When you first start baking and cake decorating it seems like there are a lot
of things to buy and it can be difficult to decide where
to start buying things. In this tutorial I'm going to show you
the essential tools you'll need to get started baking,
frosting, and very basic decorating with my recommendations on which tools you
can buy cheaply and where it's worth splurging for better quality.
After the bare essentials I'll share my suggestions on the next tools you might
want to buy to be able to expand your baking repertoire and to do more
elaborate cake decorating. A mixer is definitely worth investing in
unless you have extreme patience and arm strength
to mix with a spoon! You'll use a mixer to mix cake batters and to make frosting.
It can be a stand mixer like this or a hand mixer will work too,
although it's a bit messier and harder work to use.
If you're planning on baking often a stand mixer will save you time and if
you're a multitasker like me it's a dream because you can leave it to
mix your ingredients while you take out the other ingredients for your next
recipe or wash other tools or start prepping
your cake decorations. This is probably going to be your
biggest single investment so take your time to research and choose your mixer.
I've had my current Kitchen Aid for six years and I had a smaller one for six
years before that and I've loved both of them. Whether you
choose a handheld mixer or a stand mixer, what's important is that it has a beater
or paddle attachment so that you don't incorporate too much
air into your cake or frosting. If it has a whisk attachment, great! You
can use that to make meringue pops, macarons or ganache.
You might already have lots of the other tools you'll need for baking
like measuring cups, spatulas, and mixing bowls.
If you have any type of these things I'd suggest working with what you've got
and investing in the things you don't have but if you are going to buy them,
here are my favourites. I've listed the specific tools I use on
www.britishgirlbakes.com and I've put the link to my list in the video description.
For measuring cups and spoons I like to have two sets of each
so that when I'm baking I can use one set for dry ingredients and one for wet
ingredients instead of having to wash and dry them
between different ingredients. It's useful to have measuring spoons all
the way down to an eighth of a teaspoon for small batches
but you can always just use a quarter of a teaspoon and fill half of it.
Some recipes list ingredients in weights so you'll need a scale
and I also like to weigh my cake batters so that I can divide the batter equally
between my cake pans. If you're baking anything bigger than a
six inch cake, if you want to weigh the batter
make sure the scale is big enough so that you can see the weight because for
these little scales, a big cake pan covers the screen that
shows the weight. For mixing bowls some people prefer
sturdy bowls but I like lightweight plastic ones that I can move around
easily and stack on a drying rack without worrying about them falling and
breaking. I like to have several sizes to choose
between depending on how much of an ingredient I need to mix
or how much buttercream I want to add colour to. It's helpful to have a bowl
with a lid so you can store your prepared dry
ingredients or a batch of buttercream in that same bowl. Rubber or silicone
spatulas are great for getting all of your cake batter or frosting out of your
mixing bowl and for adding colour to buttercream. The
advantage of silicone over rubber is that it's heat proof
so you can use it to stir very hot simple syrup or leave it in the pan for
several minutes if you're cooking fillings like fruit purees.
If you have to choose one size of cake pan i'd choose a six
inch pan and I'd buy two of them or three if you can.
A six inch cake will serve 12 to 20 people so it's big enough for small
gatherings and celebrations but if you're practicing baking or
decorating you're not using a huge amount of batter and frosting to
practice with. I divide my cake batters between two
pans and when the cakes are cool I cut them in half horizontally to make
two layers each so I end up with four layers in total.
If you don't want to cut your layers in half you could buy three or even four
pans and divide your batter between them so you can use the layers as they are. I
don't recommend reusing the same pan to bake your cakes one after the other
because you'll waste a lot of time waiting for the cake and pan to cool
before washing and drying and reusing it and if you leave some of your batter to
sit out that long before baking it you might notice a change in the texture
on the top of the cake and a difference in how it rises.
As far as the types of pans you buy, make sure the sides of the pans are straight,
not angled, and the thicker the pans are the less likely they are to dent or bend
which will make your cakes stick to the pan and difficult to turn out of the pan
after baking. I go into this in much more detail in my
online course on The Basics Of Cake as well as how to mix, bake, assemble,
frost, decorate, store, transport, and serve cakes and I've
put the link for that course in the video description
along with a discount code exclusive to this video!
I spray my pans with oil before adding the batter
and you don't need special baking oil, any oil is fine
or you can grease the pans with butter if you prefer. For a cooling rack,
anything with a mesh design will allow an airflow for the cakes to cool
but make sure the rack is big enough for your cakes. For example if you're
planning on baking eight inch cakes of two layers each
you'll either need a rack big enough to fit both layers side by side
or you'll need two racks. If you're enjoying this tutorial please click the
thumbs up button and subscribe to my channel for a new cake decorating
tutorial every week! Okay, now for the tools you'll need to
frost a cake! The most important tool for frosting a cake is a turntable
and this is where i definitely recommend paying a little bit more for a metal
turntable over a plastic one. They're about double the price but the
smoothness of the spin is far superior to the jerky movements of a plastic
turntable, which will be reflected in the
smoothness of your frosting. You can get smooth frosting with a
plastic turntable but it takes a lot more work.
To stop your cake board from sliding around on your turntable
a non-slip mat is really useful. You can buy a roll of a non-slip drawer liner
very cheaply or use rings of masking tape.
You'll need a cake board for your cake and I like to use a board 2 inches
bigger than my cake so if you're baking 6 inch cakes you'll
need 8 inch cake boards. I like thin cardboard rounds with
a grease proof lining which prevents ugly grease stains from
spreading out across the board. You can buy much thicker boards called
cake drums for larger, heavier cakes but for 6 inch or 8 inch cakes thin
cardboard cake boards will be fine. To apply your filling and frosting to
the cake you'll need an offset spatula. I have a small one for 4 inch mini cakes
and sometimes 6 inch cakes and a larger one for 8 inch cakes or
bigger. I use the small offset spatula for lots of decorating techniques
like stenciling. Then you'll need a frosting smoother and these come in
plastic, metal or acrylic. I've used every material and I like them
all but my favourite is this acrylic smoother
because it's thick and heavy, which helps to line it up straight against the cake
and it has a slanted sharp edge for really smooth sides and sharp edges at
the top of the cake. I've put the link for the one I use in
the video description. I think it's worth investing in one of
these good quality smoothers which is about twice the price of a
cheap plastic or metal scraper because the edges of the plastic ones
get easily dented, which leaves grooves in your frosting.
I like this plastic one for crumb coats of frosting because it's so flexible and
lightweight and quick to clean off between scrapes
but it's not ideal for the final coat. Whatever frosting smoother you choose,
make sure it's at least as tall as your cakes
otherwise you'll have to go around the cake twice as many times to cover both
the bottom and the top of the sides of the cake.
Practice makes perfect for smooth frosting so if you don't love your
results the first time you use a frosting smoother I'd suggest giving it
another chance with another cake before buying a different one.
Okay! To tint your frosting different colors you can use liquid colours, the
kind you buy in the supermarket or grocery store,
but you have to use a lot to get a bright color and you'll water down your
buttercream by adding so much liquid. Gel colours are better because they're
much more concentrated so they'll make a really bold, bright colour without
affecting the consistency of your buttercream.
Those are the tools you need to mix, bake, assemble, and frost a cake.
Next I'll show you around my cake decorating cupboard to share my go-to
tools for simple decorations on cakes. Piping bags and piping tips are cheap to
buy but very versatile. With a few piping bags and piping tips
you can do all sorts of things like piping lace flowers, piping pretty
petals or other shapes as filling between layers
on a naked cake, creating buttercream dams for fillings like caramel or fruit
purees or piping intricate flowers. My favourite
tip is a star tip, this one made by Wilton called a 1M tip
and with just this one tip you can pipe swirls on cupcakes
or on top of cakes or ruffles or rosettes
or make this textured frosting or this rope style border
or pipe meringues for meringue pops. If you're going to buy just a few tips I
recommend a 1M star tip, a petal tip like a number 125, an open
star tip like a 4B or 8B or 199,
and a large round tip like a number 1A. I have a tutorial on 8 Ways to Use a 1M
Piping Tip and another one on 8 Ways to Use a Petal
Tip if you're looking for ideas of techniques to try with them.
If you're feeling adventurous, Russian tips are really fun to play around with
as well. I'm a huge fan of texture on cakes and
you can buy all sorts of textured cake combs to easily create patterns in your
frosting. I like the double-sided combs so you get
two textures out of every comb you buy. Just as with frosting smoothers, any
material will work as long as the comb is at least as tall as your cake.
I use condiment bottles to drizzle my cake layers with simple syrup to keep
them moist and also to apply drips, which you can do
with a spoon but I like the control and speed of a bottle.
With stencils you can create all sorts of designs on cakes and cake toppers.
I have probably close to 100 stencils, mostly very cheap ones from amazon that
work fantastically, just as well as fancy expensive ones.
With stencils you can do much more than just covering frosting
and to help you get the most out of your stencils I have a tutorial on 16 Ways to
Use Stencils on Cakes. Cookie cutters are another versatile
tool and you guessed it! I have a tutorial on 6 Ways to Decorate Cakes
with Cookie Cutters. I love repurposing tools for different
techniques instead of having to invest in new tools that you can only use for
one thing. I think sprinkles can be overused and I
don't love the crunch they add to frosting
but they're an interesting way to add colour to your cake layers for a fun
surprise when you cut into the cake and for a piñata or sprinkle explosion
cake. Sprinkles are great if you're looking
for a quick and easy way to decorate cakes.
I like the detail they add to techniques like stenciling and piping.
I love decorating with acetate to create unique designs like transferring a
design from wrapping paper onto a cake or creating vertical stripes. If you can
find it, buy it in a roll so it curves naturally
and that makes it much easier to apply the design onto the curved sides of a
round cake. Look for a roll that's taller than the
height of your cake so you can cover the whole cake with just one transfer.
I've put the link for the extra tall roll i use in the video description.
If you're interested in buttercream carving, these carving tools are a very
cheap investment with huge potential for experimenting with different techniques
to carve designs into buttercream. Cake stands are nice to have if you want
to take pretty photos of your cakes or display them for events or gatherings.
If you can buy more than one, choose a few different sizes and colours
and materials so that you have one to fit your cake's
theme. If you're going to transport your cakes you'll need a cake caddy that's
wide and tall enough for your cakes or you can buy cardboard boxes for a
more professional appearance. I always have a stash of paper plates
and candles since I try to give my cakes away to anyone who comes over
so that I don't eat them all myself and I also make sure I keep
cards to give away with my cakes when someone asks me to make a cake for a
party so that they know the cake was a gift.
If you want to write on your cakes, Sweet Stamp makes beautiful lettering sets in
different fonts and also fun themed sets of shapes for occasions like baby
showers or Christmas. You can get good quality edible paints
by Sweet Sticks in every colour to paint your letters and
you'll need some very fine paint brushes too.
I have a discount code for Sweet Stamp and I've put the code below in the video
description. There are endless baking and cake
decorating supplies that you can buy but I think these are the most versatile
and useful ones. If you choose to sell your cakes you can
buy these as you need them and your orders will end up paying for
the tools and materials with time. As a side note, if you do start selling
your cakes you'll probably need to invest in a separate cake fridge to fit
all of your cakes. I recommend getting one with a freezer
section too so you can bake your cake layers in bulk in advance and freeze
them and it's also useful if you need to
chill cake decorations quickly like chocolate sails or piped
buttercream flowers or buttercream cut outs. Anyway, selling your cakes is a
whole separate topic for a different tutorial!
I hope this video has been useful in outlining some useful tools for baking
and frosting cakes and some useful tools for cake
decorating. When you're ready to take your cake decorating to the next
level, check out my online course on 10 Cake Decorating Techniques
and I've put the link in the video description. Remember to subscribe to my
youtube channel for lots of recipes cake designs and techniques and a new
cake decorating tutorial every week!