6 Crazy Cooking Hacks For Food Preparation And Presentation
Cooking is great, but sometimes life is just too busy to be spending a ton of time in the kitchen. These 6 ingenious cooking hacks are not only clever, they're also simple ways to make your life a little bit easier and save you time. You'll learn fast and effective ways to slice hard-boiled eggs, serve dishes in stunning ways, and transform melted ice cream into a chocolate cake. These easy hacks will cut down on cooking time, up your presentation game, and even reduce food waste. Give them a try, and your next dinner guests will be asking where you went to culinary school!
1. Slice Hard-Boiled Eggs
You'll Need:
- cooling rack
Here's How:
Place several peeled hard-boiled eggs on a clean cutting board, then place a cooling rack on top of the eggs and press down firmly. Not only will you save time on slicing the eggs, they'll also all be cut into uniform sizes!
2. Melted Chocolate Ice Cream Cake
You'll Need:
- melted chocolate ice cream
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- cake pan
Here's How:
Bringing a carton of ice cream back from the grocery store and seeing that it's melted is one of the most disappointing feelings out there. But as it turns out, melted chocolate ice cream is actually a great base for some truly delicious cake! To make the cake, preheat the oven to 350°F and stir together the melted chocolate ice cream, flour, and baking powder until combined. Pour the cake batter into a cake pan, transfer the cake pan to the oven, and bake at 350°F for 25 minutes.
3. Cut Dough With Dental Floss
You'll Need:
- unflavored dental floss
Here's How:
Wrap a large strand of unflavored dental floss around dough or another food you want to cut that's easily misshapen. Pull the dental floss together tightly, and the food you're cutting will be way less squished than it would have been if you had used a knife!
4. Dried Pineapple Garnish
You'll Need:
- pineapple
- muffin pan
Here's How:
4.1 Preheat the oven to 150°F, peel a pineapple, and cut it into thin slices.
4.2 Flip a muffin pan over, place the slices of pineapple on the bottom of the pan, transfer the muffin pan to the oven, and bake at 150°F for 4 hours.
4.3 Remove the dried pineapple slices from the oven and decorate cakes or other dishes with them!
5. Lacey Cake Decoration
You'll Need:
- paper lace dolly
- scissors
- powdered sugar
Here's How:
5.1 Fold the paper lace dolly in half several times so that it comes to a point at one end.
5.2 Cut a pattern out of the folded paper lace dolly.
5.3 Unfold the dolly, place it on top of a freshly baked cake, and sprinkle powdered sugar on top. Once you remove the paper lace dolly, your cake will have a gorgeous, intricate design on it!
6. Homemade Noodles
You'll Need:
- 4 eggs
- 4 cups flour
- ¾ cup water
- salt
- sealable plastic bag
- toothpick
Here's How:
6.1 Combine the eggs, flour, and water in a bowl and mix until combined. Pour the batter into a large sealable plastic bag and seal it shut.
6.2 Heat a pot of water with some salt on the stove and bring it to a boil. Use a toothpick to poke a few holes in the bottom of the plastic bag and let the batter flow directly into the hot water.
6.3 Boil the noodles until they're tender and cooked all the way through, drain them, and they're ready to serve!
Cooking and baking have never been this easy, or this fun! Make these hacks a part of your kitchen routine and your cakes will look more professional, your pastries will come out more symmetrical, and you'll have even more time to spend on eating!
Get the instructions for the Priceless Food Hacks and Food & Kitchen Hacks featured in the bonus video.