Baking equipments: Old & New

Baking is a canvas. You take ingredients and make something beautiful out of it. To make this something beautiful you need to have the right equipments too. If you are passionate about baking you will find yourself buying for those "must-have-tins", "fun-to-have", "can’t-live-without-items" to add to your already existing stock. Like a kid in the candy store I have always enjoyed shopping for baking tools and equipments. Sometimes just browsing through the shelves you get to learn about the new arrivals in the market.

In recent times there have been enormous changes in the cake equipments. The materials, sizes and shapes have all changed. If you are the one who bakes regularly and happen to buy pans often you would have noticed these changes. The worst part is that many of these pans come with sloping edges. I am still very much fond of all the old pans. The cakes baked in them, brown evenly and cook through evenly. It will be a good idea to buy old pans from the garage sale, or if any of your friends do want to give it away.

These days there are many varieties of pans in the market. Some of them come in non stick coating. With my experience I would say it needs proper greasing. If you go by the word "non-stick", your baked item is sure going to stick at the bottom if you have not greased it. Hence greasing the pan by margarine or cooking-oil spray is very important. Silicone pans are now available and the cakes simply fall out of the tins. But these cakes do not get those golden brown crusts.

I do take good care of my baking equipments after every use by scraping, washing, wiping etc. so that they last longer. If you’re buying new, invest in good quality, heavy duty cookie and baking sheets. Heavy duty baking sheets retain heat better, won’t warp or buckle when heated, and should last a lifetime. The light colour encourages even baking and are less likely to burn. Dark metals sheets and non-stick tend to brown baked goods faster.

General Kitchen tools for baking:

The following is a list of equipment that is good to have on hand for baking.

1. Standard cup measures. The sets are readily available.

2. Standard measuring spoons.

3. Sieve for sifting flour or sugar.

4. Set of bowls. I have Borosil bowls which I have had for years and they are still going well.

5. Wooden spoons for mixing.

6. Rubber spatula for mixing light batters.

7. Rubber & Steel Scraper. I like to have both.

8. Palate knife for decorating cakes, or mixing butter cream icing.

9. Whisk for whipping & beating cream.

10. Wire racks to cool on. Preferably the racks marked into squares are better than those with just bars because they have more support.

11. Pair of hand gloves for the oven.

12. Grater with coarse and fine teeth for chocolates or rinds from citrus fruits.

13. Glazing brushes.

Then there are things which are nice to have but not necessary.

1. Dough mixer recently gifted to us by a friend. It is very useful especially while making bread dough. It saves a whole lot of energy.

2. Electric hand beater also gifted to me by my former colleagues. It is very handy.

3. An icing bag with nozzles.

Depending on your need you can have fancy cake pans in different shapes and sizes, cookie cutters of different shapes and sizes, muffin trays. And last and the most important is your oven. There are many different types of ovens and energy sources, so it is important that you know your oven well to produce successful baked products.

The orders for my bakery, Chica's Bakehouse, has been keeping me busy hence couldn't update my blog in last week. Having said that I strive to keep you folks updated as and when possible.

See you soon.

The Baker
Chica's Bakehouse