[Image] If you’re a regular reader you might remember this time last year I did a road test for the Sunbeam Mixmaster and the Kenwood Patissier bench top mixers. And I lamented in that story that I’d never bought a Kitchenaid when I should have.

Well late last year I was fortunate enough to score a second hand Kitchenaid KMS90 for a bargain price – one which had only ever been used twice. I’ve been working with my Kitchenaid for about six months now, and I’ve decided it’s time to report on the performance of this machine.

Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!

That’s the only way to describe it. Because it was second hand, the Kitchenaid showed up with no manual and only one attachment – the standard whisk beater. Having seen what can happen to the same attachment on the Kenwood Patissier, I quickly bought the flat paddle attachment from Pulp Kitchen and installed it as the default attachment.

The number one thing I use my Kitchenaid for is making cakes – cupcakes mostly, and I can attest to its excellence in all things cake. I do find it prefers a double sized cake batter mix instead of the single. The resulting cake is always light, fluffy and moist.

I’ve also used the Kitchenaid to make fruit cake – tricky, as you don’t want to accidentally mash the booze-soaked fruit.

Recently I acquired the Kitchenaid icecream freezer bowl, which was the big item touted as an extra last Christmas – sadly, my skill in the icecream churning department is lacking, so I haven’t gotten the best results out of that attachment. And I’ve decided that’s probably a good thing.

And finally the dough hook – I may have mentioned before that I hate making pastry, so I’ve used this attachment for making pizza dough instead, with again, excellent results.

In direct comparison to the other two mixers, the Kitchenaid’s performance is light years ahead. Despite the Kenwood Patissier being a copy of the Kitchenaid, it couldn’t beat a single egg white, whereas the Kitchenaid can. I never had a problem with the Sunbeam Mixmaster – until it blew up. Despite being in the repair shop for six months it never recovered from that disaster, and last council pick up we left it on the street as trash (that WAS a sad day). And of course there were the ongoing problems with the Kenwood Patissier’s whisk attachment breaking – and costing $55 to replace. Not cool.

I high recommend the Kitchenaid bench top mixer to anyone who is serious about baking. They normally retail for $695 - $750, and come with whisk beater, paddle beater, dough hook and pouring shield (I had to buy three out of four of these at $27.50 a piece). And let not forget all the other exciting attachments there are to go on the front – shredders, graters, pasta makers… the world is the Kitchenaid owner’s oyster.