Bake Off is back: Everything you need to be a star baker, according to previous winners
As the new series gets under way, it’s time you create a Hollywood handshake-worthy showstopper
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Your support makes all the difference.Hold on to your whisks, a fresh batch of bakers has returned for the 13th series of The Great British Bake Off – and we’re not sure about you, but it’s the season we really ‘knead’ right now.
As usual, this year’s contestants are an eclectic bunch – from a nuclear scientist to a music teacher, with each one likely to have whisked more eggs than you’ve had hot dinners.
Dame Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood are resuming their roles as judges, alongside presenters Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas.
We expect you’ll be as inspired as ever to craft your own showstoppers from home. And, in our opinion, there’s really no better time to give it a go, because baked goods are the ultimate comfort food.
We asked previous contestants David Atherton, Briony Williams and Jane Beedle for their advice and favourite tools to help you on your way to becoming a star baker.
From powerful hand whisks to foolproof cookbooks, here’s everything you need to nail your next showstopper and join in on the weekly challenges from home.
Crystelle Pereira: 2021 finalist
Bake Off finalist Crystelle Pereira said any aspiring baker should: “Enjoy the process!”
It’s “so easy to put pressure on yourself and feel knocked down when things go wrong,” she told The Independent, however, “I promise, you don’t need to be the best baker with years of experience to do well”.
“If you have a true passion for baking, food, and flavours, that will be more than enough to help you thrive under the pressure and churn out some incredible bakes – and it will also be your passion for baking that will make you want to learn from your mistakes and become a better baker, rather than letting them knock you down.”
When it comes to the kitchen essential that Crystelle uses for “just about everything”, it’s a flexible silicone spatula “They are so great at scraping every last bit of cake batter or buttercream out of the bowl, meaning that there is no waste,” she notes.
Unsure which one to go for? The Mason Cash innovative kitchen spatula and scraper (£7.50, Amazon.co.uk) received high praise in our review of the best spatulas, owing to the fact it’s the “answer to most of your spreading, scraping and stirring needs”.
The 2021 finalist also said “baking is all about precision, so eyeballing amounts will get you in trouble”, therefore having a “digital weighing scale will help you achieve perfect bakes every time”.
She “would always recommend using scales to measure your ingredients” rather than using cups. While she didn’t note the exact ones in her kitchen, Taylor pro dual platform kitchen scale (£32.49, Cookserveenjoy.com) came out top in our test of the best.
And finally, a “bench scraper”, while “this may sound like a one-dimensional, humble utensil”, rest assured it is “multipurpose”. Not only does she use hers to clear down her workstation, but “it is also great to smooth down buttercream on a cake and it’s also great to help you handle bread dough, especially enriched doughs that are quite sticky”.
OK, our team of crack testers are yet to review a bench scraper, but this stainless steel design by Ooni (£15, Selfridges.com) looks like it’ll do the job nicely.
Dave Friday: 2020 finalist
If you’re looking to start baking, or perhaps you’re already a pro, 2020 Bake Off finalist Dave Friday recommends you take any past or present failures “as an opportunity to learn and improve”.
“Always ask yourself ‘why didn’t that work’ and just have fun working out how to get it right. That feels more of an achievement to me than getting it right the first time around.”
For an appliance that he relies on, he credits the Neff B57CR22N0B single oven (£1,229, Neff-home.com), which he says “has all the functions I need to do everything, from proving dough, cooking pizza at high temperatures, and self-cleaning”. He added: “You can’t ask for much more.”
“I also couldn’t live without my much-loved KitchenAid (£599, Currys.co.uk),” says Dave, “it makes everything much easier – you can easily multitask and start preparing other ingredients while it mixes away”.
Finally, much like Crystelle, Dave recommends you have a “decent set of scales” in your baking stash, “without this, I wouldn’t be able to use the precise ingredients some recipes call for”. He has Salter scales (£16, Dunelm.com).
David Atherton: 2019 winner
“Bake what you love to eat. Start off simple so you get some early successes and learn about ingredients. Once you understand ingredients you can learn to substitute or create your own recipes,” is the advice 2019’s winner, David Atherton, would give to you as an aspiring star baker.
“Dan Lepard’s Short & Sweet: The Best of Home Baking (£17.40, Blackwells.co.uk) is my baking bible. All his recipes work so well, and he’s thought so intelligently about how recipes work and how to improve old favourites.”
Lepard is the country’s foremost baking guru, so this book will guide you through flatbreads and gluten-free loaves to cake frosting and caramel sweets.
When it comes to his kitchen accessory he cannot live without, it’s his food processor. “It’s so good to ground nuts to flour, blend root vegetables to add to cake mixes, pulse soaked chickpeas into a falafel mix. I use it every day.”
In our guide to the best food processors, this KitchenAid 1.7l food processor (£149, Kitchenaid.co.uk) came out top owing to its ability to make light work of chopping, pureeing, mixing, slicing, kneading and cake mixing.
“As well as being multi-use, this food processor does all of the above really quietly and is unobtrusive in size,” said our reviewer, adding that they also liked the “speed controls offering two levels, as well as the pulse function”.
Finally, Atherton recommends that any aspiring star baker should have a Microplane grater (£29.95, Johnlewis.com) in their kitchen.
He uses his for practically everything, including “zesting citrus fruits, mincing garlic, and also filing down biscuits”, making it a seriously versatile piece of kit.
Briony Williams: 2018 semi-finalist
Briony Williams told The Independent that her advice is that “even if it goes wrong, don’t give up, the only way to get better is to keep practising”. So, in order to help you keep practising, she recommends first and foremost you have a “good set of mixing bowls”.
“I’ve got one of my nan’s 50-year-old Mason cash mixing bowls that I still use today, and they’re still going strong.”
Mason Cash has been producing its traditional kitchen products for more than 200 years – coming in a range of colours and sizes there’s a lot to choose from. But this 26cm cane mixing bowl (£22.43, Amazon.co.uk) is the ideal size for bread, cakes, cookies and pastries.
After you’ve secured this, you’ll need an electrical whisk, "it doesn’t have to be a stand mixer, a powerful hand whisk will do the job and help take the hassle out of whisking. In the Bake Off tent, we had the KitchenAid hand mixer (£109, Currys.co.uk), which I love."
With nine speed settings and an LED indicator, it’s an advanced model that will comfortably fit into your hand. Plus, it comes with a handy storage bag for the included attachments – wire whisk, mixing rod, dough hooks and turbo beaters.
“It’s not cheap though,” says Williams, so for something a little kinder to the pocket, she recommends this Kenwood hand mixer (£31.99, Johnlewis.com).
Designed to be easy to use and practical, this model will perform well when mixing and aerating.
“What’s the point in baking if you don’t have great cake tins?” An essential for every aspiring star baker, she advises that you invest in three 6in, three 8in, and three 10in tins, so you can do multiple layers or create a tiered showstopper.
Of her vast collection of cake tins, her favourites are her silicone ones from Lakeland, “which are brilliant – they look brand new despite being four years old”. Sadly these particular ones are no longer available, but this MasterClass smart silicone round take tin (£10.75, Amazon.co.uk) looks just as good.
Next up, “my favourite thing that I discover two years ago, and has since saved my life, is pre-cut parchment paper that you can get from Lakeland or Amazon”. On this recommendation, we love the look of this 100-pack of 20cm circle parchment liners (£5.79, Lakeland.co.uk)
“They make lining cake tins easy and hassle-free," says Williams, and they also wipe clean, meaning they can be reused time and again – helping to make your baking a little more eco-friendly. With so many different varieties – you can choose from squares or circles, all in different sizes. A real game-changer.
And finally, when it comes to her favourite cookbooks, “I love Liam Charles’s two books Cheeky Treats (£13.14, Amazon.co.uk) and Second Helpings (£15.46, Blackwells.co.uk). They’re both fun, innovative, and very modern.”
Jane Beedle: 2017 contestant
For Jane Beedle, “aside from the obvious oven, hob and microwave, I couldn’t live without this silicone spatula (£5, Waitrose.com)”.
“I must use half a dozen a day, and you really can’t have too many. I use it for mixing, stirring, bowl scraping and slapping stuff on a cake. It’s so versatile and doesn’t melt when I get them too close to a heat source, which happens all too frequently. They come in all sizes and qualities but these never let me down."
“Another versatile piece of equipment is this KitchenCraft stainless steel hand balloon whisk (£6.99, Amazon.co.uk). I hardly use a sieve but instead whisk dry ingredients together to remove lumps from sauces and curds.”
When looking for a balloon whisk, Beedle advises that it should be “good quality and stainless steel otherwise the handles come off after several trips in the dishwasher and plastic just doesn’t have the strength”.
Her final recommendation you need for your next showstopper is a Magimix le micro processor (£54.99, Amazon.co.uk). “I use it every day, it's small and sits by the kettle so doesn’t take up much space,” says Beedle.
“I use it for making breadcrumbs, pesto, chopping nuts, small amounts of pastry – the list is endless. It's affordable too. I’m just about to buy six for my cookery school.”
And finally, as for her favourite cookbook, she loves Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course (£15.19, Amazon.co.uk). “There are so many wonderful cookbooks to choose from both old and new but Delia never lets you down whether you want to make a custard or boil an egg,” says Beedle.
If you are a confident cook or a complete beginner you can always trust Delia’s recipes.
Beedle’s final words are that you should: “Always read the recipe, allow plenty of time and get all your ingredients ready to go. It’s so easy to forget something fundamental to your bake.” She also runs online baking classes via Bake With a Legend and her own podcast The Bake Down reviewing each The Great British Bake Off episode, so you’ll find more top tips there.
Now you’re equipped with the knowledge from previous star bakers, try one of these cake tins and take a look at our baking section for further inspiration