The days of having to run to the grocery mid-cake mixing to pick up an ingredient you inevitably forgot are now behind you! We’ve got the tricks of the trade to make sure your cakes are fluffy, your cookies are chewy and you never have to panic about a missing ingredient ever again!

1.Make your own powdered sugar 

Powdered sugar is one of those ingredients that we always seem to need but never have in the house. To make your own, add a cup of white sugar plus 1 tablespoon of cornstarch to your blender and pulse a few times until the sugar has same consistency as powdered sugar. Look at you go, you baking genius!

2. Soften up your sugar

One of our baking pet peeves is when you go to use the brown sugar and it is rock solid. Thankfully, we have a hack for that! Put the brown sugar in a baking dish and cover it with a wet paper towel and microwave it for 20 seconds. Keep your brown sugar soft from now on by storing it with a slice of bread. It sounds weird, but it works!

3. Turn milk into buttermilk

Ok, we admit it’s not as cool as turning water into wine but it sure is useful! For every 1 cup of milk, stir in 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar. Leave for 5 minutes, and you’ll have buttermilk!

4. Zest for zest!

Get the most out of your lemons by microwaving them for 5-10 seconds before zesting them. This will help release more juice and will make your lemon treats that much more delicious!

5. Ripen Bananas

If you are waiting for your bananas to hit the perfect ripeness for baking, but they’re still a bit too yellow, you’ll need to speed up the process. Simply place your bananas in the oven at 300° until they are dark brown (time will vary depending on how ripe they are).