7 essential utensils for making cakes

Baking cakes at home is a true pleasure: it's relaxing, leaves the house smelling really homely and there's nothing like enjoying them at breakfast, with coffee, or as an afternoon treat.

When preparing cake at home there are several utensils that are essential if you want to work really comfortably and efficiently. So if you're going to start baking cakes, here are our pastry basics!

1. A large bowl

Forget working with undersized bowls or ones with corners. It's important to have a round bowl that's large enough, both to ensure all ingredients fit and to work the batter comfortably. It can be glass, ceramic or stainless steel.

2. A scale

To get good results it's important to use the exact amount of each ingredient in the recipe you're preparing, so you definitely need a kitchen scale.

It can be mechanical, like the most charming one we have in the shop which is the Tellier one, or electric, always so precise and space-saving, like the WMF digital scale.

3. A suitable spatula

What makes a spatula suitable for baking cakes? Without a doubt, it's important that it's wide to work the batter well and comfortably; it should also be flexible to adapt to the bowl properly and scrape the batter from the sides. My recommendation is to use a wide silicone spatula.

One of the most popular is the large Le Creuset spatula (with a 7", x11,5cm!), with a wooden handle that, besides being attractive, is very comfortable and allows you to separate the top part for perfect cleaning.

Le Creuset ceramic bowl, Rösle stainless steel bowl, large Le Creuset spatula and WMF digital scale

4. A wire whisk

Without a doubt, manual whisks are essential in pastry. They help you beat, mix and incorporate air into the mixture. We recommend the De Buyer ones because they are professional-quality whisks, wide, with great grip and a finish that ensures they withstand the force and wear applied to them.

Having electric beaters can be a plus in many recipes since you'll save time and energy. In this case, I recommend the Kitchen Aid electric beaters, whose motor provides more power than others and doesn't heat up.

If you do a lot of baking, whip egg whites frequently, or are used to making bread or very dense doughs, a Kitchen Aid stand mixer will undoubtedly be your best helper in the kitchen.

5. A removable pan

There are many different pans: you can bake cakes in ceramic pans, shaped pans, bundt pans... but when it comes to basics, in my opinion a non-stick round springform pan will work for any cake you want to make.

What I do recommend is that it be a quality pan: pans are exposed to high temperatures in the oven, so it's important they have a good non-stick coating if you want it to retain its non-stick properties for a long time. Also, take care of it! Don't use metal utensils on it and always wash it by hand.

And if you want a two-in-one pan, we have a little treasure in the shop, the Birkmann two-base pan.

6. Egg white and egg separator

We already mentioned in the post "How to make a fluffy cake" that a good way to ensure the batter rises well is to beat egg whites and yolks separately. For that, having an egg white and yolk separator is very useful.

7. Flour sifter

It's vital to aerate the flour to help the cake rise more easily and to avoid lumps in the batter. Hence the importance of sifting the flour! We love Tellier's, which is large, quick to use (with four shakes you quickly sift all the flour you need), it's durable since it has no mechanism and is all stainless steel; it also offers four different meshes, so you can give it various uses in the kitchen.

Le Creuset non-stick springform pan, egg white and yolk separator and Tellier four-mesh sifter

There are so many other things that pastry bakers undoubtedly have at home, from a cooling rack to an oven thermometer to ensure the correct temperature, or a rolling pin to roll out doughs that require it, measuring spoons, a cake knife, a piping bag... But I think with these 7 great items you've seen you'll have more than enough to start making a rich, fluffy and delicious cake. Time to bake!