Tools/equipment

As you may already know, you need equipment for baking.

There’s tons of equipment you can choose from, where some do the same as one another! But that doesn’t mean you need to buy them all!

• Rubber spatula
• Mixing spoons
• Liquid/dry measuring cups & spoons
• Whisk
• Cutting board
• Knife/scissors

There has been a lot of skepticism and safety arguments on whether using wood equipment is better or worse than plastic, but I prefer to use wooden equipment.

In the end, it’s all up to your decision on which material you use for your baking needs.
But a little advice is that different material may have effects on somethings you might bake.
For example:

If you are whipping up a meringue in a plastic bowl at room temperature, your ingredients might act differently, possibly in a negative way; compared to a colder then room temperature stainless steel bowl.

There’s a scientific reasoning to this that we won’t get into right now. For now, we just want to get what we need to start baking!

Rubber spatula

Having a rubber spatula will be very helpful in any level of baking. Now we aren’t talking about a spatula used to flip burgers or grilled cheese. We’re talking about this bad boy:

The rubber spatula will almost be your best friend over time.

1) Clean the bowl so you utilize as much product as possible -> rubber spatula

2) Fold ingredients into itself/keep air while carefully mixing -> rubber spatula

3) Cream butter and sugar thoroughly -> rubber spatula

4) Get ingredients off the bottom of a mixer bowl, without dissembling it/while it’s mixing -> rubber spatula


Of course there are other tools that you can use for the procedures above, but the spatula has been a very versatile tool for the above procedures.

Like for folding ingredients, you can also use a whisk, but in recipes it might direct you to use a rubber spatula.


Rubber spatulas tend to break easy, based on what I have seen. But once you use one, you’ll get a feel for how much pressure you can get away with, without it breaking.

For those of you who may be wondering: What’s the difference between liquid and dry measuring cups?

Well, it speaks for itself, really!

Liquid measuring cups are primarily used for measuring liquids, such as oil; and dry measuring cups are primarily used for measuring dry ingredients, such as flour.

Liquid measuring cups ^

Dry measuring cups v

Don’t let this terminology from limiting your creativity. Just because the measuring cup has a primary function, doesn’t mean it’s its only function. Another example for this:

When I make white bread, I sometimes put the milk, water, butter all together in a liquid measuring cup and in the microwave. For some other breads, I allow the yeast to activate in the water that is in the liquid measuring cup.

The whisk can easily be substituted for a fork, if you want to avoid this for a bit, but eventually it will prove to be more beneficial and mandatory for more intermediate/advanced recipes.

The size of whisk also plays a factor, so for the beginning, I recommend one on the smaller side; but not tiny.

The cutting board is mainly to prevent you from damaging your counter. This happens mainly when using a knife.

Even if you think that you won’t slice up your counter, let me tell you from experience, you’ll be surprised.


After I moved houses with my family, I saw the counters was thought “these counters seem like they would be hard to leave cut marks in.”

So the next time I was cooking, instead of using a cutting board so “it’s one less thing to wash”, I just cut on the counter. Just like that, the counter was left like a cat had attacked it.

So trust me when I say: a cutting board will help you and your counter.


Back to my original spiel above. People have argued about which material would be healthier, beneficial, or whatever.
Some say plastic is bad because of microplastics that can get in your food when cutting.
Others say wood is bad because bacteria can grow easier in the cracks and cuts in the cutting board; and so on.

But again, the decision on which material to use is totally up to you.

I use wood, plastic, and metal and haven’t really noticed anything major. I haven’t really been too spectacle of those things though. But health wise, I haven’t noticed any major differences.

Do keep in mind that your body might react differently from me, for example, some people might have a sensitivity to microplastics or the type of wood used to make those equipment.

Just know your body and what you buy.

Limited machinery

There is a ton of machinery that is out there for kitchen use. Ranging from mixers, heaters, coolers, blenders, cookery, etc. The list goes on.

But don’t fret! You don’t need any of those fancy, expensive machinery!


They do help greatly and save time. Trust me.

I went years, and I mean years, without having any sort of machine in the kitchen. All I had were spoons and bowls (basically). Mixing away pass the extent of shaky arms and sore wrists.

It wasn’t until around late 2024 to early 2025 that I got any sort of machine; which was a stand mixer.

Honestly, I don’t use it as much as I thought I would.


I know it saves time and allows you to multi-task easier, but for me it kind of feels better to do things “old fashioned”.

I do still use the stand mixer every so often though.


But this just goes to show that you might not even need any sort of special machine. They do help, but everything can be done without them.

Do if you don’t have the money for this equipment, don’t sweat it.

Just follow the recipe and keep doing what you’re doing.


If you really want something that will help you in baking, I do recommend getting a hand mixer and an immersion blender.

Having a food processor will also benefit you, but it might be more helpful in a cooking recipe, than a baking recipe. That’s what I have noticed during my journey in the kitchen.

Not having the fancy, expensive machinery can also be your excuse to gain muscle, if that’s one thing you are trying to achieve!

Overall personal thought:

I haven’t done much research nor tested many brands myself, but I tend to lean towards Cuisinart or KitchenAid. If you have a brand that works better for you, by all means keep using it, but these two companies are the two that I usually lean towards. They have almost never let me down, and they last a long time.

Unfortunately, they are on the more pricey side of the scale, but I can confidently that you get what you pay for.


Overall, if you don’t want, need, have the money or space for any machine-like kitchen aid, then you don’t need one.

As I already said, it might save time or even benefit in a different way from using one. But do keep in mind that everything done with a machine, can be done by hand or have an alternative way of completing the same task without the machine.

Recipes!