A knife is obviously the best tool to cut your cake, right? Well, no matter how sharp it is, whenever I use a knife, I'm often left with a gob of icing that I end up scraping onto someone's plate to "clean" the blade for the next slice. Not to mention, the delicate piping is ruined and the once beautifully decorated cake is too. Surprisingly, a tiny everyday tool does a better job: dental floss.

• A spool of dental floss tucks easily into a kitchen or desk drawer, or a work bag, and it is always at the ready. I recently tested five types of dental floss to cut three types of cake. The result: some of the cleanest slices that would make any professional bakery proud. I'm not kidding. This method works fantastically well, and it's surprisingly easy to do.