I have a beautiful shiny kitchen aid on my counter..

[KillashandraRee]

What shall I bake to christen it? (Joint birthday and Christmas present from my DParents!) I've been looking at it for two days just admiring it and now think I might be ready to try it out but can't quite decide what to do first. Any great recipes / ideas welcome

Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas OP!!

I have had the huge pro kitchen aid for about 10 years - thought it was too big when my MIL bought it for me, but it isn't really.

Absolutely fabulous machine - I make bread too and it is always lovely. Cakes are so easy - I baked enough cakes for school, brownies and another club (about 100 portions) for my daughter's birthday - v easy indeed, couldn't imagine doing that without my mixer.

I am not really a baker other than bread but everything always works well - I am lazy - all in one method for everything cake wise, just chuck it all in, leave it whirring for while and something delicious results.

mash potato is heavenly in the kitchen aid. and merangues, and bread. I still love my kitchen aid had her (Carmen) for about 3 years now).

To add to the marshmallow and meringue brigade, Jamie Oliver made a marshmallow pavlova on his comfort food programme the other day, which looked amazing! Can't link but if you google Jamie Oliver Dreamy Marshmallow Pavlova up pops the recipe.

Loving all these suggestions

I made my bread in it yesterday and it was SO much easier than doing it by hand and rose really well.

Am going to try a cake today and then will look at meringue/marshmallow thing as work have a bake off competition on Thursday so I need something lovely to take in.

I love Carmen...think I may need to name mine!

Nigellas brownies are amazing and the recipe makes 2 trays of yummy brownies. I have made marshmallows in mine which seems to work quite well. Pizza dough is easy too . Enjoy xx

I want one you are all making me jealous!

Mmm brownies.... They might get bumped up the list to today :-)

DD (12) has been saving since last year for a purple one. She currently has £110.

I have been saying that she needs to get a paper round when she turns 13 and maybe she'll be able to afford one in another year or so.

Reading this thread makes me think I might increase her birthday and Christmas money this year so I can pretend she's saved for it, then play with it the minute she goes to bed every day!

The problem is she might take it with her if she moves out when she's 18. Maybe I need to divert her university fund to my kitchen aid fund!

Diva. How do you make your mashed potatoes it. Sounds lovely

Titty, I think you should get her one for Christmas, think of all the hours she will be at school and you can be using it, and they make your kitchen look pretty , I don't really use mine enough! dh keeps moaning about it as he is still paying for it! trouble is! when I do use it I end up gaining lots of weight due to all the cake I make ( someone has to eat it).

Honestly, I think you need to make a range of stuff, just to get a feel for it.

You've done bread -yum.

Now you need to make a are -I'd start basic, something like a vic sandwich, get the butter and sugar lovely and creamed. Then you need to make a cake that needs buttercup am, as that comes up a treat too.

You also NEED to do marshmallow, which is nice of me to allow that as I don't like hte claggy yuck. So in the same vein you could do a pavlova -lovely whipped eg whites then whipped cream.

Brownies I don't really rate mixer for, as they don't need much mixing at all IMHO.

Not 'a are ' a cake. You'd think I could spell cake by now.

Also not buttercup, but buttercream.

Is my spellchecker trying to put me on a diet ?

I have just discovered that carmen makes perfect angel delight.

marne - I might do but she might question my motives as it would mean spending nearly 10x as much as I usually do!

She's wanted one for two years or more, but I think I need to encourage her to hurry up a bit, because she started back in Y8 this week and is now muttering about maybe getting an iPhone 5 instead. I think the hormones / peer pressure is starting to kick in and there's not a lot of street cred in owning purple Kitchenaids when you're 13!

I don't want her to use her money to buy an iPhone. I wouldn't get nearly as much use out of it!

So do I have a new one. I have a new kitchen and have wanted one for years my old mixer was from freecycle! I got almond cream colour. Used it daily for a week mostly breAd, cinnamon rolls, bread rolls and Victoria sponge. I've sent off for free cookbook you get with warranty.

I've sent off for that too cloth.

Cinnamon rolls sound nice x

killa youll get your use out of it if you only ever use it for bread. I have a 30 year old kenwood chef that is only used for dough kneading, several times a week.
Out of interest do you use vitamin c in your bread?
Have recently started adding it and now get perfect wholemeal.

I have a white one (broken at the moment, thanks to Jamie Oliver's pasta recipe; motor burned out). Got a jolly good mind to send him the bill for the £150 repair (because the same recipe also did the same to the Magimix, which was a £50 repair bill). Grrrr!!

Before it was broken, it was used a lot, though. Reminds me of my Nanna's old-fashioned Kenwood. Like a good old workhorse. Although I can't use it until I can afford the repair, I still pat it affectionately. ^^

Would really, really love the Candy Apple Red one. Trying to decide whether to pay for the repair for the white one, or just buy the colour I really want

KitchenAid have their own website that provides some yummy-looking recipes. A delicious-looking chocolate cake recipe, among others . . .
Enjoy your new mixer, Killa

I didn't know I wanted one of these until I googled. They do one in blue which will match the cooker. The kitchen (going in this week) is cream. I need more blue in there don't I?