KitchenAid K45SS Classic

My history and why I wanted one of these*

When I was young and life was fun I had a friend who had a food mixer sitting on her worktop at all times, she used it several times a week and made the most wonderful cakes, breads and pastries with it. Oh I coveted that food mixer as I made the above by hand creaming, whisking, beating and kneading.

The trouble was that it was out of my price range and on top of that I didn’t ...
...time.

Over the years I have bought many kitchen gadgets that are supposed to make things easier and quicker and the more hours I have worked the more gadgets I have bought. Without the space to keep these things out what happens is I use them, clean them and put them in the cupboard, and there they stay…and stay…and stay!

So what changed?

A new kitchen!

I have this wondrous thing, all shiny ... more

My history and why I wanted one of these*

When I was young and life was fun I had a friend who had a food mixer sitting on her worktop at all times, she used it several times a week and made the most wonderful cakes, breads and pastries with it. Oh I coveted that food mixer as I made the above by hand creaming, whisking, beating and kneading.

The trouble was that it was out of my price range and on top of that I didn’t have enough worktop space to keep it out all the time.

Over the years I have bought many kitchen gadgets that are supposed to make things easier and quicker and the more hours I have worked the more gadgets I have bought. Without the space to keep these things out what happens is I use them, clean them and put them in the cupboard, and there they stay…and stay…and stay!

So what changed?

A new kitchen!

I have this wondrous thing, all shiny and new. The mess it made in the making had to be seen to be believed. Out came the cupboards, the cooker, the sink and the fridge then down came the larder, not without a lot of swearing and sweating.

In went new cupboards, new cooker and lovely new worktops and sink.

Suddenly space so I at last had somewhere to keep a food mixer.

We bought a Kitchen Aid K45SS Classic

Why that model?

Because we had some vouchers and that was the one we could get out of the catalogue that came with the vouchers! (All courtesy of the firm my husband works for)

I wasn’t sure what I was getting exactly and wasn’t quite sure I wanted it as I had hankered after a better-known make for so many years but that is what we ordered.

I have looked on the web and Kitchen Aid is a company that manufactures lots of different aids to help you make food more exciting more easily and quickly. They have been in business since 1937 so I guess they know what they are doing by now.

The website for Kitchen Aid itself is below, there are a range of mixers, blenders and liquidisers there for you to look at and learn about.

http://www.kitchenaid.com/catalog/category.jsp?categoryId=310

I have been looking round the cookware.co.uk website at the accessories and am a little shocked at the prices, a cover costs £38 and the pouring shield attachment which is plastic costs £19.

I have read that all Kitchen Aid products are still hand assembled and there is a pride in owning something put together in a traditional way.

Anyway back to the mixer.

It is all metal so very heavy. I was a bit surprised when it came how heavy it was.
The bowl is large, 4.83 litres, this is stainless steel so looks good and is dishwasher safe. Having a large bowl means you can make big cakes or a couple of loaves of bread in one go. It also mixes the smallest amount of butter cream, just enough for one cake.
The motor runs on a maximum of 300 watts. but is direct drive transmission so the power goes straight to the mixing arm.

There are 10 speed settings so it whisks eggs in seconds and kneads dough slowly and thoroughly.

The mixing head tilts up at the flick of a lever, this means you can easily add ingredients without getting them all over the place or lift the mixer head for ease of getting the bowl out when the mix is complete.

The bowl sits on the stand firmly and is released by twisting it to the right, this is a bit stiff and I have put a wipe of cooking oil round the edge of the part the bowl sits in, I guess it will work a little smoother in time.

This Mixer comes with a flat beater, a C dough hook and a wire whisk. The dough hook kneads dough evenly and this machine makes lovely bread. The flat beater is for pastry or firmer cake mixes and the whisk is for eggs or softer cake mixes or batters. It also comes with a plastic cover with a pouring side that stops flour puffing all over the place and helps you pour without spillage into the bowl.

There are so many accessories that it would be boring to mention all the ones you can buy, they are all on the above websites though. There are things to attach that grind, juice, make pasta and grate. That is just a few, go look at the site and see how many you would use. For now I am happy with what came with it but in the future it is nice to know I can branch out if I want to.

I haven’t made batter yet, but we have been eating homemade wholemeal bread rolls and currant buns. We have also had a chocolate fudge cake with butter icing and sugar frosting on top. Tonight I made a sponge cake and earlier I made a batch of pastry.

But I can make all those by hand I hear you say.

Well, yes, so can I and so have I for the last goodness knows how many years, but the other day I came in from shopping, put the bags in the corner, weighed out the ingredients and added them to the mixer as per the recipe. Unpacked the bags, put the kettle on, put the mix in tins and in the oven, rinsed and wiped the bowl out, put in the butter and icing sugar for the filling, made the tea, got the cakes out of the oven and set to cool, scooped out the butter icing, wiped the bowl and put the icing sugar in for the frosting, tidied up a bit, put the cake together, (whoops still a bit warm, poured the frosting on, put the bowl in the dishwasher and sat with a piece of warm cake with my tea before 45 minutes were up. Then the children arrived but that is another story…..

Suddenly I remembered why I wanted a food mixer. It is because in this busy life I lead I rarely have a whole afternoon for baking and this just speeds everything up and doesn’t leave me with a huge lot of washing up to do afterwards.

When this mixer first arrived I thought it looked old fashioned, I have since read about it and it isn’t so much old fashioned as classic, or even iconic apparently.

I just love it.

I kept my food processor because it makes the most delicious pastry, but today made pastry with the Kitchen Aid Classic and it is just as delicious so the food processor, which sits in a cupboard can go and sit in someone else’s cupboard.

I haven’t had this mixer all that long but have used it by making a range of the things it makes. Already this has made my life easier and baking so much more fun and less mess. I have saved money on bread that comes in a plastic bag, enjoyed the process of making my own, more than once, we had currant buns and they didn’t last long.

The handbook/instructions that come with the mixer are rather basic, it is a simple thing to operate as it doesn't have too many knobs and things to confuse. The booket isn't that thick, is in several different languages and covers safety, cleaning and general use. Enough for me. I didn't want to spend hours reading I wanted to unpack, plug in and start using the machine and that is exactly what I did.

Will we put on weight? I don’t think so but the food we eat will be all natural and I will know what has gone into it.

So there it sits, in the corner of our new kitchen, waiting for me to turn the plug on and fill the bowl with ingredients, so easy, and that is what I wanted, something to make baking easier so I could do it more often.

I have seen this mixer advertised on Amazon for £199 and £279 which seems about right from the amount of vouchers we sent the company we bought ours from. This seems a fair price for a good quality mixer from a prestigious company.

Thanks for reading, and if you drop by for a cuppa let me know you are coming and I can make a cake?

Sue 

...less