Back to the blog. In 2012 I got a KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer for Christmas. Although when I was growing up I had a lot of fun with my Mum's Kenwood Chef stand mixer and was well aware of what you could do and the attachments you could get, even down to coffee grinding, meat mincing and sausage making; I somehow decided when I moved into my own house that I didn't have room on the worktop and could make do with an electric hand mixer. And this I did for over 16 years. But having seen the KitchenAid stand mixer in all its glory on television programmes and in shops, I eventually decided that the time had come to make room on the worktop. The first problem was deciding what colour to get. They come in so many gorgeous colours that this was very difficult! I nearly got pink, then thought about green (my favourite colour) but after much humming and ha-ing I went for black. Like Nigella's.
The first stand mixer to carry the KitchenAid name was manufactured in 1918, and over years the design has not changed all that much; in fact attachments from the mixers of the 1930s can still apparently be used with the modern machines of today.
I can't remember the first thing I used it for, but I've never looked back. It's so solid and well made, and quite frankly beautiful! I even polish it sometimes...
It's fab for meringue (and hence macaroons of course), cakes, cheesecake mixture, biscuit dough, whipping cream, butter icing, fondant icing, brownie mixture... I couldn't make bread or pizza dough without it because kneading dough kills my wrist due to a severed tendon in my ring finger 15 years ago. And the pasta attachment is great, no handle turning required. For more about that see my "Adventures in pasta making" post. See the marvel of meringue post too for photos of how it performs in the meringue department.
The attachments and the bowl go in the dishwasher (except the pasta machine which doesn't get washed at all, it has a special brush that you brush it with when it's dry) and it's very easy to clean. Even my daughter manages to leave it looking good, when she does after school impromptu baking. I did have a problem with the wire whisk when I accidentally turned the KitchenAid on with the whisk attached and the beater in the bowl too. It got a bit bent but my daughter stood on it to bend it back and it's nearly right, just makes a bit of a loud noise as it's not quite perfect. I might get a replacement one soon, you can get pink ones...
I do think cakes turn out better when using it compared to the electric hand mixer ones of yesteryear, and it makes excellent butter icing, because you can leave it for a good five minutes and no aching arms. The longer you leave it going with butter icing, the lighter and fluffier it gets. I'm not sure what I did without it really, and as for making room on the worktop, it's a thing of beauty and a joy forever... I could just sit there and look at it gleaming!
More soon, thank you for reading,
Caroline :-)
