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What Does “When a Toothpick Comes Out Clean" Mean in Baking Recipes?

Inserting a toothpick into baked goods will help you determine doneness. Here’s a visual guide to help you understand the terminology we use.

Given all the variables of a kitchen—oven temperature accuracy, small differences in ingredients (every egg is different, for example), thickness or materials of baking vessels, etc.—we call for a range of baking times in most of our baking recipes. The visual cues we provide when checking doneness, such as “until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean” (for muffins, cupcakes, and some cakes) and “until toothpick inserted in center comes out with few moist crumbs attached” (for brownies and fudgy cakes), are meant to help determine when to remove a baked good from an oven without having to rely solely on specific timing.

To test a cake for doneness with a toothpick, insert the toothpick in the center of the cake. If it comes out with wet batter on it, the cake is underdone. Bake it for a few more minutes before testing it again in a slightly different spot. If the recipe calls for “few moist crumbs attached,” there should be a scattering of wet crumbs on the toothpick. But if the recipe calls for the toothpick to come out “clean,” then there shouldn't be any crumbs adhering to the toothpick. It's OK if the toothpick looks a little moist or greasy. It's always worth checking a few minutes before the time range to avoid overbaking.

Cake-Baking Cues

We insert a toothpick in the center of a cake and look for visual cues to determine its doneness.

Wet with Batter

Wet with Batter:

A Few Moist Crumbs

A Few Moist Crumbs:

Perfectly Clean

Perfectly Clean:

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