Last weekend my 15 year old Sunbeam Mixmaster died half way through beating up a cake batter.
I am now left wondering whether I should replace it. Most cakes are made easily enough with a wooden spoon, a rotary beater, or a whisk. The only things that I could have trouble mixing by hand are meringues and pavlovas, which require a lot of beating over a long period of time.
I admit that I love the look of those big Kitchen Aid mixers with lots of attachments, but they are hundreds of dollars and definitely a 'want' rather than a 'need'. I also like some of the vintage-looking models, such as this one by Sunbeam.
My daughter thinks I should buy a hand-held electric mixer. She points out that they can be used with any bowl, unlike the bench-top models.
At the moment I am planning to go without an electric mixer for a while to see how I manage.
What do you think?
Is an electric mixer necessary for someone who does a lot of baking? What model do you recommend?
13 comments:
yes i think it is worth having one..i have an old kenwood(look on ebay)you can mix your bread in them,then pop into a loaf pan and into the oven..fruit cakes are hard to do buy hand sure not impossible but they make it all say quick..
Thanks for your suggestions. I'll have a look at the Kenwood mixers.
I bake a lot and have only the littlest hand held mixer.Usually I use the mixer for creaming and whipping things like cream or egg whites then the rest of the mixing is done with a wooden spoon. I think the Kitchen Aid mixers look great but in reality I don't think it would be worth the expense for me. They are pretty big too and I only have a samll kitchen.
Hi Tracy,
I'm inclined the agree about the Kitchen Aid mixers being big and pricey - but they do look beautiful!
I've got a tiny little Braun, that is hand-held and fits away in a cupboard, all neat and tidy and not taking up much room.
It's 14 years old, we got it for a wedding present (yikes - we've been married THAT long!), and it works brilliantly.
Those Kitchen Aid ones are expensive, take up lots of space, and inefficient.
If you bake every single day, then *maybe* you'd use it, but for me, I like my kitchen streamlined with everything away, rather than stuff left out everywhere, where I have to keep it dust-free.
And yes, I even mix bread with my little hand-held. Works a charm, if you have a good recipe :-)
I was given a Kenwood second hand and it's brilliant... As much as I have dreamed of a ruby red Kitchen-aid in my kitchen I'm far too practical to spend the $800.
I bake and cook and make as much from scratch as possible so I do use it (I've also got a Thermomix which I use many times a day though).
I've never owned a benchtop, just a small hand held. I guess the question I would ask is how often do you make meringues or pavs?
I only have a hand mixer and long for the stand mixer. When I bake, it would be worth every penny. I plan to get mine on Amazon using Swagbucks, so no money will be involved. I want the KitchenAid Artisan.
I think if you do a LOT of baking then a hardy mixer is something worth having. If you weren't doing much baking I would have said a small electric hand mixer would be all that was necessary.
When we came back from the US 18 months ago I bought a KitchenAid. I don't regret the expense for a moment. It is the hardiest machine I've ever had the pleasure of using. It easily handles things my previous mixer would have given up on. Dh got a price that was some $200 cheaper than the retail price through a catering supplier.
Sorry, that's probably not what you wanted to hear. But we don't buy baked goods and my KitchenAid is one of my favourite appliances - for looks and for grunt.
Stumbled across your blog somehow, and had to comment! I do a LOT of baking and have a Kenwood that I never use. I do have hand-held beaters that I use every now and then, but almost everything gets mixed by hand.
My secret is that I never cream butter and sugar - I melt the butter and then mix with sugar! I know you're not supposed to do that, but everyone quite happily eats everything I make, and I've never yet had anyone tell me 'I can tell that you didn't cream your butter and sugar together till light and fluffy!' so I figure I'll just keep doing it.
Donna
I use my KitchenAid daily! I love it. But right now I would struggle with the large cost to replace it. I'd suggest a hand mixer for around $10 would fill the gap. For years made outstanding cakes with one. However, the freestanding style and heavy duty nature of my KA means I can leave it mixing while gathering more ingredients and knead bread dough in a flash. I know I would miss it terribly. I wonder how many second hand models are out there. I for years had an old old kenwood which was brilliant and cheap at a garage sale!
The other option is a little bit more expensive than a hand held, one that can be hand held but comes with a little stand, some of the ordinary brands in Aust have them, This one http://www.harveynorman.com.au/sunbeam-mixmaster-mixer.html is a sunbeam one for around $200. My friend has one and loves it, uses it daily... I was given a used kenwood chef and love the dough hook feature - it's how I do my initial sourdough knead every time I bake...
I've had a cheap hand-held mixer my sister bought for my 20-something birthday, so it would be at least over 15 years old now. It doesn't show signs of letting up either.
The reason I don't like stand mixers, is I don't like the extra labour associated with using them. First you have to lug it out, set it up - then when you're finished, you have to wipe it down and clean all the (often large) bowls and attachments.
I bake for a regular family, and I've never had a recipe which justifies the laborious nature of such large equipment. I was a baker and cake-decorator in a former life, and my husband is a qualified Chef. Neither of us use large equipment for our family kitchen, because it's serious overkill.
We save a lot of money on electricity bills and water for washing up, by sticking to equipment that does the job, not what looks professional.
I guess because we've worked with some fancy equipment in our careers, we got to see how great it is to use on a large scale. But as regular people with a regular family, we could never justify the cost or labour involved.
Each to their own though. People should be allowed to choose what feels right for them.
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