There are the constant bakers, like our contestants on Holiday Baking Championship, and there are the only-on-the-holidays enthusiasts, but there are certain “truths” anyone who has ever held a whisk will tell you: Cold cream whips faster than room temperature, if you add hot milk to eggs without stirring they will curdle, and overmix only if you like tough cake. But as we discovered, not all of our common wisdom turned out to be worth its weight in butter.

When you find yourself digging for that little tin of baking powder, you know it doesn’t get much use. And while it doesn’t visibly go bad, like a curdled jug of milk or moldy loaf of bread, baking powder does have an expiration date where it stops doing its job properly — cue sad, deflated muffins. If it has lingered open on the shelf for more than a year, toss it in the trash.

Can’t stand the waiting game between when your oven needs to preheat and you can start baking chocolate chip cookies? Skip it. The short time it takes for your oven to go from cold to 350 degrees F isn’t long enough to really affect quick-baking items, like cookies, cupcakes and your morning muffins.

Professional bakers swear by kitchen scales for one very good reason: Weight doesn’t lie (as long as your scale is calibrated properly). On the other hand, using measuring spoons and cups requires a little more care, as even how you scoop your flour (pack it down or carefully spoon it into the cup) or whether your cup is wet when measuring sugar (sugar will stick, giving you an inaccurate yield) can affect the final outcome of your baked goods. Keep an eye out for cook’s notes on baking recipes, as they will often spell out the technique used to measure.