Why Do You Need an Accurate Baking Scale?
Baking is a science and that means it requires accurate measurements. After all, flour, sugar, butter and eggs are the key ingredients in cakes, biscuits and pancakes.
If you don’t use the correct measurements, you could easily make the wrong one, or even a hybrid of all three !
In one of our previous blog posts, we discussed the importance of weighing ingredients when cooking. But none of that matters if you’re not using an accurate baking scale.
An accurate kitchen scale is essential for creating delicious baked goods that consistently taste as good as the first time you bake them.
Why Do You Need a Baking Scale?
Without a baking scale or kitchen scale, accurately measuring ingredients can be difficult. A cup may appear to be a fixed unit of measurement, but flour, sugar and other dry ingredients can be compacted to take up less space.
This is demonstrated by the 28% difference in flour weight, using the same cup measurement, shown in the image above from PBS.
This video from Super Geek Show goes into even more depth. They compare flour chocolate chips and water. In one of their examples, they added a whole extra 6oz to their recipe because they were accidentally overfilling every cup.
Using cups can skew your baking ratio and throw off your entire dish.
If you use too much flour then your food will become dry and crumbly. Too much sugar and your baked goods will become rock hard and dark brown in colour.
For anyone who owns a bakery, or even a small home baked goods delivery service, this is not ideal. You need delicious baked goods every time or you’re wasting time and ingredients. That’s where a baking scale comes in.
Rahul, winner of series 9 of the Great British Bake Off, goes as far as saying that you should always use an accurate weighing scale to measure your ingredients.
Why Do You Need an Accurate Baking Scale?
Even if you’re not using cups, using an unreliable baking scale can still cause inconsistency. Bathroom scales aren’t always as accurate as their medical counterparts and kitchen scales are no different.
If your scales aren’t accurate then you’re just as likely to end up with imperfect baked goods.
Scales that are out by just 10g can cause wasted ingredients, undue stress, extra time and bad results. If you’re making bread that 10g can be the difference between happily kneading or spending an extra 10 minutes adding water and then flour and then water trying to find that happy ratio again.
Save yourself time and money in the long run by investing in an accurate kitchen scale.
Marsden Baking Scales
At Marsden we have a wide range of bench scales that are suitable for use in the kitchen.
Marsden B-450
The Marsden B-450 is our most precise bench scale with accuracy to the nearest 0.1g. This allows high precision weighing of the smallest ingredients to ensure consistent taste with every portion.
It’s also IP67-rated, making it perfect for use in a kitchen environment. If the scales get dirty with flour or syrup or honey, it can easily be wiped clean.
Marsden B-100
For a complete waterproof option, choose the Marsden B-100.
If you know that your work is going to get super messy then the B-100 is the scale for you. You can completely dunk it in a sink full of water (here’s a video of us submerging it in a bucket of water) and it’ll still work completely fine afterwards. So, this scale can be thoroughly cleaned and is therefore hygienic.
Additionally it’s also accurate to 0.2g, so if your recipes don’t require 0.1g accuracy then this scale is just as good as, if not better than, the B-450.
Marsden B-250
If large mixing bowls are common in your kitchen and often obscure the readings on your current weighing scales, then the Marsden B-250 is a great alternative.
With a flexible, manoeuvrable indicator, it’s easier than ever to see weight readings, regardless of container size.
Marsden B-450
A cheaper option is the B-450.
It’s accurate to the nearest gram and is small and compact enough to be easily stored in your kitchen drawer. It has a removable splashproof top plate to make cleaning easier and a long battery life to avoid unnecessary trailing wires.
Further Reading
Using a scale is the only way to avoid discrepancies in your cooking. In this blog post we look at why it’s important to weigh ingredients when cooking.
For a more detailed buyer’s guide of Marsden Bench Scales, take a look at this blog post.
We’ve rounded up the 10 Bake Off Must haves that Pru and the gang wouldn’t be seen without!