I have always had a hand mixer.  It lived in the cupboard and I would pull it out when I wanted to mix something.  I also had other special-purpose appliances, including a bread maker, a pasta machine, a meat grinder, a food processor and a citrus juicer.  All of these took up lots of space in my kitchen cupboards, as I didn’t want to leave them cluttering up my benches.

Then in my favourite kitchen store I laid eyes on the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen – the Kitchen Aid Professional 5 Plus stand mixer.  Its Empire Red finish gleamed at me, it tantalized me.  What a glorious piece of engineering!

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I hinted to my husband that the mixer would be a great birthday present, and was so thrilled when he got the message and bought one for me.  It was expensive, yes, but so worth it! I got the Empire Red one, but it is available in a range of other colors including Black, White, Gray, Cobalt Blue and Gloss Cinnamon. 

I now leave it out on the bench.  It is just as beautiful as when I took it out of the box.  All our visitors notice it and admire it, and I have great fun explaining all the things that it can do.

Then I started to realize the advantages of a stand mixer as opposed to a hand mixer.  It helps me with multi-tasking!  I can set my bread dough or whatever to mix and get on with something else, while still having absolute control over what the mixer was doing.  This is an absolute godsend when you are doing a big batch of baking, or when you have guest for dinner and need to whip the cream while you are serving up the dessert.

As I became more familiar with the mixer, I started to wonder about the little covered hole at the front.  Then I discovered the wonderful world of attachments!  I now own a pasta roller and cutter, a meat grinder and a citrus juicer that are all powered by the mixer’s motor! That means they are much more powerful and rugged than the stand-alone appliances.  My old pasta machine was hand-powered and really required at least two pairs of hands to work it properly,  but now I can prepare perfect pasta on my own, as I can feed the dough  through without having to turn the handle at the same time.

I gave my old mincer, pasta machine and juicer to my niece who was getting married, and I would never return to a whole raft of appliances.  All the attachments are in a big drawer in my kitchen, ready to hand.  I don’t have to stow electric cords and try to keep them from tangling or taking up space. The Kitchen Aid stand mixer saves me space, time and money because it makes cooking so easy and such a pleasure!

This mixer has 94 customer reviews at Amazon.com.  Of these:

65 rated it 5-star

11 rated it 4 star

5 rated it 3 star

1 rated it 2 star

12 rated it 1 star

The overwhelming majority of reviewers found the machine a joy to use.  They praised the power of the motor, the large bowl capacity and the slow-start feature that gives you control.  Some people remarked that the machine was a little noisy, and also some people found that it was a bit too large to fit under their overhead cupboards, but even so they would buy the exact same machine again.

See all Kitchen Aid stand mixers

The Kitchen Aid is not the only stand mixer on the market.  You might prefer a Bosch, a Sunbeam or a Hamilton Beach.  Whatever you chose, I think you will agree with me that a stand mixer has it all over a hand mixer!

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