Cuisinart Power Advantage 9
We started slowly with the sponge cake batter and it mixed the batter with ease, creating a cake with a high rise that was easy to cut without a lot of crumbs. Between the weight and the power, our biceps got a workout holding and steadying it during the extended time it took to mix up the cake. Not only does this machine whip up pro-level baked goods, but it’s also extremely user-friendly. The attachments fell out neatly and were easy to clean both by hand and in the dishwasher.
Because it’s powerful, you hopefully won’t have to hold it as long to get a good mix. Another creative way to use your hand mixer is to make your favorite coffee beverages at home. Pour the desired amount of milk or cream into a large mug or glass measuring cup. Using a single beater attachment, froth the warm cuisinart soup maker milk to your desired consistency and add it to your coffee. Even if you have used multiple hand mixers, take the time to read the owner’s manual or instructions that accompany your new mixer. There might be important warnings, significant details or awesome features that you would otherwise miss out on.
That’s been an annoyance to some users, but not enough to say the machine isn’t worth it. In case you blinked and missed it, we’re already halfway through October, and that means holiday baking season is upon us. Between all the fall desserts on our to-do list—have you tried Delish’s insanely good pumpkin chocolate chip cookies yet? —and the Thanksgiving pies and Christmas cookies to come, hand mixers are about to become very, well, handy. We started by rounding up the top-rated hand mixers on the market from popular brands such as KitchenAid, Cuisinart, and Black+Decker.
When you see a hand mixer made of a plastic casing instead of a metallic one your first thought maybe that it’s not as durable. Either way, the plastic body won’t be the first thing you’ll notice in his model as it has an elegant glossy finish that may draw your attention. With a plastic body, the company was able to make a lighter hand mixer giving a comfortable grip but of course at the expense of durability. The Cuisinart HM-90BCScan go slow for things like mixing in chocolate chips and easily transition to an extremely fast speed for whipping up meringue. The Breville didn’t score quite as high for user-friendliness as the Cuisinart, but some of the issues may be a matter of preference. We found the machine a bit heavy and hard to maneuver, and that took a little getting used to.
The Cuisinart is relatively light to hold—about 4 pounds, just like the Breville. The mixer didn’t walk around the bowl or rattle as much as the KitchenAid, but it’s not as smooth to use as the Breville. A light at the bottom of the Breville shines into the bowl so that you can easily see the state of your batter or dough. With nine powerful speeds, the Breville consistently mixes thick doughs as well as lighter batters, and it has more attachments and features than the competition. The Cuisinart has automatic feedback, which means a feedback mechanism automatically makes power adjustments based on the stress put on the beaters. We didn’t notice the power being too affected when the doughs got thick.
It was powerful enough to blend the thick cookie dough without straining, and its coated beaters helped keep all of the ingredients from climbing up the sides of the bowl. Each baked cookie was well-mixed with an even distribution of the good, chunky morsels we wanted in every bite—chewy raisins, chopped walnuts, chocolate chips, and flakes of coconut. The sponge cake it produced had an even crumb, a delicate texture, and the least air bubbles of any we baked. It was also one of the loftiest, unlike the VonShef’s cake, which sunk in the middle and at the sides. We like the Cuisinart Power Advantage Plus 9-Speed Hand Mixer for occasional baking and making smaller recipes. This little machine is an effective hand mixer that evenly blends cookie dough and quickly whips fluffy meringue.