Bits and bobs for baking geeks (& baking beginners!)

I thought I’d do a post to show what kind of baking equipment you’ll need if you’re just starting to get interested in baking – and also some of the more niche, strange baking stuff thats out there!

Baking basics – what you’ll need

Generally, you don’t need a lot of fancy pans to do any baking AT ALL. You can make most things really easily without specialist equipment. You will need a few different sized and shaped pans to make most basic brownies, cookies, cakes and bars though.

Brownies and bars

A brownie pan can be any rectangular or square pan, usually around an inch deep. For a bigger batch of brownies, you can use a large roasting tin too. The brownie pan that I use most often is a square one that was great value from Dunelm Mill, but Wilko’s and most supermarkets have a good range too.

If brownies are a big part of your life (as indeed they should be) then take a look at this…

The ‘corners’ brownie pan is only £7.50 – and is designed to give you perfectly cooked brownies with lots of yummy crispy corners. I think this is a fab idea!

Cookies, whoopie pies and macaroons

The only type of equipment you need to make these is large flat sheet pan (at least thats what the americans call it. It looks like this.

For making cookies, the bigger a pan you can get the better as this means you’ll be able to cook lots of cookies at once. The little ones that have a cooking area little bigger than a piece of A4 paper (like the one pictured above) really aren’t much good, size wise.

I’ve got a very large one (so big it didn’t fit in my last oven except in the very middle bit!) from Wilko’s that was £6. Its made of enamel which means that the coating doesn’t flake off or discolour – I’d really recommend buying all your baking pans and tins in enamel – its slightly more expensive to start off with, but they will last much much longer than the cheaper ones, saving you money in the long run!

Ideally you’ll need 2-3 of these pans to make it a doddle when you’re baking cookies etc, otherwise you’ll need to bake in small batches rather than all at once.

You can get special pans for making cookies, whoopie pies or muffin tops (below). In my opinion these are a complete waste of money as you can get the exact same result using a normal baking sheet. Maybe your cookies will be a little less uniform, but if you want uniform cookies, you buy them in a shop!  What do you think?

Cakes

I’d recommend you start out with two basic types of cake tin – a round pan and a loaf pan. I have two of each and I find that works perfectly. Unless you’re planning on making lots of cakes in one go, thats all you need!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are also quite a few different specialist cake tins out there that you can get. There are bundt tins, to make budnt cake, predictably enough! You’ll also need a special tin if you want to make madeleines, or a giant cupcake (yum!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things (of course) get even more niche (read : crazy) from there, with special tins for EVERYTHING YOUR MIND CAN possibly dream up! Check some of these out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course, the best cake tin ever….

The My Little Pony tin!

If anybody ever needs a my little pony cake… you know who to ask!

What baking equipment do you use most? Do you own any fancy stuff that you just don’t use, or do you think its worth having? Let me know in the comments!