Oven and Bakeware - Your Baking Equipment Guide

The last few years has seen a resurgence in home baking, with cooks rediscovering a love for baking. It's also a great way for parents to have fun with their children - most of us had our first experience in the kitchen baking some sort of treat. Add to this the wide availability of new cake mixes and flours, not to mention the variety of cake tins to bake them in, and you have the perfect recipe for enjoyable, healthy cooking without the additives you might find in the supermarket versions.
 

We have two main sections in our bakeware guide:
 

• Baking Equipment - types of baking tins, pans, sheets, dishes and accessories that are part of our bakeware selection.
   
• Bakeware Materials - the materials used to make baking equipment and ovenware from our oven and bakeware brands.

If you know what kind of product you need, go to the Oven and Bakeware search page to list product types, or alternatively you can go directly to one of our oven and bakeware brands listed below:
 

• Silverwood - this range of bakeware has a silver anodised, smooth, easy-release finish created by the manufacturing process.
   
• Master Class - a range of robust commercial weight bakeware with a high quality, double layered non-stick coating.
   
• Anolon - a quality range of non-stick carbon steel bakeware with the added safety of SureGrip silicone rubber handles.
   
• Nordic Ware - a beautiful range of cast aluminium Bundt bakeware pans in a multitude of shapes, as used by Nigella Lawson.
   
• Le Creuset - a great selection of beautiful stoneware all-in-one cookware pieces that you can bake, slice, serve and store in.
   
• Denby - as with tableware, their baking dishes are exceptionally versatile, and safe for use in the oven, microwave and freezer.
   

Our bakeware guide will help to answer your questions and assist your selection of the right baking equipment for the job in hand - be that cake pans for sumptuous sponges, tins for baking bread and trays for making biscuits or Yorkshire puddings to accompany the Sunday roast.

 

Baking Equipment

Bakeware for Cakes

Cake tins or pans come in a variety of depths, sizes and shapes for baking the perfect cake. Loose base cake pans are ideal for removing a large cake and are available as square or round pans. They are two piece tins with a separate base. When the cake has cooled the tin can be slid off, leaving the cake sitting on the base. Solid base cake tins require lining and are also available as square or round pans. A springform pan is a cake tin with an expanding sidewall, which is clipped shut during baking, and unclipped afterwards to remove the cake. It's also useful for making cheesecakes. Sandwich pans/sandwich tins are round shallow cake tins for making half a Victoria sponge. Tube pans are a different type of bakeware. Angel cake is usually baked in a tube pan, a tall, round pan with a tube up the centre that leaves a hole in the middle of the cake. A Bundt pan, based on a traditional German design, is also a type of tube pan, but the fluted sides can make releasing the cake more difficult, though this is not usually a problem with a dense cake mix. The centre tube allows the cake batter to rise higher by 'clinging' to all sides of the pan and, unlike other cakes, the pan should not be greased to allow this to happen. After baking, the cake pan is inverted while cooling to prevent the cake from falling in on itself. This type of bakeware is the most popular baking tin sold in North America.
 

Oven and Bakeware for Biscuits, Small Cakes and Savouries

Baking sheets are a basic type of bakeware made from flat aluminium or steel sheets and are used for baking biscuits, cakes and rolls. They generally have one edge upturned to make them easier to handle. A muffin pan is flat with six or 12 flat bottom indents, deeper than a bun tin, for baking batches of muffins that kids will love. Similar baking tins can be used for small cakes. Oven trays and bake pans are simple flat based tray with a rim for easier handling that can be used for baking, as with abrownie pan, or simply for cooking some oven chips. Another type of oven tray is the pizza tray, a large circular metal tray with a lip, sometimes perforated, for cooking or reheating pizzas. The perforations allow moisture to escape from the base of the pizza to make it crisp.
 

Bakeware for Bread and Puddings

Loaf pans or loaf tins are deep rectangular metal tins designed for baking the traditional British loaf of bread - usually in 1lb or 2lb sizes. This bakeware type can be used for meat loaf, pates and terrines. Mini brioche moulds are a specialist piece of bakeware with a deep conical shape and fluted sides, designed to give the traditional shape of a brioche roll. Asavarin mould is a ring shaped tin with a central raised area which can be used to make doughnut-shaped sweet breads used in desserts, as well as cakes.Pudding moulds are used for sticky toffee puddings, individual Christmas puddings and lemon sponges. A dariole mould is a small, upright mould that can be used for sweet or savoury recipes.
 

Bakeware for Pies, Tarts, Quiches and Flans

Flan, tart, and quiche dishes are shallow baking tins or pottery pieces, round, square or rectangular, that have a fixed or loose base. Designed specifically for baking pastry flan cases or complete flans, a flan dish has the hallmark of fluted sides to improve presentation. A pie dish can be found in deep or shallow varieties and may also have fluted sides.
 

Baking Accessories

A number of accessories are essential when baking. An oven thermometer ensures accurate oven temperatures are maintained and aprobe thermometer can check the actual temperature of your baking and a cake thermometer will change colour at the correct temperature to indicate your cake is ready. Scales are available in a wide range from traditional balance scales that use weights, to modern electronic models. Measuring jugs and measuring cups come in a variety of metric and imperial measures. Many recipes give quantities in cup sizes - please be aware that Australian and American sizes differ slightly from UK measures. Sieves are used for airing ingredients as well as removing unwanted items from powders and liquids. A cooling tray is a wire mesh tray with feet used for cooling cakes, buns and biscuits after baking. The feet hold the tray above the work surface allowing air to circulate for faster cooling.
 

Biscuit/Cookie Cutters and Shapes

Pastry cutters and cookie cutters are tools for cutting out dough in a particular shape and can also used for cutting and shaping sandwiches. Generally home bakers choose from these 3 types: 1. Cut outs, which are usually made out of copper, tin, stainless steel, aluminium or plastic. Cut outs are the most simplest of cutters and only "cut out" the shape in the dough. 2. Detail imprints commonly made out of copper, tin or plastic. Imprints not only cut out the dough, they also leave an imprinted design in the dough that will last through baking. 3. Cookie moulds, which are usually made out of wood or ceramic or plastic.Rosti rings and cooking rings have grown in popularity as chefs have introduced Swiss Rosti (potato fritters) onto menus. These rings are now used for moulding and cooking a whole range of different dishes. Rings can also be used for muffins, crumpets and pikelets, or to shape perfectly round fried eggs.
 

Roasting and Oven Dishes

Roasting pans are generally large and rectangular and used for open-roasting meat and vegetables. Yorkshire pudding trays are a type of baking tray with four or more wide, shallow indentations.Oven dishes are usually made from enamelled cast iron or stoneware and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Meat thermometers allow you to cook your roast to perfection.

Bakeware Materials

Anodised aluminium bakeware has the naturally occurring, outer layer of aluminium oxide thickened by an electrolytic process to create a surface that is hard and non-reactive. We sell two types of anodised bakeware: Silver anodised bakeware features a silver, smooth, easy clean finish with the aluminium core ‘sealed in’ to give durability and excellent heat conductivity. Hard anodised bakeware has a much thicker layer of anodised material which is twice as hard as stainless steel. Metal utensils such as whisks and spoons can be used without damaging the surface. See the Silverwood brand for anodised bakeware.
 

Non-stick bakeware - over 70% of metal bakeware is sold with a non stick coating. Non-stick bakeware eliminates the need for greasing or lining tins before use - saving time and effort. Modern steel bakeware is most often coated with a PTFE coating which produces a non-stick surface. There are several leading coatings such as Teflon, and most leading bakeware ranges have at least two coatings to produce a long lasting, durable layer that can withstand high roasting temperatures and can also be washed in the dishwasher. See the Master Class Bakeware and Anolon SureGrip non-stick bakeware ranges.
 

Cast aluminium bakeware is much stronger than the pressed aluminium associated with enamelled saucepans. It has good heat retention properties, is very durable and will last a lifetime. Many different shapes can be cast - see the Nordic Ware collection for some great bakeware designs.
 

Stoneware is dense, impermeable and hard enough to resist scratching by metal utensils, especially once finished in an attractive glaze. This type of bakeware and ovenware is available in an assortment of tempting colours and a variety of practical shapes, some of which are designed for cooking specific recipes. See Denby and Le Creuset for a great selection of stoneware oven dishes.
 

Silicone bakeware is a fairly recent alternative to metal bakeware. It is light, flexible, and non stick which allows for easy release of food when cooked and is especially suitable for small cakes and buns. Often you will need to use a metal baking tray underneath but silicone bakeware is a modern, colourful addition to the kitchen. We will soon be expanding our Le Creuset Silicone bakeware.