My baking zone is a dedicated 30" wall cabinet and 36" drawers below (pans, tins are stored next to drawers). The wall cabinets have all measuring cups, spices related to baking, cookie cutters, baking soda, food coloring, flavorings, etc. My KA Epicurean is on the counter in the baking area.

In our new house, the baking center will be designed for the mixer to be enclosed in cabinetry. Open the doors and everything will be right there.

I didn't make a thread on this, but I know I took photos of insides of three stacked drawers in my baking area in the last 3 months and posted them. They will be revised when the crockpots move out, but other stuff is pretty much permanently living there.

My big thing is, as you probably know, pull-out work surfaces aka breadboards. I recommend a good-sized breadboard in the baking zone. Ours is 2 inches below regular countertop and accepts a stool for sitting. It's clean and ready for work, even when the countertop itself is not. Easier to bear down with rolling pin on it. Allows throwing flour around and I can put a waste basket below the edge and swoosh the waste right into it.

I've grouped stuff in my baking drawers that I use frequently--sifter, rolling pin, baking powder, flours and sugar, measuring cups and spoons, cupcake papers, lotsa pans, stainless bowls. In my old kitchen, I had grouped the dry ingredients, raisens and such, shortening, and the sifter and the cookbooks in an upper, but all pans and bowls and mixer pieces and rubber scrapers were elsewhere, some deep into a place I didn't like going. I like having the stuff close at hand when the baking muse hits me--I'm baking more these days--fewer excuses and the work goes faster now.

I now have 3 different utensil cylinders--one is for baking (mostly rubber scrapers), one for rangetop use (wooden spoons, whisk, spatulas), one for less-used awkwards (wok tools, meat lifter, ladle, masher). They are adjacent to the baking area, so I don't have to pull out a drawer at all to grab baking utensils. Spices same--very near baking area with most common ones to be mounted on wall and more specialized ones on upper just adjacent to baking wall.

Mixer sits on countertop at present and I don't foresee changing that. Too heavy to lift and I'm not shamed if appliances sit out.

Search on Rhome410 and Buehl to see their baking areas. Or go to Rhome's blog, where she just did a couple of posts about reorganizing her baking center.

Mine is right next to my ovens and spice rack. I have the KA mixer in the corner and pull it out for use. Turns out I like using it on the diagonal. There's plenty of room elsewhere, but I like it. There's 4.5' of counter, including the corner. In the corner drawers under the mixer are my baking staples (flour, sugars, etc.). Measuring cups and mixer bowls and attachments are in the uppers to the right of the corner. There's a window between there and the ovens.

The top drawer under the baking counter (left of the corner) are wooden spoons and scrapers, scoops, a couple of table knives, mortars and pestles (2 small ones for herbs and spices), kitchen scale, parchment paper, rolling pin, bench knife/dough cutter, biscuit cutters, and some other things like that. Middle drawer has baking dishes, pie plates, etc., baking cloths, my 13 quart bread bowl. Bottom drawer has cake pans and mixing bowls. Baking trays live over the oven. Boards and cooling racks are on the other side of the island behind the baking area because that's where there was room. Prep sink is right behind.

My baking area is the space between my cooktop and double ovens, so it also serves for prepping, etc. Mine is essentially 2 24" drawer stacks (one 3 drawer and one 4 drawer) with uppers above. The drawer closest to the cooktop has utensils, the top drawer closest to the ovens is my spice drawer right where it works best for cooking and baking. Belwo the utensils are my baking essentials -- flours, sugars, cocoas, baking chocolate, chips, dried fruits. Below the spice drawer is a shallow drawer with pot holders, foil, plastic wrap, waxed paper and parchment that is being phased out since I bought in sheets stored with my baking pans above the ovens. Below that is a drawer with tools of the trade -- dough scraper, rolling pin, stick blender, spatulas, lollipop sticks, plastic babies for the King Cake -- you know -- the essentials. ;-) The bottom drawer has my round pans, loaf pans, springform and bundt pans.

The upper cabinets have my extracts, soda, salt, cooking spray, measuring cups, cookie press,decorating sprinkles and such on one side and mixing bowls, food processor, cake stand and extra bowl for my KA mixer on the other side. The mixer itself stays on the counter in the corner. The prep sink is just across the aisle on the end of the island -- great for getting water, rinsing, washing egg goo off hands, etc. -- the later being a priority after having to go around the island before.

Well, mine is still a work in progress, but here's how it's shaping up. KItchenaid is in a lift-up cabinet. Below it is a drawer with rolling pins, pastry bags and tips, silicone baking sheets, parchment paper, cookie cutters, cupcake liners.

In the drawers immediately below the main working surface on the peninsula: Measuring cups and spoons, small ingredient bowls, pastry-related implements (chocolate shaver, pastry brushes, etc.)
and an assortment of the most used baking pans..pie tins, round cake pans, cupcake pans, brownie pans, etc.

In the supersusan next to it: Cuisinart (yes, I use it most for baking/pastry), sifter, small hand-held mixer, waffle makers, mixing bowls and less-used specialty baking pans (charlotte molds, bundt pan, spring-form pans, assorted tart pans, etc.)
In the 9" pull out cabinet on the other side of the corner super susan, perpendicular to the peninsula: Baking powder and soda, various types of chocolates and dried fruits, extracts, sprinkles,, food coloring and other decoration things, birthday candles (always need them around), and spices I buy in bigger containers, such as cinnamon and ginger. In the small drawer above the pullout...rubber spatulas, a whisk or two, beaters for the hand held mixer.
In the large wide drawer next over from it...all my other spices.

I haven't fully decided yet whether I will line up my most used baking ingredients (various flours and sugars) in the big mason jars they are stored in along that counter and wall or relegate them to the kitchen hutch I'm looking for, which will be about 10 steps away. I like the convenience of nearby, but the look of the clear counter. If I can fit them in the supersusan, they'll go there.

Thanks, Plllog! I have a headache and am so tired, but wanted to help and didn't know how I'd find the energy to type all I wanted to. I didn't even think of those blog posts that show everything. LOL

Mine has the bulk of my staples on two shelves on the uppers - Sugars, flours, oil and small stuff like salt, soda, cornstarch.

upper left drawer had spatualas and mixing spoons, upper right has measureing cups and spoons (both drawers have dividers so things aren't all in a jumble). Middle left drawer has hand mixer, cookie press and some other less used items - middle right has makers, kitchen sissors, paper baking cups (cupcake type) and some other assorted stuff.

lower left has larger glass mixing bowls, lower right has some small appliances but they will be moved with other cabinets get done and I'm not sure what I'll put there yet.

The tall cabinet to the left has my KA mixer at counter height - there are shelves behind it where all the attachemnest reside. The upper shelf now holds my Magic Mill Assistent (Bread mixer) with the stuff that came with it on the uppper shelf. Right now I have my biggest stockpots stored below that - they may get moved too.

So far- I love this set up. I'm putting bifold doors on the uppers so I can open and fold them back and have everything easily accessable when I bake. There is plenty of room to pull down a container, measure and add to bowl, and put container away.

My spices are in a drawer that is right behind me at the baking center. They are also next to the cooktop. I plan on putting a small shelf on the backsplash of the baking center and putting small containers of the spices I use most often for baking on there.

I only keep "on hand" quantities of things in my baking center. The speciatly flours I don't use that often and my bulk stuff is stored in the freezer.

I'm also going to make some sort of recipe clip on the upper cabinet so I can have them right at eye level - I'm getting old and those bifocals make it hard to read a recipe on the counter.

This picture was taken before the shelves and backsplash were finished and installed - every week my kitchen looks different!

Dog food, stand mixer, flours, sugars, vanillas, canning supplies, appliance parts and manuals, some mixing bowls, molasses etc., mini food processor, a plant, marble samples, a cowboy hat and bandanna, bread, fruit, onions, a dead Venus fly trap, a 2 foot level...what the!?

I guess I need to work on this.

LOL fori! That's pretty funny. Seriously though, I have what most of you would consider to be a small kitchen, so is it even feasible to consider creating a baking center? My spices will be near my cooktop, on the opposite side of the kitchen as the double ovens. I'll put my mixer by the ovens and I'll have a decent stretch of counter space there, but it will be under the glass cabinets (no storage for ingredients on this side of the kitchen). I've done four very different layouts, and this is the best I can do. So... baking centers are really just feasible and practical for larger kitchens, right?

The main reason I did this was to get all the baking stuff in one area. I use to drag all sorts of stuff to one location so I could then use it. It was a drag if I realized I needed a tablespoon or a clean teaspoon. They were all over the kithchen, and I had food ingredients in assorted areas too. Even if I didn't have room for a "baking center" I would have found a way to arrange my kitchen so that things were way more convenient.

The only bad thing with mine - the ovens are at the other end of the kitchen. But not everything that gets mixed up goes in the oven.

My kitchen isn't big by modern standard--it's a galley about 17.5' x 9' with 3 doors. I have what I call a "baking center" because I didn't want to change out a low window. It used to be a breakfast nook I guess. My measuring stuff is next to the cooktop. My oven is at the absolute other end of the kitchen. Spices are between the oven and cooktop. It's really nice to have a large low area, and not just because I'm short. When it's cleared off (too rarely) it's great for chopping things and opening wine bottles and carving pumpkins.

I don't really have zones. I just have a kitchen, and everything is nearby.

I'm at that lovely stage of almost having my new kitchen, and so, in my minds eye, it's a beautiful shining example of organization!! In other word the opposite of my OLD kitchen!We'll see how it goes.It's smallish but I'm trying to improve its function.
Wish I could have sprinkle pullouts like Buehl, but didn't fit in the plans. If you haven;t seen them you need to search! I emailed them to my baking daughters. One in particular thinks sprinkles are a STAPLE.
Thanks everyone for great suggestions. But "plastic babies"??? I guess I need to expand my horizons!

The eye level recipe card sounds great!And I might need an extra countertop, thanks for the cutting board idea florantha,I guess it wasn't your kitchen I was thinking of, but it sounds like you have a good design.

A level, where's the measuring tape Fori? Before we tore out the old kitchen I kept the measuring tape out for checking feasibility of my bright ideas.Thanks for the laugh, and the reality check!

This morning the measuring tape was on the floor in the kitchen, pulled out about 6 feet.

I don't know where it is now.

What's funny is that the last thing the level was used for was setting up a trailer in the driveway a few weeks ago. I have no idea why it is in the kitchen.

I do like keeping canisters of drygoods in drawers, but finding the perfect container can be tough. Years ago someone here posted her flour drawer: a normal drawer with lidded restaurant trays of flours. Open, scoop. Very nice retrofit.

Here's mine: it's to the right of the range:

Spices/flours in the cupboard above:

cookie sheets/cake pans/cooling racks above micro:

Baking utensils: the plastic measuring spoons and cups are for baking -- the metal ones for prepping meals are on the other side of the range

Bowls and appliances in bottom drawers: I don't have a stand mixer . . . .

The baking center I am holding my breath to see is remodelfla's!

ooohh thanks for more pictures RJR!I love the idea of that drawer slideout insert, does it work well?
I looked at rhome's blog also and I like that step organizer for small items.
I'm planning to keep my mixer out, I like to see it!

I've been reading the "what goes where" in the read me thread, and trying to get myself ready for my new kitchen!

In New England we keep our "baking center" in the freezer. Keeps the flour bugs from hatching and scaring the children. The little bug eggs or whatever are still in the flour, but we think of them as protein. Use up, make do, eat larvae, or however that goes.