How to Stock Your Kitchen for On the Fly Baking

How to Stock Your Kitchen for On the Fly Baking

If you’ve got kids you know how expensive baked goods can get but when you’ve got a fully stocked kitchen you won’t need to run to the store to pick up premade baked goods, you can make them yourself for a small fraction of the price you get with store bought and they will be fresher and taste better. Plus when you make your own you can control what goes into them.

With any well stocked kitchen you need the appropriate baking utensils. The right pan makes all the difference in taste and quality of baked goods. Baked products tend to stick to worn out pans, making it especially difficult to make perfectly round cakes for layering. Having several sizes and types of baking pans such as cupcake, mini loaf, different sized cake pans, cookie sheets and wire cooling racks will make creativity in the kitchen simpler. It’s also a good idea to have two sets of sifters, one for bread and pastry flours and another for cocoa nibs and to serve as an extra when you are cooking up a storm.

Stock up on different types of flour including whole wheat, white bread flour and pastry flour and have a supply of liquid, granule and powdered sugars for making your own frosting, glazes and using as sweeteners. Purchase fondant and decorations in different colors and themes during end of season sales and store them for later use. When you find boxed dessert mixes for a good price stock up on them as they can be used as a base and then spice it up with extract oils and flavorings to create specialized desserts and pastries like cream cheese brownies, pumpkin spiced cake and even carrot and rum cake during the holidays.

As you begin to stock your kitchen keep an eye out for clearance items and marked down baking supplies. Flour can be kept in the freezer to help it stay fresh longer and most fruit is better canned or frozen in desserts. Lastly, use coupons and stack them with “doubles” and bonus sales like buy one get one free and buy two get one free deals.  If there is a good sale going on and you’ve got a manufacture coupon, a store coupon and the store doubles you’ve got a potential landmine of savings right there and that is the time to stock up.