BASIC BAKING EQUIPMENTS: A BEGINNERS GUIDE
When you are just testing the waters or just starting out, you do not want to invest in expensive and/or many equipments that might only be used for a few times. Below is a list of basic but important equipments that you will need when you want to turn your cake baking hobby into a 'serious' business. Most of the items listed here you might already own. If not, then you might consider investing in them to make your workload easier that gives a professional finish. However, remember that cake baking is a whole big world of its own and there are a 1001 (literally!) different cakes so buy only what you will initially need and build your stock up on a need to need basis (otherwise you might a fortune on items that you will never use!).
For ease of a quick check we have divided the equipments into different categories and you might need to buy at least one/set in each category.. LIST OF KITCHEN BAKING ESSENTIALS1 MEASURING EQUIPMENTs: Measuring cake ingredients needs to be precise, whether by volume or weight, solids or liquids, hence it is important that you have
2 FLOUR SIFTERS: These are useful in sifting flour as well as other dry ingredients. Used to incorporate air as the ingredients are sifted, as well as useful in combining dry ingredients together. They are available in different sizes and materials like plastic or metal. 3 MIXERs: Essential for incorporating air in cake batters. Mixers can be manual or electric, hand-held or free standing, depending on their mode of operation.
4 MIXING BOWLS: A set of mixing bowls (at least 1 medium and large) would be necessary for preparing ingredients or actually used in making the cake batter. 5 SPATULAS: Spatulas come in different shapes and sizes and in different materials too.
6 PASTRY BRUSH: These also come in different shapes and made of different materials. Some are made of hog bristles, nylon or silicone. Useful for applying egg wash, syrup, etc. 7 BAKING UTENSILS: These also come in different shapes (round, square), sizes (small, large etc) and materials (steel, aluminium,silicone, glass etc).
8 OVEN/SOURCE OF FIRE: This is an essential baking equipment! You might already own an oven in your kitchen so you need to understand it! (Or if planning to buy one, you might need to consider this):
P/S: All ovens do not work the same (even if they are from the same brand!!!) hence you need to understand your individual oven by experimenting and adjusting as you bake. (and with your oven do not forget OVEN MITTS!) 9 KITCHEN TIMER: This is something that you might need to invest in especially if your oven is not digitally controlled. 10 COOLING RACK: Used to cool down cakes (or biscuits) when removed from the oven. They allow air to circulate round the cake hence cools down faster and prevents a soggy bottom. Also see |