Getting a bake just right comes down to the little details and it's our mission to make all your bakes perfect with these essential tips, ideas and tools.

WELCOME TO BROWNIE SCHOOL

If you’re a baking nerd, understanding the basic principles of how brownies work might be a help. Don’t tell them this, but at their gooey heart, brownies and blondies are failed cakes. Baked goods are a careful balance of ingredients that give structure (such as flour and eggs) and tenderisers (like fat and sugar), which keep the bake soft. Brownies have a much higher ratio of sugar and butter to flour than, say, a Victoria sponge cake, which stops them rising in the same way; they cook in a sort of collapsed, but delicious, mess.

Let’s take a look at the key stages in brownie-making

Stage 1: Melt Most brownie and many blondie recipes begin with melting butter and chocolate.

This method is very different to a traditional cake where you start by creaming sugar and butter together, trapping lots of air bubbles to ensure a light and airy result. The melting helps create that uniquely dense texture that makes brownies so good.