Holiday Gift Guide for the Serious Home Baker

If you have a serious home baker on your Christmas list, upgrading their baking tools can make all the difference. Trust me, going from hand mixing to a stand mixer will feel like heaven. Here are the baking essentials that I use everyday at Ampersand Bakehouse.

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Sweetapolita Sprinkles

Of course the aesthetics of your sprinkles matter, but so does the taste when you are adding them to your favourite cookies and cupcakes. Sweetapolita Rainbow Sprinkles are the only one I trust for my Vanilla Sprinkle Cookies. (Definitely an upgrade from anything you’ll find at the grocery store.) They even have Natural Rainbow Sprinkles made with plant-based dyes, along with vegan and gluten-free options. Bonus: they make their themed sprinkles available super early for all your holiday inspiration.

Wilton 1M Open Star Piping Tip

The Wilton 1M Open Star Piping Tip is my go-to for icing cupcakes. It gives an elevated elegance without any extra effort. Many ‘starter’ piping sets will include tips that are way too small, making bakers wonder why their cupcake frosting doesn’t look quite right. If you’re looking for some variety, this 5-Piece Large Piping Tip Set includes the open star along with other popular designs.

Pair it with Piping Bags: Don’t even get me started on trying to wash the reusable piping bags that come in those starter sets. If you’re only frosting a handful of cupcakes at a time, these 12″ Disposable Piping Bags will do the trick. Batch making a couple dozen cupcakes for a bake sale? Upgrade to the 18″ Piping Bags so you won’t have to refill your piping bag every two seconds.

Cuisinox Spring Action Scoop

My perfectionism can get the best of me when I am scooping cookies. They need to be ALL the same size! This works to my advantage because my baked goods bake evenly in the oven. Most of my cookie (and cupcake) recipes call for the Blue (Size #16) Scoop, but every once and a while I’ll need to pull out my Yellow (Size #20) Scoop. For example, my chocolate cupcake batter rises like crazy so I need a smaller scoop.

BAGAIL Coffee Scale

Any serious baker knows that the only way to measure ingredients is by weight. Personally, I like that I don’t have to worry about scooping the flour just right. Let the scale do the work! I use a Coffee Scale because it’s nice and small so it’s easy to tuck away. I keep it on top of my microwave and don’t even notice it until I need it.

Can’t commit to weighing every single ingredient? Start with just the sticky ones like peanut butter. Place your mixing bowl on the scale, hit that TARE button so you’re starting at 0g and start dumping in that sticky ingredient. This will save you from washing peanut butter out of a measuring cup later on. I don’t know about you, but wet peanut butter has the weirdest smell. Not a fan.

Oxo POP Container

I am obsessed with these food storage containers. I used to live in a very old apartment building and invested in them for every. single. one. of my baking ingredients after I had grain moths—not once—but twice. Yuck. They came with me when I moved apartments and then to the bakery. And again when the bakery moved.

The 4.4 Quart Square Container is the perfect size for flour, sugar or the larger brown sugar bags. The 1.7 Quart Rectangle Container fits a full box of table salt. And I’ve got so many of the 0.6L Rectangle Containers for all my spices like cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, etc.

KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer

When I was a home baker, I truly yearned for a KitchenAid 5-Quart Artisan Stand Mixer. I would be mixing my batter by hand and think, ‘one day I shall have a stand mixer for all this tedious work.’ My wish came true when I won a Hudson Bay Blanket at a corporate holiday party—with the gift receipt. You better believe I returned that overpriced blanket for a stand mixer and paid the difference. At Ampersand Bakehouse, I’ve upgraded my 5-Quart KitchenAid to a commercial 20-Quart Stand Mixer. But all my recipe testing is done in a white KitchenAid 7-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer. She’s my favourite.

Already have a KitchenAid Stand Mixer? Gifting a second mixing bowl or paddle attachment can make baking more efficient if they take their baking serious. They can get started on the next batch of cookies while the previous bowl is drying on the dish rack.

Ateco 12″ Decorating Turntable

Upgrading from a plastic turntable to this aluminum Ateco Turntable made all the difference. It spins effortlessly, even under the weight of a 5-tier wedding cake. When I’m working on smaller cakes, like a Baby Smash Cake, the engraved circles make it easy to center my cake board.

Baker’s Tip: Throw a Jar Gripper Pad on your turntable before your cake board. This will keep your cake firmly in place while you decorate it.