Kitchen kit
Oven gloves These are essential for protecting your hands when handling hot tins and trays. Look for thick gloves that fully cover your hands and, ideally, part of your wrists and arms. Use oven gloves when putting anything in or taking anything out of a hot oven.
Baking trays Thin baking trays can warp and bend in a hot oven. Look for a nice sturdy tray, but make sure it’s not too heavy for you to lift in and out of the oven.
Cake tins You’ll need a variety of shapes and sizes; our most-used tins are a round 20cm cake tin with a loose bottom (or two of these if you want to make sandwich cakes), square or rectangular brownie tin, 900g loaf tin and muin tin.
Reusable cake tin liners These make lining tins a piece of cake, and you can buy round and rectangular liners in cookware shops or online.
Weighing scales Baking is a science. Ingredients react to each other when heat is applied, creating air bubbles that make cakes and bread rise – getting measurements wrong will aect the end result.
Wire racks These allow baked foods to cool quickly by letting the air circulate around them. They can also prevent steam, which may cause a soggy base.