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If you are just starting to bake, then you might want to know about what to stock in your kitchen and what you can do without. Initially baking can prove quite discouraging for most people, and no one ever became a good baker without loads of patience and perseverance. So if you are just starting out or if you want to be a weekend baker, then stocking your kitchen with loads of so called “baking essentials” will only result in a lot of expenditure, most of which will not be put to use any time soon. If you are into fun and easy home baking that you want to do with kids, family and friends or just to unwind, then you can do it with just a few basic things. A small list of the essentials that you will need for fun and easy home baking is provided here.

Ingredients:  People who bake frequently need to stock all kinds of flours ranging from all purpose to bread flour and cake flour to self rising flour. As an infrequent baker, you can do with plain and simple all purpose flour. You can always go out and buy a special kind of flour that your recipe demands as and when you need it instead of stocking it all beforehand only to throw it all out when it expires unused. You can easily indulge in weekend baking with all purpose flour( can do for cakes, bread, cookies and pies), castor sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and yeast in your pantry.

You will also need solid vegetable shortening and vegetable oil for baking cookies and cakes etc. If you are into easy baking, then you would definitely not want to prepare frosting at home, and having some containers of ready made frosting will let you frost your cakes without any hassle. Vanilla flavoring is an essential for most cookie and cake recipes, with most recipes requiring different flavorings based on what you are making. For every ingredient that is not an essential, go out and buy when you need instead of stocking up. Fresh ingredients will always give you better baking results.

Electronic Appliances: Assuming that you already own an electric or gas oven, there are just a couple of other appliances you will need for baking basics like cakes and cookies. If you don’t feel great about kneading, you might have to put your food processor to use. Otherwise, you will need a heavy duty hand blender with a whisk for beating eggs, cream and butter etcetera and a dry grinder for grinding sugar and spices. Using these few appliances, you can tackle almost all kinds of baking ranging from pies to cookies and cakes to breads.

Cookware: You might find baking utensils in aluminum, steel and glass in your local cooking stores. Even though glass is costlier and looks better, the best cake and pie pans are the ones that are made of dull, solid aluminum. If you are into long term baking, you might want to invest in a few non-stick ones, since they make it really easy to take out pies and cakes once they are done. You will also need a measuring cup for liquids and one for solids. Take cups that are marked for all kinds of ingredients so that you can do with just one each. Apart from these, a couple of mixing bowls, a set of measuring spoons and some basic spoons and spatulas will take you a long way on your fun and easy home baking route.