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Best Baking Tips From the Farmers' Almanac

• Do not use fresh or frozen pineapple in gelatin recipes, as the gelatin will not set. (You can use canned pineapple.)

• When testing to see if your cake if fully baked, use a strand of uncooked spaghetti if a toothpick isn't long enough.

• Keep your recipe cards in front of you by standing a fork, tines up, in a glass and then placing a card in the tines.

• Nuts will be easier to shell if you place 2 cups of nuts in a 1-quart casserole with 1 cup of water. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, and the nutmeats will slip out whole after cracking the shell.

• For faster creaming of butter and sugar, rinse the bowl in boiling water first.

• When melting chocolate, first coat your pan with butter to prevent the chocolate from sticking to the pan.

• To prevent a soggy crust when making a cream-filled pie, sprinkle crust with powdered sugar.

• Meringue pies will cut neatly if the knife is first dipped in cold water.

• To divide a pie into five equal portions, first cut a "Y" then slice each of the two larger sections in half.

• Drop an egg on the floor? Cover it with salt, then sweep it up. No slimy mess.

• When baking bread, a small dish of water set in the oven will help keep the crust from getting too hard or too brown.