FAQ: Baking Equipment

For National Baking Month I asked on Instagram for your baking questions. When I got hundreds of responses, I decided to make this a series of posts on my site. So far we’ve discussed Pies + Pie Crust, Cakes + Decorating, Meringue, Bread Baking, vegan desserts and now Baking Equipment. If you have any questions I haven’t answered, please leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to get to every comment that I can!

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Your Baking Equipment Questions

• Favorite measuring cups and scale? I’ll start with the scale, because I want everyone to use one for baking! My favorite scale is the MyWeigh. My favorites are a sturdy metal set of dry measuring cups. I like a glass measuring cups that have both cups and ML for liquid measures. 
• Could you give a list of essential baking tools and some nice extra tools to have?
  • My most used equipment: Kitchen scale, really good rubber spatula, stand mixer, bench scraper, heavy gauge baking sheets.
  • Makes baking easier: Cake turner, offset metal decorating spatulas. Pie plate, cake pans, flour jars.
• How do you organize all of your tools/bakeware? I organize my tools by type, so cake equipment stays together, measuring cups and mise bowls are near each other. I also situate them near where I will be using them, so I am not walking all over the kitchen when I need something. My mixing bowls, whisks, spatulas, jars of flour and sugar all sit very close to my stand mixers, so I can just reach for them in the middle of a project. I admit I am a hoarder of kitchen equipment and so I need a lot of space, but the essentials can really fit in a small space. Here’s a tour of the before and after of my kitchen from a long time ago! And here is an Instagram kitchen tour.

• Do you prefer gas or electric ovens for baking? I prefer to bake in an electric oven. The heat tends to be more even and especially with bread, the outcome is often better. When baking a crusty loaf of bread you need to add steam to the oven and the way gas ovens are vented, they don’t trap the steam, so your bread won’t rise as well and it won’t have a shiny crust. When I do bake bread in a gas oven, I use a Dutch Oven so that the steam is trapped in the pot. 
• When should we use convection vs conventional oven? I almost never use the convection setting, unless the recipe specifically calls for it. The wind can brown the outside and leave the inside under baked, so it is best to go with flat heat for baking. If your oven only has convection heat, be sure to adjust the temperature down by about 20-25°F to make up for the intensity of the fan.
• Can I trust my countertop convection oven to bake yeasted breads? $0 to waste experimenting! Yes, my mom bakes her bread in one and it is terrific. She tends to make small loaves, so they fit beautifully. She also uses it for cakes, pizza and whatever else she is baking. It does take some experimenting, since it is convection and most baking recipes don’t call for that. So your bakes may be done sooner than the recipe calls for. Once you get to know the oven, you can adjust the baking times on a recipe. 
• Do you have a favorite online shop for baking supplies, ingredients, etc.? I have curated a little shop of some of my favorite tools on Amazon. I also really trust the equipment sold at King Arthur Baking Company, Wilton and Williams Sonoma. There may also be local shops near you that sell good quality baking equipment that you want to support.

• Where do you get those white papers for your muffins? They are called tulip muffin papers and they are linked in the blueberry muffin blog post. You can find them here. or you can make your own, as I do in my blueberry muffin demo during my Magnolia Workshop.
• If you could only buy one, which is more versatile: 8×8 or 9×9 pan? I think I use my 8×8 more often.
• Best way to use silicone canele molds? I have copper molds and tend to use those more frequently, just because I find they caramelize a bit better, but the silicone don’t require all of the fussy prep. You’ll find my Instagram video on caneles here.
• Do you have a link for the embossed rolling pin? I got mine at JK Adams, but there is also a large selection here. in my Pie Q&A I talk about how to use this pin successfully to create an embossed pie crust.

• Do you have a favorite rolling pin? I am ready to tackle crust and want the right tools. I use handled rolling pins and French style pins the most. If I am working with a soft dough, I like the French style pin, because I can feel the dough better under it and I can have a gentler pressure. If I am working with a chilled stiff dough I like a pin with handles so I can put some force into it without it hurting my bony hands. There is no right or wrong rolling pin, just the one that feels the most comfortable. I would just suggest you have one that is large enough to cover the width of the dough you are using, it’s just easier to get an even dough.
• Is measuring with a scale better? It seems to be more popular overseas than here in US? Yes, it is better because it’s MUCH more accurate. Think of how differently we may all scoop flour into a measuring cup. Some people dip into a bag, some people level off, some people spoon it in. Those are all completely different weights and it is way harder to control the outcome that way. There are scales ranging from less than $10 to $80. My favorite scale is priced in the middle at about $45. A kitchen scale is a game changer if you’re trying to become a better baker. Plus, it often results in less dishes to wash!
• What stand mixer do you recommend? I have three and I discuss them all here!

• Where do you get the copper molds for your blueberry muffins? They are mini souffle molds from Mauviel.
• Favorite baking dishes/pans? Find all my essentials in my Amazon shop! This gift guide is also a good place to find out my recommended equipment.
• How to successfully use an ice cream scoop for cookies – they always stick like mad! Start with a sturdy, reliable scoop, that won’t fall apart with a thick cookie dough. Having said that, some cookie dough will stick to just about anything, so spraying with baking spray will help release the cookies from the scoop. You can also wipe it with any cooking oil. For some cookies, like meringue, dipping into hot water between scoops, then tapping dry, also works.

• Favorite cookbooks? I have hundreds of cookbooks and I receive multiple copies of cookbooks each week in the mail. But there are some that are tried and true that I bake from all of the time (see below). Here is my full list of cookbooks.
  • Canelle et Vanille Bakes Simple by Aran Goyoaga
  • Baking for the Holidays and 100 Cookies by Sarah Kieffer
  • Baking with Dorie by Dorie Greenspan
  • My Sweet Mexico by Fany Gerson
  • Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and me!
  • and of course, Zoë Bakes Cakes!

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Welcome to ZoëBakes

I'm Zoë François and I love to bake. This is where I play with sugar and take the mystery out of baking everything from cookies to wedding cakes. I studied pastry at the CIA (the culinary school, not the spy agency), worked in restaurants, have written 10 cookbooks and you can find more of my creations in my Substack Newsletter and YouTube videos. More...

Zoë’s Cookbooks

Add all of Zoe's cookbooks to your collection.

and for her favorite tool recommendations, shop Zoe's Kitchen Essentials in Amazon.

You’ve seen them, you’ve fawned over them and then you wonder- how tf does someone put that together? I’m talking all about long cakes here. They are, exactly as the sound, cakes that are well… long. I’ve seen everything from “little” 3 footers all the way up to a freaking 10 foot masterpiece. I’ve made my fair share of them over the past few months ranging from 3 feet in length to 9 feet. Let me tell ya though, I’ve learned a lot. With each cake long cake under my belt I learn a little more. By no means am I an EXPERT, but I am here to share everything I know *so far* with you.

Each cake is gonna be different and have unique sets of circumstances so rather than try to make a set “tutorial” on how to pull off a long cake, I had you all submit your burning questions over on IG stories last week and I’m here to answer all of them for you!

My favorite question from the bunch being:

Is it really as simple as lining up a bunch of sheet cakes together?

And I would say it’s as easy as lining up a bunch of sheet cakes but at the same time as hard as decorating all of those sheet cakes at once.. whoops.

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Let’s go through order of ops:

Before you embark on the task of baking and assembling a cake (of any size, shape, or length) There is the consultation and planning with the customer- because it’s safe to assume a long cake is definitely something that is for an event rather than a herculean hobbyist baker project. Buy, hey I might be wrong and in that case, more power to ya.

How do you do you decide how much cake is needed for a long cake?

Well since, long cakes are just sheet cakes human centipeded together, I look at the intended guest count and divide that by how many servings I typically get from a 1/2 (13”x18”) or 1/4 (13”x9”) sheet cake. Let’s say the client wants to feed 175 people. The half sheet cakes I offer feed 30-45 people. Which means that the long cake would be comprised of 4.37 1/2 sheet cakes but I’d just do 4 1/2 sheets and a 1/4 sheet.

On the flip side you might have someone who has a smaller guest count like 20 who normally you’d recommend and 8” round to but they’re dead set on wanting a long cake. In a case like that I offer up a narrow cake. Which is just a singular sheet cake cut down the middle and connected end to end. Since the cake is now skinnier it gives the illusion of being longer than it actually is.

How to price a long cake?

Well, now that we know these cakes are just a bunch of sheet cakes hiding under a trench coat pretended to be a grown up. You can use that knowledge to price them out properly. While the price of cakes varies from baker to baker and city to city I cannot just give you a magic number to charge. But, you can take the cost of your sheet cake and multiply by the amount needed. But, don’t stop there. Oh no, remember it’s as easy as making 4 sheet cakes but as hard as decorating them all at once. These cakes come with a lot more work. From delivery to set up to cost of wood boards and more. So, be sure to account for extra time, labor and materials. Which as you read the rest of this you’ll get a better gauge of what the process takes + how much extra work you’ll need to charge for.

How to coordinate delivery + set up?

This wasn’t a question asked but it is v v important. I’ve built long cakes in homes for dinner parties, restaurant patios for baby showers and in coffee shops for decorating demos. Yes, each of these cakes has been assembled ON SITE. Each venue and event is going to be different. For ones where it’s in someone’s home like that’s and easy back and forth with the client. But, for cakes that are going to need to be set up at a venue GET IN CONTACT WITH A MANGER AT THE VENUE. For the love of god, talk to the venue about this DIRECTLY. Because, shit gets lost in translation so easily with using your customer as a middle man for the venue. Customer says oh yeah it’ll be no problem setting up the cake and you show up to a venue that was not expecting you to show up with 7 feet of cake. Just let them know, hey I’m showing up- the cake is x feet long. I’ll be there for x amount of hours from 12pm on etc. just so things can go as smoothly as possible. Nothing is worse than showing up to a venue you thought you could finish a cake in and finding out they don’t have space for you to work.

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