Your Holiday Baking Guide

It's that time of year when home bakers start creating all those holiday goodies.A successful bake relies on a well stocked kitchen. Get the arsenal ready now. The end result is stress free prep, without any worries.

Before you even assess your ingredients, take a look at your cookie sheets and baking pans. Sometimes rust sets in  which means only one thing -toss.The same principle applies to cookie sheets and pie plates. Splurge and give yourself the early holiday present of a new bake set. Stores such as K-Mart, Target and Wal Mart have great sales on them right now so it pays to replace the old set. The same goes for whisks and rolling pins too,. along with both plastic and metal cookie cutters.Another pre-baking must is checking your hand mixer and blender to make sure they're up to snuff.If not, then take advantage of the holiday sales and buy a new one.If you're thinking of making candy invest in a good candy thermometer.This will help more in registering the right temperature as opposed to the old fashioned way of dropping the mixture into ice cold water to determine its' stage.Cake icers can also crack so check to see if yours still works. If you're planning on creating elaborately decorated cakes and cupcakes, you may want to get more icing nozzles . These will help in fine tuning the decorating with different squiggles and swirls.

Basic ingredients also have to be scrutinized. Luckily granulated sugar can last indefinitely. Brown sugar doesn't and after two years can get hard, sticky, and lumpy.Replace your flour if its' been in the pantry for more than seven or eight months.Anything baked with it will have a stale taste. Whole wheat lasts even less. If you;ve had it more than six months toss. Keep the vanilla extract. it's good for four years. The same for your cocoa powder - it lasts  two years before going stale.If you have to go shopping for new ingredients, make a list beforehand. Ask yourself if you want to make a holiday treat from scratch or from a mix.You can stock up on mixes  if you're pressed for time. The same goes for ready made icings too,.Also stock up on sticks of butter and margarine because you'll be using these the most. Get a five pound bag of flour instead of the usual two pound bag. (remember extra flour will come in handy for thickening sauces too ).It pays also to get bags of almonds ,walnuts and pecans for both baked goods and candy. Don't forget the holiday themed decorations like red and green  sprinkled and metallic sanding sugars.

The best treats come from a well prepped kitchen. Makes sure yours is ready for the onslaught of holiday baking.Stock your arsenal now so you don;t have to run out later.