45 uses for aluminium foil you didn’t know about

Keep the edges of your homemade pies from burning by covering them with strips of aluminium foil.

The foil prevents the edges from getting overdone while the rest of your pie gets perfectly browned.

Make a teddy bear birthday cake, a Valentine’s Day heart cake, a Christmas tree cake, or whatever shaped cake the occasion may call for.

Just form a double thickness of heavy-duty aluminium foil into the desired shape inside a large cake pan.

No scrub pad to clean dirty pots and pans? Use aluminium foil as a temporary replacement.

To restore your hardened brown sugar to its former powdery glory, chip off a piece, wrap it in aluminium foil, and bake it in the oven at 300°F (150° C) for five minutes.

Just take it easy with the brown sugar. Added sugar – not natural sugars that exist in fruits and vegetables – is everywhere and getting on top of your intake could be a challenge.

No pastry bag handy? No problem. Form a piece of heavy-duty aluminium foil into a tube and fill it with free-flowing frosting.

Bonus: There’s no pastry bag to clean – simply toss out the foil when you’re done.

Looking to make a cake to try your piping skills on? Here’s a no-fuss, yet impressive, cake for a special occasion.

Want to lock in the oven-fresh warmth of your homemade rolls or breads for a dinner party or picnic?

Before you load up your basket, wrap your freshly baked goods in a napkin and place a layer of aluminium foil underneath.

The foil will reflect the heat and keep your bread warm for quite some time.

How good is fresh bread, straight out of the oven? So good it has been named as one of the 53 comfort foods that make you feel better every time.

Keep youngsters from making a mess of their clothes or your house by wrapping the bottom of an ice-cream cone (or a wedge of watermelon) with a piece of aluminium foil before handing it to them.

Speaking of ice cream, this creamy custard–based ice cream is lightened with Greek–style yogurt and a fresh blackberry purée is stirred through for a pretty purple ripple effect.

Is your silverware looking a bit dull these days?

Try an ion exchange, a molecular reaction in which aluminium acts as a catalyst.

All you have to do is line a pan with a sheet of aluminium foil, fill it with cold water, and add two teaspoons of salt.

Drop your tarnished silverware into the solution, let it sit for two to three minutes, then rinse off and dry.

Using silverware ‘correctly’ is one of the 7 British etiquette rules the Americans need to adopt.

Store freshly cleaned silverware on top of a sheet of aluminium foil to deter tarnishing.

For long-term storage of silverware, first tightly cover each piece in cellophane wrap – be sure to squeeze out as much air as possible – then wrap in foil and seal the ends.

It’s maddening.

You use a steel-wool pad once, put it in a dish by the sink, and the next day you find a rusty mess fit only for the trash.

To prevent rust and get your money’s worth from a pad, wrap it in foil and toss it into the freezer.

You can also lengthen the life of your steel-wool soap pads by crumpling up a sheet of foil and placing it under the steel wool in its dish or container.

(Don’t forget to periodically drain off the water that collects at the bottom.)

Don’t have a scrub pad?

Crumple up a handful of aluminium foil and use it to scrub your pots.