Bread-and-butter basics, celebratory cakes, holiday pies, or ice cream delights a fragrant bakery entices us with comfort foods and sweet indulgences.

Artistry and science come together in skilled bakers' hands. Electrical machinery and stainless steel hand tools allow today's pastry chefs to create delicacies with ease, yet the processes for mixing batter, kneading dough, whipping cream, and preparing flavors differ little from bakers' tasks of long ago.

Curiosity is a chef's bread and butter. See how modern baking tools rose from these past innovations.