I was just thinking that with all the fabulous CCer's we have, there must be tons of time-saving tips we can share with each other.

One I thought of today while baking...

I buy parchment baking sheets by the box at Smart & Final. Big savings there. I cut my own triangles and with the scraps, cut the rounds and squares for the bottoms of my pans ahead of time. Saves time & money!

I also use the sheets under my cake racks and on the counter. Really speeds up clean-up!

Any others out there in Cakeland?

I usually have basic cakes i make like chocolate, white ect. When I grocery shop for cake supplies i measure out my dry ingrdiants for cake and frosting and store them in labeled baggies. It is work to get this system down but I love it cause I use to not want to bake just because I was too tired to get everything out and clean it up. This takes away alot of clean up and time.

Make icing ahead of time .... like the day ahead of time. I have a huge acrylic food container I keep it in. Easy to scoop out and it's only one mess at a time.

Make shopping lists! Saves on that "oh crap! I forgot to pick up...." trip back to the store!

Disposable decorating bags. Especially when making mints or other candies. WAY easier to throw them away than it is to clean out that stupid squeeze bottle.

Covering counters with parchment, towels or anything that can be wadded up and thrown away.

Storing ingredients in wide mouth containers ..... large plastic coffee cans, acrylic or rubbermaid containers. Easier to reach in with your measuring tool, get what you want.

Have all ingredients within arms reach. I can pull the flour container from the shelf ..... reach in with my 1-cup measuring cup and get what I need .... replace the lid and put it back on the shelf. Clean up already done.

If you don't have one of those fabulous cooling racks that hold multiple baking sheets, then have those Pampered Chef cooling racks that stack on top of each other so that cakes and cookies will take up minimal counter space while cooling, crusting, or waiting for the next step. Put a newspaper, parchment, saran, something, under the racks to catch the crumbs.

Trash can right next to your work area.

Prep cakes pans all at once ..... coat with Pan Grease, wrap baking strips around the pans. So when you mass produce the batter, you just pour it into the pans and they are lined up ready to go in the oven.

Have a padded fatigue mat to stand on. You'll be amazed the difference this makes in your feet and your leg muscles. If it's big enough, it catches a lot of the stuff you drop on the floor, making the sweep/mop time shorter and easiery.

I get a lot of my stuff from here: http://www.equippers.com/shop/search.aspx?q=fatigue

Hubby found me one at some local store (walmart ... kmart .....?). It doesn't have the holes in it (like the ones shown in the above link). It's just a big padded floor mat.

Put all your couplers into the disposable bags in advance.
Keep your KA on one of those flexible cutting board mats, then just slide it in and out
Start with a clean kitchen and keep hot soapy water in the sink
Plan out your baking and make sure you have all ingredients/supplies on hand (nothing worse than last minute trips to the store)
Always make more icing than you need.
Have fun!