Parchment Paper

Parchment paper is a must in any lazy man's kitchen, allowing baking without the stickiness and reducing cleanup to almost nothing.  Line the bottom of a cake pan with a circular cutout and that cake will pop out without issue.  And to think it's made by running sheets of paper pulp through a bath of sulfuric acid. Seems like a minor miracle to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parchment_paper