Associate Recipe Editor Kye Ameden goes through a lot of flour like all of us bakers , so she buys hers one giant bag at a time. Keep an eye out for discounts on frequently used baking ingredients and snap them up when they go on sale.

You can then store in the freezer for the long term until ready to bake. Other ingredients this works well for include discounted fruit, nuts, and herbs. You can make the most of your freezer beyond just storing sales.

It goes for freezing baked goods, too. Classic cake frosting is full of expensive butter. This is a particularly great option for snacking cakes. See our previous post: How one plant-based milk became our test kitchen's favorite "egg" wash.

Sourdough starter is a treasure, but it can use up a lot of flour to maintain. Baking Ambassador Martin Philip suggests reducing how much flour you use and buy!

by keeping a smaller sourdough starter. Sarah is also a big fan of frozen fruit. frozen fruit in baking. For classic chocolate baked goods, David advises baking recipes that call for cocoa instead of pricier chocolate.

Examples include these Chocolate Dream Cookies, Chocolate Pound Cake , and Chocolate Madeleines — all of which rely on cocoa powder for full flavor and rich taste. Make a pie crust with cookie crumbs see tips at the bottom of our Graham Cracker Crust recipe , trifle with a cake that crumbled or came out a tad dry, potato rolls with leftover mashed potatoes, or bread pudding or French toast with staling bread.

For more ideas, see our previous post: 6 ways to use up leftover bread. Parchment paper is one of our all-time favorite baking products. To reduce the amount she needs to restock, Senior Recipe Developer Molly Marzalek-Kelly will reuse parchment sheets as much as she can.

Turn to trusted resources like the King Arthur recipe site , where our extremely diligent Test Kitchen does extensive testing and thoughtful developing to ensure each recipe will succeed.

Which means no wasted ingredients — or money. If you're looking for budget-friendly recipes, try our beloved Cake Pan Cake , a Depression-era recipe made with frugal ingredients, or Our Favorite Sandwich Bread , a classic loaf with a short ingredient list that will last you all week long.

Do you have more tips for baking on a budget? Please share them in the comments, below! Cover photo by Rick Holbrook. I just lightly grease the given pan with shortening. You should look at Great Depression era cookbooks--none use parchment paper at all and all grease pans with fats.

Recommended product: MasterClass Smart Space Stainless Steel Handheld Cooking Whisk. Peter explains why this collapsible whisk may be the best option if you're short on storage space: "As a beginner, it can be overwhelming to accumulate lots of tools that take up precious counter and storage space.

Thankfully, the stainless steel head of this MasterClass whisk simply pushes back into the handle, making it easy to store away in crowded drawers or cupboards.

Ideal for students or people with smaller kitchens. Plus, with its attractive and practical design, you can even hang it up on a utensil rack to save even more room.

Peter says: "The foundation of successful baking is accuracy and precision, and kitchen scales can help with that. While it is possible to eyeball your ingredients once you get the hang of it, precise measuring is essential for beginners to produce reliable results from their favourite recipes.

All you need to do is wave your hand over the built-in sensor to send the reading back to zero. To learn more, check out our guide to the 10 best kitchen scales.

After baking, it's crucial to cool your baked goods evenly and quickly to avoid sogginess or loss of shape. A cooling rack elevates your baked goods, allowing air to circulate underneath and around them, resulting in even cooling. This is especially important for bakes like cookies, cakes, and bread, which can continue to bake and become overcooked if left to cool on a flat surface.

Recommended product: MasterClass Non-Stick Cooling Tray. This MasterClass cooling tray ticks a lot of boxes: the strong carbon steel material easily handles heavy cakes, while the mesh supports smaller items. And you'll be glad to know the non-stick coating prevents cake from sticking to your rack, so washing up is super easy!

Whether you're making pie crusts, cookies, or bread, a rolling pin provides the control you need to evenly flatten dough or pastry, creating the perfect consistency for your baked goods.

That's why having one in your kitchen cupboard is a good idea. Recommended product: MasterClass Quarry Marble Rolling Pin and Stand. And not only does it give high-quality results for your bakes — it's a beautiful addition to any kitchen with its elegant design and stand, which provides a stylish display for your rolling pin when not in use.

Baking recipes often include milk, eggs, and vegetable oil, so having a measuring jug is always helpful for getting the quantities right.

Other recipes like pancakes , gravy , and soup also call for a measuring jug, so it's good to have one to hand. Recommended product: KitchenAid Set of 3 Measuring Jugs. Peter recommends KitchenAid measuring jugs: "I like this set of measuring jugs as the different sizes are perfect for all kinds of recipes.

The non-slip handles and integrated spouts make pouring mess-free, and the measurement markings are really clear and easy to read. Plus, they nest together so I can pop them in the cupboard without taking up too much space.

Whether you're mixing together wet ingredients for a cake batter or stirring up dry ingredients for a batch of cookies, a mixing bowl is, of course, a baking essential. Most recipes require a couple of mixing bowls, especially those that involve separating dry and wet ingredients, so it's best to have at least two.

Recommended product: MasterClass Stainless Steel Brass Finish 24cm Mixing Bowl. This stunning brass-finished mixing bowl is not only functional but also adds a touch of glamour to your kitchen. Peter agrees: "Aside from using it as a mixing bowl, I love serving up salads and pasta with this bowl to my guests; it complements any table spread!

Plus, its large size is ideal for mixing, proving, and fermenting bread dough. A sieve or sifter is useful for dry ingredients like flour and cocoa powder to remove any lumps and ensure a smooth texture.

This is especially important in sponge cake, as lumps can cause the batter to be uneven and not rise in the oven, resulting in a dense and heavy bake. Recommended product: KitchenAid Strainer Stainless Steel Mesh Sieve.

This KitchenAid sieve is a great tool to have in your baking toolkit. It sifts flour to lump-free perfection, and the lip ensures it stays in place in your mixing bowl, making it easy to use with just one hand. The stainless steel basket with fine mesh holes also allows liquid to pass through while capturing any clumps.

Ideal for custards or macarons, which require a smooth texture. Baking sheets can be a real timesaver when it comes to washing up; they prevent excess batter or oils from getting onto your pan.

They also keep your baked goods from sticking, which is especially important when working with delicate items like meringues to prevent breakage.

Recommended product: KitchenCraft Non-Stick Large Baking Sheet. If you're looking to live a more sustainable lifestyle , this reusable baking sheet is a game-changer. It can be used around 1, times, making it an eco-friendly and cost-effective solution for any home chef!

Say goodbye to throwing out reams of traditional greaseproof paper or using messy oils; the durable non-stick surface saves you the hassle. It's also dishwasher friendly and can be rolled up for easy storage.

What's not to love? Cupcakes are classic baked goods that can bring joy to any occasion, and if you want to try creating some at home, you'll need some cake cases. They ensure your cupcakes cook evenly and make for easy cleanup — your bakes won't stick to your baking tin!

Recommended product: KitchenCraft Assorted Paper Cake Cases. Whether you're baking with your children or hosting a party, these KitchenCraft cake cakes will elevate your cupcakes with their colourful, fluted designs.

Not only are they aesthetically pleasing, but they're also practical with a greaseproof lining, ensuring easy cupcake removal without leaving any residue behind. If you're planning a BBQ , cupcakes make for excellent finger food that your guests can tuck into, and these cases will add a pop of colour to your grazing board!

After putting in all the effort and time to bake a scrumptious dessert, you'll want it to remain fresh and delicious for as long as possible.

That's if you've managed to resist eating it all in one go! A storage container can come in handy; it provides an airtight seal to help preserve the freshness and flavour of your baked goods.

Recommended product: KitchenCraft Lovello Textured Latte Cream Cake Storage Tin. Cakes are a treat to be savoured, and this cake tin with a matching lid provides a secure seal to keep them fluffy and moist for longer.

The deep yet compact design has plenty of space for large bakes while fitting neatly on counters or shelves. And the retro-modern design means this tin is both stylish and practical. To learn more about keeping your food fresher for longer, read our food storage guide on choosing the best meal prep container.

Although a zester will certainly make zesting a lemon easier, it's not technically needed. Read our review of food processors.

Ninja is known for its powerful appliances and for the price, this machine performs the basics of chopping, kneading, grating and slicing extremely well.

It has a neat footprint and its smart design would look good on show in a kitchen. Electronic hand mixers — sometimes called beaters — are a good choice for people lacking storage space in the kitchen.

They make quick work of creaming butter and sugar, whipping cream or whizzing batters, and take up a fraction of the space of stand mixers. Read our review of hand mixers. The major perk of cordless appliances is the flexibility of movement they give you. The battery power on this mixer is indicated by three progress bars so you get a warning when running low.

You only use them for short periods each time so one full charge should allow for use multiple times. It's also powerful for the price. As accuracy is key in baking, a good set of scales are necessary for measuring out ingredients. Choose from digital or manual — we like digital as they can usually accurately measure right down to a gram or two.

This ultra-slim set of scales measures dry ingredients up to 5kg. It has a clear and easy-to-read LCD display with multiple options for unit of measurement, and a tempered glass top that offers plenty of room for accommodating large bowls. It also has a handy tare function, which will allow you to weigh ingredients in the same bowl.

After use, it can be wiped clean and stored in a dry place. Read our full guide to the best kitchen scales. This is an essential piece of equipment for helping air to circulate around your freshly baked cake or biscuits, avoiding sogginess during the cooling process.

This budget-friendly rack ticks a lot of boxes being both non-stick and dishwasher safe, as well as made from sturdy stainless steel.

This all-rounder is large enough to handle two large cakes at the same time. A dredger — also known as a shaker — is useful for lightly dusting surfaces with flour or icing sugar when rolling out doughs or icing. However, a tea strainer or sieve can perform the same function perfectly well.

Read our review of the best shakers. This model is a classic dredger design and is strong and high-quality for a good price. It has a high-grade gauze lid that screws on tightly and a pleasing, well-sized shape. A handy tool for cake decorating, a smoother helps to give you a professional finish, smoothing down your marzipan or fondant ready-to-roll icing after you've applied it to the cake.

You can buy this from specialist cake decorating shops. Read our review of cake decorating gadgets for more ideas if you want to create showstopping layer cakes. This smoother is highly versatile and effective for all sorts of bakes.

It will help to reduce air pockets in icing, buttercream and ganache. It is also ideal for handling dough and scraping out any leftovers from the bowl.

This type of paper is ideal for wrapping food, particularly greasy or fatty foods. It's often suggested as a suitable wrapping for fruit cake before placing it in a tin. It can be used in the freezer as well as the microwave and oven. If you are using it for lining a cake tin, you should also lightly butter or oil the paper before spooning in the cake mix.

Baking paper or greaseproof paper is also useful bakes and is available in supermarkets. For home and professional bakers alike, this baking parchment is great for wrapping cakes or lining baking trays.

Perfect for pastry work, it also has an easy cut safety blade for fuss-free cutting to size. Available from: Amazon £7. If you like to decorate cakes with marzipan or sugar paste, then spacers will help you achieve an even thickness.

These can be bought from specialist suppliers. Follow our marzipan recipe collection for all things almond flavoured. These simple but effective tools will allow an even layer of marzipan or icing so that cakes look effortless and very neat.

Easy to use and clean, these will sure be a winner if you're a keen baker! Available from: Cake Stuff £3. People often under- or overestimate the size of a teaspoon or tablespoon. Measuring spoons ensure an accurate amount is used, important in baking.

If you like to use American recipes, it's also worth buying a set of measuring cups to avoid tricky conversions. We've got guides outlining the best measuring cups and spoons for you to stock the cutlery drawer. This cup set looks sleek and fresh.

The handles have a non-stick coating, which is great for buttery fingers. Baking recipes often include oil, milk or other liquid ingredients, so a measuring jug is essential for getting the quantities right. As a measuring jug is needed for so many cooking purposes, it's always useful to have one to hand.

A classic homeware brand, Pyrex provides great quality glassware kitchen accessories for easy cooking and baking. This measuring jug has a multifunctional lid, with two different sized spouts for fast or slow pouring and a full cover lid function for keeping contents fresh.

A 1-litre measurement capacity, it is the perfect universal size for baking and cooking and is made from sturdy borosilicate glass. It's useful to have at least two large mixing bowls as many recipes require more than one. Choose glass, metal or plastic according to preference but it's worth having heatproof ones so that you can put them in the microwave or over simmering water when melting chocolate.

Read our review of best mixing bowls. This nest of bowls is an impressive all-in-one option. The large mixing bowl is 4. Neatly stacked inside, the colander and sieve are big enough to tackle standard tasks.

The handles are easy to grip and the set is lightweight. A palette knife is a long, thin implement with a rounded end. It has a wide range of uses, including smoothing on icing or cake fillings, scraping bowls and cutting butter into flour.

Read our review of cake decorating gadgets. Larger palette knives, like this inch one, are perfect for icing larger cakes as their wide metal edge helps cover more surface area.

A pastry brush can be used to glaze your pastry with egg wash or milk or for brushing filo pastry with melted butter. It's also good for brushing off excess icing sugar when cake decorating.

Read our review of pastry brushes. This professional-standard natural brush comes with a super-strong plastic handle for easy cleaning.

The brush is also nice and flat and very affordable.

Kitchen Scissors Rolling Pin Chef's Knife

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Cost-effective baking essentials - Pastry Brush Kitchen Scissors Rolling Pin Chef's Knife

The recipes you attempt will have a big impact on how much money you spend on your baking. Where should you start? With cookies. Sugar cookies have short, simple ingredient lists, are so fun to make, and the add-in options are endless: choose sprinkles, lavender, spices, citrus zests, or whatever your budget allows.

Likewise, meringue cookies made with leftover egg whites are a true gift for the thrifty baker. You can tint them with food coloring in delightful pastel colors, or embellish them with a small amount of freeze-dried fruit.

Bar cookies like blondies , lemon bars , and brownies made with cocoa! are the next stop on the Budget Baking Bus. After that: cakes, but no layers cakes with their pricey buttercream frostings and ganaches. Instead, go for coffee cakes and muffins topped with a brown sugar streusel you can leave out the nuts.

Pound cakes , bundt cakes , and snack cakes are also great recipe choices, because they, too, usually eschew frostings and fillings, and they can be flavored with whatever affordable ingredients you have on hand: citrus zest, berry glazes, or a simple dusting of powdered sugar.

And those, of course, are the riches that matter. Cheryl Day is the author of several baking books and the owner of Back In The Day Bakery in Savannah, GA. Kendra Vaculin. David Tamarkin. Joe Sevier. The Smart Cook Linkbanner Make a Food Budget.

Sometimes a big bowl and a whisk is all you need in life. Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Katherine Sacks. Sensible ingredients. Photo by Chelsie Craig, Prop Styling by Nathaniel James, Food Styling by Laura Rege.

Reasonably priced recipes. No frosting, no filling—you practically save money just looking at this cake. Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Kate Buckens.

Tags Baking Cookie Cake. Baking Ambassador Martin Philip suggests reducing how much flour you use and buy! by keeping a smaller sourdough starter. Sarah is also a big fan of frozen fruit.

frozen fruit in baking. For classic chocolate baked goods, David advises baking recipes that call for cocoa instead of pricier chocolate. Examples include these Chocolate Dream Cookies, Chocolate Pound Cake , and Chocolate Madeleines — all of which rely on cocoa powder for full flavor and rich taste.

Make a pie crust with cookie crumbs see tips at the bottom of our Graham Cracker Crust recipe , trifle with a cake that crumbled or came out a tad dry, potato rolls with leftover mashed potatoes, or bread pudding or French toast with staling bread.

For more ideas, see our previous post: 6 ways to use up leftover bread. Parchment paper is one of our all-time favorite baking products.

To reduce the amount she needs to restock, Senior Recipe Developer Molly Marzalek-Kelly will reuse parchment sheets as much as she can. Turn to trusted resources like the King Arthur recipe site , where our extremely diligent Test Kitchen does extensive testing and thoughtful developing to ensure each recipe will succeed.

Which means no wasted ingredients — or money. If you're looking for budget-friendly recipes, try our beloved Cake Pan Cake , a Depression-era recipe made with frugal ingredients, or Our Favorite Sandwich Bread , a classic loaf with a short ingredient list that will last you all week long.

Do you have more tips for baking on a budget? Please share them in the comments, below! Cover photo by Rick Holbrook. I just lightly grease the given pan with shortening. You should look at Great Depression era cookbooks--none use parchment paper at all and all grease pans with fats.

I am not of course disparaging people who use the item, and recognize the lower fat content and other baking uses where parchment paper is preferred, but again it is a resource that cooks of another generation never bothered with.

Wonderful point Troy! Thanks so much for sharing your experience with parchment or lack there of! We appreciate you taking the time. Canola oil is about a quarter of that. Always remember that almost everything you make from scratch costs a great deal less than the ready made equivalent.

Particularly cost effective are the bread recipes that use only flour, water, yeast and salt. I cut into squares whatever is extra when lining loaf or square pans. I use them to line bottom of steamed pork buns helps seal filling in when I steam them. Lots of great recipes on your website, and I love this article!

They make quick work of creaming butter and sugar, whipping cream or whizzing batters, and take up a fraction of the space of stand mixers. Read our review of hand mixers. The major perk of cordless appliances is the flexibility of movement they give you.

The battery power on this mixer is indicated by three progress bars so you get a warning when running low.

You only use them for short periods each time so one full charge should allow for use multiple times. It's also powerful for the price. As accuracy is key in baking, a good set of scales are necessary for measuring out ingredients. Choose from digital or manual — we like digital as they can usually accurately measure right down to a gram or two.

This ultra-slim set of scales measures dry ingredients up to 5kg. It has a clear and easy-to-read LCD display with multiple options for unit of measurement, and a tempered glass top that offers plenty of room for accommodating large bowls. It also has a handy tare function, which will allow you to weigh ingredients in the same bowl.

After use, it can be wiped clean and stored in a dry place. Read our full guide to the best kitchen scales. This is an essential piece of equipment for helping air to circulate around your freshly baked cake or biscuits, avoiding sogginess during the cooling process.

This budget-friendly rack ticks a lot of boxes being both non-stick and dishwasher safe, as well as made from sturdy stainless steel. This all-rounder is large enough to handle two large cakes at the same time. A dredger — also known as a shaker — is useful for lightly dusting surfaces with flour or icing sugar when rolling out doughs or icing.

However, a tea strainer or sieve can perform the same function perfectly well. Read our review of the best shakers. This model is a classic dredger design and is strong and high-quality for a good price. It has a high-grade gauze lid that screws on tightly and a pleasing, well-sized shape.

A handy tool for cake decorating, a smoother helps to give you a professional finish, smoothing down your marzipan or fondant ready-to-roll icing after you've applied it to the cake.

You can buy this from specialist cake decorating shops. Read our review of cake decorating gadgets for more ideas if you want to create showstopping layer cakes. This smoother is highly versatile and effective for all sorts of bakes. It will help to reduce air pockets in icing, buttercream and ganache.

It is also ideal for handling dough and scraping out any leftovers from the bowl. This type of paper is ideal for wrapping food, particularly greasy or fatty foods. It's often suggested as a suitable wrapping for fruit cake before placing it in a tin.

It can be used in the freezer as well as the microwave and oven. If you are using it for lining a cake tin, you should also lightly butter or oil the paper before spooning in the cake mix. Baking paper or greaseproof paper is also useful bakes and is available in supermarkets.

For home and professional bakers alike, this baking parchment is great for wrapping cakes or lining baking trays. Perfect for pastry work, it also has an easy cut safety blade for fuss-free cutting to size. Available from: Amazon £7. If you like to decorate cakes with marzipan or sugar paste, then spacers will help you achieve an even thickness.

These can be bought from specialist suppliers. Follow our marzipan recipe collection for all things almond flavoured. These simple but effective tools will allow an even layer of marzipan or icing so that cakes look effortless and very neat. Easy to use and clean, these will sure be a winner if you're a keen baker!

Available from: Cake Stuff £3. People often under- or overestimate the size of a teaspoon or tablespoon. Measuring spoons ensure an accurate amount is used, important in baking.

If you like to use American recipes, it's also worth buying a set of measuring cups to avoid tricky conversions. We've got guides outlining the best measuring cups and spoons for you to stock the cutlery drawer.

This cup set looks sleek and fresh. The handles have a non-stick coating, which is great for buttery fingers. Baking recipes often include oil, milk or other liquid ingredients, so a measuring jug is essential for getting the quantities right. As a measuring jug is needed for so many cooking purposes, it's always useful to have one to hand.

A classic homeware brand, Pyrex provides great quality glassware kitchen accessories for easy cooking and baking. This measuring jug has a multifunctional lid, with two different sized spouts for fast or slow pouring and a full cover lid function for keeping contents fresh.

A 1-litre measurement capacity, it is the perfect universal size for baking and cooking and is made from sturdy borosilicate glass. It's useful to have at least two large mixing bowls as many recipes require more than one. Choose glass, metal or plastic according to preference but it's worth having heatproof ones so that you can put them in the microwave or over simmering water when melting chocolate.

Read our review of best mixing bowls. This nest of bowls is an impressive all-in-one option. The large mixing bowl is 4. Neatly stacked inside, the colander and sieve are big enough to tackle standard tasks. The handles are easy to grip and the set is lightweight. A palette knife is a long, thin implement with a rounded end.

It has a wide range of uses, including smoothing on icing or cake fillings, scraping bowls and cutting butter into flour.

Read our review of cake decorating gadgets. Larger palette knives, like this inch one, are perfect for icing larger cakes as their wide metal edge helps cover more surface area. A pastry brush can be used to glaze your pastry with egg wash or milk or for brushing filo pastry with melted butter.

It's also good for brushing off excess icing sugar when cake decorating. Read our review of pastry brushes. This professional-standard natural brush comes with a super-strong plastic handle for easy cleaning. The brush is also nice and flat and very affordable. A fine sieve made from metal or plastic is ideal for sifting flour and icing sugar, which is highly recommended when cake-making.

It can be easier to use a small tea strainer to dust surfaces and decorate desserts with icing sugar or cocoa. We've reviewed the best kitchen sieves for you to try. This sieve will make it easier to sift flour and icing sugar whilst baking.