#1 Your Baked Goodies Fell Flat

Often this is a result of opening the oven door and peeking in there too often.

You need to resist the temptation to do this as every time you open the oven door, the inside temperature in the oven drops and this will affect the rising process. Make sure your baking is fully risen before you open the oven door.

#2 Your Baked Goods just didn't turn out right and you did double the batch after all expecting great success!

Doubling recipes is not always a good idea. When it comes to baking it is a calculated chemistry of ingredients and when you change the equation you can change the results. It is more successful to do two batches of one recipe than to double up.

#3 You did not Preheat the oven as directed. This can cause irregular and uneven baking results. It can give you a result of problems in the colour, texture and the rise of your baked goods. Also the insides can end up being 'done' before the outside browns or rises to completion. To avoid these mishaps, preheat the oven to the requested temperature.

#4 Sweaty muffins with a wet base can result if you leave the muffins to cool down for the entire time in the muffin tin when you take them from the oven. The steam has no place to escape to. The more successful way to cool your muffins is to leave them in the hot pan for about five minutes, then take them from the tin and place onto the wire rack to cool down further.

#5 Ever get a layer of icing that has crumbs in it? Likely you iced the cake while it was still warm. To get the perfect icing on your cake, you must be patient and wait for the cake to cook completely to avoid pieces and crumbs from the cake speckling the icing. You can put the cake layers into the refrigerator or freezer for 10-15 minutes prior to icing which will make the cake nice and firm before the icing is applied.

#6 When you are melting chocolate and it gets grainy, or separated you have overheated the chocolate. You should always heat chocolate over low heat and not stir it too quickly. For nice smooth and creamy chocolate, remove it from the heat before it is completely melted and let it finish melting off the heat. When you use a double boiler for melting the chocolate, use simmering water and not boiling. In the microwave, stop ever 20 seconds to gently stir. Once you ruin chocolate there is nothing you can to do fix it and it will be wasted, so take your time and let it melt slowly.

The main thing to remember when you are baking is that it should be fun and not stressful. If you have some mishaps and some of the things to try to bake don't turn out perfectly, try to determine what you think you may have done and if you can correct it for the next time. Mostly 'mistakes' are perfectly fine to eat, even if they are not a visual masterpiece.