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14 best stand mixers to elevate your baking

Whether whipping up cake batter or kneading bread dough, these machines do the hard work for you

Alicia Miller
Wednesday 27 September 2023 13:48 BST
We baked plenty of bread to find out which of these mighty machines is worth your dough
We baked plenty of bread to find out which of these mighty machines is worth your dough (The Independent )
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It doesn’t really matter whether you’re a baking novice or pâtissier extraordinaire worthy of the Bake Off hall of fame – a good-quality stand mixer is an absolute kitchen essential.

It’s not about having all the bells and whistles necessarily. Even the most basic, affordable stand mixers save you time, effort and often washing up in the kitchen. They take the chore out of baking by ensuring egg whites are swiftly and effortlessly whipped into glossy peaks; dough is kneaded to perfection; butter is beaten until smooth and creamy. Think of them as a handy assistant – or, if you prefer, the kitchen workhorse.

Depending on your budget, it’s possible to find a good simple mixer for less than £75. Or you could drop as much as £750 for a professional-standard one that is designed to last a lifetime and multi-task in the kitchen, not only with baking but other cookery tasks too.

While it’s possible to find quality at both ends of the scale, there is some rationale to the differences in pricing. Inexpensive stand mixers are typically designed for light use, maybe that occasional traybake or meringue. Those at the higher end have powerful motors, ultra-stable frames for heavy-duty dough processing and techy features for ultra-precise pastry making. Some are even capable of melting chocolate, weighing sugar and self-timing – as if they really were real life kitchen assistants.

You’ll want to consider how frequently you bake and what you like to make when choosing the best stand mixer for your needs. But whatever your priorities, the tried-and-tested mixers below are good buys that deliver efficiency and value for money.

How we tested

All our best stand mixers were put through the same three tests. We whipped egg whites to soft peaks, creamed cold butter with sugar until smooth, and made a basic bread dough with flour and water. If there were additional key features included with the mixer – say, the aforementioned ability to melt chocolate – we tested those too.

Each mixer was scored based not only on its ability to mix well, but how intuitive it was to use, how easy it was to clean, and our overall impression of its durability. Looks also came into the equation – after all, it might be there to do a job, but much like a fridge or microwave, a stand mixer is also probably going to be on show. In an ideal world, it should add as much wow-factor to your kitchen décor as it does your bakes.

The best stand mixers for 2023 are:

  • Best stand mixer overall – Lakeland digital stand mixer cream 6.5l: £249.99, Lakeland.com
  • Best budget mixer – VonShef 8 speed 3.5l stand mixer: £69.99, Wayfair.co.uk
  • Best for regular bakers – Kenwood titanium chef baker: £599.99, Currys.co.uk
  • Best multi-tasker – Bosch kitchen machine mum5 scale 1000: £249.86, Amazon.co.uk
  • Best for beginners – Swan 800W retro stand mixer: £119.99, Swan.co.uk

Lakeland digital stand mixer cream 6.5l

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  • Best: Stand mixer overall
  • Bowl size: 6.5l
  • Power: 1,800W
  • Attachments: Dough hook, rubberised beater, whisk

If countertop good-looks at a reasonable outlay is what you’re after, our best overall stand mixer really delivers. But what impressed us most about this mixer is how it fuses that fabulous style with elevated function. Rather than a traditional dial or switch control mechanism, it’s furnished with a slick LED control panel that allows you to adjust speed with a mere tap of a button. A built-in timer can be set in intervals of 10 seconds so you can get your mix going, then step away – perhaps to measure ingredients, or to tidy up – returning seconds or minutes later to perfectly whipped egg whites or blended cake batters.

The splash guard is smart too. Rather than slotting onto the bowl like most models, it fixes onto the mixer head via a trio of rubber grips. As for performance? We found that the 6.5l bowl felt luxuriously spacious, and liked the sturdy handle for gripping (especially handy when you’ve got litres of liquidy batter inside). The seven speeds seemed to cover our full range of baking needs and the machine moved between them seamlessly and quickly.

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VonShef 8 speed 3.5l stand mixer

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  • Best: Budget mixer
  • Bowl size: 4.65l
  • Power: 1,000W
  • Attachments: Whisk, dough hook, wire whip

As soon as we unboxed this stand mixer, we felt like we were onto a winner – the sleek white and chrome design looks like it should cost upwards of £100. And yet, the compact and light – just 6kg – model costs only £70, which makes it the perfect investment for the occasional or beginner baker.

With eight speed settings to choose from, the VonShef is designed to tackle a whole range of kitchen delights, from pizza dough and crepes to meringues. As you move between the gears the change in speed is seamless and instantly responsive – no annoying delays or bucks here.

The three included attachments – whisk, dough hook and wire whip – lock into place smoothly with ease. We wouldn’t have minded the mixer head going back a smidge further when open, because the current design makes it almost impossible to remove the bowl from the stand without first detaching the whisk or dough hook (plunging it deeply, sometimes messily, into your bowl’s contents). But really this is a small complaint for an otherwise pretty efficient mixer.

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Lakeland 2-in-1 hand and stand mixer 3.5l

Lakeland 2-in-1 hand and stand mixer 3.5l.png
  • Best: Hand and stand mixer
  • Bowl size: 3.5l
  • Power : 400W
  • Attachments: Beater, dough hook

There are bakers out there that will be wondering whether a stand mixer is for them – or whether they should just get a smaller, more flexible hand mixer. With this clever (and thrifty) piece of kit from Lakeland, you don’t need to decide. Because you’re getting both.

It’s a smidge awkward to operate at first – we didn’t find that plugging in the mixing attachments was all that intuitive – but once you get the hang of it, there’s lots to love in this mixer. When used with the stand, the beaters are slightly offset from the centre of the bowl, so batters swirl in a way that prevents them from sticking to the sides (bravo, Lakeland).

What’s more, the motorhead is easy to lift off the stand and start using right away as a hand mixer. Just what you need if you’re hopping between multiple mixing bowls in one big bake fest. There’s a three-year guarantee too, not bad at all for a £65 machine.

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KitchenAid mixer tilt-head 4.8l artisan with accessories

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  • Best: Lifetime buy
  • Bowl size : 4.8l
  • Power: 300W
  • Attachments: Additional 3l bowl, whisk, paddle, flex edge beater, dough hook

When it comes to stand mixers, KitchenAid is practically iconic. The 4.8l artisan with accessories model, in our eyes, is the perfect buy.

As for performance? Impressive. There’s real force behind this machine; it seems like it could run for hours without faltering (not that that’s necessary, given our egg whites reached soft peaks in mere moments).

There’s no major downsides with this machine either. Switching between mixing speeds isn’t quite as smooth as it is on some other premium-priced competitors, and in moments of patisserie panic, some distracted bakers might confuse the speed dial with the one that flips the mixer head up (we’ve done this more than once). And, of course, it’s expensive; even more so if you want a limited-edition colour, which costs extra. But if you’re going to have this machine forever – and you really might – it’s worth the investment.

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Kenwood titanium chef baker

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  • Best: For regular bakers
  • Bowl size: 5l
  • Power: 1,200W
  • Attachments: Additional 3.5l bowl, stainless steel K-beater, whisk, dough hook, creaming beater, spatula

One word for you: smooth. Rotating the speed dial from nil to max on this machine is so satisfyingly seamless. A sister product to the titanium chef patissier XL (£799.99, Amazon.co.uk), the titanium chef baker is more modest both in size and functionality. While it doesn’t have that fancy warming setting, it still does weigh your ingredients and time how long you’ve been mixing for.

If we had one tiny gripe, it’s that we found the weighing mechanism – which can handily do grams, ounces, kilos and pounds down to small fractions – a bit less intuitive to use compared to some rival models. But when you do get used to it, you’ll be unstoppable in the kitchen. The fold function is perfect for mixing sifted flour into heavier bases and the splash guard really is a proper guard, with a liftable lid-style mechanism that doesn’t let a single drop escape. There are extra attachments you can buy – for example, a blender – to turn this into a full-fledge multipurpose kitchen machine, too. So, while regular bakers will love it, any keen cook probably will too.

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Morphy Richards mixstar compact stand mixer

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  • Best: For alternative design
  • Bowl size: 4l
  • Power: 650W
  • Attachments: Whisk, beater, dough hook, scraper

We’ll be upfront: when we first saw this stand mixer next to the lineup of cool retro-styled models, we weren’t sure if we liked it. But as we used it, it grew on us very, very quickly.

Unlike traditional stand mixers with a central top-down mixing head, you can really see everything that’s happening, all through the clear domed lid. This allows for precision (we knew the exact moment our egg whites were perfectly peaked) and keeps everything neat, too. All the attachments store neatly inside a tray in the 4l inner bowl, so nothing goes astray.

It’s light (less than 5kg) and, thanks to that design, easy to store in a drawer or cupboard – a real selling point if you don’t have much counter space. As a final cherry on top, there’s an automatic timer built in, so each time you start mixing you know exactly how long you’ve been going for. A real winner at the price point.

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Bosch kitchen machine mum5 scale 1000

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  • Best: Multi-tasker
  • Bowl size: 3.9l
  • Power: 1,000W
  • Attachments: Whisk, beater, dough hook, 4 shredding/grating disks

Love the idea of a stand mixer, but don’t know if you can dedicate the counter real estate – or cash – to one machine? This magic all-rounder is the buy for you.

It’s a stand mixer, yes, whisking egg whites with ease and swirling bread dough like a pro. But it’s also a digital kitchen scale, grater and chopper. If that’s not enough, the Bosch has a strong motor – 1,000W – and an integrated timer, so you’ll never accidentally overwhip your egg whites if the doorbell rings mid-meringue.

It’s a looker, too, with soft curves and an easy-to-wipe white exterior that will look chic in any kitchen space. The design is compact, so it takes up a minimal footprint on your counter and the attachments that come with it – including beater, dough hook, paddle and four grating wheels – come packed in a neat little pouch so they’re easy to store too.

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Cuisinart precision stand mixer

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  • Best: Mid-priced mixer
  • Bowl size: 5.2l
  • Power: 500W
  • Attachments: Whisk, beater, dough hook

There are a lot of cheap mixers out there, and a lot of really pricey ones. But Cuisinart gets a gold star for producing a machine that works brilliantly, looks premium and – while not exactly cheap – shows excellent value for money.

It’s noticeably quiet, but still with 12 speed settings, so you can customise your mixing to exactly the level that suits your bake best. It’s solid, too, tackling bread dough and egg whites both with the same sturdy, confident finesse. And while it has one of the largest bowls of the mixers we tried – 5.2l – because of its slim stand design it doesn’t feel like it takes up inordinate amounts of room in the kitchen.

That 5.2l bowl size is perhaps the mixer’s only potential downside; it’s not really suitable for mixing small quantities. But, then again, there are worse things in life than having so much batter that you need to bake an extra batch of red velvet cupcakes.

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Kenwood titanium chef patissier xl

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  • Best: For star bakers
  • Bowl size: 7l
  • Power: 1,400W
  • Attachments: Additional 5l bowl, beater, whisk, k-beater, dough tool, spatula

We know that this is a lot of money to spend on a stand mixer. But heavens, what a mixer. And – most game-changing of all – it comes with a warming option.

That’s right. This machine melts chocolate. It proves dough. It makes Italian meringue. It comes with two enormous bowls – one 7l, one 5l – so you can be making, say, a chocolate sponge in one and a buttercream in the other without having to interrupt your flow.

While it is super responsive, there are also a lot of settings to get your head around – you can adjust speed, stirring frequency and timing with every mix (for example it can stir ultra-slowly, every few seconds, in order to carefully fold in ingredients).

Is it for everyone? No. Price point aside, if all you make is the odd sponge or batch of scones, if anything its array of settings might prove a hindrance rather than a help. But if you are keen to push your baking repertoire to the lofty heights of Bake Off stardom, this machine will be your new best friend.

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Swan 800W retro stand mixer

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  • Best: For beginners
  • Bowl size: 4l
  • Power: 800W
  • Attachments: Whisk, beater, dough hook

Since the 1920s, British brand Swan has been making stand mixers for the nation’s kitchens. And this retro-style model proves that decades of design experience pays dividends. It looks sleek and chic, coming in a range of candy-hued tones. It’s notably slim, too – great if you have tight kitchen corners – and yet still features a good-sized 4L bowl that will suit most cake mixes. But the main reason we loved it? It sells for just a smidge over £100. If we didn’t know better, we would have thought it costs double that.

We couldn’t fault the Swan’s performance in our tests; it creamed butter and peaked egg whites with ease. Its solid-feeling attachments and splash guard clicked easily and confidentially into place. And unlike some other cheaper models, it didn’t rattle around when kneading our bread dough.

The one small downside? You’re not meant to run it for more than about eight minutes consecutively (do note, this isn’t unusual among cheaper stand mixers). But frankly, unless you’re baking elaborately or highly frequently, you shouldn’t need to. And in turn, with the Swan you get a great-looking mixer that gets the job done.

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Tower 1000W 6-speed 5l stand mixer

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  • Best: Big format budget mixer
  • Bowl size : 5l
  • Power: 1,000W
  • Attachments: Whisk, beater, dough hook

This mixer hits a sweet spot with its fairly thrifty price – it’s sub-£80 – and winning performance. With a 1,000W motor, a sizeable bowl that’s capable of whisking up to two dozen eggs at once and a three-year guarantee, it’s sturdy enough to be used regularly and generally blends quietly and smoothly compared to other mixers around the same price.

We weren’t a huge fan of the lever that makes the mixer head move up and down – it felt like something we might get our fingers caught in or that could end up being tricky to clean. But we did like the style of the plastic guard, which had a proper funnel for adding ingredients (in many of the mixers we tried, it was so small it almost felt redundant). The handle on the bowl, too, which some other models lack at this price point, was handy when it came to pouring our beaten eggs and bread dough.

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Smeg SMF03 stand mixer

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  • Best: Retro-style premium
  • Bowl size: 4.8l
  • Power: 800W
  • Attachments: Whisk, beater, dough hook, flex edge beater

This retro-style Italian beauty would be a looker in any kitchen. Solid, heavy and with a smart gloss and metal exterior, it’s no pushover – it feels built to last. The 800W motor certainly has kick, and yet, this mixer does have an air of elegance to it too. Perhaps it’s the thin neck of the mixer head or the broad bowl. Either way, we can’t quite keep ourselves from thinking of this as the stand mixer equivalent to a Ferrari.

Rather than a standard style switch to pop up the mixing head, the Smeg has a push button at the back of the machine. We like this feature; it makes it impossible to flick up absent-mindedly while you’re mid-mix. We also like the speed dial, which runs as smoothly from one to 10 as if you’re revving up the engine on a luxury vehicle.

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Sensio home 6-speed 4.5l stand mixer

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  • Best: For smoothie fanatics
  • Bowl size : 4.5l
  • Power: 1,300W
  • Attachments: Whisk, beater, dough hook, blender

This handy two-in-one mixer is a solid buy for anyone with limited counter space that does as much blending as they do mixing. It’s not a small machine – in fact, at 4.5l, the bowl is roomy enough for making a big batch of bread dough. But the win is that it also comes with a 2.5l blender included. You can use the machine for one or the other function – or even both together. For example, you could simultaneously be blending fruit for a fresh drizzle for cheesecake, while whipping up cream cheese in the bowl below.

It’s not the quietest of mixers, nor the most stylish in our opinion – we could have probably done without the overt labelling splashed on the side that tells you which speed to use for which attachment. But if you’re not bothered by that (admittedly, helpful) design detail, then go for it.

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KitchenAid mixer bowl lift 5.6l artisan

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  • Best: For new-wave KitchenAid
  • Bowl size: 5.6l
  • Power: 325W
  • Attachments: Wire whisk, silver-coated paddle, silver-coated dough hook

Just launched this year, the newest addition to the KitchenAid range has all the same signature brand looks but some smart features you won’t find in the classic model. First off, it’s the most powerful machine in the whole range, so you can really cut through the thickest, heaviest of doughs with ease. Secondly, it has 11 speeds to choose from – including a new half-speed that mimics folding by hand. What also sets this mixer apart from the classic KitchenAid design is the ‘bowl lift’ mechanism. The head doesn’t yawn backwards – rather, the bowl itself moves up and down on a lever to give access to your mix.

Like all KitchenAid models, this machine is a real investment – but you can also expect it to be a kitchen staple. It comes with a five-year guarantee and a 15-year repair promise, and it can work as a full-fledged kitchen machine if you invest in the many add-on attachments like pasta cutter, meat grinder and ice shaver.

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Stand mixer FAQ’s

What to look for in a stand mixer?

First things first, consider the capacity you will need. Stand mixers can range from around 2qts of capacity, with larger stand mixers offering around 8qts of capacity. Somewhere halfway is sufficient for everyday meals and recipes.

Generally, a stand mixer can weigh anywhere from around 10-35lbs, but, the weights will also depend on their design and can vary widely. As a result, it’s important to consider how and where you will store your mixer – we recommend picking a lighter model if you are planning to store it on a top shelf.

As all those listed here come with numerous different attachments, specific to their purpose, you should also carefully consider what you will be using your appliance for most. That way you can be sure to pick one with attachments to suit your specific needs, rather than those that barely make it out of the box.

Stand mixer vs hand mixer

Why pick a stand mixer?

Pros: If you are an avid baker, or need a multi-tasking kitchen appliance, a stand mixer may be a better fit for you. Especially if you frequently try your hand at making bread and pastries, these can withstand tougher mixing tasks, such as kneading dough.

Naturally, you get the mixing bowl included with your stand mixer alongside larger attachments that get the job done a lot quicker. These also use a planetary mixing action – this means the mixer doesn’t just mix ingredients in the middle of the bowl but instead moves around the mixing bowl, reaching the edges, for more thorough mixing.

Perhaps most handy though is that there is little to no effort involved in the mixing process. Simply leave your ingredients to mix while you get on with the rest of your recipe.

Cons: However, stand mixers will take up a lot more of your all-important cupboard space. They are, also, usually considerably more expensive, so are better suited to those who are more experienced in the kitchen and looking to make an investment. You may also find you struggle to mix smaller quantities and they can be a pain to clean.

Why pick a hand mixer?

Pros: If you are more of an occasional baker, a hand mixer may be a better fit for you. They are small, saving you cupboard space, and cheap – you can pick one up for less than £20. They are perfectly suited to smaller, occasional baking tasks, such as whipping up cake batter, whisking cream and egg whites.

Cons: Put simply, these can’t do as much as a stand mixer. They are less powerful, and, perhaps most noticeably, they are considerably more tiring to use, especially for thicker mixes.

The verdict: Stand mixers

With so many price points and diverse features to consider, it’s tricky to pick a single winner. But for a stand mixer that over-delivers on its price point, with excellent handling and great looks, opt for the Lakeland digital stand mixer 6.5l. It’s not the cheapest model on the market, but it does represent good value for money based on our tests.

If you’re happy to spend more and are looking for a machine that might last a lifetime, then that will come down to your individual style preferences and requirements. It’s hard to fault the two KitchenAid models – whether you prefer the tilt-head or bowl lift design – but you’ll need plenty of countertop space for either one. For something versatile and with a more compact footprint, we love the Bosch kitchen machine mum4 scale 1,000.

If you like these you’ll love our round-up of the best air fryers for cooking up a storm in the kitchen

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