Food Storage Tips

Creating a Baking Center to Store Your Baking Staples

by Donna Rivera-Loudon

Learn how to create an easy baking center in your kitchen to keep your food fresh and the bugs out. This is so important in the summer when critters are looking for a cool dark place.

It can be so frustrating when we go to cook or bake what's on today's menu only to find the bugs have got in our main ingredients or that the ingredients have gone bad. How do we keep these staples nice and fresh and bugless. My solution is Tupperware containers. I learned how to create a custom kitchen with Modular Mate containers from Tupperware. Not only do they keep the food fresh longer, but they also tend to keep the critters out while saving space in my kitchen cabinets. In this article I am going to attempt to explain to you, step-by-step, how you can also use Modular Mates to organize your baking staples while keeping them fresh.

Step one is to consider the height of containers you want to use. To do this, measure the height space available for the shelf you plan to use for your baking center. Deduct about three inches from the top so that removing and replacing the containers will be easy. If the fit is too snug, it will be difficult to take the containers in and out of the cabinet. Once you determine the height space you have available to use, determine which modular mates size will fit. These containers come in five different heights. I have listed them below.

Height One: 2 1/4" high
Height Two: 4 1/2" high
Height Three: 6 3/4" high
Height Four: 9" high
Height Five: 11 1/4" high

Determine if your available shelf space is Height one, two, three, four, or five. Once you determine this, you can begin to build your custom baking center. You can combine sizes. For example, if your available shelf space is 12" you would specify your shelf as Height Four. Height five does not give you enough room to take containers in and out of your cabinet. What is nice about the Modular Mates is you can combine sizes to equal your shelf height. For example, 2 Height Two's will equal a four shelf. Or 1 Height One and 1 Height Three will equal a four shelf. So you are not limited to just using Height Four containers.

Step Two

Determine the depth and width of your shelf. Here are the depth and width measurements of the Modular Mate containers.

Oval: 7 1/4" in length and 3 3/4" in width
Super Oval: 11" in length and 3 3/4" in width
Square: 7 3/8" in length and 7 3/8" in width
Rectangle: 11" in length and 7 3/8" in width

Once you determine the length of your shelf you will know which containers you can use. For example, if your shelf is 10" deep you know you will not be able to use the Super Ovals or the Rectangles.

Do the same thing with the width and determine how many across you can store on your shelf.

Step Three

Which foods do you want to store in the Modular Mates and what size containers will they go in to? The list below will give you an idea of what items go in what size containers. If you have any questions you can send me an email and I would be happy to assist you. You can also visit my Tupperware website at http://my.tupperware.com/DonnaLoudon and use the Contact Me button to send me an email.

Creating Your Baking Center

If you are using Oval containers here are some items and weights you can use in them:

Oval One will hold:

10 oz baking powder
1 pound baking soda
12 oz baking chips
8 oz baking chocolate

Oval Two will hold:

2 pounds baking soda
1 pound brown sugar
1 lb. 8 oz baking chips
1 lb. baking chocolate
10 oz coconut 1 lb cornstarch
1 lb powdered sugar

Oval Three will hold:

2 lb cornmeal
1 lb unsweetened cocoa powder

Oval Four will hold:

4 lb baking soda
2 lb all purpose flour
1 lb 2 oz oats

Here are some items you can use in the Rectangle containers.

Rect 1

3 lb 12 oz baking mix:

Rect 2

4 lb baking soda:

Rect 1
2 lb all purpose flour:
Rect1 10 lb all purpose flour: Rect 4 5 lb sugar: Rect 2 10 lb sugar: Rect 3
Here are some items you can use in the Square containers.
2 lb 8 oz baking mix: Square 2 3 lb 12 oz baking mix: Square 3 4 lb baking soda: Square 2 2 lb brown sugar: Square 1 5 lb all purpose flour: Square 4 1 lb powdered sugar: Square 1
These are just a few samples of what you can do to create a baking center with Modular Mates. In upcoming weeks I will provide the specs for creating a Pasta and Bean Center; a Beverage Center; a Snack Center, and a Breakfast Center.

posted by Donna Loudon @ 5:48 PM