Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Essential Cake-Baking Equipment

OVENS: No two ovens bake exactly the same. All ovens, except for those with circulating trays, will have some hot spots. Convection ovens tend to bake more evenly but still have hot spots. I rotate my cakes halfway around after two-thirds of the estimated baking time—except if they are sponge-type cakes such as génoise or chiffon, which will fall if moved before they finish baking. When you get a new oven, try baking a familiar cake to see how it turns out. I use my All-Occasion Downy Yellow Cake from The Cake Bible. Get to know your oven and you can adjust accordingly.

I find the Square Dot (a dual oven and probe thermometer) by ThermoWorks invaluable to test the range of fluctuation and, if necessary, lower or raise the temperature. From my experience, gas ovens fluctuate less than electric, but I find both work well for cake-baking.

Don’t be afraid to try things out. Although most cake recipes conventionally say to bake in the center of the oven, I recently realized a mind-blowing fact and wonder why it took me so long to think of it: My Gaggenau, which is considered to be the Rolls Royce of ovens, has a hot spot in the center front. So, I tried baking a cake off-center and it baked totally even in color!

INSTANT-READ THERMOMETER: Many years ago, I designed and marketed mercury thermometers, which were the only ones accurate to a fraction of a degree. But then mercury became illegal to use in the kitchen. I couldn’t imagine anything taking its place until ThermoWorks came up with a thermometer that was even more accurate, and the latest model, Thermapen ONE, reads in under a second—far speedier than my mercury thermometers in their wildest dreams! I cannot contemplate baking without it. Everything has a temperature, and I want to know exactly what it is, especially syrups and cakes!

INFRARED THERMOMETER: ThermoWorks also produces an infrared thermometer, which I use to test various locations where temperature is critical for ingredients such as butter.

SCALES: The Cake Bible was the first cookbook to offer weight measures, and it has taken more than three decades for baking authors to embrace the sheer superiority and ease of weighing over measuring by volume. The scales I find to be the most reliably accurate are the Escali Alimento, the My Weigh, and the OXO.

STAND MIXER: Yes, you can use an electric hand mixer at slightly higher speeds than indicated, but if you do a lot of cake-baking, you will want to have a stand mixer. The KitchenAid Artisan 5-quart tilt-head mixer works for almost all cakes except wedding cakes that would have to be baked in batches.

LAYER CAKE PANS: My favorites are USA Pan 9-inch-round, 2-inch-high pans made of aluminized steel. They bake evenly and unmold easily.

BUNDT PANS: Nordic Ware cast aluminum are the gold standard. The 10-cup pans come in many designs, but I recommend choosing ones with simpler shapes, which are easier to unmold. If I had just one pan, it would be the Anniversary Bundt Pan, which works equally well for 10- and 15-cup cakes.

OTHER PANS: Tube pans for chiffon and angel food cakes, springform pans for cheesecake, heavy-gauge sheet pans for cake rolls, and muffin pans for cupcakes.

Find Rose on Instagram at @realbakingwithrose and at realbakingwithrose.com.