Mixer - Kitchenaid, KMix or any others?

[bingohandjob]

I've been very kindly given lots of Amazon vouchers for my birthday and am thinking as a keen baker of treating myself to a stand mixer but not sure where to start, if the price necessarily reflects the build and quality and would be very grateful for your insight! Also, hoping for a Black Friday discount - do these come up, does anyone know? Thank you!

I have this one which I bought a couple of years ago just before Christmas for £119. It does everything I need it to baking wise and I'm really happy with it.

We got a Kenwood Chef as a wedding present and I love it! It's so versatile with loads of additional attachments so not just a mixer.

Kenwood chef every time. KitchenAid is flashy but Kenwoods are total workhorses - my GM has only gotten through two in her lifetime.

Kenwood chef or major. Major is the (older name for the) large version of the Chef.

Kitchenaid is frankly not very good. I really don’t think it’s a practical machine.

I have both sizes of the Kenwoods and a Kitchenaid.

Another vote for Kenwood Chef. Ours doesn't go a day without use.

My KitchenAid is my price and joy- a piece of art for the kitchen! (I also use it all the time- love it!)

I got a cheap Kenwood (£100 down from £200) from Sainsburys a couple of months ago and it's shite. I hate it. But I think Kitchen Aids are too big and ugly so don't know what to do now...

my mother is on her third Kenwood, and she is 80+

I think she has the Major and apparently I am to have it when she dies, as my SIL covets it but is no good at cooking

Dh bought me a kitchen aid a couple of years back though and I do love it.

I have this one in red. It is such a work horse. Although I've only had it for 2 years, I use it for bread daily and I love it.

Another vote for Kenwood - solid, well made and built to last.

I just bought myself a Kenwood Cooking Chef. I don’t really need or want the cooking function, but had £400 of John Lewis vouchers, so it cost me under £300 with Black Friday pricing.

MsMighty my mum is on her second in 55 years of marriage. She only bought the second about 4 years ago, so maybe I should have held out to inherit the new one 🤣!

If you don’t want all the processing elements of a kenwood chef then look at a kenwood patissiere?

It’s the kenwood equivalent of a kitchen aid.

It’s a mutts nuts stand mixer and dough mixer. I absolutely love mine. The build quality is fab.

Thank you for all your suggestions! Are there are any particular models of the Kenwood you'd recommend, or the Kitchenaid?

I've just got myself the Kenwood KVL4100W. I'm well chuffed with it. Made my first cake with it yesterday and actually it was almost too easy. Cakes I'd made before entirely by hand felt like I'd earned them and put my heart and soul into them. I wonder if I'll miss that part of baking.

Have a go at doing a simple Victoria sponge by hand first and see how you get on would be my advice. Follow a decent recipe and you really can't go wrong. One piece of kit I would recommend though is an oven thermometer.

Bingo it depends what you plan to use it for, which model to go for. I only needed a stand mixer (I already have a Kenwood blender, and a food processor, and a pasta machine - I cook for a living) so I didn't want any of the attachments or extra gizmos, and a 5litre bowl is more than large enough for standard size cakes. I chose the Kenwood kMix KMX754 Stand Mixer which I am thrilled to bits with 3 years later. It is heavy, solid, well built. My friend - also a very keen cook - has the Kitchenaid, and whilst I know they have their fans, I personally find them a bit "tinny" in comparison.
I don't think anyone else has mentioned it but Kenwood are a British company and Kitchenaid are American - buy British!!! I also notice that John Lewis currently have £60 off the Kmix today.

I have the smeg stand mixer. and i bloody love it.

I will confess that I am hoping to inherit my 80 year old mother's original Kenwood Chef A701A (which is at least as old as me, and I suspect older, and still has the original glass bowl and a range of extraordinary attachments, including for sausage making), and therefore haven't been able to bear the thought of the relatively lightweight non-sturdy modern versions..

'Unfortunately' my mother comes from a very long-lived family, so I've probably got another decade of waiting to go....