12 Essential Equipment for Making Stunning Cakes

These are 12 must-have equipment to get you started creating stunning cakes today, even if you’re a novice. These cake baking equipment can get you started on the right track to making the ideal cake.

I don’t have a lot of sophisticated cake-baking equipment. I know a lot of people spend a lot of money on baking equipment, but I don’t. I didn’t even possess a KitchenAid mixer. I won it in a raffle; truly, it was the finest day of my life.

My argument is that you don’t need a lot of pricey equipment to start baking great cakes. There ARE things that will make your life simpler and your cakes come out much better, which is why I wanted to share my favorite cake making equipment and tools with you. This article is all about the tools I use and why I enjoy them.

This is simply about baking cakes, not about decorating them. It is a whole distinct post, which you can find here: You Just Need a Few Dollars to Begin Designing Cakes

This list is not in any particular order, and for some of the goods, I have a lower-cost option.

Let’s get started.

There are affiliate links in this post. I earn money as an Amazon Associate by making qualifying purchases.

Pyrex Mixing Bowl:

Pyrex Blending Bowl

My huge glass pyrex measuring dish is my favorite. You can use it to measure huge amounts if necessary, but I prefer it because it’s glass, so I can see through to my ingredients, it’s microwave safe (excellent for ganache), and it has a convenient spout for adding liquid components to your cake batter.

Mixing Bowl Set with Pouring Spouts:

Set of Melamine Mixing Bowls

I also have a comparable set of mixing bowls with three different sizes and pouring spouts. Are you getting the picture? The pouring spouts are fantastic. I have different mixing bowls that I use, but for some reason, I like the ones with spouts. You discover what you like the most.

Heating core for larger cakes:

The Heater Core

I prefer to use this for any cakes bigger than 10 inches in diameter. It’s merely a little metal object that you place in the center of your huge cake. Pour the batter around it, then recenter it before pouring the batter inside it. It greatly aids in the uniform baking of enormous cake layers.

A floral nail might also be used. I like heat cores since I believe they perform better, but the option is yours.

Some people get fancy and use pan coverings to help them bake evenly, but I’m not fancy, and sometimes I’m simply impatient and want to get that cake in the oven and done so I can enjoy it.

Wooden Spoons:

Spoons made of wood

Indeed, the traditional wooden spoon. They are ideal for cakes with fruit in them, such as banana cake, since you don’t need a mixer to stir the batter. It seems easy, yet you just cannot defeat them.

Yeah, and I’m one of those folks that washes everything, even wooden spoons, in the dishwasher. If you get the really cheap ones, they will warp and bend in the dishwasher after only one wash. I know this from personal experience.

Rubber Spatulas:

Spatulas with rubber handles

These are my all-time favorite items. Can there possibly be too many of these? I’m getting close, but I prefer to have them on hand and use them for everything.

Use them to add ingredients to your batter, scrape along the edges of your mixing bowls, get all of the batter out of your bowl when filling your pans, distribute batter into pans, or just lick off extra batter or buttercream.

Choose the kind with the robust wood handles. They are less prone to breaking than those with plastic grips.

Oven Thermometer:

Thermometer for the Oven

This one is so easy and inexpensive, but so few people do it. You must determine if your oven is correct. It’s really inexpensive and simple to accomplish. Just go grab one.

Magic Line Pans:

Pans with Magic Lines

These pans are fantastic. These greatly aid in the even baking of your cakes. When I began using them, I certainly noticed a change in the way my cakes turned out.

Wilton cake pans are another option. They aren’t quite as nice as the Magic Line pans, but they’re still very decent.

Just ensure that your pans have straight edges. My preferred sizes are 6 round pans with a depth of 2 inches and 8 round pans with a depth of 2 inches.

Oh, and if you want to know how to prepare your pans so your cakes come out easily, read this post: How to Get Your Cakes to Come Out of Their Pans

Bundt Pan:

Bundt Cake Maker

Bundt cakes are my absolute favorite. All you have to do is bake them. You can glaze them if you want, but they’re fairly basic yet lovely.

Get a decent bundt pan.

A tip for using bundt pans: Make sure to grease and flour that sucker thoroughly. Cakes adhering to bundt pans are the most difficult for me. Maybe you don’t have that experience, but I do, so I thoroughly grease and flour that sucker, and it seems to work for me.

Cooling Racks:

Cooling Racks That Stack

These three cooling racks are what I use. There are larger racks available, but I like these since they can be stacked.

But, if you construct larger layer cakes, you should receive a larger selection.

Racks for Huge Cooling

Press n Seal wrap and foil:

Wrap with Press n Seal

Did you think you’d get to read just one of my blogs where I didn’t mention my obsession with press n seal? If you know anything about me, you know that I like press-n-seal. I’m not sure whether this is accessible in all countries, but I hope it is in yours.

Whether I freeze my cakes, cover buttercream, or cover my mixer bowl when preparing buttercream, I use press n seal. I merely utilize it for a variety of purposes.

If you want to see how I use it to freeze cakes and cupcakes, go to my blog post: How to Freeze Cakes and Cupcakes

A Good Mixer:

KitchenAid Stand Mixer

You don’t have to acquire an expensive one, but a stand mixer is strongly recommended. I have a classic design Kitchenaid that has served me well for many years and is less expensive than purchasing a more expensive model.

Portable Mixer

I also have a Kitchenaid hand mixer, which works wonderfully. In reality, I use both the stand and hand mixers. That all depends on how many clean dishes I have.

You can absolutely create excellent cakes with a hand mixer. Don’t assume you have to spend a lot of money on a stand mixer. I adore mine, and sure, it is quite handy, but if you don’t have one, don’t let that deter you. Just get an excellent handheld mixer!

Flex Edge Beater:

Edge Beater Flex Attachment

This attachment is a must-have if you own a stand mixer. I believe some call this the paddle attachment, but I’ll simply call it what KitchenAid calls it.

A beater attachment is useful since it does not overwork your cake batter. You don’t want to over-mix your cake batter, as I’ve said a thousand times. People are used to beating it for many minutes since cake mixes instruct them to do so, but a scratch cake is not a cake mix. It works differently, and if you mix it too hard, at too high a speed, for too long, you’ll wind up with a rubber cake.

Therefore the beater attachment aids in this by not incorporating too much air into the cake mixture and frosting. It’s visibly flat, and it doesn’t whip like a whisk attachment.

Plain beater attachments are available, as is the flex beater attachment, which I like to use. It has a rubber edge that glides down the side of the bowl while mixing, picking up all the excess particles and incorporating them into the batter. It’s not perfect, but it’s much superior than the standard beater attachment.

It is quite OK to use a hand mixer. Do not go into debt to purchase a stand mixer and all of its accessories. Your hand mixer will suffice, but if you know you like baking, you should start saving for an upgrade.

Large Glass Mixing Bowl for the KitchenAid:

KitchenAid Big Glass Mixing Bowl

Again, if you’re using a stand mixer, these glass bowls are fantastic. A silver bowl is occasionally included with the traditional Kitchenaid mixer. It’s fantastic, but my favorite feature is the large glass bowls. I prefer to be able to see what’s going on without having to lean over. Maybe it’s strange, but I like the glass bowl. It’s sturdy and has a convenient pouring spout.

Of course, when you start decorating cakes, you’ll need tools like a cake leveler, a cake turntable, and spatulas, but you can learn more about that here: Cheap Cake Decorating Tools alternatively you may check out this page with ALL of my suggested tools: My Favorite Cake Decorating Tools