Baking for beginners: a practical baking tools & bakeware guide

Baking tools for beginners  

For anyone just beginning their baking life, a starter list of essentials includes scales, mixing bowls, a whisk, a rolling pin, cake tins, spatulas, pans and trays. It’s also worth investing in a good pair of oven gloves for safe handling of tins and trays. 

It’s a good idea to consider space-saving equipment, especially if your kitchen is small. Our Nest™ 9 bowls and measuring cups stack, while our Twist™ 2-in-1 whisk folds flat for storage saving space in your cupboards and drawers.  

When you’re choosing your bakeware, think about equipment that helps reduce mess and is easy to use, like baking trays with a large gripping point, non-slip mixing bowls and non-stick trays for easy serving. Our Nest bakeware is built to last, from durable, heavy-gauge stainless steel, with a non-stick surface, which makes it super easy to clean.  

For the baking afficionado

For the real baking pro, nice-to-haves include a loaf tin (like the Nest™ Bake Non-Stick Blue 2lb Loaf Tin), a rack for cooling, as well as cookie cutters, a silicone baking mat, piping bags, and cup measures. If bread, buns or meringue recipes are on your to-bake list, a quality standmixer can be a real asset, saving your wrist from the risk of repetitive strain injury from non-stop mixing and kneading. 

Why choose nesting bowls  

Nesting bowls offer every size bowl you’ll need for baking, and ensure you don’t have any duplicates in your collection, saving space in cupboards.  

Ours offer a small and large mixing bowl, a colander, sieve and five measuring cups. The bowls include pouring lips for easy batter transfer, and non-slip bases for rigorous mixing. 

The stacking nature of a nesting bowl set reduces clutter and keeps everything together between bakes. Explore our Nest 9 in stainless steel and in colourful sets. 

How to choose bakeware 

When you’re choosing what bakeware to opt for, It’s a good idea to think about the kind of baking you do most often. Are you into traybakes, muffins, loaf cakes, galettes, brownies, or cookies? Are bread or buns more your thing? Our Nest™ Bake range stacks for storage, offering you the full range of tray sizes in a space-saving format.

For everyday bakeware, choose versatile sizes and shapes of tin for your initial collection. These include round, non-stick tins such as the Nest™ Bake Non-Stick 2-piece Blue Round Cake Tin Set, muffin tins and baking trays like the Nest™ Bake Non-Stick 3-piece Blue Baking Tray Set. You can always add in specialty pieces later as and when the need arises.

Dedicated zones for each stage of baking is a useful way to store your equipment. It makes things easier to find. Joseph Joseph's range of storage and organisation products can help create clear, clutter-free zones throughout the kitchen, from drawer organisers for smaller tools to cupboard storage that makes better use of available space. 

• Measuring – Store measuring cups, spoons and scales together so you can grab everything you need in one place. 
• Mixing – Keep mixing bowls, whisks and spatulas near your main prep area. Stackable bowls can help make the most of cupboard space. 
• Bakeware – Store baking trays, tins and oven dishes together, ideally vertically where possible, so they're easier to see and remove. 
• Cooling and finishing – Group cooling racks, icing tools and decorating accessories in one area ready for the final stages of baking. 
  
  

To keep the system working, take a few minutes to reset everything after each bake and return items to their rightful place.