From free to fancy: Gift suggestions for your favourite home baker

The holidays are almost here! Looking for the perfect gift for the home baker in your life? Fret no more, our bakers from Season 7 of The Great Canadian Baking Show have you covered. 

Piping kit 

Cost: $

Piping sets are a great way to decorate your bakes. Baker Andy Bui says, "Let your imagination run wild and pipe on everything you make."

Stand mixer bowl

Cost: $$$

Most prolific bakers say their stand mixer is essential to their process. But what can you do to take it next level? Baker Rainier Maksoud says, "The most amazing gift is a second stand mixer bowl. Once you try it, you realise how much easier life becomes!"

Warning, they can also be super expensive even though you're only buying a bowl.

Baked goods

Cost: $

"As much as we love baking for others...we also really love receiving delish bakes. Most people are either too intimated to bake stuff for us or assume that we are always baking, so we love getting treats from others! It's our love language," says Niv Saberi.

Portable dough sheeter

Cost: $$$

Dough sheeters roll out pieces of dough that are smooth and uniform much more quickly than rolling by hand. "If I had one, there would be more laminated doughs and French patisserie happening in my house!" says baker Andrew Evers.

Cookbooks

Cost: $$

"I still love and appreciate a beautiful cookbook. One that is tested, beautifully styled and shot and has white space on the page," says Kathy Neiman.

Sous Chef

Cost: Free

"I know what means the most to me is when I am doing a big bake and my mom helps me by tidying up dishes behind me, or my brother can keep an eye on my fruit reducing on the stove so I can make the other filling and prepare the cake, or my dad sees my lack of butter panic and runs to the store for me so I do not have to leave my creative space," says Sydney Hayden, "I have a really hard time delegating tasks because I like to do everything myself, but those moments where someone steps in and acts as an assistant or sous chef it is an instant help."

Create some IOU cards for the baker in your life.

Scale

Cost: $$

Loïc Fauteux-Goulet says, "The scale is the key to freeing yourself from following recipes and learning to bake by ratios, it accelerates your process. It's a game changer!"

Reusable parchment paper/silicon baking mats

Cost: $$

Parchment paper that can be reused is better for the environment. The high temperatures used in baking will wear paper out a little faster so you might want to splurge for a nice set of silicon baking mats recommends Camila García Hernández.