Tip: How (and why) to bring refrigerated eggs to room temperature for baking

Pic from melissaclark.net

Just another little baking tip for ya. Spontaneous baking is the best, so use the following trick (and this one for softening butter) for those occasions when the urge to whip up some cakey goodness hits you out of the blue. Don't let refrigerated eggs stop you from the therapy that is baking. Oh, and eating the results may just help with whatever you're dealing with too. I strongly believe there is no situation in the world that can't be made at least marginally better by a spot of tea and cake. Word.

It's really important to use eggs at room temperature for baking, but obviously keeping them in the fridge for the rest of the time keeps them fresher for longer. When eggs are at room temperature, the whites sort of relax, they mix much better with the other ingredients, and then create much more volume when beaten. The result? Fluffy, light cake, HOORAH! Cold eggs can sometimes make your butter (and thus your whole cake mix) curdle. Boo.

The solution is pretty simple, but I'm going spell it out for ya anyway. I know, too kind.

1. Fill a bowl with warm (not boiling) water. Boiled eggs are NOT what you're going for.

2. Place your eggs in said bowl of water. Incidentally, if an egg floats in cold water, it's baaaaad and should be thrown away. Tragic, I know.

3. Leave eggs in the water for about five minutes. Almost as exciting as having a goldfish.

4. Remove eggs, pour away water, and get cracking! See what I did there..? Oh, I crack myself up. HA