14 Tools, Appliances, and Equipment you Need to Start a Home Bakery

Kitchen appliance envy…

It’s a thing man.

Everywhere on Instagram and YouTube, we see strings of bakers with the most amazing baking equipment; like 2 or 3 Kitchen-Aid Mixers in pretty pastel colours, huge ovens, and a jar with 30 spatulas.

And so we automatically assume that we need all of those things before our kitchen is “good enough” to start our own Home Bakery Business.

But today I’m telling you once and for all that you don’t need a whole heap of fancy kitchen equipment to start a successful Home Bakery Business!

I got by with the cheapest hand mixer for a year and hand-me-down mixing bowls. All these other expensive appliances are not essential; they just look prettier and make things a tiny bit easier.

Please note: This post contains affiliate links, meaning I get a small commission if you end up buying one of these products – but it’s at no extra cost to you. I handpicked all of these items and believe each one of them is the best value for money. I’m proud to recommend these tools to you because I know they’ll enhance your baking life at the most affordable rate possible.

1. Your Oven

Most importantly you need an oven… In theory you could use a mini oven, but you won’t be able to bake much at a time, so I recommend that you invest in an 81 litre oven. It’s about 0,6 m x 0,6 m and is usually the standard domestic oven used in homes. It’s the perfect size; you don’t need anything bigger than this.

I’ve used this size oven since the very start of my Home Bakery and I still do. My oven is a Defy and I LOVE it! It’s dependable, accurate and bakes perfectly. I bought it secondhand for $200.

Of course, most homes already have an oven, so you probably won’t even need to buy one!

2. Digital Kitchen Scale (Battery Powered)

Great baking requires GREAT precision. And if you want to bake for paying customers, you’ll need to make sure your baking is consistent!

A customer needs to have the exact same experience when they order the same bake from you more than once. I’m sure you’ve experienced eating something at a restaurant that was mind-blowing and then when you order it again a month later it’s just not up to the same standard.

I’m sure you don’t want your customers to have that experience with your Home Bakery, right?

To bake for paying customers, you need consistent accuracy in your baking. Unfortunately baking with cup measurements just doesn’t give you the consistent accuracy you need.

For example; a cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 140 g – 200 g. This can make a cake turn out dry and dense instead of moist and tender. Every gram of flour makes a significant difference in your results!

Do yourself and your customers a favour and invest in a digital kitchen scale. They are really inexpensive (like $16 – $20) and will give you great precision and results in your baking!

Another awesome perk of digital scales is that you can mix batter much faster! Measuring ingredients in 5 different cup sizes can take forever, but with a scale you can just weigh ingredients directly into your bowl, press the zero button and weigh the next ingredient directly into the bowl.

This obviously also saves a lot of washing up since you’re weighing all ingredients into the bowl and not dirtying your measuring cups.

A digital kitchen scale is my favourite Home Bakery tool by far. Best $20 I ever spent!

Click here to see my favourite, affordable chef’s knife.

6. Silicone Spatula (flat, not indented)

I adore a good silicone spatula! There are few things I enjoy more than scraping every last drop of batter into a cake tin.

Even if you don’t have OCD tendencies like me, a spatula is still essential for scraping the sides and bottom of your mixing bowl throughout the mixing process. This ensures that you won’t have a surprize lump of butter or flour hiding in a corner of your bowl somewhere.

Spatulas are an essential tool for mixing a well incorporated batter.

But it takes a very specific type of spatula to scrape a bowl clean. Some are too flimsy and don’t have enough strength to obey your commands without bending over in the opposite direction – very annoying.

Some spatulas are too hard and don’t give you a “close shave” against the side of the mixing bowl.

Some spatulas are like flat spoons, so you end up needing another spatula to scrape out the indented part of the spatula! Very annoying.

FLAT-sided silicone spatulas are perfect! Because you can just scrape them on the rim of your mixing bowl to get the batter off it and nothing will be stuck to it afterwards.

Click here to see my favourite silicone spatula.

7. Sturdy Balloon Whisk

Sometimes a spoon just doesn’t cut it.

Like when you’re saving split chocolate ganache, or making lemon curd, or reviving frozen creme patisserie, or salted caramel, or making any kind of sauce or filling.

Stirring with a balloon whisk just gives you a much smoother result and prevents clumping or burning stuff.

It’s worth it to buy a good quality one though because the el cheapos end up coming undone where the wires join the handle. You’ll be whisking along, unsuspected, and then suddenly a wire will shoot loose and flick hot custard in your face – it’s happened to me before.

Trust me, rather buy 1 great balloon whisk instead of 10 cheapies that keep breaking.

Chat soon!

Aurelia

Got a question? Something to add? Let’s chat in the comments section down below! (I respond to every single comment)