Stand mixer recommendations for cookie and icing beginners

[spamvicious]

I'm on the look out for a stand mixer and have no idea what to buy. I would love a kitchen aid but they're out of my budget sadly. I have around £150 to spend so if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them. I have spotted some second hand kitchen aid mixers for around £200 which I could push to but are they worth buying even second hand?.

Also I'd like to start making cookies and icing them. I read somewhere that getting squeezy bottles are a good for a first timer. Any suggestions for them? and do I need a funnel to fill them?.

Thanks in advance

 

[Norcalbaker59]

I'm on the look out for a stand mixer and have no idea what to buy. I would love a kitchen aid but they're out of my budget sadly. I have around £150 to spend so if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them. I have spotted some second hand kitchen aid mixers for around £200 which I could push to but are they worth buying even second hand?.

Also I'd like to start making cookies and icing them. I read somewhere that getting squeezy bottles are a good for a first timer. Any suggestions for them? and do I need a funnel to fill them?.

Thanks in advance

Welcome to the forum.

Regarding mixer: I would recommend you save a bit more and purchase a refrubished KitchenAid from
dealer rather than buy a used one. Buying a factory refurbished KitchenAid mixer from a dealer provides a 1 year warranty, something you won’t get if you buy used.

I don’t live in the UK, so I do not know if the company linked blow is reputable. But you could contact KitchenAid customer service to ask about authorized resellers of factory refurbished KitchenAids.

Just keep in mind that how you use your mixer is important to its durability. I’ve had my KitchenAid mixer going on 20 years. It’s lasted this long because I am careful not to use it for heavy bread doughs. Despite KitchenAid mixer‘s coming with a dough hook they are not designed for regularly mixing heavy bread and pizza doughs.

These stand mixers are a planetary mixer, meaning the bowl is stationary and the beater is vertical to the bowl. The beater moves in one direction around the stationary bowl. So the resistance of a heavy dough against the beater arm moving in one direction will eventually strip out the gears. Occasional mixing of heavy bread and pizza dough is fine, you just cannot use planetary mixers for regularly mixing these types of heavy doughs

Spiral mixers are designed for heavy doughs because the beater arm
rotates as does the bowl. In addition they are not gear driven, they are driven with a pulley belt system.

Regarding icing cookies: yes the squeeze bottle is convenient and less messy. Yes, a funnel to fill is needed. I would recommend a squeeze bottle with a coupler so you can change out the plastic tip for anyone of your metal tips.

Speaking of tips, not all tips are created equal. I would stay away from Wilton tips. In fact I would stay away from all things Wilton with the exception of their cake pan baking cloth strips. I don’t know how many times I have heard or read that Wilton is a great tip (nozzle) for beginners. No, no, no. And the reason I say no so emphatically is the tips are so inferior that you cannot develop your skill with tips that consistently pipe out thick inconsistent line of icing.

PME is the gold standard for cookie decorating tips. But of course they are more expensive. To learn I would
recommend Ateco

This link will show you jus my how crappy Wilton tips are for decorating.

https://karenscookieblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/pme-tips/amp/

Mixer links
Hughes UK
https://www.hughes.co.uk/blog/introducing-kitchenaid-factory-refurbished-stand-mixers/


KitchenAid UK Customer Service

https://www.kitchenaid.co.uk/support/customer-service

KitchenAid official site in US for refurbished appliances

https://www.kitchenaid.com/outlet.html

 

[spamvicious]

Thank you for such great advice. I actually just found a good deal on a kitchenaid classic brand new for £260 so I decided to go for that. I will be using it for baking and maybe occasionally I might try bread but that would be a rare occurrence.

I’ll check out your links for the icing tips. I’m going to make some sugar cookies to practice my icing on and then if I improve enough I can include them in Christmas gifts.

Thanks again

 

[Norcalbaker59]

So glad to hear you found a new mixer at a great price. I was surprised at the prices in the UK for the KitchenAid. They’re expensive in the US, but still considerably cheaper than the UK.

Happy Baking.

 

[spamvicious]

Yes the price difference is massive. Some of the artisan ones are around £550 ($708) which I just couldn’t afford for a new hobby.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Yes the price difference is massive. Some of the artisan ones are around £550 ($708) which I just couldn’t afford for a new hobby.

Ouch! That’s expensive!

 

[Becky]

I'm a little late but FWIW I use a powerful handheld mixer as opposed to a stand mixer. It's a Dualit one, and it's really good. Only downside is that it's quite heavy, so my arm gets sore after a while!