Our team of reviews experts bring you this definitive list of tried-and-tested favourite baking tools and equipment large and small, top-rated for their performance, value for money and a host of other criteria. Our guide to successful cakes is a great place to find practical guidance for mastering the process every time.
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Love baking? Discover our picks of the best baking tins, the best stand mixers and baking gifts for fellow baking lovers. Or, for budding chefs, our kids' baking set guide brings you our recommended picks of kids' baking sets.
There are many tins on the market of all shapes, sizes and materials. At Good Food, we prefer heavy-duty tins, like springform cake pans. Dark-coloured silicone bakeware has a tendency to absorb heat and make the sides of the cake dark. It's essential to use the correct tin size and shape stated in the recipe, or cooking times will need to be adjusted. Read our review of the best cake tins for our full guide, including loaf tins and bundt pans.
Recommended product: Le Creuset springform round cake tin
This Le Creuset tin is a cut above your average springform tin. It has a clasp with a heat-resistant silicone cover to make unclipping that bit easier and is worth spending a little extra money on. It was awarded best easy to secure springform cake tin during testing. Read our full guide to the best cake tins.
Loaf tins aren't just for bread. The cakes they turn out produce endlessly snackable slices that are also great with a hot drink or for stashing as a treat in lunchboxes. Banana bread, lemon drizzle loaf and double chocolate loaf cake are some of our most popular recipes.
Recommended product: Circulon Momentum loaf tin
Awarded 5/5 stars and named the best budget loaf tin when tested by Good Food experts, this Circulon is a dishwasher-safe tin that produced a nicely risen bake. It's also a reasonable price for the sturdiness and quality.
The ultimate speciality bake tin with truly stunning results. These decorative pans have a distinct ridged design in a traditional ring shape. Read our review of bundt cake tins.
Recommended product: MasterClass Talan non-stick round fluted cake pan
Nordic Ware are the king of bundt cake tins (they even trademarked the name) and their intricate tins don't disappoint. We loved the sharp peaks and leaf-shaped pattern on this gilded tin – the cake slid out easily after being left for 10 minutes to cool.
Available from:
Amazon (£15)
A food mixer (also known as a stand mixer) is not essential for cake-making but it does save time and minimise effort. Plus, they often come with different attachments to help with non-baking tasks. Read our review of the best stand mixers to find the perfect investment mixer for you.
Recommended product: Cuisinart Precision stand mixer
The build quality, ease of use and excellent results of this Cuisinart machine make it a worthwhile investment for keen bakers. Both the main body and its flat paddle mixer, large whisk and paddle beater accessories have a heft that denotes quality, and they sit low in the bowl to reach all the ingredients.
Useful for so many functions, both sweet and savoury, the food processor can also be used for many cake recipes and is good for working fat into flour when making pastry. Read our review of food processors.
Recommended product: Ninja Food Processor with Auto-IQ
Ninja is known for its powerful appliances and for the price, this machine performs the basics of chopping, kneading, grating and slicing extremely well. It has a neat footprint and its smart design would look good on show in a kitchen.
Electronic hand mixers – sometimes called beaters – are a good choice for people lacking storage space in the kitchen. They make quick work of creaming butter and sugar, whipping cream or whizzing batters, and take up a fraction of the space of stand mixers. Read our review of hand mixers.
Recommended product: Cuisinart Cordless Power hand mixer
The major perk of cordless appliances is the flexibility of movement they give you. The battery power on this mixer is indicated by three progress bars so you get a warning when running low. You only use them for short periods each time so one full charge should allow for use multiple times. It's also powerful for the price.
As accuracy is key in baking, a good set of scales are necessary for measuring out ingredients. Choose from digital or manual – we like digital as they can usually accurately measure right down to a gram or two.
Recommended product: Jean Patrique digital kitchen scales
This ultra-slim set of scales measures dry ingredients up to 5kg. It has a clear and easy-to-read LCD display with multiple options for unit of measurement, and a tempered glass top that offers plenty of room for accommodating large bowls. It also has a handy tare function, which will allow you to weigh ingredients in the same bowl. After use, it can be wiped clean and stored in a dry place. Read our full guide to the best kitchen scales.
Available from:
Amazon (£17.09)
This is an essential piece of equipment for helping air to circulate around your freshly baked cake or biscuits, avoiding sogginess during the cooling process.
Recommended product: ProCook stainless steel cooling rack
This budget-friendly rack ticks a lot of boxes being both non-stick and dishwasher safe, as well as made from sturdy stainless steel. This all-rounder is large enough to handle two large cakes at the same time.
A dredger – also known as a shaker – is useful for lightly dusting surfaces with flour or icing sugar when rolling out doughs or icing. However, a tea strainer or sieve can perform the same function perfectly well. Read our review of the best shakers.
Recommended product: Judge fine mesh shaker
This model is a classic dredger design and is strong and high-quality for a good price. It has a high-grade gauze lid that screws on tightly and a pleasing, well-sized shape.
A handy tool for cake decorating, a smoother helps to give you a professional finish, smoothing down your marzipan or fondant ready-to-roll icing after you've applied it to the cake. You can buy this from specialist cake decorating shops. Read our review of cake decorating gadgets for more ideas if you want to create showstopping layer cakes.
Recommended product: PME plain edge side scraper tool
This smoother is highly versatile and effective for all sorts of bakes. It will help to reduce air pockets in icing, buttercream and ganache. It is also ideal for handling dough and scraping out any leftovers from the bowl.
This type of paper is ideal for wrapping food, particularly greasy or fatty foods. It's often suggested as a suitable wrapping for fruit cake before placing it in a tin. It can be used in the freezer as well as the microwave and oven. If you are using it for lining a cake tin, you should also lightly butter or oil the paper before spooning in the cake mix. Baking paper or greaseproof paper is also useful bakes and is available in supermarkets.
Recommended product: ProWrap professional baking parchment roll 300mm x 50m
For home and professional bakers alike, this baking parchment is great for wrapping cakes or lining baking trays. Perfect for pastry work, it also has an easy cut safety blade for fuss-free cutting to size.
Available from:
Amazon (£7.30)
If you like to decorate cakes with marzipan or sugar paste, then spacers will help you achieve an even thickness. These can be bought from specialist suppliers. Follow our marzipan recipe collection for all things almond flavoured.
Recommended product: PME marzipan/sugar paste spacers (set of two, 38cm)
These simple but effective tools will allow an even layer of marzipan or icing so that cakes look effortless and very neat. Easy to use and clean, these will sure be a winner if you're a keen baker!
Available from:
Cake Stuff (£3.30)
People often under- or overestimate the size of a teaspoon or tablespoon. Measuring spoons ensure an accurate amount is used, important in baking. If you like to use American recipes, it's also worth buying a set of measuring cups to avoid tricky conversions. We've got guides outlining the best measuring cups and spoons for you to stock the cutlery drawer.
Recommended product: JosephJoseph eight-piece nest measuring cup set
This cup set looks sleek and fresh. The handles have a non-stick coating, which is great for buttery fingers. The pointed scoop is so logical that you wonder why this design hasn’t been done before.
Available from:
Amazon (£11.97)
John Lewis (£12)
Baking recipes often include oil, milk or other liquid ingredients, so a measuring jug is essential for getting the quantities right. As a measuring jug is needed for so many cooking purposes, it's always useful to have one to hand.
Recommended product: Pyrex 1-litre classic prepware measure jug with lid
A classic homeware brand, Pyrex provides great quality glassware kitchen accessories for easy cooking and baking. This measuring jug has a multifunctional lid, with two different sized spouts for fast or slow pouring and a full cover lid function for keeping contents fresh. A 1-litre measurement capacity, it is the perfect universal size for baking and cooking and is made from sturdy borosilicate glass.
It's useful to have at least two large mixing bowls as many recipes require more than one. Choose glass, metal or plastic according to preference but it's worth having heatproof ones so that you can put them in the microwave or over simmering water when melting chocolate. Read our review of best mixing bowls.
Recommended product: Joseph Joseph nest 9-plus
This nest of bowls is an impressive all-in-one option. The large mixing bowl is 4.5 litres, a good size for getting big bakes underway, while the little bowl is perfect for smaller tasks. Neatly stacked inside, the colander and sieve are big enough to tackle standard tasks. The handles are easy to grip and the set is lightweight.
A palette knife is a long, thin implement with a rounded end. It has a wide range of uses, including smoothing on icing or cake fillings, scraping bowls and cutting butter into flour. Read our review of cake decorating gadgets.
Recommended product: Wilton 13-inch angled palette knife
Larger palette knives, like this 13-inch one, are perfect for icing larger cakes as their wide metal edge helps cover more surface area.
A pastry brush can be used to glaze your pastry with egg wash or milk or for brushing filo pastry with melted butter. It's also good for brushing off excess icing sugar when cake decorating. Read our review of pastry brushes.
Recommended product: Matfer natural pastry brush
This professional-standard natural brush comes with a super-strong plastic handle for easy cleaning. It doesn’t flake or leave lines or pools of liquid in the pastry as some of the silicone brushes do, and the floppy bristles are ideal when you’re working with a delicate egg glaze. The brush is also nice and flat and very affordable.
A fine sieve made from metal or plastic is ideal for sifting flour and icing sugar, which is highly recommended when cake-making. It can be easier to use a small tea strainer to dust surfaces and decorate desserts with icing sugar or cocoa. We've reviewed the best kitchen sieves for you to try.
Recommended product: ProCook double walled stainless steel sieve, 20cm
This sieve will make it easier to sift flour and icing sugar whilst baking. This will allow for smoother consistencies of batters and buttercreams. Made from anti-rust stainless steel, it is sturdy and substantial and will ensure ingredients get sifted effectively. It could also be used to drain liquids.
You can buy one-piece rolling pins or the type with a fixed handle at either end, depending on which you find easiest. For really smooth results make sure the pin is wide enough to fully cover the width of dough or icing you are rolling out. If you do a lot of cake decorating with sugarpaste or ready-to-roll icing, it's handy to have both a wide pin made from smooth plastic and a mini pin for intricate work. Read our review of rolling pins.
Recommended product: Sous Chef tapered rolling pin
Wooden pins are often favoured by bakers as flour tends to cling to them. This simple rolling pin is cheap and effective, and while officially designed to make pasta and pizza, it doubles as a baker’s best friend. It’s also lightweight so can be used on more delicate raw materials.
A metal skewer will help you determine whether your cake is cooked. If you insert it into the cake and it comes out clean, your cake is ready.
Recommended product: Borough Kitchen stainless steel flat skewers (six-pack, 30cm)
These stainless steel skewers are so multifunctional. They can be used for meat and poultry on a barbecue, to hold marshmallows over a fire and of course, to test the bake of a cake. The ring handles are for an easy hold, perfect when tossing over a barbecue. These are also available in 15cm and 20cm lengths.
Available from:
Borough Kitchen (£5)
It's handy to have a zester, fine grater or microplane, as many baking recipes require citrus zest. The latter two can also be used to grate nutmeg. Read our review of the best graters and zesters.
Recommended product: Microplane gourmet fine grater
This is a kitchen classic for good reason. The trademark fine blade is exceptionally efficient, making light work of citrus peel, as well as hard ingredients like nutmeg. The handle is comfortable and can be stored on a hook, making it a space-saver, too.
Avoid leaving cake mixture or melted chocolate in your bowl by using a bendy spatula to easily skim around the sides. Read our review of spatulas.
Recommended product: Vogue Heat Resistant spoonula
This heat-resistant spatula has a spoon design so you can use it for mixing and on the heat as well as just scraping out bowls. The soft plastic spatula means it won't scratch your pans and has a long handle to keep your hand away from heat.
A wooden spoon is a great all-rounder in the kitchen. If you don't have a food mixer, use it for beating your cake mixes. A large metal spoon is handy for folding in flour or whisked egg whites.
Recommended product: KitchenCraft three-piece spoon set
This three-piece set of wooden spoons will be a game-changer for non-hand-mixer owners. Made from beech wood, these spoons are great for non-stick surfaces and can provide a useful mixing tool when not in possession of a hand mixer or stand mixer. The set includes a 20cm spoon, one 25cm spoon and one30 cm.
Available from:
Amazon (£5.13)
You will get efficient and thoughtful service from Dush.
Whisks are designed to give volume and aerate foods, so are useful in cake-making. A balloon whisk is a hand-held tool with metal loops that form into a bulb shape at the end of a long handle. It's always handy to have one of these in the kitchen as an addition to whipping cream, whisking egg whites and gently folding in flour, and you can also use it to remove lumps from sauces. An electric whisk or a food mixer make short work of whisking and creaming. The food mixer, with its different attachments, is more versatile but also much more expensive. Read our review of whisks.
Recommended product: Bakery Bits Danish dough whisk
This unique whisk makes light work of mixing dough compared to a wooden spoon. Its purpose is mixing the ingredients for bread prior to kneading. It proved brilliant at breaking up the lumps and getting the water, flour and any sourdough starter mixed up.
Available from:
Bakery Bits (£12.58)
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Susan wrote and said:
I absolutely love your key lime pie recipe. I only have one comment… For 1/2 cup of Key lime juice, it requires 12-15 Key limes. I can’t help but think your suggestion of 3-4 limes refers to regular limes, hardly the same thing. There is NO SUBSTITUTE for key limes, they are quite unique. And now, I must go make my pie!
Chef Jenni replied,
Yes, Susan is absolutely right. Key limes are tiny, about the size of a pecan in the shell. It would take quite a few to yield 1/2 cup of juice, so 12 – 15 looks right.
Key limes are generally only grown in Mexico now, and they can be pretty hard to find in the States. So I used Nellie and Joe’s Key Lime Juice rather than trying to juice a ton of hard-to-find key limes. For folks who can’t find key limes or juice, you can substitute Persian (“regular”) limes in a pinch, but the flavor won’t be as sharp. If you have some citric acid, you can add a pinch of that, and it might get you closer to an actual key lime flavor.
From Susanne:
I have just made a rich 12″ fruit cake, and very stupidly I forgot to add the sugar, is there anything I can do, I really don’t want to throw this cake away. Thanks I look forward to your reply.
Oh, Susanne. The short answer is “No.” But don’t feel too stupid. We’ve all been there. Or, speaking for myself, I’ve been there. I learned the hard way to taste the batter every step of the way. Most of the time, it’s a pleasure, but occasionally I’ll catch a potentially Big Problem, such as no sugar, no butter, or no salt.
Sugar is a critical ingredient in baking. Not only does it make baked goods taste sweet, it also keeps them moist, assists in browning, and aids in tenderizing. Without sugar, baked goods are unappetizing because of the lack of sweetness, but they are also dry, pale, and tough.
It’s too bad this happened to a fruit cake because the ingredients can be expensive. However, you could try dousing the whole thing with sugar syrup (bring equal parts, by weight, of sugar and water to a boil, stirring until all the sugar is dissolved. Cool).
Barring that, I’d think outside the box and consider using your unsweetened fruitcake as a base for stuffing or a bread pudding. Think about it. You’ve probably got some nuts and fruits in the cake, and the fact that it’s tougher than a “regular” cake would work in its favor in helping the cubes to keep their shape.
For stuffing, crumble up the fruit cake and dry it out in a very low oven (maybe 180F-200F). Mix together with chicken stock, sauteed mirepoix (onion, carrot, and celery), an egg, some poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, and maybe some cooked and crumbled sausage.
For the bread pudding, you can introduce sweetness through. First, mix the custard. Next, mix up a basic sweet custard: one egg and 2-3 tablespoons of sugar per cup of dairy (whole milk, half&half, cream, etc.).
Next, cube your fruit cake, put it in a buttered baking dish, and pour the custard over it. Let it soak in for a good half hour to hour, and then bake at 325F until somewhat risen, golden brown, set on the edges, and just a bit jiggly in the center.
Let cool for about half an hour, then serve with some ice cream. Good luck with it!
From Ellen:
Help! We have a chocolate chip recipe that we have been making for years. Recently, the baked cookies have had a different appearance, even from within the same batch. Baked in the same oven, at the same time, and even on the same pan, some cookies bake as usual, and others look “cracked” or like they might even have oats in them. We have had no ingredient substitutions, no change in mixing, climate, etc. Please share any insights as we are really stuck. Thank you.
From Jenni,
I will assume that you’re talking about a “standard” creaming method chocolate chip cookie. Given that, the only real thing I can think of is that your butter isn’t soft enough when you cream it together with the sugar.
Or maybe your eggs aren’t at room temperature, and the batter curdles slightly as the butter seizes up when the cold eggs hit it. That could definitely leave you with a bit of an “oatmealy” look to your batter.
If your recipe contains baking powder, make sure that it is fresh. Old baking powder takes up space and can affect the texture of your batter.
That’s all the insight I can give you since I don’t know your specific ingredient list or technique. I hope this helps, though.
From Margaret:
I am having trouble with Betty Crocker angel food cake mixes. I live at 5,280 feet and have a brand new stove. I followed the high altitude adjustments to the basic mix (added 2 tbsp. corn starch to the dry mix), used a 10″ pan as called for, and baked at 350 degrees. I have tried this thrice, and the cake overflows the pan each time while baking. Then, when I place it upside down to cool, it falls from the pan. What can I do to resolve this? Thanks for your time.
Have you used this mix before and had it turned out correctly? Maybe with your old oven?
I just looked up the ingredients for this cake mix, and I’d like to suggest that you make angel food cake from scratch. There’s sodium lauryl sulfate in the mix as a “whipping aid.” That ingredient is also found in shampoos and is considered irritating. Plus, it also contains artificial flavorings and BHT as a preservative. I’d make a standard angel food cake using real whites, vanilla, salt, cake flour, and a little leavening.
If you love the boxed mix, though, I’ll try to help. The high altitude directions I read called for adding 1/3 cup of corn starch, which is 5 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon of corn starch. It also says to increase the water from 1 1/4 cup to 1 1/3 cup. The additional dry ingredients will help to “weigh down” the leavening and keep it from overflowing your pan, even with the relatively low atmospheric pressure. Also, the wee bit of extra water will help it to blend in more evenly.
Make sure that you’re not greasing your pan. Angel food cake needs to be grabbed onto the sides of the pan to “climb.” Baking in an ungreased pan also ensures that it won’t fall out when you turn it upside down to cool.
I hope that helps (and I hope you try to make one from scratch)!
So, that concludes this round-up of mostly baking-related questions. Please note that Chef Jenni often asks to know the recipe – the exact ingredients and procedure you use to make your baked goods. She says that this is because there are a lot of variables in baking and pastry, that there is a lot of chemistry involved, and that knowing the ingredients and procedures can help to narrow down the problem and make it easier to come up with the correct answer.
Judy asked, I will make your key lime tartlet for a bridal shower on June 25th, . I just wanted to know how far ahead I can make the tartlets? Thank you, Judy
Jenni says, You can make the tart shells and freeze them uncooked for up to a month. Since your party is on the 25th, this will be fine for you. If you want, bake them the day before filling them and keep them at room temperature. I would make the filling at most two days ahead. Freshest is always best; you don’t want your tarts picking up any stray refrigerator smells.
Kimberly asks, Can I substitute raw sugar for white in cordial an jam recipes?
Jenni says, Yes, you can certainly substitute raw sugar for white. However, since it contains more impurities (mainly molasses, which is never a bad thing in my book), the color might not be as vibrant. As long as you’re OK with that, go for it.
Jeanie Koch asks, I have a recipe for bran muffins and it calls for 3 tablespoons of baking soda, it also uses buttermilk, what I would like to know is if I can use half baking soda and half baking powder. Thank you.
Jenni says, “It’s hard to know how to answer your question without seeing the recipe.” However, three tablespoons of baking powder is a heck of a lot. Generally speaking, it takes 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to leaven 1 cup of flour properly. Most likely, the bulk of the baking soda offsets the acid in the vinegar.
When you start talking about swapping out baking soda for baking powder (or vice versa, for that matter), you’re talking about altering the pH of the batter. Vinegar makes a batter acidic, and baking soda makes it more alkaline. Baking powder is neutral since it contains ingredients that balance pH-wise.
If you mess with the pH of your batter, you run the risk of its not setting up–too alkaline (basic), and it won’t set at all, and you’ll end up with pudding. If you had used the recipe before and liked it, I’d stick with it. However, if you’d like to send me the recipe, I’ll take a look at it and see if it’s possible to make some substitutions without altering what it is you like about that bran muffin recipe in the first place.
Ron asks, Can you please tell me how much fresh yeast I should use for a 2 pound loaf made in a bread maker? I have tried with 12 grams but it nearly took the lid off the bread maker. I am using 560 grams of flour, brown sugar, vegetable oil, skimmed milk, salt, plus 3 x 60 gram vitamin “C” tablets crushed. I would really like a reply as all the bread I am making at the moment is soggy at the top and has to be cut off and wasted.
Jenni says You can do one of two things (or both):
You might also make the dough in your bread machine, take it out, let it rise, and bake it in your oven at 375°F. That way, the lid of your bread machine won’t constrain your bread, and some of the moisture will be able to escape into the oven, keeping your bread from getting soggy.
To get your homemade bread to be soft and fluffy like store-bought, focus on a few key factors:
1. Use the Right Flour
Bread flour has a higher protein content, which helps develop gluten and structure, making it softer.
If using all-purpose flour, add vital wheat gluten (1 tsp per cup of flour) to improve texture.
2. Knead Properly
Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (about 8-10 minutes by hand or 5-7 minutes with a mixer).
Under-kneading leads to a dense texture, while over-kneading can make it tough.
3. Use the Right Hydration
A higher hydration dough (around 65-75% water to flour ratio) creates a softer crumb.
If your dough feels dry, add a little more liquid (water or milk).
4. Add Enriching Ingredients
Milk instead of water makes bread softer.
Butter or oil (1-2 tbsp per loaf) adds moisture and tenderness.
Eggs contribute to a richer and softer texture.
Sugar or honey (1-2 tbsp) helps with softness and browning.
5. Let It Rise Properly
Allow the dough to rise fully before baking—about double in size during the first proof.
A second rise after shaping helps create a lighter texture.
6. Use the Tangzhong Method (for Extra Softness)
Cook a small portion of flour and water/milk into a paste before adding it to the dough. This helps retain moisture and makes bread incredibly soft.
7. Bake at the Right Temperature
Bake at 350°F-375°F (175°C-190°C) for softer bread.
Higher temperatures can create a thicker crust.
8. Steam for a Tender Crust
Place a pan of hot water in the oven during the first 10 minutes of baking.
This keeps the crust from hardening too quickly, allowing for better expansion.
9. Brush with Butter
Right after baking, brush the crust with melted butter to keep it soft.
Would you like help adjusting your recipe with these changes?
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