If you bake, there are many tools that make baking easier and more fun – a lot of bells and whistles – yet you can bake without those gimmicky things. We’ve compiled a list of five items that no baker’s kitchen should be without.

1. Quality measuring cups
Did you know that you should use a different type of measuring cup for liquid and dry measure? It’s true! For dry measure items, I love my collapsible silicone measuring cups (pictured above) – they fold flat in my drawer so they don’t take up too much room. For liquids, the OXO angled measuring cup has easy to read measurements.

2. Parchment paper
Parchment paper comes on rolls (like waxed paper and aluminum foil), in sheets, or in rounds and while you CAN bake without it, using parchment paper makes most of your baking tasks much easier. Have you ever scraped cookies off a baking pan and ended up breaking half the batch in your efforts? Parchment paper reduces that as well as simplifying cleanup.

3. Pure vanilla extract
Please, don’t use imitation vanilla extract! Though imitation extracts are definitely cheaper, the flavor in no way compares to the real thing. You may be saving money, but you’ll lose that warm vanilla taste.

4. Utensils you are comfortable with
I’m not a utensil snob. I prefer to use wooden mixing spoons when I bake. I love the feel and ease of use and how they don’t scratch the bottoms of my pans. However, whether you use wooden spoons or whether a spoonula is more your style – find utensils that work well for your baking projects that feel good to use – it makes it a lot more fun (For me, I find it tremendously frustrating to use flimsy spatulas to mix batter!).

5. A pantry stocked with baking basics
There are things you should have on hand if you are, as I am, prone to spur of the moment baking projects: flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter (the real stuff, preferably unsalted), baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Those (give or take a few items) comprise the base of MANY recipes. From there, it couldn’t hurt to have on hand things you know you enjoy making – I buy chocolate chips in the four pound bag from Costco!

What are YOUR baking essentials?