Here come the gadgets - Things you need and don't need to bake

So. On to Part Troix. The gadgets. I own every baking gadget under the sun (well, almost every), so I am going to divvy it up in three parts. Must have, Nice to have and Indulgences.

Must Have
One good pan
Please don’t buy cheap pans. They will not conduct heat properly and will warp in just a couple of uses. The right pan must be made of professional grade aluminum and should have straight edges. I would recommend Wilton since they are readily available. A 9 inch round is a good first pan to have. Calphalon makes dark pans and are fairly decent, but don’t have straight edges and the cakes don’t come out looking “clean and neat”. I have never found the need to go with silicone bake ware- they are wobbly and synthetic. They are not truly non-stick. Most come with instructions to grease them. Also, you will have to place the pan on a cookie sheet when baking because it is so wobbly. And these pans will never work for Angel Food Cakes – where you don’t grease the pan. Stick to metal. It’s natural. And real bakers don’t need silicone (pans).

One good hand mixer
Unless you want to get exercise and/or a sprained arm, it would be better to go with an electric hand mixer. There are many to choose from. I had a cheap Hamilton Beach that I bought for $15 a long time ago that served me very well. It has been passed on to the MIL now. Don’t use your regular blender or food processor. They don’t work in mixing air properly with the batter which is the whole point of beating/creaming.

One good spatula
Don’t underestimate its importance. A rubber or a silicone or even a wood spatula is a MUST for folding flour. Stainless steel works too, but I hate the grating npise it makes when you fold. Never use a hand mixer for this step.

One reliable oven
That heats to 350F when you turn the knob at 350F. Should not overheat or underheat.

One offset spatula
To spread frosting. They are cheap. They cost a couple of bucks and are invaluable when spreading frosting. Don’t try to do the job with a butter knife. You will not only leave fingerprints all over the cake, but the job will take twice as long and will frustrate you. For the longest time I thought this was an indulgence. But had I bought one before, it would have saved me hours of agony.


Nice To Have
Definitely more pans
If you are bored of baking in the same old 9” round over and over again, you might want to invest in a few more pans. If you have kids, muffin pans are most useful to make quick cupcakes. Calpahalon works well for Muffin pans. I always line them with paper cups. Bundt Pans are another nice thing to have. I would only recommend Nordicware. The pans are expensive, but are very handy when baking for a party or a potluck. Bundt Pans should be heavy. Since they have designs in them and have many nooks and crannies it is vital they are made of a good quality iron for even heat distribution. A 8x4 loaf pan is also nice to have to make quick breads and pound cakes served for tea. And of course a cookie sheet.

Piping bags and tips
For frosting cakes. I would tell you to not spend good money on the “decorating sets” they sell which has a piston like contraption. Decorating is hard with those because you don’t get good control over your motions. Invest in a set of piping bags a set of couplers and quality tips like Ateco or Wilton. Some basic tips to would be a open star to make stars and shells(Wilton#21, #28), a round(Wilton #3, #4), a leaf(I use Wilton #352) and grass (Wilton #233,#234). If you have kids – this will be used very often.


Indulgences
Even more cake pans
Square, heart, different sizes of round (my favorite pan is the 6”round). Character pans. The list is endless. I don’t do character pans – they are expensive, but if you plan ahead you can buy them on e-bay for less than half of retail.

A Stand Mixer
I have one of this and I debated a LONG time if this should go in the nice-to-have section. It probably would have, had it not been for the price. The stand mixer is used more than my food processor. I use my stand mixer every other day to make chapatti dough, mix batters for quick dosa or thalipeeth. It’s a life saver and needs no baby sitting. The best part is that it does not have a zillion lids like my food processor has so it saves on clean up and storage. I have the Kitchen Aid brand and I will recommend that because they don’t change the way their attachments couple to the machine. So attachments from 25 years ago will work on today’s Kitchen Aid and today’s Kitchen Aid will work with attachments 25 years from now. And yesh, the standmixer will also grind, slice and grate (you have to buy attachments).


Ingredients
All purpose flour works well in most cases. I generally use organic. You can even buy whole wheat pastry flour and that is delicious too, although you might have to go to specialty stores to buy it. For fine textured cake, you might want to buy cake flour. Swanson is the most popular brand in the US. I never buy self raising flour. I’d like to add (or not) my own leavening agents.

Butter should be unsalted. Salted butter has way too much salt in it. For sugar, use plain old granulated sugar. I have substituted Splenda for baking with excellent results. Don’t use brown sugar if the recipe calls for white. For frosting, use 10x confectioner’s sugar. That’s standard.

For the seven minute frosting, if you don’t feel comfortable consuming eggs that are not completely cooked, you can buy Meringue Powder (Wilton Brand) which is pasteurized egg whites. For Whipped Cream frosting that is fat free (you can also buy this in a can), you can buy sachets of stabilizers by Dr.Oetkar. Beat them up with cold skim milk and you get a nice mock whipped cream. You can find this in the baking aisle on the lower shelves (where they have boxes of instant mousse). I prefer this to cream in a can because the can is left in the fridge to expire.

So there! Hope you head out and buy pans and spatulas and make that cake you have been meaning to for a while.