With Great British Bake Off 2025 back on screens, it’s very likely that those of a cake-making persuasion are going to be dusting off their recipe books and arming themselves with spatulas in a bid to keep up with the 12 bright-eyed hopefuls attempting to bake their way to victory.
Baking, after all, is a pastime beloved by millions.
It’s joyful and experimental, it teaches perseverance (who hasn’t suffered a soggy bottom on occasion?), it rewards hard work with decadent treats. Best of all, it fills the house with the warm and sweet scent of vanilla.
It’s wonderfully nostalgic, too; it can allow you to revel in the joyful memories of a long-departed family member by baking their favourite cookie recipe, to concoct the boozy cake that’s been the mainstay of every Christmas for as long as you can remember, to knock up your grandpa’s bread rolls – the ones that could (and maybe did) concuss several unlucky ducks during your visits to the pond.
It’s also an excellent way to show off! Rock up to a party with a freshly made focaccia and you’re everyone’s friend. ‘Who made this?’ the crowds will cry. ‘Oh, that? It was nothing,’ you lie, glowing like you’ve just downed five litres of Ready Brek.
Why you should trust me
As the master baker of a Devon tea room, I know firsthand that a tea room is nothing without its bakes. In any given week, I make at least 10 different cakes, from coffee cake and carrot cake to a quite frankly outrageous Baileys-tinged tiramisu cake (customers come from miles for a slice).
I cook brownies, cookies, Guinness soda bread and approximately one million scones. Frankly, I am 90 per cent flour at this stage.
As such, I am hyper-aware that having the right gear is the recipe for success. Baking is science, after all, and every sponge cake is just one gust of wind away from collapse.
I would be hopeless without my KitchenAid stand mixer, ruined without my Mason Cash spatula. When I lost my most trusted Lakeland piping nozzle, I’m not embarrassed to tell you I wept.
All that’s to say: a decent recipe is just the start; to really earn that star baker apron, you need the right equipment.
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KitchenAid
Price: £££
Any baker worth their salt knows of KitchenAid, the American brand whose stand mixers celebrate kitschy Americana with their cute, colourful, retro designs.
The KitchenAid is considerably more than just a pretty face, though. The Tilt Head Stand Mixer is among the most sturdy and reliable appliances I’ve ever known, and while it’s an undeniably pricey item, it’s one that’s built to last. Mine has made well over a thousand bakes over the past couple of years, and it still works like it’s fresh out of the box.
You don’t have to take my word for it – all of your online baking faves, from Cupcake Jemma, to Jane’s Patisserie to Sally’s Baking Addiction use KitchenAid stand mixers to make their breads, pastries and cakes. Even Cronut creator Dominique Ansel has one in the kitchen.
Kitchenaid is a celebrity in its own right, really, as it’s one of the two mixer brands you can expect to see used in the Great British Bake Off year after year.
Buy now, Harrods
Kenwood
Price: ££
The other stand mixer keeping the Bake Off contestants ship shape in the tent is the Kenwood kMix, a true powerhouse machine with a 1000-watt motor and a solid base that will work the kinks out of your buttercream in a flash.
Kenwood is something of a British institution and a brand you’re likely to see in professional kitchens. It’s particularly loved by bread bakers, with its kneading capabilities giving your hands a well-deserved rest. Although not as aesthetically pleasing as the kMix, the Kenwood Chef Baker is the brand’s most impressive offering, featuring integrated scales and a timer to ensure precision.
Buy now, Wayfair
Lakeland
Price: ££
Lake District-based Lakeland began as a mail order supplier of agricultural polythene bags for poultry packing, but when founder Alan Raynor handed over the reins to his sons in the 1970s, the business moved towards kitchenware and speciality foods.
Today, the high street store is an oasis of calm in whatever town centre it resides in, offering gadgets and gizmos aplenty for foodies to gawp at and covet.
Lakeland’s own brand equipment puts up a considerable fight against better known brands, offering dependable items at a snip (the 6.5L stand mixer gives great bang for its £230 buck). I make daily use of their professional piping tips, which merrily slot into piping bags with no need for a coupler.
Buy now, Lakeland
Le Creuset
Price: £££
This iconic French-Belgian brand is famed for its enamel-coated cast-iron cookware, but Le Creuset is so much more than a purveyor of colourful crock pots.
The company’s bakeware range, from muffin tins, to cookie sheets, to loaf pans are a real investment (with many coming with a lifetime guarantee for the original owner). Made from carbon steel, with silicone handles for an easy grip, these are never going to warp. The non-stick coating for easy release really lives up to its promise, too, and the material provides a solid, even heat throughout.
This is serious stuff for serious bakers, and provided you treat them well (e.g. don’t put them in the dishwasher!) they’ll last forever.
Buy now, Le Creuset
Mason Cash
Price: £
Mason Cash first designed its farmhouse-style mixing bowl in 1901, and it has been a kitchen mainstay ever since. The pottery brand has managed to lend a timeless quality to its bowls by decorating them in a raft of gorgeous colours and patterns, so they’re as beautiful as they are functional.
It’s not all mixing bowls, though. Mason Cash has branched out in recent years with a great line of utensils, too. Its trusty Innovative Kitchen Spatula is a favourite, pulling double duty as a bowl scraper and a frosting spreader.
Buy now, Amazon
Our Place
Price: ££
This is a brand that needs no introduction. Every millennial foodie you know either wants or has their Always pan, and eagle-eyed watchers of With Love, Meghan may have clocked that the Duchess has switched from her beloved Le Creuset to the Titanium Always Pan Pro.
The pans may be what gave Our Place status, but the bakeware is made with the same non-toxic non-stick coating, which makes clearing up a doddle.
The bakeware set is a great starting place, but if you want to give the brand a try without too much of a financial commitment, the silicone baking mats are a wonder for crispy cookies!
Buy now, Our Place
Nordic Ware
Price: ££
Baking is science, sure, but you’d be hard-pressed to look at some of the elaborately decorated cakes on the market and not call it art, too.
No company takes this to heart as much as Nordic Ware. Born out of the ashes of World War II, Nordic Ware was founded in Minnesota, America, by Dotty and Dave Dalquist, who had just $500 to their name and a dream: to create Scandinavian-inspired bakeware.
The Bundt pan pioneers would probably be astounded to see what their brand has in its range today, from elaborate haunted house-shaped cake tins to nutcracker sweet moulds to loaf tins adorned with fruits and flowers.
As long as you grease and flour everything well, you should be making absurdly beautiful treats in no time.
Buy now, Amazon
Fortnum & Mason
Price: £££
Fortnum and Mason has been supplying gourmet food and luxury items to London’s finest since the 18th Century, but the homewares on offer - all flourished with the brand’s signature Eau de Nil green-blue hue - are entirely worth your consideration.
The Fortnum’s Kitchen Baking Selection, which contains a pudding bowl, measuring spoons and a silicon whisk, is a real statement of intent for fledgling bakers: a promise of luxury to whomever graces your kitchen.
Buy now, F&M
Smeg
Price: £££
The Italian appliance brand is a hallmark of extravagance – it seems as if every aspirational beachfront television home has a SMEG fridge completing its million-dollar look, and the brand’s retro stand mixer is a much-coveted item by bakers who seek style as well as substance.
SMEG can cite the likes of Kim K, Gwyneth Paltrow and Reece Witherspoon amongst its fans: in other words, women who know a fair bit about luxury.
Me? I’ve been lusting after the SMEG Digital Kitchen Scales ever since they landed on the market – fast charging and insanely beautiful, they’ll add precision to your baking and panache to your kitchen.
, Smeg
Ooni
Price: £££
Ooni is perhaps a surprise entry on this list, given that the brand is renowned for its pizza ovens, but the first step of any good pizza is dough, so the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer felt like an inevitable step.
With a 2-lb capacity, professional-kitchen-worthy dual-kneading technology and 58 (58!) speeds, the mixer turns precision into an art form.
It’s perhaps a little niche, but given the stir it’s caused (pardon the pun), we’d be remiss not to slot Ooni in here.
Buy now £699.00, Ooni
VonShef
Price: £
The VonShef by VonHaus range does a great line in bargain kitchen wares and is a great entry-level brand for novice bakers.
If you’re curious but not quite committed to the idea of starting your baking journey, the stand mixer - coming in at around £69.99 - isn’t too much of a risk to take, and with a 1000-watt engine and 8 speeds, it will have even the most inexperienced chefs whipping up meringues in no time.
Buy now, Amazon
Staub
Price: ££
French brand Staub’s ceramic bakeware range adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the kitchen counter with its bold pops of colour.
An enamel coating on the bakeware ensures slick retrieval and an easy clean up, while the ergonomic design promises less chance of accidents.
The mixing bowls are sturdy enough to take a beating, too, while the 24-cm ceramic pie dish is the perfect dimension for a family-sized pud.
Buy now, Amazon
GreenPan
Price: ££
GreenPan landed on the market in 2007, launching a range of PFAS-free nonstick ceramic-coated pans. In more recent years, it has evolved to include bakeware and kitchen appliances.
The brand has a great following and can name actor turned home cook Stanley Tucci as a collaborator, with his name added to a flurry of releases earlier this year. The sturdy bakeware benefits from the brand’s patented Thermolon technology, so your muffins will slide out of the pan with ease.
If it’s good enough for the Tucc…
Buy now, F&M
