Honestly, you can do quite a bit of damage with a fork and a cereal bowl when it comes to baking – the cake will still be a cake, just maybe one you wouldn’t laud on the British Baking Show anytime soon. You also have hands, which, as it turns out, are awesome tools not just for typing up that next blog post or grabbing handfuls of the free cookies at the company happy hour before the office manager notices; they work extremely well with bowls of batter and kneading butter into flour and all of that fun baking-related stuff. Never underestimate what you already have. So, if it’s imperative that you take a bite of something sweet in the next 30 minutes so help you god and you want it to be something YOU made, don’t give baking tools a second thought.
That being said, if 2020 is the year that you level up your baking – either in quality, complexity, or volume – then here are over a dozen baking tools I think you absolutely need to make your baking dreams a reality. These are my go-to tools that I use in either every single recipe I make, or in enough to make them worthwhile to have around. No matter what type of baking you’re doing, these tools will undoubtedly make your life easier and ultimately, make baking loads more fun.
- A good, solid whisk. Yes, some of the things on this list will fall into the category of ‘very basic,’ but once you find a great whisk that feels like an Edward Scissor Hands (but make it pastry) extension of your arm as you cream together heaps of butter and brown sugar, you will never look back. What makes a good solid whisk? I love a whisk with a strong handle – nothing flimsy. And wire – not silicone. Silicone can be great for baking, but there’s a time and a place, and whisks are not either of them. There’s something about a strong, un-bendable whisk that just gives you Thor-like baking powers.
- A few spatulas. You may think you just need one spatula but let me tell you, once you have three bowls of stuff, two layers of cake or pie or whatever you happen to be baking, one pan, and then that bowl of frosting you need to spread over the finished product, you’ll understand why I keep upwards of 5 clean spatulas handy at all times. And in my opinion, the ideal spatula, unlike the whisk, has a bit of give. It flexes as you fold in those perfectly-whipped egg whites and hugs the curves of your bowl so that not a drop of batter is left when you pour it all into the prepped pan.
- A nifty electric hand mixer. There are definitely fancier baking accoutrements like big ol’ standing mixers, and by all means go for that if you want the real deal, but honestly, I prefer the humble hand mixer (electric of course, who wants to whisk cream for 20 minutes?) because it’s optimized for storage space (much smaller than your average stand mixer), ease of use and cleaning (pop out the beater attachments and throw them in the dishwasher), and efficiency (I can easily have two or three bowls going at once and just shift the mixer over by hand.
- A heavy-duty glass pie pan. Those crinkly, aluminum pie pans are great for starting out, but they’re lackluster when compared with a high-quality glass pan. Sure, if you’re giving someone a pie as a gift, grab that aluminum plate and fill away (but if you’re giving them a pie, presumably you know them well enough to ask for the nice glass pie plate back once they’ve finished the last slice). Having your very own glass pie plate not only looks great (food photography aesthetic and all), but gives you a larger pie (usually the aluminum ones are slightly smaller).
- A candy thermometer that attaches to a pan. If you haven’t done any baking that involves one of these bad boys, then suit up because this is your formal call to duty in the confectionary department. Even if you don’t to go all in and start churning out caramels and lemon drops by the dozens, this gadget will come in handy for things like temp-checking your sugar syrup before pouring it into a batch of Italian buttercream or getting the caramel topping just right for a banoffee pie.
- Parchment paper. This may seem like the least important, or least exciting item on the list, but don’t underestimate the power of parchment! I used to bake entirely sans-parchment, and in the last year of running a blog and delving into food photography, I have learned the error of my ways. Parchment paper is a miracle. Nothing gets stuck to finicky pans! You can lift entire panfuls of brownies or cakes right out in one go! Sponge cakes for Swiss Rolls are a breeze! Cleaning pans is a breeze! Everything is a breeze! Plus, if you’re into more rustic food photos, the crinkly paper is great to keep in those food flat-lays.
- A high-quality bundt pan(s). First things first, if you haven’t experienced the child-like joy of tipping out a bundt cake and marveling at the perfectly-formed ridges or swirls or patterns that the pan imparted, you absolutely need to add one or two recipes to your baking repertoire. Even the humblest of cake recipes becomes a Cinderella at the ball with a beautifully-carved bundt cake pan. I happen to love anything and everything Nordic Ware when it comes to quality and shapes. Their designs are magical, fit for the Queen’s table, and they’re all heavy-duty pans that will last a lifetime.
- A 2-cup (or more) glass measuring cup. These may seem superfluous to the set of measuring cups you probably already have, but these larger-than-normal cups come in handy in nearly every recipe. Measuring something that’s over 1 Cup? Need to measure out chunks of chocolate and then melt them in the microwave without dirtying another bowl? Do yourself a favor and get yourself one of these. Glass is better especially if you frequently use it in the microwave.
- A great set of measuring cups and spoons. It go without saying, but it’s an absolute pain to measure out ingredients in actual spoons. Theoretically, the small spoons in your cutlery drawer should hold a teaspoon, and the large ones should hold about a tablespoon, so you could rough it if you needed to, but for a few bucks, your life will be endlessly easier with actual real measuring cups and spoons. I usually go for plastic for measuring cups because they’re lightweight, individual (not linked together on a ring which makes measuring everything all the more awkward), and easily-cleanable.
- A food processor or NutriBullet. Basically, something you can use to grind things up. Some recipes rely heavily on food processors to do most of the actually mixing work, though I find food processors cumbersome and annoying to clean, so I opt for a smaller item (in my case, a NutriBullet) that I use all the time for bitzing up toasted pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, freeze dried raspberries, and for pureeing anything and everything you need. It’s compact, easily cleanable, and what I’d recommend for anyone baking in a small city apartment.
- A box grater. I use this for anything that requires zest. Yes, you can buy a ‘zester’ which is usually much smaller and hand held (can’t sit upright on the counter) which, for me, means it’s practically worthless. If I’m making something that requires zest (lemon bars, key lime pie), I’m going to be needing a lot of zest (the more the merrier, and tarter), so a dinky hand-held zester is not the way to go. So, I recommend a box grater, also because you can use it for anything else that requires grating or slicing.
- A citrus-juicer. Why not make your life easier? I used to squeeze lemons like it was my job, in the days before I caved and got one of these handy, hand-held juicers, and after making three batches of lemon bars for a friend’s birthday, I’d just about had it with lemons, not to mention my forearms were out of commission entirely. For any recipe that requires citrus juice, this juicer is the easiest thing I’ve found, aside from actually buying bottle of pre-squeezed lemon juice.
- A good set of bowls. This may also seem like a ‘very basic’ item to have, but there are lots of different shapes and sizes of baking bowls out there and to be honest, not all of them are that great. Good bowls are weighted or at least made of thicker material than a 1/16th inch of metal so that they don’t spin off the counter at the first whisk. They have high sides (have you ever tried to whip whipped cream in a short-sided bowl? Hello Jackson Pollock). And, they’re stackable (weirdly-shaped bowls are the worst – do you know how much cupboard space I have to spare?).
- A set of pastry bags and tips. These are absolutely non-essential, but if you’re looking to level-up your pastry game, then I guess they are, actually. Anything from cream puffs to other pâte à choux confections to wildly-decorated cakes and cupcakes require some kind of pastry bag and some kind of frosting tips. There are hundreds of different shapes and kinds out there, but at least get yourself a set with a wide-circular tip (for the pâte à choux items) and a few fun designs (to give those cupcakes a new lease on life).
- Interesting pans. Another go-to for leveling up your baking. Tired of making normally-shaped pies or cakes or muffins? There are so many fun pan shapes and styles out there – get away from the standard 9×13 or square or 8-inch rounds. Try out tart pans like these fun little ones – 4-inches in diameter and perfect for individual key lime pies or chocolate pies or mini-frangipane tarts. Again, interesting and high-quality pans can make a world of difference between a humble loaf and a show-stopping work of art.
Isn’t baking fun? You actually get to build your very own toolkit, much like any other trade, I guess – sculptor, artist, carpenter, dancer. But with baking, you’re creating things that you can EAT. It doesn’t get better than that. If you’re now itching to get into the kitchen and whip up a brand new recipe, or try your hand at a classic, let this be your official last bit of motivation to do so. But first grab a few of these nifty tools – they’re certainly ones I’d be hard-pressed to bake without (or, at least my motivation to pause Netflix, get off the couch, and turn on the oven would be significantly lower if I had to do everything by hand that these gems can do in a jiffy). Want inspiration for new recipes to try? Take a look at our recipe tab to get those creative juices flowing!
