Welcome to my Kitchen

A new batch of culinary magazine offers arrived in my mail box recently. Some are just an envelope of tantalizing advertisements, while others include sample recipes, or a sample copy of the publication. Cook’s Country magazine sent a sample issue that happens to have some handy tips to solve several cooking dilemmas recently sent my way.

Several questions about cakes have come up. Why do the cake layers bake with a hump in the middle? Usually, this is caused by a batter that is too thick, either because of inexact measuring of ingredients, or over mixing. Solutions: measure carefully, use the...