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baking equipment & tools

Using the right tools ensures the best results and gives your baked goods a polished appearance.

Here are the indispensable tools that help you beat batters and doughs easily, whip up the

fluffiest frostings, and create professional-style decorations.

ELECTRIC MIXER

An electric stand mixer will help you make batters, doughs,

fillings, and frostings with ease. While some batters can be

prepared with just a bowl and a wooden spoon or a

handheld whisk, you’ll find it far easier to whip egg whites

and whole eggs and to cream butter and sugar with a sturdy

tabletop mixer. There are two commonly used attachments

for a stand mixer: the paddle, also called the flat beater,

which is ideal for creaming butter and sugar and beating

batters and doughs, and the whisk, or whip, attachment,

which aerates egg whites, whole eggs, and cream. Handheld

mixers will also work, although they lack the power of a

stand mixer and often cannot beat thick or sturdy mixtures.

FOOD PROCESSOR

We recommend making pie dough in a food processor using a

standard blade or a dough blade. The dough comes together

quickly, and you don’t risk warming up the dough with your

hands. A food processor is also handy for finely grinding

ingredients such as nuts, pretzels, and graham crackers.

If you don’t have a food processor, you can make pie dough

by hand using a pastry blender or two table knives. For

crushing or grinding ingredients, place them in a resealable

plastic bag, lock the top while letting out the air, and crush

the ingredients to their desired size using a rolling pin.

ROLLING PINS

A wooden pin with a heavy cylinder that rolls independently

of its two handles works well with sturdy pie and cookie

doughs, but there are numerous types available. A rolling pin

is also used when working with marzipan for cake decorating.

SIFTER

Sifting dry ingredients, such as flour, baking powder or

baking soda, cocoa, and confectioners’ sugar, lightens

them so that they don’t deflate the whipped ingredients

they're being folded into. Sifting also removes any lumps,

particularly in fine dry ingredients that tend to clump,

including cake flour, cocoa, and confectioners’ sugar.

Choose a fine-mesh sifter or sieve for best results.

SPATULAS

A heatproof silicone rubber spatula is great for stirring batter,

scraping it out of the bowl and into the pan, and spreading it

evenly before baking. An offset spatula, which features a stiff

metal blade that is bent near the handle, facilitates moving

cake layers from wire cooling racks to a cake stand or platter,

and is useful for spreading fillings, frostings, and glazes. An

icing spatula has a long, straight blade and is also excellent

for spreading fillings, frostings, and glazes.

CUTTERS

A paring knife, pizza wheel, and/or kitchen shears are all

helpful when trimming excess dough from a lined pie dish

or cutting out strips of dough (with the help of a ruler) for a

lattice top.

DOUGH SCRAPER

When rolling out the dough, it’s important that it doesn’t

stick to the work surface. A dusting of flour helps, but to

easily move the dough around and to loosen it when it does

stick, a scraper works wonders.

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