The Cake Decorating Tools We Use In The Bakery And At Home
A skilled baker still needs tools. Experience helps you make beautiful cakes, but even the best bakers rely on a handful of solid, practical bits of kit. The brilliant news for home bakers is that most of the essentials are easy to find, relatively inexpensive, and will last for years.
You do not need a full commercial kitchen to make professional-looking birthday cakes or elegant wedding cakes at home. You need the right basics, a little practice, and ideally the ability to stop buying novelty moulds you will use once and then resent forever.
There are some baking tools that are not small or cheap, hello stand mixer, you are not as hot as you think you are. But when it comes to decorating, these are the 12 tools that genuinely earn their space.
Top 12 Cake Decorating Tools
1. Turntable
To get that professionally smooth look on buttercream cakes with ease and speed, you need a cake decorating turntable. It is essentially a low pedestal that rotates manually, but the difference it makes is huge. It helps you work faster, keeps the cake steady, and gives a smoother, more even finish.
It might feel strange at first, with one hand spreading and the other hand turning in the opposite direction. It is a bit like patting your head and rubbing your tummy. Give it three minutes, and then you will wonder how you ever iced without one.
Place a cake board in the middle, pop your cake sponges on top, then spread buttercream with a spatula in one hand while the other turns the cake. Once you are covering the sides, the turntable becomes even more useful because it works beautifully with a palette knife or cake scraper.
Start with a crumb coat. Think of it like primer before paint. Spread buttercream all over the cake, then scrape it back while turning the cake against the scraper. Repeat until the crumbs are sealed and the surface is smooth enough for the final coat.
2. Angled Palette Knife
An angled palette knife, also called a cranked palette knife, is what you will use to fill, smooth and cover your cake. The bend in the blade keeps your knuckles out of the buttercream and helps you spread with more control.
That little bend is the difference between a reasonably neat cake and a super even, professional edge. I am honestly not sure why straight palette knives exist. They are basically there to annoy you.
Even layers matter, especially when building tall layer cakes or stacking tiers. Wonky layers mean a wobbly cake, and nobody wants drama at the cake table. A medium angled palette knife will cover most home baking situations.
Used flat against the side of a cake, it can behave a bit like a scraper too. They are not identical tools, but they complement each other. If you can stretch to both, do.
3. Cake Scraper
After many years of decorating, I can smooth and level a cake pretty well with a cranked spatula. But when I want a reliably sharp finish, I reach for a cake scraper.
I personally prefer a plastic scraper because it is lighter on the wrist for long decorating days. Metal scrapers have their moment too, especially in colder months, as you can warm them in hot water to help smooth stiff buttercream.
In terms of size, a medium scraper around 5 or 6 inches is ideal for most cakes. Very large scrapers can be harder to control and may encourage a slight lean if you are not careful, so save the big boys for extra-tall cakes.
Scrapers are best friends with the turntable. Together, they help create smooth buttercream sides, clean stripes, soft textures and polished finishes. Patterned scrapers can also comb neat designs into buttercream if you want something more textured.
4. Piping Nozzle Set
With just a few good piping nozzles, you can transform a simple sponge into something that looks boutique-bakery impressive. Piping gives you swirls, stars, rosettes, borders, ruffles and that smug little feeling of “yes, I made this”.
Nozzles are brilliant for cupcakes, layer cakes, macarons, profiteroles and éclairs. Each member of our bakery team has their own set of 12 nozzles. It sounds excessive, but once you know what each one does, the combinations are endless.
Good piping takes practice because every nozzle and every buttercream consistency needs slightly different pressure. But a decent set will last for years and will take you from simple birthday cakes to more detailed novelty cakes.
Use them with disposable piping bags, preferably biodegradable ones, because you will get through a fair few. Before decorating the cake, practise on baking parchment to get a feel for the pressure.
5. Piping Bags
Piping nozzles are useless without piping bags. One large bag is ideal for applying buttercream to the cake before smoothing. A few extra bags let you alternate colours, pipe borders, add florals or create stripe effects.
Our Regency Wedding Cake is a good example of how several piping styles can create that classic, romantic Lambeth-style finish.
If you bake occasionally, biodegradable disposable bags are probably the easiest option. If you decorate regularly, invest in catering-quality reusable piping bags. They are sturdier, more economical over time and kinder to the environment. Soak them in warm soapy water, rinse well and air dry between uses.
6. Rubber Spatula
A rubber spatula is not just a decorating tool. It is a kitchen non-negotiable. For mixing, folding, spooning, scraping the sides and bottoms of bowls, and getting every last bit of buttercream into a piping bag, it quietly does the work of a tiny silicone hero.
Our Hero Sponge recipe and Swiss Meringue Buttercream are both wonderfully adaptable with flavours and colours. When folding batter or marbling in flavourings, a rubber spatula helps you mix evenly without knocking out too much air.
Choose heat-resistant spatulas so they can handle warm mixtures and pan scraping without melting. Having at least two is ideal, because one will always be in the dishwasher at the exact moment you need it.
7. Electric Hand Whisk
When you need more oomph than a balloon whisk, but do not have the budget or counter space for a stand mixer, an electric hand whisk is perfect. It is ideal for whipping cream, beating egg whites, making meringues, mixing batters and preparing buttercreams.
I would recommend well-made, reliable brands such as Dualit or Kenwood. They tuck neatly into a cupboard, are easy to grab when needed, and can comfortably power you through regular baking sessions without taking over the kitchen.
8. Cake Leveller
No matter how good the recipe, most cake sponges will have a slight dome. To get straight tops and even layers, you either need a very steady hand with a bread knife or, much more sensibly, a cake leveller.
A cake leveller is essentially a tight wire cutter attached to a curved handle. You can adjust the wire height using the notches on the side, so you can choose exactly how much sponge to trim.
Let your sponge cool completely before using it. Place the cake on a flat surface, set the wire level evenly on both sides, hold the handle so the wire sits at 90 degrees to the table, and gently saw through the sponge with a steady backwards and forwards motion. Take it slowly, and watch your fingers.
9. Microwave-Safe Mixing Bowls
Pyrex glass or good-quality polypropylene mixing bowls are our favourites, but any reliable microwave-safe bowl is useful. They are brilliant for cake batter, ganache, chocolate, buttercream and general kitchen chaos.
The ability to pop a bowl straight into the microwave is a game changer for melting chocolate, gently warming ganache or softening buttercream before re-whipping. Have a few different sizes if you can, otherwise you will spend half your baking time washing the same bowl.
10. Digital Scales
Baking is science, and decorating is the art layered on top. For the science bit, you need to measure accurately. Cup measures have their place, but I am deeply suspicious of them. They vary too much and make scaling recipes a nuisance.
Digital scales take the guesswork out of baking. You can weigh directly into bowls, jugs and pans, and you will know your cakes are starting with the right ratios. If your sponge has ever behaved strangely, inaccurate measuring may well have been the villain.
11. Measuring Spoon Set
A teaspoon of this, a tablespoon of that, and about six different teaspoons in the drawer. Sound familiar? A simple set of measuring spoons saves you from vague scooping and “that looks about right” chaos.
Most recipes use a mix of grams and spoons. A teaspoon of vanilla extract here, a tablespoon of cocoa powder there. With a proper measuring spoon set, you can measure key ingredients like baking powder and bicarbonate of soda consistently, which can absolutely make or break a cake.
12. Wire Cooling Rack
Freshly baked sponges need to cool quickly and evenly if you want to avoid soggy bottoms. That is where a wire cooling rack comes in.
Wire racks are made from a grid of metal so the sponge’s weight is evenly supported. They allow air to circulate above and below, helping steam escape instead of condensing into trapped moisture on the base.
Most standard racks will comfortably fit three 6 inch sponges. If you are baking bigger cakes or multiple layers, invest in a couple of extra racks. And no, you absolutely cannot stack warm sponges on top of each other. That way lies heartbreak and peeled sponge tops.
What We Would Buy First
These really are our go-to tools in the bakery and at home. Once you get used to them, you will wonder how you ever managed without them. It takes practice, but the more you play, the better you get, and your cakes will start to look like they belong in our cake collection rather than hiding in the kitchen.
If you are starting from scratch, buy the tools that improve structure and finish first: digital scales, cooling racks, a turntable, angled palette knife and cake scraper. After that, add piping bags and nozzles for decoration. The rest can build slowly as you bake more.
Practise With A Recipe That Behaves
If you would like to focus on decorating without worrying whether the sponge will behave, our tried-and-tested Hero Sponge variations and Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe are available to buy and download.
There is also a whole selection of recipes, tips and our much-loved fake bakes here on the blog to keep you inspired, especially when you want something impressive without turning the kitchen into a flour-based crime scene.
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