I love to bake, it’s definitely a soothing activity for me and feeds my very sweet tooth. The great mixing capabilities of the thermal machines mean that I am doing more baking than ever – woo hoo.

There are some essentials that I find I turn to time and time again for baking and some that I’ll buy for a specific recipe and never use again.

Here are my top 10 essentials to keep in your pantry when baking in your Thermomix:

1. Vanilla essence/extract

Some people prefer to use whole vanilla beans, but for me that is far too much hassle. So I pick a decent quality extract and I have to admit tend to use lashings of it to give that scrumptious vanilla flavour.

2. Plain flour

Necessary for nearly all baking recipes, whether sweet or savoury. If you are space challenged, there’s no need to have a separate self-raising flour as you can easily convert plain flour.

3. Baking powder

This is the difference between plain and self-raising flour, so essential to have in the cupboard. To use to convert plain to self-raising, just add 2 teaspoons of baking powder to 1 cup of plain flour and mix.

4. Bicarb soda

No – not the same as baking powder, and gives a different result in recipes so it’s best to have both on hand. Bicarb is also very useful as a cleaning agent.

5. White Sugar

Unless you are in the ‘I quit sugar’ group you’ll need some type of sugar for most of your sweet baking recipes so keep a stash of the white stuff on hand.

6. Brown Sugar

If you have to drop out one thing, you are probably best to keep white sugar and leave the brown but the difference can change the flavour of your cakes and muffins, so try and make room for both.

7. Cinnamon

Used in stacks of baking recipes, especially muffins. I find I can go through a little jar quite quickly.

8. Salt

How can you possibly embrace the salted caramel trend without some salt on hand? Seriously though, you’ll use it so often.

9. Cocoa powder

Another where quality can matter. Read the label to see what’s in the cocoa. Bizarrely in Australia one of the best versions is the Woolworths Home Brand Cocoa, which is 100% cocoa and very reasonably priced.

10. Rolled oats (not quick)

Great for biscuits, muffins, toasted muesli and so many other things. Keep these in the cupboard and if you feel they’ve been there too long, just whip up a batch of Anzac Biscuits.

So that’s my list of the top pantry items for baking. I’m sure there’s many I’ve missed so do let me know what’s on your essential list in the comments.

Of course the best way to test out these staples is with some of the fantastic recipes in Kate’s Thermo Cookbook. Available on iPad, iPhone and Android via Kindle.

Thanks for reading,

Kate