Great British Baking Show Offset Spatulas

The Great British Baking Show offset spatulas are another kitchen tool you see the bakers use every episode. The Great British Baking Show offset spatulas are KitchenCraft / Sweetly Does It Palette Knife/Icing Spatula (Amazon - UK).

This is one of the tools that, if you don't have one, probably has piqued your interest. The prolificness of the offset spatula on the baker's counter top should also throw off some alarms in your head. The alarm should be ringing "What is that? Why do I not have one?"

The bakers have what looks like both the 10 and 25 cm offset spatulas. They're made by KitchenCraft which was shelved by Lifetime Brand Europe. KitchenCraft was shelved in favor of other specialized brands they own - in the case of the offset spatulas - Sweetly Does It. Which looks to have discontinued making the offset spatula altogether.

Regardless the tent is still laden with the KitchenCraft offset spatulas, which speaks to their original quality. They are 38 cm in total length, 25 of those being the offset blade. The offset blade is made of a rather high gauge stainless steel and the handle is a simple black plastic. They're dishwasher safe and come with a 1 year warranty. At this point, 14 seasons in, it seems like they easily outlived their warranties.

I do not have an offset spatula - yet. It felt like one of those kitchen tools I just did not need. But after reading up on them for this review, I think I'm wrong.

Offset spatulas help do everything from exquisitely spreading frosting, to buttering bread, and everything in between. The offset keeps your fingers out of frosting and lets you get the sides of cakes perfectly flat. Or if you're going for amazing swirls, it keeps your fingers out of those as well. Or if you just want to butter something, level your mashed potatoes before serving, smooth your brownies pre-bake, or whatever you've ever done with a flat knife or a flat spatula and thought "meh good enough" this is the tool you're missing.

The blade of these are not sharp, so they're not going to gorge your dishes like a knife can. Which means if you're trying to release cupcakes or brownies from the side of a dish, the offset spatula again has you covered. If you're hitting up non-stick dishes though - get a plastic one! Please - save your non-stick surfaces! We should start a #SaveTheNonStick movement. Just saying.

Regarding offset spatulas, it seems like once you know, you know. There have been professional settings where people show up early to acquire the only offset spatula for the day. They've caused conflicts in bakeries, and forced head chefs to buy large quantities of them so that all the bakers can get one. With this much conflict around coveting a kitchen tool I'm curious. I'm going to get one...

Sadly the road seems to have ended for the KitchenCraft offset spatulas (Amazon - UK). They were discontinued by KitchenCraft, and changed the label over to Sweetly Does It. But Sweetly Does It does not seem to make them any more. They're not present on CookServeEnjoy.com - KitchenCraft's (Lifetime Brand Europe's) website in any form. And the ones remaining on Amazon are now over $50. Which - just no. If you're in the UK you can still pull them off Amazon for roughly £12.

Which means we're down to looking at our options. Here we want the offset spatula to be robust, nice looking, and dishwasher safe. This weeds out wooden handles and shoddy stamped steel blades. And honestly the options are kinda fun. We'll go from entry level and can be at your house tomorrow, to like ... really? They cost this much?

First up we have some easy options off of Amazon.

~$5 - Wilton - I'll probably get this one. It looks nice and its $5. It has 18,000 reviews and an average rating of 4.7 stars. The 9" Wilton 409-7712 Angled Spatula pretty much checks all the boxes and is very reasonably priced. The risk here is low, and the reward... is an offset spatula. Sadly I can not find this one on Amazon UK.

~$9 - Ateco - the company behind the cake decorating stands - has 2 nice options. The Ateco Ultra #1309 Offset Spatula with 9.75-Inch Stainless Steel Blade (UK) has a plastic black handle. It has a weird "ergonomic" bit on the handle which to me is just kinda off putting. But it clocks in with 4.6 stars with over 3,000 reviews.

~$14 - Ateco #1369 offset spatula with white handle (UK). I personally think the white handle option looks the nicest, it again has 4.6 stars, but only like 300 reviews. For another $5 I think this is worth it. It looks nicer than the black handle and could add a splash of not-black-handles to your kitchen.

Next we'll look at a couple options that look a bit nicer, but are not really tipping the scales into unaffordability. Both are at Williams-Sonoma, so you may be able to get these in person, if not I guess the internet is pretty ubiquitous these days.

$15 - Williams-Sonoma - I lied, I'm getting this one. The Williams Sonoma Soft Touch Offset Icing Spatula looks svelte, refined, is dishwasher safe, and has a soft non-slip handle. It's $15, and I've yet to go wrong with a Williams-Sonoma product.

$15 - Williams-Sonoma - If you're looking for some nylon offset spatulas Williams-Sonoma has you covered. Their Williams Sonoma Goldtouch® Pro Nylon Offset Icing Spatula, Set of 2 comes with 2 offset spatulas. A 4 and an 8 inch option. These are again dishwasher safe. If for some reason, you're using the spatulas on a non-stick surface, these will not tear them up!

And oh my - the price.

$45 - $90 - Okay, so last but not least in the price category is the Global Classic 10" Cranked Spatula (Amazon - UK). Global makes some nice knives, and they have a solid stainless steel construction, from the tip to the pommel. This offset spatula is constructed in the same way. I'd love to have one of these, they look awesome. BUT, and it is a big but, they say they're not dishwasher safe. While they're fully stainless steel and they have no blade, Global says "exposure to extreme heat and powerful detergents found in dishwashers can be harmful to CROMOVA 18 high carbon stainless steel." Which is massively disappointing.

With that, its sad that the KitchenCraft offset spatula has been discontinued. It seems like people adored them. But I'm happy there are some good options out there and it was a fun little bit of time looking around.