*Generally Baking Powder is long lived,but sometimes they get old too.To check if its fine,just add a tsp of it in a cup of hot water.If it bubbles alot its just perfect,else its life is over.
-Cake flour is a fine flour which is used to make cakes/pastries much lighter and more delicate in texture.
* Cream of Tartar is added to egg whites as it helps in stabilizing the eggs and keeps the sugar from crystallizing.
-Ziplock/reusable bags makes an excellent substitute for pastry bags.
*Julienne is a knife technique where in the vegetables/food is cut into fine matchstick pieces.
-The french word for ice cream is Glaze.
*Clarified Butter is nothing but butter from which milk solids have been skimmed.
-Ganache is made by combining chocolate and cream together,generally used for filling or frosting.
* In few Pastries,you can reduce the fat and calorie content by lowering or substituting the right ingredients.
For Eg:Use egg whites instead of whole eggs,be sure to substitute two whites for each whole egg.
Replace oil with unsweetened applesauce.
Use nonfat yogurt(either plain or vanilla) instead of heavy cream
Use phyllo sheets instead of pastry sheets
Coconut milk can be replaced by mixing non fat milk and coconut extract.
Use whole wheat flour instead of All Purpose flour wherever possible.
I try and use low fat -cream cheese/whipped cream/sour cream/ricotta cheese/butter/condensed milk instead of the regular ones.Similarly for a cup of nuts say for almonds I easily use 1/4 to 1/2 cup of nuts and mix it with crispy rice cereals.I tried this while making Frozen Banana Popsicle,it was really good.