You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.

Hey everybody, it's Mariel.

Any fans of the Great British Bake Off here?

If so, you know there is nothing simple about those bakes.

So mine is a Black Forest Gatto, which in the layers it is chocolate genuiz, soaked in Kirsch, with

a Morello cherry reduction on that, and then a butter cream on the outside. There is some,

a bit of the cherry syrup in that and a bit of almond extract just to give it a bit of flavour.

Bake off is known for its technical challenges and the elaborate showstopper cakes painstakingly constructed by contestants.

But in her cookbook, life's too short to stuff a mushroom.

Bake-off judge, Prue Leith, wants folks to focus on the basics of cooking and baking.

The book is filled with recipes, of course, but also cooking hacks, tips from Peru on how to do basic things in the kitchen

quickly and easily, like how to cut an onion, peel garlic, prevent your muffin liners from getting

oily. Because if you never learn this stuff, it's easy to feel discouraged and give up on cooking.

A lot of my friends who are foodies and cooks and things said, why are you putting all these

absolutely basic things in this book? You know, everybody knows how to do that. Actually, they don't.

And if you can't do something, it makes you anxious and quite cross, and you think,

why should I bother? Well, if you know how to do it, it's actually quite a pleasure.

Last week, Prue announced she's leaving the Great British Bake Off after nine seasons of judging.

So we thought we'd rerun our conversation, which is filled with tips and tricks to make cooking easier and more fun.

If you do put it in basil, you should only put it tiny bit.

Basel, as you call it.

I like it your way.

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