Things You’ll Need: hand-mixers

Serious bakers insist on having a stand mixer. Yet, not every baker wants to clean such an appliance when all they need to do is prepare a store-bought cake mix. This is when a hand mixer comes in handy. Finding the perfect model can be tricky though. Thankfully, there are a few steps you can follow to ensure you choose the perfect hand mixer. more »

A hand mixer is an appliance used to beat, mix, stir, and whip both wet and dry ingredients. It is most often used for baking rather than cooking. In order to incorporate ingredients, it has an electric motor that powers two whisks. These whisks rotate either slowly to rapidly, depending on the mixer's speed setting, to incorporate the ingredients. It is the rate at which the whisks rotate that determines whether ingredients are only just barely combined or thoroughly stirred together. more »

Generations of cooks have used Cuisinart appliances in their homes. It was made popular by such people as Julia Child and James Beard. Cuisinart introduced the food processor to America in 1973, but it specializes in all types of kitchen gear. Whether you need a blender, pizza over, hand mixer, microwave oven, ice cream maker or cookware, Cuisinart has a selection for your kitchen and style. more »

You can't go wrong with this easy to make frosting. This is a winner for your sweetheart Valentines Day cake. I use this frosting for all occasion cakes. It gives your cakes a nice silk look and the frosting is easy to spread. I also decorated my cakes using this frosting by sprinkling the top of the cake with coconut and lightly press more coconut onto the sides. So if you have an electric mixer with paddles or a good hand mixer with beaters lets get started. more »

A kitchen mixer grinds, beats, stirs and whips food. It is a more efficient way of mixing ingredients than laboriously stirring with a spoon. There are two types of mixers: a hand mixer, which has two whisks attached to it, and a stand mixer, which uses whisks, paddles, a dough hook and other attachments. Choosing either a hand or stand mixer is often a matter of personal preference, but many people opt for a stand mixer because it is less tedious to use and is best for mixing large quantities of heavy ingredients, such as dough. more »

Hand blenders, or immersion blenders, are a handy gadget to have in the kitchen for making single drinks, pureeing soups in a pot or for small chores where a large blender would be an inconvenience. Some brands of hand blenders also include a chopping blade, making chopping small amounts of onions or other vegetables simple and easy, or a whisk for whipping egg whites or making mayonnaise. Hand blenders should not be confused with hand mixers, which are used to like table top mixing bowl units. more »

Making the perfect chocolate chip cookie is not always easy. My friends keep begging me to share my "secret" recipe! So, here it is! Scrumptious! Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Start by mixing flour, baking soda and salt together in one bowl. In another bowl, mix butter, vanilla, brown sugar and egg. Whip together (with hand mixer) all ingredients in second bowl. Then, take contents from the first bowl and add then to the second bowl. Again, mix together. Last, add the chocolate chips. Mix again. Taste some of the cookie dough! :) It is delicious.... Put 1" balls of dough on to un-greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10-13 minutes. more »

Whether your making cookies, brownies, cakes or any other goodies, chances are somewhere in the recipe they want you to "cream the butter and sugar" together. When baking, correctly creaming the butter and sugar can be the difference between melt-in-you-mouth cookies and literally rock solid "cookie-resembling-things". Unfortunately, we don't always have every utensil we need, if you don't have an electric mixer, creaming anything can become a seriously hard task. This step-by-step will give you some alternatives to using an electric mixer when attempting to cream butter and sugar, more »