Kitchen Hints of the Day!

* Here's a great bakers' trick to make it easier to decorate the top of a cake: With a toothpick, trace the pattern, picture, or lettering before you pipe the icing on. This will give you a guide, so you'll make fewer mistakes.


* If you're having a problem keeping a layer cake together when your icing it, stick a few bamboo skewers into the cake through both layers; remove them as you're frosting the top.


* To keep the cake from sliding around on the plate as you're icing it, place a dab of frosting in the middle of the plate before you place the cake on top. The icing will keep the cake in place, and by the time you've served all the slices, no one will notice the little bit of extra frosting on the bottom.