Published on the 11 June 2020
Our Must-Have Baking Essentials
Love to bake? Yes, us too! Baking at home is such a joy, whether it's whipping something up for your family and housemates, or perhaps creating something special to gift to friends. But there are certain tools and kit that we cannot do without that make baking at home a breeze!
Read on to find out our top six recommendations for must have baking essentials. Once you try these you will wonder how you went so long without. Tip: If you don't bake yourself, some of these will make wonderful gifts for the baking fan in your life!
________________________________
1. Electronic Stand Mixer
In a small kitchen, hand mixers are a great piece of kit and are a more affordable alternative to a stand mixer. Wonderful for beating buttercream or whipping up some cookies, but they can get pretty labour intensive. A hand held costing around the £30 mark will do you well, but you’ll know when you’re ready to move on to something a little more heavy duty.
We can’t be without our KitchenAid Electronic Stand Mixer. It is on the pricier side, but with the amount you will find yourself using it, its durability, and all the additional attachments, it is worth the investment for all keen bakers.
It mixes like a dream, and can knead dough, cream butter, whip egg whites, and more. Set it to one of the 10 speeds and let it do its thing – cutting down on your prep time and delivering exceptional results, it makes baking at home almost too easy.
2. Cake Leveller
Put the serrated knife down! If you are looking for a quick and easy way to create that beautifully smooth, flat surface on your cake sponge to decorate and layer, you can’t go past this super neat piece of equipment, the cake leveller.
Levelling a cake is no mean feat, but with a cake leveller you can adjust the height of the cut and get a clean and even cut. If you plan on layering your cake or even stacking it, this is your baking essential.
3. Kitchen Scales
Where would we be without our trusty kitchen scales? Not somewhere with cake, that’s for sure.
We don’t need to tell you how to use scales but let us stress: Accuracy is key in baking. It can be the difference between sponge supremacy or disaster! When it comes to precision and speed, both things that matter quite a lot to professional bakers, we don’t think you can beat digital Salter scales. They also look quite fetching in black.
That said, if it’s purely looks we are after for a bit of Sunday home baking, old fashioned cradle scales certainly win out on style.
4. Eco-friendly baking mats
We are always on the lookout for ways to make our kitchen eco-friendlier and to reduce waste. Silicone baking mats not only tick the eco-friendly box, but they are also so super-duper handy you will be asking yourself why you didn’t make the switch sooner.Whether you are using them straight up as non-stick surface for baking or lining your pans with them (no greasing needed plus a quick clean up!), they can even help improve your baking results, create less waste, and save money and time.
We use Silpat in our Cutter & Squidge kitchen, but for a pop of colour or if you have any keen young bakers in your house, check out Silchef.
5. Offset Spatula
The humble offset spatula, once you discover this magical item you can’t be without it. Always have it on your person in case disaster strikes, because 99% of the time, the offset can pull you out of it.
Perfect for spreading frosting onto a cake, smoothing brownie batter into an even layer, popping muffins and cakes out of their tin, and cradling gooey cookies from their sheet onto a wire rack.
These are some of the ways you can use it as a baking essential, but honestly, it comes in handy in all manner of dishes and cooking methods, and being lightweight, small and affordable, it deserves a spot in your kitchen drawer.
6. Silicone Spatula
Such an underrated piece of kitchen equipment! You probably already have this in your drawer, but are you still using a spoon to scrape out batter from a bowl? Please! Time to put this bad habit to rest and fall back in love with your silicone spatula.
Nothing comes close to scraping, whether its frosting from a bowl, or sauce from a pan. It keeps things quick and clean, and gets every last drop used. Also works beautifully for stirring and folding anything you put in front of it and will not cause any scratches on your other pieces of equipment.
It may not have the variety of uses as the offset spatula, but the amount you will use it in baking and beyond (scrambled eggs, hello?) and the fact that it saves every last bit of cake batter makes it essential to us.