The following references for purchasing products are dependable sources for cooks and bakers of all experience levels and needs and, over time, they have distinguished themselves from the standpoint of quality and customer service. Be sure to check and verify items for availability, as changes in stock are possible as the months progress or various inventories shift with regard to their offerings.
August Thomsen Corporation (Ateco)
August Thomsen Corporation is the source for Ateco products, which include a high-quality, selected range of specialty baking tools (including molds and pans), cake decorating tools, and other baking-related supplies.
Bella Viva Orchards
Bella Viva Orchards sells gorgeous dried fruits (and nuts) of exceptional quality. The range includes yellow nectarines and white nectarines; white peaches and yellow peaches; Dapple Dandy pluots; Betty Anne plums, Moyer prunes, and French prunes; Bing cherries and Rainier cherries; red flame raisins, Thompson raisins, and Golden Thompson raisins; sweet apricots, tangy apricots, and slab apricots; cranberries; and pears. It is well worth it to stock up for fall and winter baking when the flavors and textures of dried fruits are so appealing when added to cake, bread, and cookie batters and doughs.
Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods, Inc.
Bob’s Red Mill is a premium source for an extensive and high-quality range of whole grain cereals, grains, flours, seeds, and meals; cornstarch; leavenings; and sugars, among other baking items. Both the quality and variety of the goods are stunning. The full catalog list may be viewed on the Web site, but I love having the actual mail-order catalog booklet in my hands.
Bridge Kitchenware Corporation
Bridge Kitchenware is a destination shopping place for fine baking tools, including sifters and dredgers, knives, pastry blenders, all kinds of bakeware (muffin pans, cake pans, and tart pans), spoons and spatulas, baking sheets, rolling pins, pastry decorating equipment, and other items for the avocational and professional cook.
Fireworks Popcorn
Fireworks Popcorn offers twelve varieties of beautiful popcorn (non-genetically modified). Of particular interest for creating caramel popcorn is the Orchard Blossom variety (it is actually pink, but pops large and white). All varieties are quite flavorful, with a genuine (and most delicious) corn flavor. The sampler of all twelve types is a great way to experience the range of textures and flavors that the company sells.
Fran’s Cake and Candy Supplies
www.franscakeandcandysupplies.com
Sallee McCarthy, the owner of Fran’s Cake and Candy Supplies, maintains the quality of the business, a respected resource for cake decorators, sugar artists, and bakers of all levels of proficiency. The store carries a range of cake decorating supplies, including food-safe paste colors; all types of baking pans (both traditional and whimsical); piping gel; sprinkles and sanding sugar; decorative cupcake picks and ovenproof paper baking cup liners; icing and offset spatulas; pastry bags, brushes, and tips; materials for wedding cake specialists and showpiece work; and all types and sizes of bakery boxes for presentation, among other items. Fran’s Cake and Candy Supplies also holds cake and cookie decorating classes, as well as classes on the art of sugar work and candy making (for details, check in with the store for a calendar of events). Ms. McCarthy, highly knowledgeable in the area of cake decorating and cake craft, is responsive to even the most detailed questions, and generously offers solutions to decorating concerns and queries.
India Tree
Consult the store locator on the India Tree Web site to find a business that stocks India Tree products, which include sparkling sugars, light and dark muscovado sugars, golden baker’s sugar, demerara sugar, and maple sugar.
JB Prince Company, Inc.
JB Prince sells a high-end selection of bakeware and cutlery. Not to be missed is the superb array of serrated knives and pastry equipment, which inlcudes cutters, cooling racks, cake pans, whisks, tongs, strainers, and other specialty tools.
King Arthur Flour
King Arthur Flour stocks baking supplies and ingredients, tools, and equipment, including decorating sugars, flours, yeasts, extracts, leaveners, thickeners, and spices; measuring equipment; baking pans; processors and mixers; and bread-crafting equipment and the like for bakers of all proficiency levels.
La Cuisine—The Cook’s Resource
In its perfectly edited space, La Cuisine offers a range of French pastry essences; gorgeous copper of all shapes and descriptions; essential baking molds and tins; woodenware; cast iron; a wonderful French fryer assembly (basket and fry pot); cutters and decorating equipment; all this in addition to seasonal supplies and edibles. The small staff takes pride in kitchen-testing the goods on the shelves and, as such, can extend valuable information to any consumer—this is especially helpful for the esoterica.
La Cuisine is also an important reference point for some of the items used in the recipes contained in this volume and offers an availability list of chosen bakeware and baking-related products that dovetail with my recommendations for equipment, flavoring agents, and like goods. For your consideration, connect with the store’s Web site and its informative newsletter to view what’s currently available. As well, La Cuisine takes pride in securing, when available, specialty items for customers through telephone or e-mail contact. La Cuisine ships worldwide.
New York Cake and Baking Distributor
New York Cake and Baking Distributor is a destination location for all goods related to baking. The store stocks a complete range of bakeware in many types and styles, including cake pans, tart pans, and muffin pans; cookie sheets and cookie cutters; cooling racks; molds of all sizes and shapes; strainers; measuring equipment; whisks and spatulas; and a detailed range of pastry bags, pastry tips, and food-safe paste food colors. The staff is knowledgeable and committed to the art, craft, and execution of baking.
Rose Levy Bakeware
Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of The Cake Bible and Rose’s Heavenly Cakes (among other notable books), is, to say the least, cake-savvy and baking-eloquent. Two bakeware items that you will be proud to have and use in your batterie de cuisine have been perfected by Rose and are available at www.amazon.com: a band that hugs a cake pan and a pie dish. Rose’s Heavenly Cake Strip, a silicone band that fits around the sides of a 9-inch layer cake pan or an 8-inch square pan, allows the batter to rise evenly, creating moist edges, and virtually eliminates any annoying peaking or cresting. (Avid layer cake bakers should consider owning two cake bands.) Rose’s Perfect Pie Plate, with its deeply fluted edge (9 inches in diameter, with a capacity of 4 cups), is a natural for baking pies, of course, but it also works for snuggling hand-formed yeast rolls and brownie or blondie batters destined to become crustless “pies.”
Sugarpaste’s Crystal Colors are U.S. Certified Food Colors: dried food-safe food color powders perfect for applying with a neutral spirit (vodka is recommended) for “painting” on royal icing–coated cookies, kneading into fondant icing, mixing into buttercream frostings or royal icing, or for dusting on gum paste flowers; there is a beautiful color range available (view the color chart online). Sugarpaste also carries flower cutters, veiners, and molds for decorative gum paste work. The owner of Sugarpaste, Elizabeth Parvu, is an accomplished sugar artist and instructor, and welcomes professional queries through her Web site. Ms. Parvu also teaches classes in the art of gum paste worldwide. Be sure to consult her Web site for a calendar of appearances and the special recipe for handmade pearls to enhance royal icing–coated cookies, fondant-covered cakes, and buttercream-decorated cakes. Ms. Parvu has posted this recipe especially for the readers of Baking Style. Regarding a source for fondant (a component for creating the handmade pearls), Ms. Parvu recommends the fondant ingredient, Satin Ice, available at www.satinfinefoods.com.
Sur la Table
Sur La Table is a resource for cookware, bakeware, and a range of food- and baking-related products. Of particular interest to bakers is the extensive range of decorating tools, baking pans (including bread molds), baking sheets, and mixing bowls.
Ultimate Baker
Ultimate Baker carries a wide range of Ateco products (view the online catalog on the Web site) for baking plain and fancy.
Whole Foods Market
The following, available at regional Whole Foods Market locations, are of particular interest to bakers: dried fruits, chocolates, crystallized ginger, honey and maple syrup, nuts and seeds, whole grains and whole grain flours, extracts, whole and ground spices, oils, organic eggs, premium butters and other organic dairy products, organic all-vegetable shortening (nonhydrogenated), sugars (including natural turbinado sugar, organic turbinado raw cane sugar, evaporated cane juice sugar, pure cane rough-cut cubes, organic ground cane sugar, raw cane sugar, and demerara sugar cubes), and unsulphured medium-shred macaroon coconut and natural unsweetened medium-flake coconut.
Williams-Sonoma
www.williams-sonoma.com
Williams-Sonoma stocks bakeware and cookware, including cake and muffin/cupcake pans, cookie sheets and sheet pans, bread pans, mixing bowls, measuring equipment, and various seasonal pastry tools, among other items.
Wilton Industries, Inc.
Wilton is a reliable source for cake decorating supplies, and the Wilton Cake Decorating! yearbook is an essential guide to cake decorating products and how-to information. Wilton stocks a range of pastry tips and pastry bags; baking pans and molds; ingredients for icing and frostings (including meringue powder); and many cake decorating–specific supplies, such as levelers, doilies, corrugated cake boards, stencils, and packaging materials.