Every now and again, I get tempted to cheat when I bake - to take just a little a short cut. I nearly did it yesterday, making a 4 egg sponge cake, thinking "what the heck, the eggs will be fine" and just as I was about to crack the first egg straight into the cake bowl, I thought better of it.
It might not seem like a major disaster, but cracking the egg straight into the cake mix has three potential problems:
1. A bit of shell goes into the cake mix and it is a complete pain to get it out
2. A bit of shell goes into the cake mix, and I don't realise - until someone bites into the cake...
3. The egg is bad and the whole mix is wasted (very slim chance, but how frustrating would that be?!)
So, for the extra 30 seconds it takes, crack an egg into a cup, then add it to the cake, one egg at a time. Same principles as with the cake mix, if you happen to get a bit of shell, it's much harder to spot under 3 yolks than it is under 1.
Happy baking :)