21 Sweet Baking Essentials for Every Kitchen

Baking Pan

Kicking off our list of baking tools and equipment are the foundation of this art form: baking pans. An excellent set of baking pans may be the difference between a sunken, burned cake and one that is perfectly baked. In general, a thick pan with a light to medium colored finish is your best bet. Try and avoid glass pans since they conduct differently, which can drastically affect baking times.

Cake Tins

A quality cake tin is a baking must-have whether you’re regularly creating delicious desserts or just baking once in a while. They come in a variety of forms and sizes, but they’re quite versatile: they may be used to bake cakes, as well as sweet and savory loaves of bread, cheesecakes, and even molds. You’ve likely heard the saying that baking is a science in and of itself. However, ingredients and measurements aren’t the only essential part of baking cakes; equipment is crucial as well.

Kitchen Scale

A scale is essential for precise baking. Cup measures, especially for items like flour, are often inaccurate, which is why professional bakers prefer to bake by weight. Our recommendation is the OXO® Good Grips Scale, but any scale that reliably measures ounces and grams will suffice.

Baking Sheets

This sort of paper is perfect for wrapping foods and keeping them from sticking to the pan, especially those that are oily or fatty. It’s frequently recommended as a good way to wrap fruit cake before putting it in a pan. It’s suitable for use in the freezer, microwave, and oven. You should gently butter or oil the paper before spooning in the cake mix if you’re using it to line a cake pan.

Silicone Baking Mat

Another great baking essential is a silicone baking mat. Silicone baking mats are available in various shapes, sizes, and colors and are designed to produce a uniform, nonstick surface on conventional baking sheets. Yes, parchment paper can accomplish many of the same things as these mats, and they won’t completely replace parchment paper, but they’re well worth the money (and the small amount of space they take up in your cupboards). Simply place the mat on your baking sheet, add your cookie/cake dough, and bake as usual without fear of your cookies sticking to the pan or getting burned bottoms.

Baking Cooling Rack

A cooling rack is a must-have in the world of cake equipment for cooling goodies straight from the oven. Cooling the cooked pastries promptly and uniformly is important because it raises the food off the counter to prevent moisture from accumulating beneath it. We love the Wilton 3-Tier Collapsible Cooking and Baking Cooling Rack. Bakers with little space need not be concerned because this folding cookie cooling rack can hold up to 3 dozen cookies even with limited counter space.

Revolving Cake Turntable

If you’re planning on decorating a lot of cakes, a spinning cake stand has the benefit of providing easy access to all sides of the cake for icing. It’s not essential to have a showpiece-like cake if you frost a cake once a year (you can simply manually turn the cake stand or serving plate). However, it’s great to have one if you frost cakes frequently or bake them for parties and other events where you want to guarantee an extra-nice frosting job is done.

Silicone Spatula

No baking equipment list is complete without a good spatula. But with so many choices out there, which type should you get? In a silicone spatula, the flexibility of a conventional rubber spatula is coupled with the heat-resistant qualities of a metal utensil. Spatulas are very useful for mixing wet and dry ingredients and scraping the sides of mixing basins, perfect for a variety of culinary tasks because of their smooth edges and sturdiness.

Despite its plastic or rubber look, silicone has a rather high melting point. Due to this aspect, they can stir extremely hot liquids or remove food directly from roasting or frying pans. Heat damage to rubber or plastic equipment can be permanent, but a silicone spatula head will not nick or deform.

Pastry Brush

This is a baker’s essential that can make life much easier! A pastry brush can spread melted butter on filo pastry or glaze it with egg wash or milk. It’s also useful for removing extra icing sugar when decorating cakes.

Rolling Pin

Depending on your needs and preferences, you may choose one-piece rolling pins or those with a fixed grip on either end. Make sure the rolling pin is big enough to span the entire breadth of the dough or icing you’re rolling out. It’s useful to have both a big pin made of smooth plastic and a small pin for detailed work if you perform a lot of cake designing with ready-to-roll icing.

Dredger 

When rolling out dough or icing, a dredger is a big shaker that may be used to softly sprinkle surfaces with flour or sugar. It features a domed or flat top with big holes in the top, and may or may not have a handle. This gadget allows a baker to sprinkle a delicate flour coating on dough or a sophisticated powdered sugar drizzle on baked pastries.

Ceramic Pie Weights

When blind baking a pie crust, you’ll need little ceramic or metal balls called pie weights. “Blind baking” a pie crust means baking it without the filling. If the filling is not baked (for example, a cooked custard or a filling that hardens when refrigerated), the recipe may ask for blind baking. You may also blind bake a pie crust for a pie with a very moist filling so that it crisps up faster and is less prone to be mushy. Pie weights prevent air pockets from accumulating in the crust, which can cause it to bubble up or shrink as it cooks. They press down on the dough to ensure that it maintains its shape and is securely seated in the pie dish.

Kitchen Timer

Because baking is a science, keeping time is essential. The optimal timer for a working commercial kitchen should have localized timers that can be tailored to each activity, allowing for the least amount of time lost while switching from one part to the next. You must be able to time your baked items precisely. This is why we picked the Chef-Master Timer containing four counters, which makes it ideal for multitasking. We frequently start a one-timer on a count-down and another on a count-up so that if we need to put anything back in the oven for a few minutes longer, we’ll have a final count of how long it baked.

Kitchen Scissors

This one may seem obvious, but we always have our kitchen shears on hand when following a recipe, whether we’re baking or not. They can be used for a variety of tasks, including snipping fresh basil, cutting baking sheets to fit a pan, and opening difficult packages and containers.

Food Mixer

A food mixer (also referred to as a stand mixer) is like an extra set of strong arms in your kitchen. Use it whenever you need a helping hand with mixing while you focus on another aspect of the process. The most advantageous feature of a stand mixer is that it enables hands-free baking and preparation. Even the heaviest of mixes can be mixed, mashed, and blended with minimal effort, and you don’t even have to get your hands messy! The stand mixers’ upright design allows you to work with your hands-free while the beaters perform the heavy lifting. This makes it simple to include sticky, hot, or messy substances. 

Stand mixers are frequently associated with cakes, dough, and meringues and are so viewed as a niche product. Yet, in truth, this indispensable kitchen gadget is capable of a wide range of tasks. You can also use it for cooking, whether it be to make meatballs, guacamole, mashed potatoes and more!

Round Cookie Cutters

As kids, we looked forward to those moments in the kitchen when we could create sugar cookies in all of our favorite shapes. Who knew that cookie cutters would become one of the most versatile — and entertaining — kitchen tools as we grew older? You can use this basic set of round cookie cutters for everything from shaping cookies to forming donuts to coring muffins with elaborate fillings. There are also fluted and rectangular cutter sets available, but the round will be your most sought cutter.

Cookie Scoop

A cookie scoop is a spring-loaded culinary utensil that scoops dough and batter into uniform portions. Using a cookie scoop ensures consistency in product size and even baking. In bakeries and restaurants (and your kitchen), where food display and flavor are both important, cookie scoops can be extremely helpful.

Mixing Bowls

Mixing bowls are one of the most crucial baking essentials on this list. You may not even think twice about a mixing bowl until you have one that wobbles when you whisk, slide in your fingers, or trap food in its crevices. Plain old mixing bowls can’t be beaten when it comes to basic culinary duties. They may not be as glamorous as chef’s knives or trendy like sous vide circulators, but they are the crème de la crème when it comes to fundamental baking tasks. An excellent mixing bowl should be so sturdy, robust, and comfortable to hold that it nearly goes undetected while you’re working.

Measuring Cups

Measuring cups are essential baking tools in any baking or culinary equipment set. The science of baking requires exact proportions and is essential for perfectly delicious results. They’re used to determine accurate ingredient quantities and achieve the right balance in any recipe. These accessories assist the cook in having a clear idea of the appropriate volume for components and can even aid with recipe adaptation when needed.

Chocolate Melting Pot

Unfortunately, it’s far too easy to burn chocolate or overheat it to the point where it becomes oily and separated. A double boiler is normally preferred over a microwave for heating chocolate since the heat is softer and it’s difficult to overheat. But once you discover this chocolate melting pot, you won’t want to use anything else. It has a warm and a melt option, and if you’re attempting to preserve a chocolate temperature, you can use the warm setting and take it off the heat at regular intervals to maintain the temperature.

Cast Iron Dutch Oven

After you’ve gotten used to a cast-iron Dutch oven, you’ll wonder how you ever survived without one during dreary winter months. Thanks to its heat retention and distribution, an enameled cast-iron Dutch oven is ideal for baking bread. It’s perfect for baking not only bread, but also cakes, pies, cobblers, or other treats that need longer exposure to heat.