I love my KitchenAid fiercely, but I’d be lying if I said it’s because I can’t live without it. It’s a family heirloom, handed down from my great-grandmother to my mom to me; according to the model number, it turns 50 this year. I’ve moved it across the continent twice—from upstate New York to Oregon and back to Pennsylvania—and at least half a dozen times within the city of Portland. But I use it three times a year, max, usually when I wake up one day with a sudden fixation on layer cake.
This is the cold, hard truth about stand mixers: they do exactly one thing better than anything else, and that’s butter-based sponge cakes, particularly those frosted with Italian or Swiss meringue buttercream. Literally everything else can be accomplished with another appliance. Oil-based cakes, my favorite kind, can be mixed in a single bowl with a whisk. A stand mixer makes kneading enriched bread dough a breeze, but so does a nice, long rest in the fridge. Regular yeasted bread dough—or sourdough—doesn’t even need to be kneaded at all. Cookie dough comes together much faster in the food processor, as does American-style buttercream frosting; immersion blenders make fabulous whipped cream; the best machine for pie dough is your very own fingertips.
Unless you’ve got it bad for buttery, fluffy layer cakes and meringue, you probably don’t need a stand mixer—and even if you think you do, try a hand mixer first. They’re not as powerful, but they are cheaper, easier to store, and more than capable of getting the job done. When—or if—you burn through your first motor, it might be time to splurge on the KitchenAid of your dreams.