Tools:
Kitchenaid Artisan Mixer Definitely an investment, but so worth it! I love love love my Kitchenaid ❤️ The link to this one takes you to a pretty apple red number, but they come in a whole host of different colours to suit your kitchen decor. They are a hard working machine that also look pretty 😍 Kenwood are also a premium quality brand.
Kitchenaid flex edge paddle beater This beater is better at scraping the bowl down as you mix than the standard beater.
Aluminium turntable 12”diameter Upping your cake decorating game? Upgrade to a good quality heavy based metal turntable. This one hasn’t disappointed 😀
PME Straight Spatula 11.5” A straight spatula is great for applying and smoothing at the same time, especially over flat surfaces.
PME Offset Spatula 13” The offset spatula gives you more control and stops you accidentally knocking your finish with your hand!
Straight edge metal bench scraper 6” This scraper has measurements printed on it and a soft touch handle. Because it is steel it can be heated in hot water to get a smoother finish on buttercream too.
PME mini palette knife This little knife with a 2.8” blade is so versatile. Use it to trim, lift and place your sugarpaste items.
Wilton piping tips 1M, 2D, 2A Everyone should have these three tips in their toolbox. Perfect for buttercream swirls and much more. Beware cheaper copies! There are other good brands out there but I prefer my Wilton ones 😃
Queen of Hearts Disposable Piping Bags THICK Pack of 100 These sturdy piping bags and brilliant for buttercream piping and using with the Nifty Nozzles
Bubble tea/Milkshake straws These are great for using on tiered cakes. They give an internal structure that supports the weight of your cakes and prevents sagging. For extra strength for wedding cakes etc, I would use poly dowels.
Poly dowels Stronger than bubble tea straws, I use these to support heavier cakes, or any cake that needs transporting. Better safe than sorry!
PME cake pans are my favourite brand. They are seamless and made from anodised steel and I get perfect results every time. I use 3” tall ones, but they also come in 2” tall and 4” tall. Most of my cakes are round but PME also have square pans, loose bottom pans and even an oval shape!
PME baking belt 3” high Using a baking belt gives you even baking, avoiding doming, cracking etc and excess caramelisation on the sides of your cake. They also come in different heights and lengths to suit any tin size.
Cake Star Push Easy Cutters MINI ALPHABET UPPERCASE I bought these after struggling to get letters out of ordinary cutters. Now a quick ‘plunge’ and they’re out!
Cake Star Push Easy Cutters MINI NUMBERS Set of 10 See above
Cake Star plastic turntable 12” A brilliant entry level turntable that is a must in any cake decorating toolbox.
Cake star plunger cutters Good quality plunger cutters in a variety of shapes and sizes
Molly Robbins Creature Creator Cake moulds and feet This innovative range has been a game changer for making 3D cakes. Little or no wasted cake, and no fiddly carving. Perfect for me as I struggle with pain in my hands, but equally useful if time is precious.
PME Tall Scraper Stripes This versatile scraper has a patterned edge down one side which enables you to make a stunning stripe effect on a buttercream iced cake.
Fmm geometric cutters A great little set to have on hand as it offers various sizes of essential shapes
Sweet Stamps by Amy Cakes – Brilliant letters and numbers embossing sets in lots of beautiful fonts
Nifty Nozzles Genuine Russian Piping Tips The only genuine Russian piping tips! Don’t be fooled by copies. Create beautiful flowers for your cakes and cupcakes
Lil’ Rolly This is another of those game changing tools! A new product by Evil Cake Genius, it looks like a miniature paint roller! What it does is smooth out buttercream and ganache. Once you’ve applied it you pop your cake in the fridge for 10 minutes. Roll your ‘Rolly’ in a little icing sugar or cornflour then gently smooth out any remaining lumps or bumps on your cake. Miraculous!
Cakes by Berina flexi smoothers These are brilliant for getting out any lumps, bumps, seams, cracks and imperfections in your sugarpaste!
Blossom Sugar Art Studio Boxed Set Over the years, I’ve collected my fair share of flower cutters, most of them weren’t very good quality and some of the plunger variety broke after only a few uses. I would advise buying good quality branded plunger cutters! But I recently treated myself to this set of cutters which comes with veiners.
Silikomart ‘baba’ or dariole moulds are perfect for making your own walnut whip style desserts. These 45mm ones are the perfect size!
Silikomart hemisphere moulds 40mm. Perfect for those fluff filled ‘teacakes’ with a bit of jam in the middle. Yummy 😋
For the perfect recipe and an in depth video tutorial on how to make the walnut whips and chocolate teacakes too click the link below
Edibles:
Sugar and Crumbs flavoured icing sugars.
A whole host of flavours to enhance your buttercream, this product can also be substituted for sugar in any recipe 😀 It’s also superfine so no need for sifting! I use these a lot! They are suitable for vegetarians, vegans, and are gluten free. For recipe ideas visit:
https://www.sugarandcrumbsmixingitup.co.uk/
Sugar and Crumbs flavoured cocoa powders
These can be used wherever your recipe calls for cocoa, giving your recipes an extra kick of flavour without adding synthetic flavourings. They make an amazing brownie! (Amongst other things!)
Sugar and Crumbs Whipping it Up A new multi use product for making Swiss Meringue Buttercream, Mousse, Pavlova, Marshmallow fluff and much more. Available in 6 yummy flavours 😀
Colours: Gels, Dusts, Lustres, ‘Bling’ Airbrush etc
These are my go to colours. They are bake stable, vibrant and amazing value! Add to sugarpaste, modelling paste or buttercream to create your own unique rainbow 🌈
There are lots of different brands of dusts and lustres, and sometimes it’s difficult to choose! Mostly it comes down to colour choices, but there are some brands that stand out for their quality, value and the finish they add to your cakes and confections.
Coloursplash These come in a variety of effects, matt, metallic and pearl, giving you the flexibility and freedom to create a whole range of projects that will wow the recipient. They can be brushed straight onto your project, or mixed with rejuvenator/vodka/lemon juice to create a paint which can then be painted direct onto your cake/decoration
Faye Cahill
These are a beautiful range of edible dusts in both 10ml and 20ml pots, that you can use for paint, spray or dusting onto your creations. They leave a rich colour on your projects, and are suitable for use on sugar paste, marzipan, some chocolate, royal icing and flower/modelling pastes. Suitable for both vegetarian and vegan diets, they are dairy, nut, GMO and gluten free.
Rainbow Dusts Have a large range of edible matt powder colours that cover the whole colour spectrum. Perfect for colouring decorations or adding detail to your creatings by either dry dusting or matt paints by adding to either rejuvenator, vodka or lemon juice.
Sugarflair Dusts, paints and other products Finishing sparkle refills, Matt dusts and much more 😃
Sugarflair finishing Sparkle pump The perfect way to add a bit of sparkle to your goodies. Just spritz it on for instant bling! I love this product! It comes in silver, gold and rose gold, but the pump can be refilled with any of the Sugarflair sparkle colours.
Sugarflair Airbrush colour set A good value set of eight colours including gold and silver.
Sugarpastes and Modelling Pastes
Renshaw premium Coverpaste is a softer consistency that is perfect for 3D cakes as it takes texturing brilliantly. It’s also great value!
Select Ireland Platinum is a premium quality firmer sugarpaste with extra stretch making it ideal for covering even tall cakes and getting a beautiful smooth finish. It has a lovely vanilla flavour too. A mid range price for a premium product! Edit: They now make a bespoke platinum sugarpaste that is Sugar and Crumbs strawberry milkshake flavour!
Renshaw ready to roll coloured sugarpaste is ideal for darker colours. For pastels I like to use Coloursplash mixed with white, but deeper colours can be tricky to achieve without affecting the consistency of your sugarpaste.
Renshaw flower and modelling paste Flower and modelling paste is perfect for creating figures, flowers, fine details and it works great with moulds. It remains flexible longer than traditional modelling pastes, which allows for easy correction of mistakes, ideal for fine detail work and maintains a great eating quality. It has a smooth and soft texture, good elasticity and rolls out thinly. It is ideal for using with cutters, embossers, mould or hand modelling on projects where you require fine detail or strength. It sets firmly, which makes it great for small components. It comes in a variety of colours in 250g packs, or white is available in either 250g or 1kg. It can be coloured using either dusts, gels, paints or you can airbrush it.
Baking for Therapy 