Toss the toothpick with smart bakeware

Anyone who has baked a cake has probably used a toothpick or cake tester to determine when the cake was ready. Doing so requires you to hover over the oven, checking the cake every few minutes until it’s finally done. One company wants to make this hovering a thing of the past, by creating smart cookware that aims to take the guesswork out of baking. 

FirstBuild, a development company that has the backing of GE Appliances, announced last fall that it was working on a line of pans called Precision Bakeware that would use a temperature probe to determine when items like cheesecake and quiche are done. The probes would either work with your GE oven or send you an alert on your smart phone when the food was ready. 

The company demonstrated a springform pan (prototype shown above) at various events last fall and most recently at the IACP conference. Although FirstBuild anticipated releasing the product for sale in early 2018, a quick check of their website shows no sign of the bakeware. As of last fall, the price point for the pans had not been established. 

This bakeware is part of a larger trend toward “smart” appliances that connect wirelessly to a tablet or cell phone. The promise of this type of cookware is that it will take the guesswork out of cooking and baking, and some items have created a sensation, like the Instant Pot. Would you consider buying “smart” bakeware like the Precision Bakeware to be offered by FirstBuild?