We come to the second part of the series. This is a post which could be useful for beginners. Pros can stay away from this. After looking into the OTG, we are now here to know about some of the tools you may need to bake basic cakes and cookies. All the tools I have listed below are not necessary for the beginners but I thought you may need to know the tools so that when you go to a store, you can easily make up your mind whether to buy it or not.When I first started baking, the confusion I had was what to buy. When I was in the baking tools section, I would not know half of them and end up asking the salesperson who inturn doesn’t know about them. I have listed the tools which I have. These tools took nearly 4 years for collection. I never go and buy the tools in bulk. Every month or once in two months, I buy some tools which are necessary and now I have a huge collection of them. So start small and when you start gaining confidence, then make an investment. You can bake a cake without any fancy gadgets. You don’t need a hand whisk on your first try. A wooden spoon would do the job. But once you take baking seriously, then all these tools make your job easier and saves a lot of time. Then they will become necessities.
We will start with the tins and trays
Baking trays are mainly used for baking sheet cakes, brownies, blondies, cookies and bread rolls. I prefre to use aluminium trays. If you have a black coloured tray do not forget to reduce your oven temperature by 10°.
These are loaf tins used to make loaf cakes, quick breads, bread loaves and pound cakes.
This is the muffin tray. This comes in so many sizes. Mine is medium to bake 12 muffins at a time. You can either bake the muffins or cupcakes directly in the mould or you can line it with paper liners and then bake. Using paper liner makes it less messy and cleaning up is lot more easier. You need to grease the mould if you are pouring the batter directly into the mould but no need to grease the paper liners.
These are round cake tins. These come in so many measurements. Make sure to buy tins which fit in the oven.
The spring form cake tin will be very helpful while making cheesecakes and finishing layered pastries. This also comes in various sizes and you can select a size comfortable for you. You will be able to remove the ring from the base and so it is easy to remove the cake without flippin it on a wire rack. The other is a mini bundt cake tin to make beautiful tiny bundt cakes.
This works so much like a spring form pan but it is cheaper. Loose bottomed pans are great for cheese cakes and layered pastries.
These are pie plates and tart moulds. You can get this in various sizes and can be useful in making pies, tarts and quiche.
These are pudding moulds useful in making Christmas pudding.
These cones are used in making cornets or pastry cones with sweet or savoury fillings.
These are silicon moulds for making small cakes. As silicon can withstand temperatures upto 180°C, you can use them in recipes which require below 180°C for baking.
These are silicon chocolate moulds for making filled chocolates.
This is a tube pan for baking pound cake or any cake which can be filled with fruits or any other fillings in the centre.
This is a bread tin with a lid for getting perfect square slices. The bread will not for a dome as the lid will make sure that the dough stays in shape.
These are cookie cutters. There are so many shapes and sizes available in the market but these are the basic ones.
Which ever tool you miss to buy, do not miss this. Cups and spoons are must for perfect baking. If there is something wron with measuring, then your cake will not turn out good. So invest in cups and spoons on the very first day of your baking adventure.
Mixing bowls. Have bowls of various sizes to mix your batter or dough.
Thes top ones are dough scrapers which can be handy while kneading bread dough. And the bottom ones are tiny spatula and pastry brush. The spatula is used to remove all the batter from the bowl and the pastry brush is used for glazing.
Hand whisk and hand blender. Very useful in making cake batters, beating eggs and preparing buttercream.
These are spatulas of various sizes I use for decorating cakes.
These are cake servers and also can be useful while decorating cakes.
This is one of the most important tools in baking. As soon as you remove the cake or cookies from oven, they need to be cooled on a wire rack so that the bottom of the cake also has air flow and cools perfectly. If you transfer a cake or a cookie or a bread on to a plate while still hot, then condensation is formed and the bottom becomes soggy.
Turntable very useful while decorating cakes.
Candy thermometer used for making candies.
Hope this was helpful.
Here are some links for the tools in Amazon
My other posts in the Baking Basics Series:
- Oven
- Tools
- Homemade Pan Release
- Ingredient Substitutes
- Eggless Baking
- Flax Gel
- Dark Chocolate Ganache
- American Butter Cream
- Homemade Veg Fondant- Gelatin Free
- How to do Frozen Butter Cream Transfer / FBCT
- Italian Meringue Buttercream
- Homemade Mascarpone Cheese
Hi Gayathri very useful posts do share about the ingredients as well,like the substitute which can be used if needed.As I live in Trichy getting the right ingredients itself is a task.
Hi Gaythri need help can u help and tell me where I can get bread flour. I live in Bangalore. Also whether we get rapid/quick rising yeast. Love your blog. Thanks
Geeta, I live in Madurai and so I don’t have any idea about the shops in Bangalore. I am sorry I couldn’t help.
mam pls tell me in madurai which place is best to buy cake pans and tools.
Ananthas in Kamarajar salai is the best place for tools and tins.
This is a lovely post and good collection…please mention if we can buy these tools from specific store or online…
amazing,…
Hi Gayathri,
I love your blog and just admire you the chef you are. and you certainly are queen of baking.
As you say on your blog that readers can send in request, well I have special request, may be you have already considered it, I would love to see you on MASTERCHEF INDAI, please audition for it. I know you are a master chef, now its time for the world to know.
Shilpa, thank you so much for the confidence you have in me, but I think I will never be qualified even in round one in Masterchef. I have a long way to go and am still at the learning steps…
Hi this is really a good one for the beginners. I would also prefer if you could explain on the terms such as beat till soft / hard peak, fluffy, smooth, etc & also how much time needed to beat till fluffy, smooth etc, that can be seen commonly in the baking recipes.
I find your recipes very useful. I appreciate the sincere work done by you not only making them but to present them in a nice way in which everyone will understand. Hats off Gayathri. Keep it up.
I have a black and decker electric oven. Whenever I am using the bake mode( Wih fan) the bread of pizza does not become brown on the top. if I keep it for more time for top to get the brown colour, then bread or pizza becomes crispy and not soft. How to solve this?
Hi Radha, usually while setting temp in convection ovens, yu need to decrease the temp by 20 degree centigrade. If the recipe calls for 180 degrees then you need to set it up to 160 degrees. With this settings, you might get good results. Bakes will not over brown..
Hi gayathri..love u for ur detailed explanation.me a beginner. Learnt basic cakes.now i want to do pastries. So how to do icing and which instruments used to icing on d cakes?thanks for all of ur recipes.
Hi Vani, I will be posting about these in detail in future posts. Please look out for the baking basics series..
Loved your tool collection sis..Now i want to buy more of this hehe .You have the tools in aluminium,is it because it makes the baking little early?if i have the one similar to your black ones.Is the temperature of baking or time of baking differs?
Hi Sathya, I prefer aluminium as it is easy on the purse. If using the black tins, you need to reduce temp by 10C as black absorbs more heat than the aluminium tins…
Hi Gayathri , i hv also a good collection of this type of tools as u mentioned in post but they r in black . Can v use those black cake tins in cooker baking ? And one more question could u plz mention how to do icing and which instruments used to icing on d cakes?means which nozzles and which pipping bags or can v make pipping bag at home ?
thanks for all of ur recipes.and detailed post .
Hats off to u
You can use black tins for baking. If using in oven you need to reduce the temperature by 10 degrees as black absorbs more heat. I am not sure about cooker. As for icing I will make an elaborate post to explain everything.
Tysm Gayathri mam .. Eagerly waiting for the post
Hi mam, wonderful job, I am very beginner in baking.can you please tell me in which place I buy these stuffs in Madurai?
For tools and tins, Ananthas is good. And for the basic ingredients like chocolate, essence there are so many whole sale essence shops near Rajmahal.
Hi Mam, I am amateur baker pls kindly help me mam, is it safe to use loose bottom pan for normal cakes? Is Cake batter will safely settled or it will leak?
If the batter is thick, it will not leak. You can line the pan with foil or butter paper and then pour the batter so that it won’t leak..
Got your blog link from HBG , Just when a newbie like me was planning to buying baking accessories. Thank you :9
Hi Gayathri,
This information about baking basics was really helpful as I ve just stepped into the world of baking…Thanks!
Hello mam…I am fan of ur recipes..all r excellent…. I am very much interested in knowing about piping n its techniques n abt t nozzles mam. Thanks in advance.
Hi mam…thank you for the Super write up…am new to this world..i am confused about the cream that is used for decoration..dairy cream, non dairy cream, fresh cream …what is the difference and when to use what…if you can please provide information on that i am sure it will help us new bakers..thank you soooooo much mam..
Check this post https://gayathriscookspot.com/2016/08/cream-in-cake-decoration-cake-decorating-basics/