Best Stand Mixer in Home Baking

Which is the best stand mixer for you? As a home baker who bakes more than often my cake mixer is like my baking buddy. It can make or ruin my mood too! I think it is one of the most important tools a baker needs to make her baking life a lot easier. Not all mixers are made the same just as not all bakers needs are not the same. Here I will share with you my tips on what to look for when purchasing your next stand mixer.

Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion - none of the companies that make these products are paying me anything to share this view. The view is my own with the intention to help my fellow cake makers and home bakers.

Recently I was chatting with a group of Cake Mixers with a few Cake Decorator and we spoke of many different brands. Surprisingly I had so much to share. In fact I never realized that I had actually used a few brands.

So I thought let me share my two cents with you here after all I do often share my recommendations with some of you on emails and messages.

The mixers over the years have come along way in the last few years. My mom uses to use one of these hand mixers. I have one too!

Today you get some really fancy and professional ones that can make your life so much easier like this one. It stirs and cooks simultaneously!! The bottom of the bowl can be heated which would make certain pastries that require cooking and heating at the same time a piece of cake.  It also has a thermal resist glass blender and let me not tell you anything more about the attachments it comes with.

So you see; you can get really carried away when shopping for these. So it's best to make notes of what is important and what is not important when buying these.

What do you look for when buying a stand mixer?

Quality - buy from a company that you know has good quality products. Don't buy an unknown brand that may be price effective in the short term but more expensive is repairs later.

Durability- buy something that you know you can use over and over and over again. Buy something that you know will stand the extra load on those baking days when you have more work.
Buy one that can take the load of heavy dough such as a Whole Wheat flour and Fondant.

Features - It is worth taking a moment to think here.
You want to buy something that will do more than just mix your cakes. Right?

• So there's the paddle attachment for mixing the batter, the whisk attachment for whipping up creams and stuff and the Dough hook for baking bread and pastries.  These usually come with the most popular brand anyways.
• Accessories create lots of extra features and add more value to the product such mincing, pasta, and blenders. So if you love cooking like me then you want to get some of those attachments with the mixer because they can be very expensive later on their own. Look for deals as sometimes these attachments are thrown in cheap to get you to buy the brand.
• If you are a Cake Decorator - I'd suggest buying
  1. The splash guard - which really helps when working with powder sugar. Kitchen Aid or Kenwood K-Mix
  2. The Flex beaters for Kitchen Aid - they help with scraping the sides of  your bowl.
  3. If you do baking demos or baking videos like me then having a see-thru glass bowl for the stand mixer works amazing. And  Kitchen Aid KSM105GBCMC 5-Qt. Tilt-Head Stand Mixer with glass bowl and flex edge beater - metallic chrome.

Size - This can be confusing but a very important decision. Which size do you need?

• If you just bake for family and friends then go with the regular basic 5 Quarts bowl.
  If you bake large batches then you may want to choose the 7 Quarts Bowl.
• Remember - if you choose a stand mixer with a bowl too big and you decide to whip only two egg whites those two egg whites are going to be at the bottom of a large bowl and the whisk attachment is not going to reach it.  If you choose a bowl small and have a large batch - you may have to half the cake and mix two batches instead of one.
• I chose to go with the 5 Quarts mixer because even though I make a business I end up making many flavors so my cakes are not huge quantities. So you see it's an important decision to consider.

Looks 

This is subjective. My wish list had many a few gorgeous stand mixers which look so pretty but either did not fit in my budget or did not have the feature I was looking for. I really wanted the Kenwood Chef when I was shopping that was way over my budget. It came with all the attachments and accessories I wanted to like the Ice Cream maker as well. Sigh!

Price

Again this is something we all have to deal with and like it or not - what we want is always over the budget. Personally, I'd say make a list of what you definitely want to buy and while would encourage you to buy the attachments and accessories as a package sometimes it's just not possible.
Word of advice - make a plan and do it when you can do justice to the purchase and not regret later.

Warranty

My advice on warranty - get it! Always look for the best and long warranty. Things happen and no matter how best the quality sometimes its' best to have that extra security.

So, which stand mixer should you buy? which is the best stand mixer?

Some of the most common ones that I know me and some of my Cake Decorating friends using are the Kitchen-Aid or the Kenwood K-Mix.

Personally I am a big fan of Kenwood K-Mix - I have been using mine for over five years now and have had to take it to serve only once when a small little screw inside has come off making a weird sound. The service was excellent I took it there and they fixed it no questions asked.

I have used a Kitchen-Aid as well. My mother-in-law owned the Kitchen-Aid with all its accessories and so sometimes when we visited her I'd often baked with her and had a very positive experience with her Kitchen Aid.

Another good mixer I have had the fortune to use was the Cuisine Art. I twice did baking demos organized at a students home and she owned a Cuisine Art  and must say it was a pleasant experience. I was almost jealous because she could not stop raving about her stand mixer.

I know all three brands of Stand Mixers mentioned pass the test of quality , durability and features. Some of my friends who have had their Kitchen Aid for over 15 years if not more.

I hope this has been a helpful post and hope it helps you with your next shopping for Stand Mixers. If you have any more suggestions or experiences to share with us please do in the comments below.  We would love to hear.

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