In terms of cleaning, both the KitchenAid and the Kenwood offer something that many of their predecessors didn’t have: their attachments are dishwasher safe. This means that you can pop everything from the bowls to the whisks into the dishwasher and feel confident that they’ll come out sparkling clean. At a basic level, you should look for a stand mixer with a decent number of speed settings and the option for additional attachments. But if you want to improve or expand your cooking skills, there are other features worth considering.

So, get ready to create delicious silky smoothies and mixed frozen drinks in your own kitchen. Our premium smoothie maker or countertop blender range is compatible with the Vac Q vacuum pump, which provides a smoother texture, brighter colours and richer flavours from healthful ingredients to your delicious smoothies and mixed drinks by removing air from the jug before blending. On the surface, the Artisan seems like an expensive jump from the classic stand mixer. However, once you consider the additional space, power, attachments and bowl – the price hike doesn’t seem quite so outrageous. YouTube sets this cookie to register a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. The electronic speed control system is another tactile addition. Switch it on and the circular control dial lights up in readiness for you to select your preferred speed from one to eight. It also provides an extra low speed for gently folding in egg whites and a full-speed pulse function for rapidly blitzing whatever it is you want to rapidly blitz. The stainless steel bowl is a sight to behold and very practical too because it comes with a handle on either side. The plastic splash guard on top of the bowl slides on very easily and our test baker loved the transparent flip-up cover for feeding in ingredients. Known as Breville The Bakery Boss outside of the UK, this model doesn't go out of its way to look unlike a traditional stand mixer, but it still boasts a host of natty design flourishes.These include a very handy handle on the front of the articulated mixer arm, an LED-lit bowl, an LCD timer and a handy strip light that displays the speed setting you’ve selected, just in case you’ve forgotten.

The verdict: Stand mixers

In addition to the 4.7L glass mixing bowl, the Bakery Boss™ comes standard with a second 3.8L polished stainless mixing bowl for better processing of smaller quantities. 12 speed electronic control Our E-commerce Editor, Molly Cleary, is well and truly on team KitchenAid. ‘We test a lot of kitchen appliances at our dedicated facility, which is thankfully kitted out with a few KitchenAid Artisans. These stand mixers are capable of every task, from kneading to whipping up egg whites.’

When worktop or cupboard space is in short supply, this Mini mixer is the perfect solution. While it might be 20% smaller, it’s only a slight compromise on its bigger brother, the Artisan. For starters, it’ll still be able to whip up to eight egg whites, cream 2kg of mashed potatoes or mix 680g of plain flour in its 3.3l bowl, using ten speeds powered by a quiet direct drive motor. Plus, it has the same thorough planetary mixing action of the Artisan, and even an attachment hub on the front. This means you can power everything you can with a regular KitchenAid tilt head model – mince meat, slice vegetables, roll or cut pasta or squeeze, chop and process food – without hauling another appliance out. YouTube sets this cookie to measure bandwidth, determining whether the user gets the new or old player interface. Rather than spinning around a single, central point, the beater or dough hook moves one way while the drive shaft moves the other, ensuring that the attachments reach every corner of the bowl. The result is efficient mixing, minimising how often you have to scrape ingredients down off the sides of the bowl. Pretty much nothing goes unstirred, saving you a lot of time. What kind of premium features should I look out for? The 1,200-watt motor is automatically ramped up when heavier ingredients are added. It really has been exceedingly well thought-through and designed. CookieYes sets this cookie to record the default button state of the corresponding category and the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie.

REFUNDS

In testing, we found digital screen to be a nice touch but it can lag at times. There are several preset options you can scroll through on-screen for both mixing and melting, or you can set times and warmth levels manually. In the box you get a large, stainless steel balloon whisk, a dough hook and a beater/scraper, as well as a huge 7-litre warming bowl and 5-litre classic bowl. All of these are also dishwasher-safe for easy cleaning. If you have a large family or bake on an industrial scale and are looking for a mixer with a big enough bowl to accommodate a four kilo cake, then this is the model for you. Before divulging its premium features, let’s start with the basics. The Kenwood Titanium Chef Patissier XL comes with a huge 7-litre stainless steel bowl, a smaller 5-litre mixing bowl, four main attachments – a standard whisk, Kenwood’s excellent K beater, a creaming beater with rubber edges and huge dough hook – and a bright LED bowl lamp. Like its smaller stablemate reviewed above, it also features two external ports for adding a range of 25 optional attachments. Nevertheless, what really makes this mixer stand head and shoulders above every other model on the planet is the inclusion of a computer-controlled interface, built-in scales and the ability to warm ingredients – in the bowl! The interface has six presets, including dough proving, chocolate melting, egg white whisking and dough kneading. However, most avid bakers will love the scale and bowl-heating functions most. To use the scales, you simply clamp the mixing bowl into position and select the scale function, change the units to your preference and pour in the ingredients.

The Bakery Boss comes loaded with everything required of the British Baking Show-wannabe: a 4.7-litre glass borosilicate microwave-safe bowl, an additional 3.8 litre stainless steel bowl and an abundance of tools, including a scraper beater with rubber edges to catch errant ingredients on the side of the bowl, a dough hook, a flat beater for heavier batters and a huge whisk. There are ten speed settings, giving you the flexibility to lightly whip egg whites, vigorously knead dough or do anything in between. Better still, it does all of this in next to no time, blending mixtures to perfection in a matter of seconds. It’s rather large but stylish enough that it’ll still take pride of place on your kitchen countertop.Key specs – Power: 250W; Capacity: 3.3l; Speed settings: 10; Attachments: Dough hook, flat beater, wire whip Like most mixers, the heavy-weight top half articulates upwards to make it easy to remove the gorgeously shiny 4.6-litre stainless steel bowl (good for a dozen egg whites or 2.72kgs of cake mix) and change between the industrial strength stainless-steel K-beater, whisk and dough hook. Unlike some mixers which require manually lifting the heavy arm, this one is operated by a simple latch which causes the whole top to spring up on its own without any effort whatsoever. Nice.

Another brilliant feature of this mixer is that it has not one but two separate accessory outlets, one for slow-speed attachments (pasta roller, meat mincer and grinding mill) and the other for high-speed accessories (food processor, glass blender and compact chopper). You can also buy optional beaters designed specifically for creaming and folding. Not only does the KMix look great on countertops, but it also has an extra-large capacity that can hold 2.72kg of cake mixture and 1.35kg of bread dough, enough to make a couple of loaves or several Victoria sponges. Even when filled to capacity, the motor doesn’t overheat, which proves it’s not just style over substance. It does get a little shaky while making bread dough but even heavy-duty machines such as the KitchenAid Artisan become lethargic when pushed to their limits.Just when you think it can’t get any better, a light tap of the chrome slab on top switches on an LED that bathes the entire bowl in bright white light so you can see how the mix is going.