Here’s how to prevent cake and other baked goods from going stale

There’s nothing more annoying than grabbing a slice of leftover birthday cake only to find it’s already gone stale — particularly if you were relying on that piece of cake for afternoon tea. The good news is, we’ve found a nifty trick for preventing cake and other baked goods from getting stale before their time, and it’s incredibly easy — all you need is a couple of slices of bread!

It might sound strange (and look a bit ridiculous too!), but to prevent the cake from going stale, all you need to do is place a couple of bread slices around the open parts of the cake where you last cut into it. Along with the bread, you’ll need a couple of toothpicks too to hold the bread slices in place. The bread will go stale and hard, but the cake will stay nice and soft. Just be sure to remove the bread slices and toothpicks before serving. And if you need to save the cake more than one, just use new slices of bread each time.

Alternatively, cakes with buttercream or ganache topping will last for three to four days in the fridge, while cakes with fresh fruit, custard, or cream cheese will last one to two days at most before they start to go hard and stale.

If your cake has gone stale already though, all is not lost! Break down any cake scraps you have in a food processor, mix the cake crumbs with frosting and roll into balls to make cake pops or crumble over ice cream.

Or, why not make some cake bread pudding? All you have to do is break apart the cake into smaller pieces. Then in a mixing bowl, beat three eggs lightly, add in two cups of milk, and half a cup of sugar to the mixture. Then gently add in the crumbled cake. Pour the cake mixture into a baking dish, then pour some melted butter over the top and bake in the oven for 40 to 45 minutes — voila! Other stale cake recipe ideas include pie crust, cake cookies and cheesecake cups.

This isn’t the only cooking tip to make headlines in recent weeks. Last month, a savvy mum revealed how to make stale bread fresh again. All you need to do is take your stale bread and place it under the tap to moisten it. Then place the bread in the oven at 200 degrees for a couple of minutes. When you remove the bread it should be soft and fresh once more.