Butter not only makes baked goods more flavorful and rich; it's essential to the structure of many desserts, including cakes and cookies. However, you can't reap the benefits of butter if you don't incorporate it into your dough or batter well, so here's the easiest way to cream butter with sugar to the perfect fluffy consistency.

Creaming butter and sugar together ensures an even distribution of both ingredients throughout your batter, and adds more air to your baked goods, creating a fluffier texture. To make sure you don't overwork your mixer (or your whisking hand), never cream cold butter; soften it by leaving it out on the counter for at least an hour.

The easiest and fastest way to perfectly creamed butter is to cut it into smaller cubes before leaving it out to soften, instead of trying to use whole sticks. This trick will make your butter warm up faster and more evenly, thereby making it simpler and quicker to mix with sugar and take on that light, airy texture you're looking for.