Can’t do without Cupcake Equipment

It’s a very busy night. I’ve got Cupcake Week on Martha Stewart on the DVR. American Idol is on and tonight is the season premier of Hell’s Kitchen! Whew! In honor of Cupcake Week however on MS, I think it’s important to talk about cupcake essentials.

My favorite kitchen essentials are my OXO non-slip bowls. I’ve got two sets of the three graduated sizes. I like that they’re light and stackable. Most cupcake (cake) recipes call for the butter and sugar to be mixed separate from the dry ingredients. These bowls are the perfect for sifting flour and other stuff. Finally, these bowls have a pouring tip on them. When I’m making a cake recipe that’s runnier, I don’t have to scoop out the batter; I can just pour it out.

Another cupcake essential (or pet peeve) is good baking cups. I hate it when a cake sticks to the liner. I’ve had my share of using Reynold’s Baking Cups and I think that if I was only making cupcakes every now and again, they would be fine. But I’m baking every week and I’m not always baking the nice and simple box cake recipe: Sometimes cake recipes are dense, sometimes they’re sticky and other times they’re just messy. My favorite baking cups have been Beyond Gourmet Unbleached Baking Cups and for fun these Fluted Baking Cups. I’ve got two sets of silicone baking cups, but I think they’re a pain to wash.

Finally and I blame this blog, for my mostest essential baking item. My camera. I use a little point and shoot Kodak and I love it. It’s got two settings that I use most when shooting food; Auction and Bright Flower. I feel that it shoots a picture that’s clear and I don’t have to play with too many settings. I use a few free photo editing packages to clean up the pictures, but for the most part I like how it takes pictures. You might like to read this blog post about how to take pictures of food too, Photojojo.

So, what I want to know from you is what can you not live without in your kitchen?