14 best stand mixers to elevate your baking

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.