What Baking Equipment Do I Need?

So many of us derive great satisfaction and a sense of purpose from baking cakes, biscuits, muffins and delicious sweets, as well as impressive roasts and pasta bakes, for friends and loved ones.

Whether you relish the challenge of perfecting a complicated recipe or you're more of a home-style baker, there is a stock-standard selection of baking tools and essentials at Spotlight that will ensure you have everything at hand to bake up a storm.

Make sure you've got all the bakeware you need by delving into our bakeware buying guide, which will cover everything from bakeware essentials to handy baking accessories.

Quick Links

• Baking Trays, Tins And Sheets
• Baking Dishes
• Food Processors And Mixers
• Baking Accessories
• Decorating Tools

Baking Trays, Tins And Sheets

Whether you're baking sweet or savoury food, the right baking tins, trays and sheets are essential to ensuring your food is cooked properly. Our baking trays and tins are made from quality materials like metal, glass, ceramic and silicone, with non-stick and easy-to-clean options available. No matter your needs, there is sure to be a bake tin here to suit your needs!

Cake tins

Baking the perfect cake means you'll need the right cake pans and tins for your recipe. Our cake pans and tins come in handy varieties such as:

• Springform cake tins: The solution to having to yank your cake out from a snug tin, springform cake tins open at the side to allow for easy release of a baked cake.
• Bundt cake tins are circular with a solid mass in the middle that is designed for making cakes with a hole in the centre. Bundt cake tins are very handy for making number cakes!
• Flexible cake tins are made from silicone and allow you to pop the cake out using your hands. Silicone bakeware is light and easy to clean, and can also be used to freeze desserts.
• Tart tins are designed to help you get the perfect crispy crust on your sweet and savoury tarts. Tart tins feature a ridged edge, a thin design and sometimes even have holes in the bottom to ensure the base of your tart is as crisp as the edges.

With straight-edge, circular and number cake pans available, you can create a simple chocolate or extravagant layered cake easily with Spotlight's bake tins! Keep an eye out for Wiltshire, Mastercraft and Mondo cake tins to ensure you are getting cake pans that will last.

And for some guidance on using regular cake pans to create number cakes, make sure to read our blog on how to make every kind of number cake.

Why not try making a cake with multiple layers by creating this gorgeous rainbow cake?

Baking trays and sheets

Large and flat, baking trays and sheets are used all the time for both sweet and savoury cooking. Baking trays have a small lip around the edges that prevents oils and fats from oozing off your tray, so they're perfect for roasting meats and veggies. Baking sheets are completely flat, so they're ideal for baking treats that can be delicate to pick off a tray after cooking like cookies or a slice.

Test this out by making our lovely heart cut-out cookies on a flat cookie baking sheet!

Loaf pans

For that perfectly-shaped bread or fruit loaf, a loaf pan is essential! Rectangular and high-sided, these special bake tins ensure your bread rises evenly and you get a nice, even browning on all slides. They're also great for making frozen desserts like ice cream cake or semifreddo and baked meals like lasagna or meatloaf. They are a great tool for making number cakes too!

Muffin tins

Have your fill of homemade sweet or savoury muffins with any of our 6, 12 or 24-well muffin pans. Look for silicone muffin tins that you can easily pop your muffins out of or aluminium muffin trays that heat up quickly and evenly to give you an evenly-cooked muffin every time. You can find specialised muffin tins for making mini and jumbo muffins too!

For a good range of quality muffin tins from reputable brands, look for well-known names like Wiltshire and Mastercraft to ensure you're getting a product you know you'll love.

Test out your muffin pan with this tasty recipe for our sea of life cupcakes.

Pizza pans

For homemade pizza with a perfectly crispy base and fluffy end crust, use a pizza pan! Thin, durable and designed to withstand high heat, pizza pans are usually circular with a low lip to ensure you can easily slide your pizza off the pan when it's finished. They're ideal for a specialised pizza oven but are also very effective in a standard kitchen oven.

Baking Dishes

Bake delicious pies, pasta dishes, puddings and casseroles in any of our quality baking dishes. Go straight from the oven to the table in a stylish enamel or ceramic baking dish, or watch your dish cook through in a beautiful glass baking dish.

Metal baking dishes made of aluminium, cast iron or stainless steel will ensure an even bake and delicious browning on the top and edges.

Silicone bakeware is the easiest to remove your finished food from, and can be popped in the dishwasher for easy cleaning. Silicone bakeware doesn't conduct heat as well as other materials, so expect minimal browning in a baking dish made from or lined with silicone.

If you love the look of enamel baking dishes, keep an eye out for the ones from Wiltshire! Or look to Mastercraft for more traditional heavy-base baking dishes you know will last you the test of time.

Food Mixers And Processors

The importance of a good bench mixer or food mixer can't be understated. They come with a range of attachments and special features designed to help you get the best results when it comes to beating, folding or whisking, and make the whole process a lot quicker and easier than it would be using only your hands. Whipping cream can take quite a while using your hands, but the time is cut down to only a few minutes with the use of a food mixer!

If you don't have the space or the budget for a food mixer, then a stick mixer or a food processor can do the trick but, if you're someone who loves to lick the beaters, nothing can replace a mixer.

Baking Accessories

All the little things to create the perfect baked meal or dessert are at your fingertips! Find adorable cookie cutters, colourful baking cups, handy baking thermometers, dome moulds, cake cutters, rolling pins and cooling racks in our baking accessories category. We have a great range of colours, materials and sizes to suit both your baking needs and, if you'd like to display your baking accessories, the style of your kitchen too!

Decorating Tools

Once you've baked, it's time to embellish with any of our decorating tools and accessories! It's mostly desserts that need a little visual love, but you can also decorate your savoury dishes with things like fresh herbs, reductions, sauces and seasonings.

Cake decorating tools

Whether you want a simple glaze or fabulous edible flowers, you can find everything you need for decorating cakes in the tools section. You can find icing tips and piping bags, icing spatulas and smoothers, silicone moulds, cake turntables, stencils, airbrushes and more here, all ideal for use on (chilled on a cooling rack) baked desserts and dishes. Look to quality brands like Wiltshire, Mondo and Wilton for cake-decorating tools loved for their quality and style!

Make sure to read our guide on using a piping bag and icing tips to decorate your desserts, as well as our blog on sharpening your icing skills.

Once you're confident, put your decorating skills to the test with our easy bloom floral cupcakes project.

Cake decorating toppers

Finish your cake off with the right cake decorating topper! This includes candles (numbered or otherwise), sparklers and toppers themed around events like birthdays, anniversaries and weddings.

You can see the impact a good cake topper makes in our beautiful hooray cake project.

Find The Right Bakeware At Spotlight

Ready to bake? You can find all the bakeware you need online at Spotlight, where you can pay your way and have your bakeware delivered straight to your front door. Otherwise, visit your local Spotlight store and explore the huge range of bakeware in person.

Make sure to browse our cake and confectionery projects for many amazing recipes and guides to help you bake all sorts of cakes, muffins and slices. For all your savoury baking needs, have a good look through our bakeware and baking equipment page, while you can find everything you indeed for dessert making in our cake baking and chocolate-making category.