Rosanna Pansino knows a thing or two about baking. She spends 60 to 70 hours a week developing recipes and baking for her YouTube channel (which has a cool 12.8 million subscribers and more than 3 billion lifetime views since she started creating content 10 years ago). Pansino has published a New York Times bestselling cookbook, ”The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook,” and she’s the executive producer, host and a judge of ”Baketopia,” a new cooking competition show streaming on HBO Max.
We got a chance to chat with Pansino about some of her favorite kitchen tools, and can confirm that she’s just as bubbly and lovely in real life as she is online. From a splurge-worthy Vitamix dedicated to making her favorite tropical drink to her secret weapon for making iced cakes look picture-perfect, check out her picks below.
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KitchenAid Stand Mixer in Pebbled Palm
KitchenAid
As a baker, a stand mixer is a staple. You can add ingredients evenly, and you can let it sit and mix for eight minutes while you prepare other ingredients; it just makes time management so much easier. There’s a bunch of really great stand mixers out there made by different brands, but I’ve always used a KitchenAid. It’s what I started with because that’s what my mom used, and I’m just in love with it.
I actually just got a new one because after 10 years of using my KitchenAid I blew out the engine [laughs]. It started smoking. I bought the matte green one from Target, it’s the special Magnolia brand color called Pebbled Palm. Since it’s matte and not shiny, when I’m cooking on camera I don’t get a big glare, which is great.
KitchenAid Artisan Series 5 Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer, $399.99 (the Pebbled Palm color is exclusive to Target)
I actually just got a new one because after 10 years of using my KitchenAid I blew out the engine [laughs]. It started smoking. I bought the matte green one from Target, it’s the special Magnolia brand color called Pebbled Palm. Since it’s matte and not shiny, when I’m cooking on camera I don’t get a big glare, which is great.
KitchenAid Artisan Series 5 Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer, $399.99 (the Pebbled Palm color is exclusive to Target)
Crate & Barrel Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
Measuring doesn’t matter as much for cooking, but for baking it really comes down to the measurements and the science, so I’m always using measuring spoons. And these ones from Crate & Barrel are my favorite. I love them because you can toss them in the dishwasher and the measurements are engraved in the metal, which means they don’t wear off over time.
Crate & Barrel Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons, $12.95
Crate & Barrel Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons, $12.95
Smeg Citrus Juicer
In the backyard of our new home we have 10 orange trees -- they’re humongous! I used to have a manual citrus juicer, but recently invested and got an electric one. I love this juicer. It makes it so easy to have fresh orange juice every morning, and sometimes on the weekends we make mimosas. The sensor is great. I just press down a little bit and it starts juicing.
Smeg Citrus Juicer, $179.95
Smeg Citrus Juicer, $179.95
Vitamix The Quiet One
This is my splurge item. I got this a couple years ago to make piña coladas. They’re my favorite tropical drink, and when we went to the Four Seasons in Oahu the chef made the best piña colada I’ve ever had. I got the recipe and tried to recreate it at home, but the texture just wasn’t quite right. So I went back to Hawaii and talked to the chef, and he showed me the equipment they use and it was this blender. It is a commercial blender, but it makes the best piña coladas you’ve ever had and I regret nothing. I use it for other things, like making smoothies, but it’s basically a piña colada machine in this house.
Vitamix The Quiet One , $1,173.68
Vitamix The Quiet One , $1,173.68
GreenPan Padova Ceramic Nonstick 10-Piece Cookware Set
I was looking for new pans because mine were getting pretty banged up and we needed something cuter. I started to do a lot of research and came across these on Goop. I thought they were a really cute color, and the more I read about them, the more I fell in love. They’re nonstick ceramic, nontoxic and eco-friendly, and I thought they were a good price.
GreenPan Padova Ceramic Nonstick 10-piece Cookware Set, $250
GreenPan Padova Ceramic Nonstick 10-piece Cookware Set, $250
Kootek Revolving Cake Stand
I’m obsessed with this. If you’re a baker, you probably have a turntable in your kitchen. When you’re icing a cake it really makes it look professional. You plop your cake right onto this turntable, put the icing on, and with an offset spatula you just gently spin it around and around until it gets super-even and your cake looks like it just came out of a bakery. This is my secret weapon for making my cakes look so good, and I use it pretty much every day.
Kootek Revolving Cake Stand, $27.99
Kootek Revolving Cake Stand, $27.99
Scotch-Brite Non-Scratch Dishwand
Because I’m cooking and baking so much, there’s a lot of cleanup that has to happen. I’ve tried different things over the years, like bristles and odd sponges and things, and I just fell in love with this silly little dish wand. You load the soap into it and there’s a button you press to release some of the soap, and it helps me clean up all of my baking pans and everything else so much easier than scrubbing it by hand or using other brushes where I’m having to add more soap. I started using these years ago and I’ve never gone back.
Scotch-Brite Non-Scratch Dishwand, $2.97
Scotch-Brite Non-Scratch Dishwand, $2.97
