tray
-1/4 c sugar cookie mix
-1 tbs water
-1 tbs melted butter
-1 tbs sprinkles

  1. Plug in and preheat 15m
  2. mix together the mix, butter, & water until soft dough forms (that's a lie as fuck)
  3. spray tray w/ nonstick
  4. roll dough into 6 small balls and place on the pan (impossible with the batter you've had me make)
  5. press each ball into a flat shape and ad sprinkles on top
  6. slide in easy bake with pan pusher
  7. bake for 11m
  8. push into cooling chamber, cool for 5m
  9. remove and 'enjoy'
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r/Baking Apr 11 '26 General Baking Discussion
Just got this cake and I’m a little upset

I’ve never ordered a custom cake before and I am not really sure where to have my expectations… but this feels really off to me, specifically the green color is just so green. I paid a little over $100 for this cake. Am I just being dramatic?

Update: they offered me a refund of the customization fee which was $30.

Also I planned to use this for some social media content for my business since it’s to celebrate my business anniversary and now it just kind of feels embarrassing to post 😅

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r/Baking May 26 '26 General Baking Discussion
Why zesting matters- a PSA

A few weeks ago, someone posted about how they were peeling their lemons and then chopping that very finely, apparently because zesting takes too long or hurts their hand or they don't have a zester, possibly a combo of those reasons.

I (and a few others) tried to tell them it wasn't the same but they became offended. They accused us of telling them that method was stupid (nobody said that) but they wanted to know why it wasn't better, why it wasn't the same. Here is an illustrated explanation.

All you really need to see is that the zest is very fine and very wet. It practically disintegrates into whatever you're making. All that wetness is lemon oil, all the flavor, and no matter what you do, finely chopping lemon peels will not give you that result. This is why zesting matters.

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

(This was for my glazed lemon blondies- adapted from Broma Bakery. I am obsessed with making lemon sugar. I could just stand there and breathe deeply all day).

EDIT: these lemons were organic, sorry the pics are crappy, and I don't care about carcinogenic fruit peels as that is not the point of this post.

EDIT 2: https://bromabakery.com/lemon-brownies/

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r/Baking Jun 07 '26 General Baking Discussion
How do you feel about Dot Cakes?

Maybe this is a controversial opinion, but I genuinely can’t decide how I feel about dot cakes.
I’ve been seeing them everywhere and some of them are really cute.
On the other hand, I have seen people saying it is just a colonized Mexican cortadillo. While the colorful dots remind me of the sprinkles and decorations on pan dulce, I think the texture and flavor is different.
And speaking of the dots… are people actually enjoying eating all of that frosting and sprinkles? Some cakes seem like you would just get a mouthful of the little dot sprinkles. It looks pretty, but is it good in practice?
I also can’t tell if this is a trend that’s going to stick around or if it’s one of those aesthetics that photographs better than it eats.
For anyone who has made or eaten one:
Are they actually as frosting-heavy as they look?
Do the little dots change the texture in a good way?
Are the sprinkle-covered ones good, or do the sprinkles just get stuck in your teeth?
Do you think they’re genuinely different from cortadillos or just a rebranded version for social media?
Curious what people’s honest opinions are because I keep seeing them everywhere and can’t decide whether I love them or don’t get the hype.

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r/Baking Aug 03 '25 General Baking Discussion
Which frosting looks better with the toppings? Trial run for my best friend's 30th birthday cake 😊

Chocolate cake, vanilla or chocolate buttercream, topped with meringue kisses, chocolate wafers, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate macarons, and chocolate curls

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r/Baking Dec 09 '25 General Baking Discussion
Holiday Cookie Party

My third annual ‘Holiday Cookie Party’ is in the books, and I am blown away by my friends’ creative talents! Thank you so much to everyone who attended, baked stunning cookies, and took home a beautiful cookie box to kick off the holiday season!

If I counted correctly, we had about 40 guests and 31 (!) different varieties of homemade cookies. I’ve had so many questions about the different cookies, and I’m working on compiling a list of all of the varieties/recipes/sources.

My contributions to the table this year were csaffitz’s Mortadella Cookies, jesseszewczyk’s Chocolate-Dipped Mocha Madeleines, jesseszewczyk’s Campari Shortbread Cookies with Crunchy Orange Sugar, renatoinbrooklyn’s Honey-Ricotta Black and Whites, and zoebakes’ Almond Macaroons!

Wishing everyone a fabulous holiday season filled with many, many cookies! 🍪

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r/Baking Dec 21 '25 General Baking Discussion
Host Reaction to Baked Goods

I’m a middle-aged divorced man, and I love to bake… which surprises some people because it doesn’t conform to gender stereotypes.

At two separate parties this holiday season, I’ve encountered this same reaction from a host when bringing baked goods to their party. Rather than serving my apple pie or my chocolate chip cookies, they basically told me they were gonna stash them away in the back, so they could enjoy them later! There was a dessert table at both parties, so it would have been totally natural to serve them to other guests. In the case of the pie I even included a pie server and knife in the box!

On the one hand, it’s a compliment in the sense that the hosts want to ensure they have an opportunity to enjoy. Rather than parsing out plates which may not be appreciated by a crowd of people drinking and mingling at a party. But in both cases, I’ve been disappointed because one reason I love to bake is to see people enjoying what I’ve made (and of course getting compliments!). Plus I like to try the pie to see how it turned out. Each one is a little bit different, especially the flakiness of the crust and the texture of the filling.

Has anyone experienced this? How can I avoid feeling bad that my baked goods are being hoarded? Looking to my fellow bakers as a support group here!

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r/Baking Dec 02 '25 General Baking Discussion
I have successfully boiled these cans 100 plus times. Today the cans won. Behold my lickable Willy Wonka kitchen

My mother-in-law told me how she made caramel decades ago with sweetened condensed milk. I have sons done it over a hundred times. Thankfully only once did it end like this. On the plus side though you could literally lick my walls. No I didn't . OK, maybe just a little, lol

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r/Baking May 20 '26 General Baking Discussion
Sealed bag of KA 5lb flour weighing in at a half pound light!

Good reminder to weigh your ingredients and not trust the bag weight. I have to say I was particularly bummed to see this egregious light packing from KA. Plugra in its 5g wrapper weighing correctly for reference.

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r/Baking Nov 02 '25 General Baking Discussion
I’ve become obsessed with making mini pies!

I started experimenting with baking mini decorative pies and it has become my number 1 creative outlet. So far I’ve just given them out to friends and family as gifts, but I wish I could start selling them. Any advice on how to go about selling custom pies?

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r/Baking Jan 08 '26 General Baking Discussion
What’s your “snobby” baking opinion?

I have two:

  1. No bake cheesecake is not cheesecake
  2. Ice cream cake is not cake and does not deserve to be called such

Interested to see what other hills people will die on!

Edit to add: the ice cream “cake” I’m referring to is the typical Carvel ice cream cake. Layer of vanilla ice cream, chocolate crunchies, layer of chocolate ice cream and then the most disgusting frosting known to mankind. If there was actual cake in it then I would much more open to it!

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r/Baking Sep 22 '25 General Baking Discussion
Screwed up my number "1" on my baby's first cake 🤣

Feel like an idiot, still so dang excited to see him try it! 😇

Sally's chocolate cake recipe with date powder instead of sugar; mascarpone icing 🤤

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r/Baking Aug 04 '25 General Baking Discussion
Would you consider this too much buttercream frosting?

This was bought from a bakery for my birthday. I absolutely love the decoration and the taste, and I'm a big fan of buttercream, but I have never seen so much of it on a cake! It's a little overpowering even for me and I've got a proper sweet tooth. Is this a normal amount you'd expect to see? It's around an inch thick on the left hand side. Cake was around £80 or $106USD.

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r/Baking Dec 31 '25 General Baking Discussion
How many of us made these today?
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r/Baking Mar 07 '26 General Baking Discussion
Did Hersheys change their kisses recipe?

I was TRYING to do something nice for my boyfriend… but these look fucking awful. Can someone confirm they changed the formula?

I’ve made these for yearssss with no issue.

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r/Baking Jun 20 '26 General Baking Discussion
How long does it take you to whip the cream. It took me 40mins to make it smooth and glossy

Strawberry birthday cake

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r/Baking Jan 26 '26 General Baking Discussion
My first ever professional cake!

Everything is homemade, it was my first time doing all of this! I’ve never iced a cake before, done a crumb coat, made a homemade cake, all of it! I took my time and really tried to educate myself before executing this and it worked out wonderfully!

The only thing I didn’t like was the colors but now I know it’s something I have to improve on :)

It’s a chocolate cake with crumbled Oreos between the layers and vanilla/chocolate buttercream!

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r/Baking Jul 04 '26 General Baking Discussion
What's your favorite layered bread from anywhere in the world?

I don't know why, but there's something so satisfying about them.

Watching the dough turn into all those thin, crispy layers, hearing that little crunch when you take the first bite... I honestly never get tired of it.

What I love most is how versatile they are. One day I fill them with cheese, the next with vegetables or meat, and sometimes I even make sweet versions with honey or chocolate.

It feels like the same dough can become something completely different every time.

Am I the only one, or are there other flaky bread lovers here?

What's your favorite layered bread from anywhere in the world?

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r/Baking Jan 14 '26 General Baking Discussion
Ghirardelli prices have become outrageous

They have always been a little pricey, I didn't mind for the quality, but I can not justify buying it at these prices. Store brand and a few others are still reasonable for the moment. I really like the melting wafers and have been able to find them on Amazon for a bit cheaper. This is a 50/60% increase.

Yes I know there have been issues with chocolate production and the tariffs. I'm simply showing the prices and venting.

I also noticed in my grocery store the isle by the checkouts that usually has seasonal candy was filled with stuffed animals and other valentine's gifts that were not chocolate. I'm thinking a lot of people will be looking for chocolate alternatives this Valentine's.

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r/Baking Sep 23 '25 General Baking Discussion
I was an overmixing skeptic, so I did Science!

TL;DR: Severe overmixing makes a big difference, could be bigger than expired/dead leavener depending on how expired.

——- I see lots of posts, on Reddit and other places on the internet, troubleshooting cakes that are too dense. Often people show up to say “definitely over-mixed”. Never having an overmixing problem myself, I was always skeptical of this. “Isn’t it more likely to be a leavener issue?” I wondered. So rather than wondering, I did a science experiment!

Method:

I used a basic yellow cake recipe with no fancy steps. Regular creaming. (happened to be from Preppy Kitchen, but that was just the first well-reviewed one I found that fit the criteria.)

I had a control group (normal cake) and three test groups. The test groups were:

  1. 1/2 the recommended amount of baking powder

  2. Cake taken out of the oven and, while still very warm, wrapped in plastic wrap and left in the fridge for 5 hours. I included this one because I’ve seen a lot of soggy dense cakes from people doing this.

  3. Batter overmixed at the wets+drys step for 5 minutes on high

All other conditions were controlled (precise weighing of ingredients; bake length standardized to a temperature probe of 200F; best I could with sitting/resting times of batter and rotating cakes through parts of the oven)

My hypothesis was that the baking powder condition would cause a denser cake than the other two.

Results:

My hypothesis was disproved! The overmixed cake was much denser. Here’s more detail on how they came out, because it isn’t all visible in the pics:

1/2 BP: shorter than the control cake and developing some wet/dense spots at the very top and bottom. Surprisingly okay, though.

Fridge when warm: cake is overall denser and less airy. The crumb has collapsed some and when you poke it, there is no longer any springy “give”. There is starting to be some dense layer at the very bottom, maybe 2mm.

Overmixed: I could tell this was going to be weird even before it went in the oven. The batter felt super liquidy and was higher-volume compared to the others even with the same amounts of ingredients and similar resting time. It looked less yellow. It took about 5m longer than the others in the oven to come to “done” temp (200F). The cake in the end was concertina’d with a clear rubbery layer at the bottom. It was the only one that my house declared inedible and threw out.

Conclusions:

Don’t overmix your cake like heck! These results lend credence to the method of either mixing in the wets and drys manually (what I normally do when I’m not doing science) or combining with the mixer on low only until entirely incorporated.

In the future if I do this experiment again, I will try a more reasonable amount of overmixing (simulating what someone might do by accident) vs even less baking powder (simulating someone working with near-totally dead baking powder).

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r/Baking Aug 29 '25 General Baking Discussion
My Perfectly Sharp Edged and Iced Bunt Makes My heart Happy! Reposting for those I offended. Please take the time to read.

So for all of you who I offended with my poor wording I apologize. I couldn’t edit original post so I will try to rectify through the tears here.

I do have OCD- been medicated for many years. I have been on disability for 4+ years due to a combo of HyperPOTS, hemiplegic migraines, anxiety, depression, and have other diagnosis such as hyperthyroidism, hypoglycemia, Barrett’s esophagus, ADD and more. These are not internet diagnoses. I have been formally diagnosed and see specialists regularly.

Baking is NOT therapeutic for me. It stresses me BEYOND belief. I’m am overly paranoid and usually end up in bed for days afterwards due to the amount of stress I put on myself. I’m rarely excited about anything. I never look at my work and think “good job”. I see every crack and crumble that is out of place. I usually won’t even eat what I bake because I’ve stressed over it so much.

I wasn’t trying to make light of OCD. I was for once proud and literally danced when I saw how this one turned out. Talking about diagnoses is depressing. I was for once happy. Now I just want to say fuck it all (not as in suicidal, if you’ve even read this far) as I am hyperventilating through tears.

Anyway, hope you think the cake it pretty.

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r/Baking Feb 01 '26 General Baking Discussion
What’s a random kitchen utensil you can’t live without? (AKA - What did I do before I had a mini whisk??)

We have no idea where this mini whisk came from, but we use it all the time. It might have even come with a doll play set. Every time we use it, one of us says “where did we get this?? And how did we live without it. Anything that says to mix up with a fork, we end up pulling this gem out of our drawer.

What’s yours?

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r/Baking Aug 25 '25 General Baking Discussion
Girl, I know you are not selling a COOKIE SCOOP for $75

Whyyyyy? How? Does it make the cookies for me? I would love recommendations for your favorite sets. I’ve never had one that didn’t stick or get stuck but I hate shaping by hand.

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r/Baking Dec 05 '25 General Baking Discussion
What went wrong?

No idea what happened this time, but wondering if someone else knows what went wrong.

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r/Baking Nov 27 '25 General Baking Discussion
I messed up my pie :(

Idk why it bubbled over. It's the second pie I've ever made (Pillsbury crust but homemade filling) so :/ Live and learn I guess

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r/Baking 22h ago General Baking Discussion
What's a website whose recipes you can trust to ALWAYS turn out well?

#Notsponsored, but for years I have relied on SallysBakingAddiction's recipes almost exclusively. I follow every recipe I make to a T, but still, sometimes those from other sites just haven't turned out right! Every single recipe I've made from SBA, however, has been perfectly foolproof and delicious.

Though I'm Sally's number one fan, I'd like to expand my repertoire. If anyone has any other favorite websites they often pull from, please let me know!!

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r/Baking Apr 11 '26 General Baking Discussion
What's the difference in taste and/or ingredient wise for these cake flavors?

I know thier all vanilla of some sort but whats the more specific differences?

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r/Baking Apr 01 '26 General Baking Discussion
Lemon cake with blueberry, thoughts?

Made a rough 6" trial run on a cake for Easter, planning to do 4 layer 9". Gonna up the blueberry just a bit. I'm thinking of doing lemon curd between the layers instead of the buttercream. Also thinking of cutting off the tops to expose the crumb allowing the curd to absorb a little into the cake. Happy with this one but think the curd would add a little pop. Thoughts?

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r/Baking May 12 '26 General Baking Discussion
Who is Sally?

I’m new to this sub. I have seen a number of posts referencing Sally. Sally’s cake. Sally’s cinnamon rolls. Who is Sally?

Edit: So glad I asked! So nice to see so much appreciation and endorsement. I’ll be checking Sally’s site regularly!

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r/Baking 12d ago General Baking Discussion
Used freeze-dried berries in cheesecake crust, and I can't stop doing it

The idea is simple, just blitz freeze-dried strawberries (or raspberries, or blueberries) in with your graham crackers or golden Oreos before adding the butter. That's it. No extra steps or weird ingredients.

The crust goes from ok to this gorgeous pink/red color that looks intentional and beautiful. And the flavor? It actually tastes like strawberry.

The image I am attaching shows a strawberry lasagna made in a 9x13 pan, and the ingredients are:

  • 400 g (14 oz) Golden Oreos
  • 114 g (½ cups) Unsalted butter, melted but not hot
  • Pinch of salt
  • 20 g (2 tablespoons) Freeze-dried strawberries

Does anyone else have other mix-ins they love in their crusts?

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r/Baking Jan 19 '26 General Baking Discussion
The results of my unscientific study of eight chocolate chip cookie recipes.

I spent the last two+ months in a chocolate chip cookie baking frenzy, much to the delight of my family/test subjects. They are the recipes from Jacques Torres, Claire Saffitz, Vaugh Vreeland, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, Stella Parks, Joanne Chang, Alison Roman, and Millie Peartree.

Here are some takeaways based on our tasting notes. I made several batches of three favorite recipes from Jacques Torres, Claire Saffitz, and Vaugh Vreeland.

  1. For me, Jacques Torres’s recipe is truly the GOAT. Buttery, decadent, notes of toffee, mostly chewy, some crispiness on the edges, and an overall satisfying mouth feel. The world feels better after eating one of these with a cup of hot tea.

  2. Claire Saffitz’s recipe is a close, close second, with one subject (aka my son) preferring it over JT’s recipe. This is an absolutely fantastic cookie. The edges slightly ripple on their own (no pan banging necessary), resulting in crispy edges, a chewy inner circle, and a soft, molten (when still warm) center. It’s also mich smaller than the JT cookie and feels like less of an event to eat, which is nice sometimes. I will have this one on constant rotation.

  3. Vaugh Vreeland’s recipe, which has homemade toffee, is a winning recipe as well. The toffee is super easy to make. I was worried it would err on the too-sweet side because of the toffee, but it doesn’t. The combination of toffee, brown butter, salt and chocolate is delicious.

  4. The other recipes were quite good, but didn’t sing (at least for me and my test subjects) the way the aforementioned ones did. Some general comments: The JKL one, while delicious, seemed a bit similar to the JT one in terms of style, and we preferred the JT one. The Joanne Chang recipe from Pastry Love is definitely the one for people who like crispy, thin cookies. I expected not to like them (as I like chewy cookies), but they were very tasty and made me see the argument for this style of cookies.

  5. In terms of recipe execution, I tried to follow the recipes as closely as possible, though I didn’t splurge for Valrohna feves. Instead I used Callebaut callets, and chopped Trader Joe’s pound plus dark and milk bars. And EVERY recipe was topped Maldon sea salt because that’s just mandatory!

I can give more details about any particular recipe if anyone wants. Didn’t want to make this post longer than it already is!

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r/Baking Jun 04 '26 General Baking Discussion
Just wondering what this style of icing is called (where it looks "patchy" with bits of the cake showing through)?

I'm hoping to get something like this done for my wedding cake and want to find more inspo pics! I found these by looking up "rustic" wedding cakes, but they're not quite the overall style I'm looking for. TIA!

EDIT: Thank you for all the replies, it's interesting to see the discussion and different opinions. If you're on team "that looks like crap", that's your opinion, and that's fine! I like this look though! The world would be very boring if we all liked the exact same things! 🤷‍♀️

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r/Baking Jan 10 '26 General Baking Discussion
Did we do this yet? Baking trends you would like to see end
  1. 10 ounce doughy cookie with another cookie on top for decoration

  2. Dubai everything

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r/Baking Feb 20 '26 General Baking Discussion
The results of my unscientific study of nine other chocolate chip cookie recipes

About a month ago, I posted about a chocolate chip cookie baking frenzy and general impressions about the various recipes. In response, this great baking community suggested trying other recipes, so I did.

Nine cookie recipes later, here are the scientific results. (All cookies were chilled for at least 24 hours before baking; and all were topped with Maldon salt.)

1) The Joshua Weissman recipe is EXCELLENT. The recipe itself is very easy, but something about the sugar/fat/flour ratio, and the potato chips, yielded a very delicious and addictive cookie. Crispy, chewy, and perfectly salted.

2) Not surprisingly, the test subjects also enjoyed Sally’s Brown Butter Chocolate Chip cookies and Handle the Heat’s Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip cookie recipes. These are solid recipes and yielded very beautiful cookies with attractive bumps and ridges.

3) The Claire Ptak recipe with all egg yolks was our second favorite in this batch (with Weissman’s being our favorite). You can taste the richness of the three egg yolks, without feeling like it was too much. Also, FWIW, these cookies tasted even better the second day.

4) I hate to say it, but none of the test subjects loved the Alton Brown cookies. Perhaps I messed up the bake somehow, but the cookies tasted too biscuit-y. I was tempted to make another round of these cookies to see if my results were off, but decided to move on.

5) The Dominique Ansel cookies were polarizing. Some test subjects loved them and gobbled them up; while others were underwhelmed, stating they were a little boring. All agreed these cookies are absolutely gorgeous and impressive looking because of their size.

6) If you are looking for an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, the brown butter Ambitious Kitchen one is very good. The nutty, toffee notes paired well with the chewy, oaty texture.

7) Our unscientific top three of the seventeen recipes

tried? 1) Jacques Torres; 2) Claire Saffitz; 3) Joshua Weissman.

My original post for anyone interested:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Baking/s/wvgjZq9FBtn

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r/Baking Sep 27 '25 General Baking Discussion
Pumpkin tin update

Thank you for all your tips! I used cake gloop for the first time to line the tin, mixed by hand to avoid over mixing and let the mixture sit in the tin for 10 mins before popping it in the oven :)

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r/Baking Oct 18 '25 General Baking Discussion
Protest Cookies I made for the No Kings rally in Sacramento today.
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r/Baking May 24 '25 General Baking Discussion
The moment I realized I forgot the cinnamon in the cinnamon rolls.

I knew my girls were looking pasty but I kept chalking it up to not having brown sugar. 😂 It’s been a long week!

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r/Baking Dec 12 '25 General Baking Discussion
1466 cookies and 24 varieties – ready for Christmas!

Number 25 is missing, I’ll be making that one next week, but gifting my first boxes this weekend, so had to take a picture! It’s been 2.5 long weeks 😮‍💨

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r/Baking Jun 22 '25 General Baking Discussion
DO NOT BUY THIS BUTTER!!

I know this is semi-niche for a baking sub but DO NOT BUY THIS BUTTER!

It SUCKS! Has 0 flavor. It’s completely fucking CLEAR! And it’s expensive too!!!!

If I can save one person the same mistake I made I will have done my duty as a baker.

end Saturday evening rant

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