Hello 😊
Today, I am here to help you with list of essential baking tools. When I started baking, I used to buy whatever is there in baking shop and you also know that these shops are just like a toy shop for kid. When a kid goes to toy shop, he wants everything in the shop. Right?
But slowly I started to realize that I have so much stuff which I have not even opened and you do not need fancy tools to learn baking and decorating. Of course, you can buy if you want small baking shop with cute tools at home 😉.
This article will help you with bare minimum list of tools / must-have tools you require to start. Especially if you are starting new and you have limited money that you can invest. Right? So instead of spending that limited amount to items which will not be of any use, you can use those at right place.
There will be around 10-12 items which I feel you will need while starting out. Once you have these must-have tools and have some leftover budget, you can invest in these nice-to-have tools in your kitchen.
Must-have Items:
Cake tins:
There are many tins available in the market in various size, shapes and different materials like non-stick, aluminum, silicon etc. I would like to use heavy duty pan because it is used heavily each day. I have personally used Wilton and Fat-Daddios and my personal favorite is Fat Daddios – Aluminum ones. Dark color pans tend to absorb more heat and makes the side of the cake dark. I will create a separate post for different types of tins and info about when to use which pan.
Cupcake tins / Muffin tin
There are many tins available in the market in various size, different materials like non-stick, aluminum, silicon etc. Standard available sizes are 6, 12 and 24. There are also mini pans available in the market create mini cupcake which can use as toppers on cake 😊 or eat them as it is.
Hand mixer / Stand mixer
Believe me, you do not need fancy stand mixer when you are starting out but you do need hand mixer to make your work easy. It makes mixing cake batter and kneading dough much much easier. If you need a good exercise to your hands, you can use whisk for mixing cake batter and your hands to knead dough 😊
Oven
This is hands down must-have tool in kitchen. There are many different kinds of ovens available in market. You can start with basic convection oven to start with. I will not go into details of it in this post but I will create a separate post to mention details about it.
Measuring cups & Measuring spoons
Baking is all about precision and it is a science. So, if you follow any recipe with correct measurement, it will never fail. If you are doing any different kind of cooking like Indian cooking, you can adjust the amount of spices or salt as per your likings but you need to follow the exact recipe with correct measurement for successful cake each and every time. In short, you can not skip this tool at all. Measuring cups come in different sizes including 1 cup, ½ cup, 2/3 cup, ¼ cup and measuring spoons come in different sizes including 1 tbsp, ½ tbsp, 1 tsp, ½ tsp, ¾ tsp and 1/ tsp.
You should have both dry and wet measuring cups to accurately measure ingredients. Keep this handy as you will need this frequently.
Digital Weighing Scale
As I said above baking is all about precision and having a digital scale will reduce your work of eyeballing the ingredients and give you exact amount. I personally use digital scale to measure my ingredients.
Candy Thermometer
A candy thermometer is long, narrow thermometer which you can use to measure high heat, for example temperature of boiling sugar, syrups, caramel, sauces. This comes very handy when you are making egg-based buttercream such as Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
Spring-foam pans
These pans are very useful to make delicate desserts like cheesecakes, mousse cakes. These pans have latch kind of thing, when you open the latch, sides of the pan become loose and base of the pan become separate from the pan. This kind of pan comes very handy when it is difficult to flip the delicate desserts such as cheesecakes or mousse cakes. I personally do not use this to make cakes because when you release the cake from pan, it has prominent line at the base because of structure of the pan.
Rubber spatula
This particular tool is very versatile. I always use this to scrap the batter from mixing bowl. They are also useful to fold dry and wet ingredients together.
Mixing bowls
This is no doubt a must-have for any baker in the world. There are many varieties available in market such as Plastic, Stainless Steel, Glass and aluminum.
Plastic : I don’t prefer plastic because no matter how thoroughly you clean it, it tends to have some stickiness to it and I Have also observed that It has some weird smell after multiple uses.
Stainless Steel: I personally use the Steel one because of its durability and they are also very easy to clean.
Glass: Glass bowls look too classy and I highly recommend them if you are shooting a recipe but not for regular use. I used to have glass mixer and realized later that, it is difficult to use when your two years old just throws things here and there irrespective of it is his toy or any kitchen tool 😊
Fine-mesh sieve
Sieve can be useful in many different ways.
- Sieving dry ingredients as well as wet ingredients is the main use of sieve for any baker. Sieving is very important step in baking any cakes or cupcakes or any dessert. Sieving gives you two main benefits, 1. Mix all dry ingredients thoroughly 2. Incorporates air.
- It is also useful to strain wet ingredient, for example removing seeds from raspberry sauces.
- It is also useful to sieve powdered sugar while making buttercream. It Is also useful to dust powdered sugar on brownies, dust cocoa powder on tiramisu.
So, in short, It is useful in many many ways!
Whisk
This lightweight tool is very handy when you are mixing dry and wet ingredients together. This incorporates air into the batter. You can use this as a replacement to hand mixer or stand mixer.
Cookie sheet/ Baking Sheet / Sheet Pan
You definitely need one cookie sheet in your kitchen. These are flat pans with raised edges and ideal for baking cookies. This is also used to make macarons.
Silicon baking mat
This is very useful to bake macarons or baking cookie. Many uses parchment paper for this but you can replace parchment paper with this silicon baking mat.
Cooling racks
When I started baking, I didn’t have cooling racks. I used to just flip the cake out of pan and keep it on kitchen counter. What I have observed in this is, it used to become soggy from the bottom. Then, I invested in cooling racks and woho.., what a change! Cooling racks circulate air around baked goods as they cool
Nice-To-have Items:
Oven Thermometer
This is especially handy when you have bought new oven. You have to follow the recipe as they have mentioned and this includes the temperature at which you need to bake. It may happen that, your oven is not at the temperature which you have set. It may be more or less. This tool will help you to understand your oven performance and then you can adjust your baking timing accordingly.
Turn table
This tool is helpful if you are into cake decorating. It makes your life very easy and gives proper finishing to cakes. If you serious about cake decorating, I will definitely suggest buying heavy duty turn table and not the plastic ones. Plastic ones are not that sturdy and moves while you are moving top. So, this is difficult while you are in middle of decorating.
Bench scraper
Again, a very useful tool if you are in cake decorating. I have used plastic ones, acrylics, stainless steel and my personal favorite is stainless steel. It is easy to clean, doesn’t leave any stickiness or weird smell. It is very useful to give clean finishing to your buttercream cakes. You just need to dip it in hot water and move the scraper around cake. Trust me, it will help in super clean edges.
Nozzles
A very handy and useful tool if you are into decorating cakes. I have used plastic ones and stainless steel. My personal favorite is of course stainless steel. It is easy to clean, just dip them in hot bubble water for 15-20 minutes and you are done 😊
Piping bags
Must-have tool if you are into decorating. I have used plastic ones and silicon ones. It actually depends on your preference and budget. If you are practicing then just use one silicon bag with coupler. Just change the nozzle and continue practicing with another one. Once used, just clean it and use it again. Unfortunately, this is difficult with plastic ones because they are difficult to clean.
