Electrical Equipment

Perhaps you’re a baking beginner wondering what to invest in first? Perhaps you’re an expert baker who wants to make life easier? Or your new kitchen calls for some stylish new equipment? We’re here to sort the best from the rest. Get your pen ready and start making a Christmas list!

Basic Electrical Equipment for Baking

You can bake a cake without any electrical equipment at all – a mixing bowl cake tin, spoon and fork are all you need for many recipes. But if you start baking on a regular basis, you might want to get hold of the things that make certain tasks quicker and easier. Here are the basics to start with.

Electric whisk: an electric whisk costs from about £15 and halves the time it takes to cream butter and sugar, whisk eggs or make a meringue topping. There are two types available: the double-action electric whisk and the stick blender, which often includes a whisk attachment. The double-action electric whisk is the classic design that’s been around for a generation or two – it will do a great job beating cream or eggs in minutes. The slimmer version takes a bit longer to whisk your ingredients, but – because it’s multi-function – will save you space and money when you need more equipment.

Electric blender: you can spend as much or as little as you like on a blender. They’re useful for blending cheesecake mixes and pancake batters, as well as delicious smoothies and sophisticated frappes. There are advanced models which do everything from juicing carrots to crushing ice; there are slim, hand-held blenders that TV chefs love to use; and there are very simple milkshake blenders for soups and smoothies. You can buy compact blenders for about £20, or highly advanced models for £50+. Think about what you need to use the blender for, and choose on that basis. For instance, if you make a lot of soup you might want to buy a handheld blender, which will liquidize vegetables in the pan they’ve been cooked in. For cake batters and cheesecakes you’re probably better off with an old-fashioned, stand-alone blender – these have a high capacity and a quick engine. And if you host a lot of cocktail parties, make sure your blender has an ice-crushing facility…

Electric Food Processor: Once you’ve bought a food processor, you’ll soon turn to it for pastry, crumble toppings, cake batters and… well, almost everything else. You can spend anything from £80 - £250 on a processor, including those with blenders attached (see above). Magimix is the name trusted by chefs and cookery schools all over the country - tough, durable, and built for serious baking. Whatever processor you choose, make sure it comes with an egg-whisk attachment: this is the magic item that turns your cake batter into something unbelievably light and fluffy.

Desirable Electrical Equipment for Baking

Now, there’s a fine line between ‘essential’ and ‘desirable’ when it comes to kitchen gadgets. If you bake frequently, time-savers like the KitchenAid could arguably be considered essential. Or at least, that’s what we tell the person who holds the purse strings…

Electric Freestanding Mixer: Not to be confused with a food processor, the stand-alone mixer does everything you’d usually do by hand. If your arm muscles hurt from beating butter and eggs to make a dozen sponges, you need a mixer to do it for you. Free-standing mixers are also excellent for bread, equipped with a dough hook to take all the pain out of kneading.

KitchenAid is the most covetable of the freestanders but carries a price tag of £330, putting it into the realm of semi-professional (or very convincing) bakers only… meanwhile, Kenwood, Delonghi and Bosch sell similar models for around half the price. Read the reviews carefully so you know what yours will and won’t do.

Electric Breadmaker: If your family gets through acres of bread, a breadmaker might save you time as well as money. Simple bread is cheap and easy to make and you can even bake cakes in these machines – all you do is throw in the ingredients and choose the setting and time. There are dozens of breadmakers on the market but the CakeBaker team can recommend the Panasonic models – we’ve never turned out a dud loaf yet!