A Holiday gift guide for home bakers
Well folks, the gift giving holidays are fast approaching, and I, for one, can not believe it. What’s next, New Years? Sheesh. If you’re like me, and you’re feeling a little overwhelmed with all the to-do’s of the holidays, you may just want someone to tell you what to buy (or not buy). I love a gift guide. Bonus points if it’s affordable, well researched, and relatively short. Check, check, and check. Maybe you are looking for some items to level up your own home baking game, or maybe you need to buy a gift for an aspiring pastry chef. This list has something for everyone. Here are 10 of my personally tried, tested, and loved kitchen items that would make a great gift for anyone who bakes at home on the reg. Oh, and they are all under $40!
A set of offset spatulas. Perfect for frosting a variety of cake sizes, smoothing brownie batter, leveling measuring cups, and much more. Trust me, every baker needs a good offset. Or five.
2. Any Heilala vanilla product, but especially their vanilla bean paste. This is the “good vanilla” that Ina talks about, and I use it all the time at Blue House Bakeshop. It’s great in pastry cream, shortbread cookies, and pretty much anything that calls for vanilla. And I love that Heilala is a BCorp that gives back to the communities where vanilla is grown.
3. an Ann Clark gel food coloring set. If you’ve seen any of the cakes I’ve made recently, then you know this food coloring is legit. Their colors are super concentrated, so a tube lasts a really long time. Use them to tint buttercream, cake batter, royal icing, and more. And they are a Vermont based company! Can’t beat that. They also make amazing cookie cutters, but that is a post for another time.
4. A Victorinox serrated knife. This one is obviously not just for bakers, but this knife is especially great for slicing those delicate cake layers, homemade sandwich bread, cutting up a big batch of blondies, and so much more. I use it every day in the kitchen. It will become your (or your giftee’s) new favorite knife, and it’s a great price at just $35.
5. A digital kitchen scale. This item may not seem like a necessity for, say, a child who likes baking, but I would argue that the earlier a budding baker can get used to weighing ingredients, the better. Weighing ingredients is not only more accurate than using measuring cups, but it also saves on dishes! Win, win. This is the one I use for Blue House, and I love that it’s rechargeable and waterproof.
6. A cake turntable. This is probably the first thing I would purchase for someone who wanted to learn to decorate cakes. Turntables make it so much easier to get a more polished finish on your cake. This is a great brand and it will last forever if you take good care of it.
7. A set of acrylic cake scrapers or “cake combs”. These are some of my favorite tools for cake decorating. You can choose between perfectly smooth sides, fun stripes, or elegant scallops. I love the clear acrylic material because it lets you see how well you’re doing while you’re working around the cake. Pair these with a cake turntable and you are on your way to being a pro!
8. Nordic Ware sheet trays (or any Nordic Ware product). These are just the best, and a home baker can never have too many. I use them to bake cookies, big batches of brownies, sheet cakes, and for storing baked cake layers in the fridge. They’re so versatile and they last forever.
9. A set of piping tips and bags. This one is for the serious cake decorators. This set has everything you need to make a beautiful work of buttercream art. There are hundreds (thousands?) of piping tips out there that make all kinds of crazy shapes, but these are the ones you should start out with. And I love a reusable piping bag!
10. Last, but not least, the Flour Bakery Cookbook. I may be biased given that Flour is my baking alma mater, but this cookbook has some of the best recipes out there for everything from chocolate cupcakes to pie crust. It is truly my go-to baking book when I’m looking for inspiration or guidance on a project. If you’re looking for a gift for an aspiring pastry chef or just a badass home baker, look no further. The sticky bun recipe alone is worth buying the whole book.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of everything that a baker might have on their holiday wish list, but it’s a really good start. Overall, you want to pick items that are high quality so they will last a long time and be solid staples on which to build your baking toolbox. But with the most expensive item on this list ringing in at just under $35, you don’t have to spend a fortune to get started. That’s what I love about baking - you can really start from just the basics and build your skills over time.
Disclaimer: I am not making commissions on anything you buy from this guide. I just genuinely recommend this stuff. Happy gifting!