I have been the proud owner of a Kitchenaid stand mixer for a few years now, Tony bought it for me on Valentine’s Day a few years back before there was even a glimmer of a Teno and $300 Valentine’s Day gifts were perfectly reasonable. The little lady has served me quite well, I would say I’ve made over 100 lbs. of buttercream, a few cookies and even some whipped cream for whatever reason. Tony uses the dough hook for seitan and I think it was money well spent, despite not being at all useful for hte thing I make more than anything else- cupcakes. See, if you over-beat your cake or cupcake batter you’re going to get chewy cakes. And with that kind of horsepower it’s very easy to do so. I opt for hand mixing for most batters. And I mean, wooden spoon, doing actual work hand mixing.

But sometimes, you need a hand mixer for smaller batches of buttercream, thick batters, etc. And my lame Gizmo was not cutting it. So yesterday, I received this little number from my mother-in-law, Jo.
I haven’t used it yet…obviously, since last night all we had time to do was try to fin d a place for all of Teno’s new toys and then go to bed. But It has one feature I already love- slow start. No matter what speed you’re beating at, it starts out slower and increases to that speed to prevent the famous Natalie confectioner’s-sugar-in-the-hair-trick. Also, the beaters are thin wires, almost like whisks, instead of those flattened ones so you can wash them super duper easily. Awesome for those of us city dwellers with no dishwashers and tiny, tiny area in which to wash dishes. I will definitely include a review of this thing when I use it on the chocolate raspberry cupcakes I’m making for my family’s holiday party this week end. I have to make two kinds of buttercream and then a few small batches of decorating icing, I’m doing Rudolphs and ornaments.

Pictures and whatnot to follow!