14 Tools & Appliances You Need to Start a Home/Micro Bakery
14 Tools & Appliances You Need to Start a Home/Micro Bakery
Kitchen gear envy…
It’s a thing, man.
Everywhere on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, we see bakers with gorgeous, spacious kitchens, 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 we can start our own Home Bakery or even just start selling something as simple as cookies.
But today I’m telling you once and for all that you don’t need a whole heap of fancy kitchen equipment, tools, or appliances to start a successful Home/Micro Bakery Business!
I got by with the cheapest hand mixer for a year and hand-me-down mixing bowls. All these other expensive appliances aren’t essential; they just look prettier and make life a 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 at least a 24-inch (60cm) oven. Preferably a 27-inch (68cm) oven. It’s usually the standard domestic oven used in homes. It’s the perfect size; you don’t need anything bigger than this.
I used this size oven for the first 10 years in my Home Bakery. I bought it secondhand for $200.
Of course, most homes already have an oven, so you probably won’t even need to buy one!
Ten years after starting my Home Bakery, we bought a house, and since I’d been saving up for years, I finally bought my dream oven by Smeg. It’s AMAZING. I love every second I get to bake in it.
BUT, note that this oven wasn’t essential for starting my business or earning a full-time income from my home baking! If you happen to be ready to invest in a new oven, I highly HIGHLY recommend my Smeg oven.
2. Digital Kitchen Scale (Battery Powered)
Great baking requires GREAT precision.
Unfortunately, baking with cup measurements won’t give you the consistency that customers WILL expect when they pay for your baking.
For example, an egg can weigh anywhere from 40 g – 70 g. A cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 140 g – 200 g! Every gram makes a significant difference in the quality of your baking. It’s the difference between a moist cake and a dry one, a perfect loaf of bread and a dense one…
Just buy a digital kitchen scale. They’re really inexpensive (like $20) and will give you great precision and results in your baking!
Another awesome perk of digital scales is that you can mix batters, doughs and frosting SO 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 Digital Kitchen Scale.
3. Heavy Duty Oven Gloves!
I cannot stress this enough – you NEED amazing oven gloves that:
- Can handle super high temperatures AND
- Help you grip your pans properly.
Initially, I used soft, store-bought oven gloves (those with a space for your thumb and another space where the rest of your fingers go in). They’re always pretty, but they never last – which means you’ll burn yourself.
Invest in a pair of heavy-duty oven gloves so you’re protected and in control when handling scorchingly hot baking pans. These oven gloves are my favourite.
Other Tools
When it comes to other tools it really depends on WHAT you’re planning on baking.
If you’re starting with cupcakes and brownies for example, there’s no need for cake tins just yet.
So you don’t NEED ALL of this stuff, but you can choose your own essentials from this list (beyond standard kitchen items like spoons, knives, pots, pans, etc.).
4. Plastic Mixing Bowls
Many bakers use ceramic, pyrex glass or stainless steel bowls. I prefer plastic bowls simply because the hand mixer’s beaters make way less noise against the sides of plastic mixing bowls.
You should have at least 1 Large, 1 medium and 1 small mixing bowl.
I love the OXO plastic Mixing bowls because they have a rubber lining on the bottom which stops them from sliding around when you’re busy mixing.
They also have rubber linings on the top rim for better grip when you’re pouring batter. The OXO Plastic mixing bowls come in sets of 3 in the exact sizes you’ll need.
Click here to see my favourite, affordable mixing bowls.
5. Sieve/Strainer
You should absolutely always sieve your dry ingredients. It gets rid of any lumps in your flour, cocoa powder, etc. It also catches any strange, hard bits that somehow got in there. Sieving also aerates and mixes your dry ingredients.
You’ll also be straining lemon curd, berry curds, custards, and more to get rid of lumps.
Click here to see my favourite, affordable sieve.
6. Large Chef’s Knife
Every baker needs a big knife.
First of all, because it makes you feel and look like you’re a pro! Lol.
And secondly, because a chef’s knife is super useful. I use mine every single day; to slice and chop apples and vegetables for cakes, finely chop citrus zest, chop nuts, slice brownies, chop chocolate and even to make chocolate shaving decorations.
Now, please note that it doesn’t have to be an expensive chef’s knife. Mine was like $20. It must be 8 inches (20 cm), though. Anything bigger or smaller becomes difficult to handle and won’t create the same beautiful chocolate shavings if you plan on making them to give your cakes a professional edge.
Click here to see my favourite, affordable chef’s knife.
7. 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 spatulas.
8. 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.
Click here to see my favourite, affordable balloon whisk.
9. Electric Hand Mixer
Let me tell you a little secret…
You don’t need a stand mixer to start a Home Bakery Business! Yep, I’ve said it. You can totally get by with an electric hand mixer.
I’ve written a very thorough blog post on buying the perfect hand mixer if you want to go into deeeeeep detail; Hand Mixer Shopping Guide. Most importantly you want something that doesn’t fall over easily, is not too heavy and gives you a lot of control in the speed settings.
A high price doesn’t necessarily mean high quality. Be careful. You can buy a perfectly awesome hand mixer for under $20 that will last for years to come.
Click here to see my favourite, affordable Electric Hand Mixer.
10. Piping Bags (Preferably Reusable. IF you’re planning on selling cupcakes).
Let’s all do our bit in helping the environment shall we?
There are so many things I did wrong in the first few years of baking full time, but I’m so grateful that I bought reusable piping bags from the very start!
Mostly because it makes sense financially; you by one bag in 5 years. If you use disposable piping bags for 5 years you end up spending WAY more.
They’re easy to clean and really inexpensive.
There are many different sizes, but in my experience anything larger than 30 cm (12 inches) is just too big to control effectively while you’re piping.
Click here to see my favourite, affordable reusable piping bag.
11. Stainless Steel Piping Tips (IF you’re planning on selling cupcakes).
Oh, the many millions of piping tips on the market today are staggering!
Of course the ones you buy depend entirely upon what type of frosting piping you want to do. But you totally don’t need to be fancy here.
The only 2 piping tips you really NEED are a closed star tip (Wilton 2D) and a large round tip (Wilton 1A).
You’ll use the Wilton 2D to pipe frosting onto cupcakes. I like to pipe my frosting from the inside out so that it looks like a rose. So classic and beautiful!
RELATED: Piping Frosting 101 – The Frosting Piping Manual.
And the large round Wilton 1A is great for piping perfectly round blobs of frosting onto cupcakes, piping out macaron batter, piping macaron fillings onto macarons and piping frosting onto layer cakes.
12. Muffin/Cupcake Tins
Most home bakers begin by selling cupcakes, muffins, cookies and brownies. They are easier to bake and less intimidating than layer cakes or cheesecakes for example!
I recommend buying at least 2 non-stick muffin tins. This way you can use one tin to refill with batter while another one is busy baking. They’re easy to clean and can last a lifetime if you take good care of them.
Click here to see my favourite, affordable Cupcake/Muffin Tins.
13. Non-Stick Baking Sheet
A Baking sheet is really a go-to item in any home bakery. You can use them for cookies, macarons, roasting nuts, making pie crumb toppings, baking pastries and more!
Generally a 15 x 10 inch pan works great in domestic ovens, but be sure to measure the inside of your oven just to be sure they will fit inside!
Click here to see my favourite, affordable Non-Stick Baking Sheet.
14. Non-Stick Brownie Tin
Brownies, bars and squares are always a great crowd pleaser! In fact, brownies were the very first items I started selling back in 2008 when I was studying architecture.
I still adore baking brownies and have also found a new love for baking blondies. You could also do layered bars and squares in your brownie tin.
8 x 8 Inch is the standard size that works great for Home Bakery.
Click here to see my favourite, affordable Brownie Tin.
Other, disposable items you’ll need:
More Advanced Tools & Appliances:
As your Home Bakery Grows, you can expand your collection with some more tools and appliances that make life easier and save you time.
- Oven thermometer (ovens often don’t measure the temperature accurately, which can drastically impact the quality of your baked goods).
- 3 x 8 inch, loose bottom cake tins (not spring-form!)
- Palette Knife (to decorate layer cakes)
- Small, Offset Palette Knife (to decorate layer cakes)
- Standing mixer (I used a hand-me-down for 6 years, then I bought a KitchenAid)
- Food processor (I bought the cheapest one at $15 and got by just fine for years. Later on, I got a Magimix Food Processor on a Black Friday sale!)
- Candy/Meat thermometer (the kind with a needle you can poke into things)
- 2 Large Silpat Mats (for macarons and cookies)
- Turntable (to decorate layer cakes)
- Blow Torch (for torching meringue)
- More mixing bowls as needed
- More baking tins as needed
And that’s it, my friend! I hope you understand and believe now that you really don’t need a lot of kitchen gear to start a Home Bakery.
Hugs & donuts,
Aurelia
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