Top 7 Stores to Buy Baking Supplies
When Your Bank Account is “Running on Empty”
The 70’s were legendary. It could’ve been the free love, the skyrocketing interest rates, or their sense of grit through political change.
I disagree. It was the music.
Because when I was in college, skipping meals to afford butter for my next cake, I’d listen to songs like “Running on Empty” by Jackson Browne and think, they knew what life was about.
I look back on those years with a sense of nostalgia. I feel for strapped students, struggling moms, or young teens counting their allowance in the palm of their hands.
Which is why I’ve compiled the seven best places to find baking supplies.
As Jackson would say, “You gotta do what you can just to keep your [baking] love alive.”
#1: The Dollar Store
The more green painted on the store, the more savings. Dollar Tree’s kitchen section is extensive, providing knives, spatulas, piping bags, baking pans, and most importantly, bench scrapers.
A bench scraper is a square metal tool with a ruler etched on one end and a grip on the other. For smoothing cakes, a bench scraper is essential.
Most metal bench scrapers cost between $6 to $15. While Dollar Tree’s version isn’t fancy, it’s only one dollar.
Dollar Tree also gets an assortment of new goods for each holiday.
On Halloween, I searched desperately for skeleton fondant molds online, to discover they cost $20 or more. I went to Dollar Tree and found skeleton ice trays. I bought one, and made perfect fondant skeletons. I will never pay more than a dollar for fondant molds again.
#2: Kitchen Supply Store
This is the secret no one talks about. Most cities have kitchen supply stores, places that sell bulk kitchen supplies for local restaurants. It’s like a Costco, but for restaurant owners.
Kitchen supply stores are the best places to buy cheap baking pans, rolling pins, disposable piping bags, and cake rounds.
Cake rounds are cardboard pieces used to stabilize cakes with multiple tiers. They also give a hard “bottom” to a cake so it can be transferred to different plates or tables.
Kitchen supply stores sell a dozen cake rounds for about a dollar or two, which is cheaper than anywhere.
#3: TJ Maxx
Sweep past the racks of clothes and see several isles of cookware. TJ Maxx sells high-end bake-ware at a discounted price. Look for red tags especially.
Calphalon baking sheets (cream of the crop) can be found between $7 to $9 each. Mini pie tins, tart pans, and muffin tins are also similarly priced.
#4: Amazon
A shopping listicle without Amazon is pointless.
For first-time cake decorators, I recommend buying a cake decorating kit on Amazon. They come with dozens of tips, piping bags, spatulas, and rotating cake stands.
The brand Cakebe sells the most items with the least amount of sketch. I still use their tips and cake stand today.
Of course, you can by everything else on Amazon as well, but their cheapest items are decorating kits, priced around $20. When buying individual items, make sure to price check.
#5: Hobby Lobby
I can hear the crowds protesting, but isn’t Hobby Lobby expensive?
At full price, yes, Hobby Lobby is one of the most expensive stores to shop for baking supplies. But Hobby Lobby has a way to get even the poorest people in it’s doors.
The One-Item 40% off coupon. What a beauty.
Every day, Hobby Lobby offer’s a 40% off coupon for one item. It can be anything in the store and it applies to the highest priced item in your cart. The only downside is you can use it only once per day.
If you’re willing to go to Hobby Lobby multiple times, you can get high-quality Wilton baking supplies, like fondant rollers, pans, and food coloring for a fraction of the cost.
#6: Costco
For baking, I buy one thing at Costco: butter.
It is the most expensive part of baking. Why? Cake batter is butter, sugar, and flour. Frosting is sweet butter whipped to oblivion. Cake is butter.
Costco packs their Kirkland Signature butter into five pound packages, priced between $10 to $12 dollars. With five pounds, you’re free to make as much frosting as you’d like.
You can also buy flour and sugar at Costco to save more money, but I wouldn’t recommend that unless you have a pantry to store them. As a college student, I stored my food in my puny room, so giant bags of flour were out of the question.
#7: Walmart
I’m sorry haters, I had to. Great Value is . . . well, a great value!
Great Value has a knockoff version for every brand you’re looking for. For rarer ingredients, shop at Winco. However, for flour, sugar, and chocolate, Walmart has the cheapest options.
Being poor sucks. Going to the store is a headache. But we aren’t alone.
Everyone is “Running into the sun,” chasing an American Dream, but some of us feel like we are “running behind.” Some of us feel like we are “running on empty.”
But even running on empty, you can do what you love. And that is all you need to feel full.
