Baking Equipment for Beginners

If you have decided to just take up baking as a hobby and are feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the different mixers, bowls, spatulas,…

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If you have decided to just take up baking as a hobby and are feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the different mixers, bowls, spatulas, tins and just the overall amount of baking equipment that is out there. Don’t worry. I have put together some essential basic baking equipment you will need. The rest you can pick up as and when you need it.  

Bowls 

Okay, so let’s start with the obvious. You are going to need a mixing bowl. There are so many different types out there. You can get plastic ones, metal ones and glass ones.  

I would recommend if you were just starting out get a cheap plastic one. Honestly, it doesn’t need to be expensive you just need it to hold your ingredients.  

You can pick up plastic mixing bowls inexpensively in most supermarkets or online. You can also get a nest of bowls. It totally depends on what you are making but a nest of bowls might be a great option if you need them for different things.  

If you are just starting out, I wouldn’t go mad and buy too many bowls one or two would be perfect to begin with and you can pick up more as you go along. 

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Hand Mixer

A hand mixer isn’t really essential, but it will make your life a bit easier. Don’t worry about splashing out on a big fancy super expensive stand mixer if you are just starting out. A hand mixer is perfect for beginners. Again, they can be picked up quite inexpensively from most supermarkets.  

Using a hand mixer gives you a feel for what your baking mixture should look and feel like as you mix them. For example, when you are mixing buttercream, you will be able to feel if the mixture is too thick or too slack. Using a hand mixer means you will be standing over your mixing bowl watching the ingredients combine too, and the more you bake the more you will notice if there is anything different or off about your recipe.

Spatula

I love using a spatula when I bake. I honestly own about 20+ spatulas that I have just picked up over time. Again, these don’t need to be anything fancy or special, but they make mixing your ingredients so much easier.  

They are also perfect for scraping any leftover ingredients from around the side of the bowl so nothing gets left, perfect if you are making millionaire shortbread or caramel. 

Wire Cooling Rack

So this is something that is often overlooked or forgotten about. But a wire cooling rack is essential in my opinion.  

Once your cake has baked, I always leave it to cool for around 10-15 minutes in the tin before transferring it to a wire cooling rack. The wire cooling rack helps cool the cake faster as air can get to all sides of the cake. Compared with if the cake was left in its tin it would cool from the top to the bottom.  

8” Cake Tins  

These are only essential if you are planning on making a cake. Most recipes call for an 8” round cake tin. I would recommend getting two or three depending on the size of the cake you are baking. I would recommend using an 8” cake tin over a sandwich tin. 8” cake tins tend to be deeper so you could bake the full cake mixture in the tin and then split it once its cooled. Sandwich tins are a lot shallower.  

Muffin Tray

Again, this is only essential if you are planning on making cupcakes or muffins. Most cupcake and muffin liners don’t keep their shape when they bake so you can’t use an oven tray, you need to use a muffin tray.  

Muffin trays can have either 6 or 12 holes. I would recommend one with 12 holes as most recipes make 12 cupcakes or muffins.  

Measuring Spoons

Measuring spoons are essential for adding things like baking powder and extracts to bakes. I live in the UK so I don’t bake using cups but depending on where in the world you live measuring cups might be essential.  

Scales

Unlike with cooking, you can’t just wing baking. You need to get the correct amount of ingredients for them to react together and create a cake. To do this you need a set of scales.  

Either a set of digital scales or a mechanical set will work perfectly for weighing out all your ingredients.  

Both digital and mechanical scales can be bought in most supermarkets or even online and manual scales are inexpensive. 

Baking Parchment 

Baking Parchment or a Cake Release Spray is absolutely essential when baking a cake. It stops the cake from sticking to the cake tin and ripping.  

Baking parchment can be bought in most supermarkets, however, isn’t reusable. You can now get reusable cake liners that can be washed and reused.  

Piping Tips 

There are so many different sizes and types of piping tips out there. I would recommend starting with a 2D or 1M Piping Tip. These are the piping tips that are mostly used for piping swirls onto the top of cupcakes or cakes. You can normally buy sets online with a 2D, 1M and other types of piping tips, these would also be perfect for beginning out.  

Piping Bags 

So, if you are going to be piping onto your cakes and cupcakes (or well, pretty much any bake really) you are going to need piping bags. There are so many different options out there, and this is going to be a completely personal preference.  

I use disposable piping bags just because I absolutely hate having to wash them. I just find them an absolute nightmare to clean. But that is just my personal preference. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using reusable piping bags or disposable ones.  

Piping bags do come in a range of sizes, I normally always use 21” piping bags for larger cakes and cupcakes. It is the perfect size for getting all the buttercream into the bag, and I don’t need to stop halfway through and refill my piping bag.  

I use smaller piping bags for things like chocolate drips.  

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