12 Baking Hacks for Less Mess in the Kitchen

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Baking is so much fun, and there’s no end to the amazing goodies you can create. You can make gifts, creations to sell, and of course, treats for you and your family to enjoy. While baking obviously has its perks, it can often be messy – especially if you are making more than one recipe.

Do you ever avoid baking because you don’t want to deal with cleaning up afterward? If so, you’re definitely not alone. 

Instead of skipping out on a fun day of making yummy treats in the kitchen, learn some new tricks that will reduce the mess.

Here are twelve baking hacks to help you reduce the mess and make baking a more enjoyable experience.

1) Start with A Clean Kitchen

Starting with a clean kitchen and empty dishwasher will make it easier to clean up as you’re baking. It also gives you a lot more room to work with, so you can be more efficient. So, before you begin: empty the dishwasher, wipe the counters, and put away any clutter that might get in your way.

2) Use A Trash Bowl

For egg shells, fruit peels, wrappers, and other waste you’ll have as you’re baking, use a waste bowl to collect the messes. This will save you endless trips back and forth to the garbage cans, so you have less chances to drop things onto the floor and just save time, too! You’ll also keep your counters cleaner and be able to easily empty the bowl between projects.

3) Use a Larger Spoon Rest

Use a large plate or a silicone mat as a spoon rest for any messy utensils. It will work better than a standard spoon rest, since it can fit more utensils without piling them on top of each other.

4) Soften Butter Without Melting It

We’ve all melted butter by accident when trying to soften it for baking. There’s a genius trick you can use to soften butter perfectly without melting it into a mess.

You’ll need a drinking glass, boiling water, and a stick of butter. Place the stick of butter, still wrapped, on its side on a plate so that it’s standing up the tall way. Pour boiling water into the drinking glass, let it sit for a minute, then pour it out. (Protect your hands!) Then put the hot glass over the stick of butter. After a couple minutes, the stick of butter will be perfectly soft!

5) Measure Oil Before Honey

Honey makes baked goods delicious but it can be a sticky mess. Measure your oil first, then rub any leftover residue around the inside of your measuring cup before measuring honey so the honey doesn’t stick to the measuring cup as much.

If you don’t have to measure oil, you can also just use a dab of oil or spray your measuring cup with a little cooking spray before you measure honey, too.

6) Filling a Pastry Bag

Pastry bags make frosting baked goods so much easier, and the end result usually looks a lot nicer, too. Unfortunately, they can be a pain to fill. Frosting gets everywhere, the bag sticks together, and it’s just cumbersome.

To make it easier, put the pastry bag inside a tall glass – kind of like you’re putting a trash bag in a trash can. Then you can spoon the frosting into the pastry bag more easily, leaving the top part of the pastry bag clean. Use disposable pastry bags if you really want to lower the mess factor.

7) Wide Mouth Canisters for Dry Goods

When choosing canisters for your flour, sugar, and other dry goods, look for those with wide openings. They are much easier to scoop out of without knocking ingredients around and spilling everywhere.

8) Stop Batter Splatter

Use a splatter guard for your electric mixer to prevent batter from splashing around while it’s mixing. If you don’t have one, you can make one in a pinch! Just poke holes in a paper plate and attach it to the mixer instead.

9) Multitask for Fewer Dishes

If you’re making multiple goodies, see how you can process ingredients for them at the same time. For example, if you need to grate ginger for cookies and for a cake, grate enough for both recipes at the same time.

10) Do Messy Tasks Over the Sink

If you want to save your counters, there are some things you can do over your sink. You can mix ingredients, measure, and do other messy tasks right over the sink for less mess. It’s easy to rinse out your sink when you’re done.

11) Clean As You Go

Don’t save all the cleaning for the end of your baking day! It’s much easier to clean as you go. Wipe counters while your electric mixer is going. Load the dishwasher while things are baking.  It’s better to keep the mess small instead of having a huge pile that you have to clean up all at once. That way the mess, won’t be so big when you’re done.

12) Embrace Silicone Mats

Silicone mats are dishwasher, freezer, and oven safe and can save you a lot of mess when you’re baking. You can use them to line baking pans, rolling pins, bowls, and more. They’re also non-stick so you can avoid cooking sprays. They can be used in a lot of situations where you’d use parchment paper.

Certain silicone mats are safe to use anywhere between -40 F and 500 F so they are useful for a lot of situations. Some of them even have marks on them to help you make cookies more uniform in size.

Cookies, cakes, pies, or pastries – it doesn’t matter. No matter what you’re creating in the kitchen, you can do it without a huge mess to clean up afterwards. Just follow these  simple hacks and you’ll be able to spend more time baking and less time cleaning.

Have you learned any other hacks or tricks to make less of a mess while you’re baking? We’d love to hear them! Share your tips in the comments below.

Photo by Natallia Nagorniak on Unsplash

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