im 34 and i still mix with a wooden spoon.

[nailpolish]

recommend me an affordable mixer for my cake mix. im surprised i havent developed popeye arms by now

i have no idea hwere to start looking!

What's wrong with using a spoon? I often do mine and DH comes in and says "let me do that". Must be a macho thing or something.

Far less washing up with a wooden spoon too!!

Erm, what is 34 got to do with it btw

affordable mixers break down or are feeble so you end up back wtih your spoon
unaffordable mixers are so marvellous you make tons of bread and cakes and become terribly fat.

stick with spoon.

oh mawbroon i was hoping youd see this

i feel by my age i shuld have a food mixer...you know?

sigh. i was making biscuits yesterday and i thought my arm ws going to drop off. but yes i agree its fun for the bairns

could you have a peep at my other thread please? in the food section too, about biscuits

always taste better when mixed with wooden spoon! offered to get my dad mixer (makes yummy cakes) he told me know his moms recepies too good for one them thing to make it taste metalic!

this one

I have a very basic hand mixer that only has the normal mixer and a dough attachment and it has lasted years. hardly anything to wash up, just the metal bits. Loads easier than a spoon!

like this?

I've just read it naily. Biscuits are not something I ever bother my arse to make tbh, so if I googled a recipe, it wouldn't be tried and tested.

I have in the past used my food processor/blender thinggy to make cake mix and it really doesn't do a good job. For some reason, the sugar still ends up crunchy when the cakes are baked.

Top tip though, warm the bowl before you start and also soften the butter in the microwave before using it as that makes creaming the butter and sugar together far less effort. (Remember that I am a lazy arse )

Oh, how are you getting on with the split personality butter in your house btw?

another vote for the spoon and arm unless you can afford one of the lovely shiney ones.

see, thats one reason i dont like keeping the butter in the fridge - its a nightmare when you want to make biscuits. i bought the markies one and its slightly less hard. i now cut half the block and keep half in fridge and half in dish in cupboard.

i dont have a microwave - i can see how it wold help greatly.
i should plan ahead and take enough butter out of fridge well in advance

very stylish them there spoons in a retro 1950s housewife way

Wow, you don't have a microwave. Any particular reason? I use mine about 100 times a day and would be lost without it!!

I suppose if you've forgotten to take the butter out, you could cut it in cubes and sit the bowl over a pan of hot water to soften it a bit. Would take a while, but less effort than trying to cream fridge butter.

I have one like that naily, plus a hand blender, nothing fancier (ie no food processor or kitchenaid) and I do a lot of cooking. Both cost under a tenner and in both of them the mucky bits come off for easy washing. I don't think you need more than that, but I do feel I need them - makes cake making etc much quicker.

yes NP, just like that. Not that exact one but close enough. Tis much better for some things. I find that if something needs a LOT of beating I'm more likely to do it if I can use the hand mixer, not sure if I would do it for long enough with a spoon.

thanks snowleopard - i htink i can stretch to a cheapish hand blender thingy - why didnt i think of that before???

i used to have a microwave - got it about 2 yrs ago - was my mums old one - didnt use one before then and didnt use it much when i got one - only used it for baking potaatoes - but dont know why cos they are much nicer in oven - it broke - didnt bother replacing it. i cant for the life of me think what i would use it for tbh

oh i am quite looking forward to making meringues with a hand blender - si it easier/?

I wouldn't let my DW mix with wooden spoons.
They're a bad crowd. Time to grow up and hang out with the Moulinex gang.

I have an electric hand mixer (all in one with no extra attachments) that I got attached to as a child (being an obsessive cake baker from age 9) which my mother gave to me when I moved out at age 17 in 1984 - my mother had used it for about 30 years before that - and it's still going strong!And I wouldn't use anything else to mix my cakes.

Maths is not my strong point but that mixer must be about 50 something years old?

just to say NP that i also still mix with a wooden spoon and am a baking fanatic!
My mum has been threatening to buy me a kenwood chef for the last couple of years which i guess would save my arms, but i do like mixing with a spoon!

lol @ DaD

so do you soften your butter first, fairylights?

the other thing i like about the spoon method is dd gets to throw flour around the kitchen help out which is sweet.

Sorry for stirring.

Ba-dum-tish.

np - umm sometimes but often end up battling away for a while and cursing myself! But often use stork marg so that is usually ok. Do you soften butter first?

no i dont soften it first - ideally i take it out of fridge hours before but im not that organised usually

thats thre problem! creaming the butter and sugar takes FOREVER!