Professional pastry chef, Jessica Forkner knows her way around baked goods. She’s founder of Objects of Confection, a business that “makes hand crafted treats to love.” She offers some tips for the budding baker on how to make a perfect cupcake every time.

Like any distinctive cuisine, to cook with a Texas flair, you have to have the proper ingredients, gear and know-how to make flavors come to life. In this case, to speak with a Texas–and even TxMex–accent.

Many global cuisines rely on a combination of three aromatic vegetables and herbs sautéed together to form the foundation of savory recipes, giving them their distinctive flavors.

Chiffonade is a cooking technique whereby you stack leafy greens or herbs and cut them into thin ribbons. In French, the word means “rags” because that’s what the shreds look like when you’re done.

Crashing the stock is a step in the cooking process that involves discarding the water in which meaty bones (beef, poultry or veal) simmer, releasing impurities that rise to the water’s surface as scum. After crashing the stock, the pot containing the bones is refilled with cold water and brought back to heat.