I don’t know about you, but I LOVE gift guides and will check out just about any one that I come across. Whether it’s a gift guide for your Outdoorsy Boyfriend, your Jetsetter Best Friend or your Tech Savvy Co-worker, I’ll always look them over just in case it leads to an incredible, thoughtful or creative gift. Since The Vivid Kitchen is a baking/cooking blog, I figured it would be a great idea to share a Kitchen Gift Guide with all of my favorite products, ranging from bigger appliances to smaller kitchen tools.
Everything on this list, with one exception, is the exact style/product that I have in my own kitchen. This means you can trust me on my recommendations, especially since I’m not a huge blogger aka I’m not being paid to tell you to buy any of these products! No sponsorship here, just tried and true products from a basic baker/cook.
Hope you’re able to find something here for the baking or cooking aficionado in your life!
Tovolo Ice Cream Container - In my DIY Ice Cream Bar post, I raved about Tovolo ice cream containers, so I of course had to include them in this guide. Tovolo offers a variety of sizes and colors to choose from, and all of them are great at keeping your frozen treats free from freezer burn.
Hamilton Beach Belgian Waffle Maker - I’ve been on a major waffle-making kick lately, and this waffle maker has been keeping up with every batch along the way. Since I live with only one other person, the smaller size (2 waffles per batch) works for me, but if you want the bigger version that makes 4 at a time, here’s the link. And if you need a waffle recipe, here’s the recipe for my Lemon Poppy Seed Buttermilk Waffles. Bonus if you make the homemade blueberry maple syrup.
Molcajete (Mexican mortar and pestle) - If you want to make guacamole the traditional way, make a batch of pesto ala Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat or make your own spice blend, then a molcajete is your friend. I actually got mine at T.J.Maxx, so this isn’t the exact one I have but it looks very similar to mine and has great reviews.
Le Creuset Signature Cast-Iron 5.5 Qt Round Dutch Oven - I feel like buying your first Le Creuset Dutch Oven is a rite of passage for a home cook. In my opinion, Le Creuset is the end-all-be-all when it comes to a company that you can trust when looking for not only quality, but design. The Dutch oven can be used to make apple butter, soups, bread, pot roasts, brown butter… anything you can think of. It comes in a myriad of colors, but “Marine” is absolutely gorgeous and I always have it on display on my stove top. It’s definitely an investment, but something that you’ll have for years.
Escali Kitchen Food Scale - Although we live in America, the only industrialized country in the world to not use the metric system, a kitchen scale is a beneficial item to own. Not only is it faster to measure with a scale, but it also makes cleanup time a breeze (I always bring out the scale when I’m working with messy peanut butter for example). I also get great use of it when making layered cakes and want the batter to be divided up equally between the pans. Although I don’t use a scale for every recipe (most American recipes don’t offer metric units) I definitely think owning a kitchen scale is a must.
Chef’s Star Stainless Steel Citrus Juicer - For someone who drinks lemon water every morning and who’s favorite cocktail is a margarita, I waited too, TOO long to purchase one of these. This one in particular is able to squeeze lemons and limes (and smaller oranges) and really does a great job of getting every last drop out. Also, I think the stainless steel finish makes it look sleek enough to always have it sitting on display on your bar cart.
Marble Phone Stand - My sister, who is the queen of finding the most beautiful and creative gifts, gifted me this for Christmas last year and it surprisingly became one of my most beloved kitchen items. I at first thought it would be more of a decor piece to have sitting on my kitchen counter, but I actually use it just about every other day. It comes in handy when I’m baking and looking at a recipe as well as when I’m deep-cleaning the kitchen and I want to have Netflix playing in the background. The maker of the stands has 7 different marbles to choose from (I got Carrara) as well as the option to add a pop of color via paint (my sister added no paint to mine, which is exactly what I would have done if I bought it myself).
Bon Appétit Magazine Subscription: My sister also gifted me with a subscription to Bon Appétit for Christmas in 2012 and has renewed it every year for me ever since. To me, no other food magazine holds a candle to BA and I treat them like cookbooks; I have saved every single issue since my subscription started. I guess you can say that I’m “old-fashioned” in that I much prefer print to digital, but I really believe Bon Appétit is meant to be flipped through, dog-eared for recipes, and to be held onto.
Cuisinart Classic Frozen Yogurt, Ice Cream and Sorbet Maker - We all know that making ice cream is my favorite thing to make in the kitchen, so I’m often asked what kind of ice cream maker I use. I LOVE my simple-to-use and very reasonably priced Cuisinart ice cream maker. It comes with two freezing bowls, so I always have one sitting in the freezer just in case I *need* to make a batch at the last minute. I know that there are many other fancier and pricier ice cream makers available on the market, but take it from me, this one is perfect.
Cuisinart Food Processor - It took me a couple of years after I got serious about baking and cooking to realize that food processors aren’t just another appliance taking up room in your kitchen, but a necessity. Whether you’re making your own nut butter, grating carrots for a carrot cake, whipping up a batch of pesto, or making cookie dough - food processors know no bounds. I personally have the 8-cup size, which is a good size, but I actually wish I got the 11-cup. The link I provided will give you both options.
American Heirloom Hardwood Maple Cake Stand: I love a good cake stand, especially for photography purposes, but nothing beats American Heirloom’s sleek, yet rustic cake stands with either a maple or walnut wood base. The company is run by a husband-and-wife duo in Brooklyn and is one that I strongly admire especially because they value quality and avoiding waste above all else. They also feature other items like cutting boards in the shape of American states… another great gift idea!
Shun Premier 8” Chef’s Knive - Knife preference is personal and varied, with German and Japanese brands being at the forefront. When I first started dating Alex, I wanted to impress him and bought him a Shun chef’s knife (not the one I linked) after researching the best knives on the market within a reasonable price range. Ever since then, we’ve been complete Shun devotees. Last year, Alex gifted me this hammered chef’s knife with a walnut-finish handle and it works insanely well and is so, so beautiful.
OXO Medium Cookie Scoop - I recently made a batch of cookies without this cookie scoop on hand and I’m embarrassed to admit that I felt naked without the tiny, but extremely practical kitchen tool. Using a cookie scoop takes the tediousness out of the time-consuming cookie scooping process and furthermore ensures that you’ll have uniform cookies. If you bake cookies even once every couple of months, I still believe that owning a cookie scoop is essential.
Nordic Ware Heritage Bundt Pan - If you’re going to make a bundt cake, why not make it in the form of a beautiful, geometric design? Nordic Ware makes the most popular bundt cake pans in America and is another company to trust when it comes to durability and quality. Also, I know that people worry about the cake sticking to the pan post-baking, but I have never had that issue with any of my Nordic Ware pans - just make sure to butter and flour/sugar the hell out of it!
OXO Cold Brew Coffee Maker - I drink iced coffee every single day of the year, no matter how cold it is outside (yes, I live in SoCal but still!), so I made it a mission to find the best and affordable cold brew maker. OXO 100% takes the cake. It’s simple to use, the maker itself isn’t bulky and can easily be stored away when not in use, and yields incredibly smooth cold brew. I love it so much that I’d rather drink my own cold brew then go to a coffee shop to get some. What more can you ask for?
P.S. By the time you’ll be reading this, I’ll be en route to Sayulita, Mexico for vacation (celebrating my birthday a couple of weeks early), so I definitely plan on posting a travel guide for the area when I get back!