(ARA) - A kitchen is perhaps the busiest room in the home – and the most dangerous. The ingredients of extreme heat, blade-sharp utensils, breakables, heavy-gauge cookware, the pressures of time and bustling activity in the kitchen can combine for a perilous mixture of mayhem.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, most home fires in the United States are caused by cooking-related accidents.

As cooler weather brings more people indoors at mealtimes, safety in the kitchen is of utmost importance. The Cookware Manufacturers Association offers these tips to ensure the best possible safety environment in the kitchen:

* Keep the handles of cookware away from the edge of the stove where they can be bumped or grabbed by young children. Watch also that handles don’t extend over adjacent burners.

* Never leave cooking food unattended, particularly when heating a skillet. Foods and oils can get so hot that they will smoke and burst into flames if left unattended.

* Keep a fire extinguisher within easy reach of the stove, yet away from direct heat.

* If a pan catches fire, don’t move it. Smother it with a lid, baking soda, etc. and turn off the heat source if it’s safe to do so. Do not throw water on a grease fire.

* Cookie sheets should not be used to catch spills in the oven. Overfilled bakeware can cause dripping food to catch fire.

* Keep knives sharp. A dull knife must be forced to cut, which can cause it to slip toward fingers.

* Clean up spills right away to avoid slips and falls.

* Sweep up broken glass immediately. Wrap pieces in paper before throwing away and then take the trash out. Loose glass in a trash bag can cut someone who doesn’t know about its broken contents.

* Unplug kitchen appliances when not used and keep cords away from heating surfaces.

* Keep pets, particularly birds, away from the kitchen. Particles released into the air from cooking can harm an animal’s sensitive respiratory system.

A vast store of information on cooking, cookware and bakeware is available from the Cookware Manufacturers Association at its Web site: www.cookware.org.

Courtesy of ARA Content

Making a special layer cake for your kid’s birthday? Without good cake pans, all your efforts will certainly go down the drain. Indeed, you will probably end up with a cake that sticks to the bottom and sides of your disposable aluminum pans. So here’s a ready guide to what cake pan you must buy for different kinds of cakes. And whatever cake pans you buy, make sure you have at least a pair. To get you started, here are some cake pan basics:

Materials: Cake pans are traditionally made from tinned steel, stainless steel, aluminized steel, or aluminum. Some pans have non-stick coatings. There are even some new varieties of flexible cake pans that use silicon-coated fiberglass.

Depth: The standard depth of a 9-inch cake pan is 2 inches. That gives you an idea of the proportions for other sizes. However, some 9-inch cake pans can be 1½ inches or 2¾ inches deep.

Insulation: Some cake pans are actually made from two layers of metal with airspace in between. Insulated pans are designed to prevent too much browning.

Weight: Cake pans can weigh from 5-25 ounces. For obvious reasons, heavier pans are more often used commercially or professionally.

In addition to these basics, you need to see if your cake pans satisfy the following requirements:

• Cake layers must release easily from cake pans. Portions of the crust or even whole chunks of cake often stick to the pan.
• A cake pan should brown the cake without roasting it. Obviously, therefore, your cake pans must conduct heat evenly so that the crust is uniformly colored and the cake rises evenly.
• Cakes usually release better from pans lined with nonstick coatings.
• Another thumb rule is: the darker the pan, the darker the crust. However, dark cake pans can create a darker crust without making it too brown. In fact, cakes baked in darker cake pans may prove sturdier and more resistant to crumbling.
• Aluminum cake pans with light-colored or shiny finishes also make well-browned cakes because aluminum conducts heat evenly and quickly. Tinned steel (but NOT stainless steel) cake pans with a nonstick coating also produce a dark finish.
• Insulated pans are also low on the list of preferences because the two layers of metal separated by airspace slow down the browning process.
• Cake pans with handles on either side are easier to handle for obvious reasons.

So now you know all, drop us a line to let us know how you get on with your baking!