Baking - cheapest ingredients / best equipment?

picklednut

I've decided to take up a new hobby and want to start cake baking / making cupcakes. What would you recommend as a starter kit eg shape / sizes / types of tins and where should I get them from? I don't mind paying a little extra for quality if they are going to last me a long time.

Also, what will need as a basic ingredient starter list eg flours / sugars etc. Where is the cheapest to place to buy ingredients?

Horseunderwater

Cheaply getting tins - look around car boot sales and see what is going there. They will clean up with a soak in cheap cola very easily. That is the baked on carbonised stuff. Rusty ones ignore. Go for prestige if you can find them as they are good quality, also Tala a make from the 1960's if not damaged stay nice for years. Non stick are useless as it wears out quickly. Far better to grease and flour a tin to stop mix sticking. I use the marg paper to grease then some flour banged around inside tin to coat the fat.
Cheaper ingredients: Basic or value flours are fine as is own brands of margarine or lard. Buy gran sugar in 5kg bags as it will save anywhere upto 20p per kilo. Caster sugar mostly not needed uless you are doing something like a swiss roll/genoese mix. If using fruit, buy each fruit type separately, and to plump them up soak them in water for an hour or so. Or if you want a twist add some rum or a little cheap brandy mixed in with water too. Eggs I use value or basic ones, but the trays of 30 not available at moment due to EU ruling on battery hens. If I make flapjacks I use cheap rolled oats and value syrup, but tend to use billingtons brown sugar.
A staple cake recipe is: Victoria sponge cake - proportions for recipe are 1 egg to 2oz SR flour/sugar/marg, but a 7-8inch pair of tins will need prob a 4 egg sized mix so you'd need to times the basic recipe by 4 to get approx right quantity. Can be mixed in one go by electric hand whisk or in a food processor within moments and plonked into the tins. Oven heated to 180 degrees C and baked 20 mins, then checked re touch with mit test. If cake springs back up it is done if not its not. So 5 more mins usually needed. I have a fan oven. Try that for a start.

Edwardia

All my loaf tins and so forth getting a soak in cola today thank you Horseunderwater !!

OP I'd suggest looking in Lidl during offers for baking equipment as well and they also sell cheap sugar, Sicilian lemon juice etc. You can get trays of 12 eggs from Iceland for £1 and some 99p and Poundland stores too

macma

We make wine and buy granulated sugar in 5k bags
Sainsburys or Tesco seem to be cheapest £3.95 last time we bought.

McKneff

Are you baking for yourself or to sell.

picklednut

Just baking for myself (and family and friends). Thanks all for the suggestions so far.

cazj80

I buy value/basics/smartprice plain and self raising flour, and my cakes are just the same as my Mum's, who buys branded flour, I've never noticed any difference and the value flours are 52p for 1.5kg.

I also stock up when things on are on offer. Tesco had 3 for 2 on their baking section a while ago. All the savings help!

McKneff

Morrisons dried fruit, in the basics section is brilliant and half the price of Whitworths etc.

abitofhelp

i use the value flour for baking and the 2kg tubs of own brand marge (best for baking i think its called) same as stork but cheaper, i use free range eggs ald1 are between £1.49 - £1.99 can't remember sorry for 15. also value oats and syrup, value bars of chocolate are great chopped up for choc chip coookies. if anything is on offer i stock up then also. i agree with cazj80 the tesc0 3 for 2 offer was fab, running out of plain flour now though. oh invests in good quality items for me i'm just a general cheapskate he bought me some mermaid bakeware from lakeland some years back, and they are very well made, i also have supermarket tins that i bought which really work just as well a bit battered but still work. good luck, i enjoy a good baking session.

Edwardia

Not sure what I'm doing on the carbiest thread on MSE :eek: but I noticed that 99p Stores has a kilo of Tate & Lyle granulated sugar for 82p and Poundland has 1.2kg bags of Whitworths granulated sugar for £1.

Violetta_2

Have a look at this thread some amazing bakers & lot's of advice too.