¡Gracias por compartir! / Thanks for sharing!

«Now that you have started baking for your family, they will request more of your masterpieces…«

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If something positive has come out from quarantine, is that thousands of people have dedicated their time to learn things that they’ve always wanted to do.

It makes me very happy to see that these past few weeks many of my friends and many people from around the world have been trying recipes for their favorite desserts, many of them for the first time, and they turned out great!

Now that you have started this magical journey of baking for your family and you’ve realized how happy they feel when they try your delicious treats, I assure you that when your life will get back to normal, they will still request for your masterpieces; which is why I want to share with you a list of bakery tools that you must have at home, to make your life easier when baking.

If you are thinking about getting started, this post will be helpful for you too.

The basics

Digital kitchen scale

Sometimes we pass on a recipe because the ingredients come in grams. Believe it or not, not weighting the ingredients correctly could make a big difference on the result of a cake. That’s why many recipe blogs post their recipes in grams and not in cups. Once you get one of these you will note the difference. Besides, you will have way more delicious recipes to choose from.

Measuring cups, spoons and jar

When the recipe says 2 cups of flour, one tends to pick up any cup and use it to measure, but cups come in different sizes, so we can’t use them to measure pastry ingredients. It is best to have these tools and use the exact measure required on the recipe.

Rubber spatula

It’s very useful to scrap down the sides of the bowl when mixing, to transfer the mixture, to combine ingredients, among other things.

Balloon whisk

Some mixtures require to be whisked using this tool since the electric mixer is too aggressive to achieve what we need.

Angled spatula

It helps to spread the filling you will make for your cake and also to glass the cake with your favorite frosting.

Stainless steel strainer

Most recipes require to sift the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, etc.). Have one of these exclusively for bakery so other scents won’t stick.

Electric hand mixer

This is probably already in your kitchen but I wanted to add it to the list anyway. For now, a stand mixer Kitchen Aid style is not indispensable to make cakes. Once you start making cakes more often, or want to make big amounts, then you will need one of those, because they help a lot in those cases.

Different size bowls

Bowls are very helpful to whisk the mixtures and sift flour, among other things. Have a set exclusively for pastry in order to avoid other scents to stick on them.

Cake pans

It’s a good idea to have two pans of the same size. Some recipes come with instructions for baking in two molds and then use a delicious filling to place between both cakes. I suggest two 6” round molds and two 8” or 9” round molds, which are the ones I mostly use.

A pie pan is not a bad idea to own, and I also suggest you to get a loaf pan and a bundt cake pan. You will make wonders with those!

In this section I also suggest one or two baking sheets so you can bake bread or cookies, yum!

Cooling rack

As soon as you get something out of the oven you place the pan on a cooling rack to cool. When it’s time to remove it from the pan, you also place the cake, bread or cookies on a cooling rack to cool completely. It is very useful.

Wax paper or parchment paper

You need this to place it on the base of the pan or baking sheet, that helps a lot when it comes to remove the cake from the pan, or cookies and bread from the baking sheet.

There are some other things you will need, but I’m sure you already have them in your kitchen, like a grater for lemon peel or an ice cream scoop to measure cookie dough.

Don’t forget to read the complete recipe before you start to make sure that you have all the ingredients you need.

On this post I’ve covered basic tools to bake cakes and not decorated cookies. As you continue with your baking and get more favorite recipes written down, you will start to experiment with decorations, for that you will need a different kind of tools; for now, the above mentioned are ideal to start.

Happy baking!

Hugs,

MJ

Related post:

The magic and disenchantment of sharing recipes online

¡Gracias por compartir! / Thanks for sharing!