Kenwood's kMix has long been Ideal Home's most favoured stand mixer – I tested it with one of Nigella's best recipes to see if it still holds up all these years later

When I was growing up, my mum swore by her Kenwood Chef stand mixer for her weekly batch baking. In those days, Kenwood stand mixers, while excellent at what they did, weren’t known for their good looks. Thankfully the brand launched the kMix in 2007 (which has long been Ideal Home's top pick of the best stand mixers), the ideal choice for home bakers who wanted an aesthetically pleasing mixer.

Almost 20 years later, the kMix is still going strong, and there are numerous colours and finishes to choose between, from pastel colours to metallics. This new look is an update from the kMix we reviewed back in 2021, so we thought we'd give this new version a spin to see if its still the mixer to beat.

It’s one of those appliances that’ll take pride of place on your kitchen worktop. I tried a muted matte cream coloured kMix at home, to see how well it copes with everyday home baking recipes.

In a nutshell

Kenwood has a long standing reputation for making some of the best stand mixers around and just because this is the pretty version, doesn’t mean they’ve scrimped on quality or functionality.

The kMix can cost anything from £300 to £480 depending on the colour and finish you choose, so it’s not a flippant purchasing decision. That said, for regular bakers, it’ll quickly become the workhorse that takes the effort out of every recipe you whip up.

During my review I used each of the three main attachments. The whisk speedily tackles egg whites, while the K-beater is adept at creaming butter and sugar and beating the rest of the ingredients into a cake mix. Lastly, the dough hook takes the effort out of kneading bread dough.

It’s simple to use and all the parts are dishwasher safe. And if you choose one that comes with a stainless steel bowl (some come with a glass bowl) the main bowl is lightweight, durable and easy to lift.

Who reviewed this stand mixer?

Helen McCue

Helen is Ideal Home's expert kitchen appliances tester, with a wealth of experience that spans a Home Economics degree and a stint at the Good Housekeeping Institute. Over the last three years, she has tested dozens of products for Ideal Home from her home in Buckinghamshire, including a long list of air fryers, blenders, bean-to-cup coffee machines, vacuums and sleep essentials. Helen is our go-to kitchen expert and tests out every kitchen appliance with a range of delicious recipes.

Helen tried this stand mixer in her own home, using typical home baking recipes. Having owned a stand mixer for years, her top tip is to buy one that looks good on the worktop. She’s learnt from personal experience that if you keep it in a cupboard, you’re unlikely to use it, but if it’s set up and easily accessible, it’ll become your go-to for every mixing and whisking task.

Unboxing and first impressions

There weren’t really any surprises when I took it out of the box. It’s certainly weighty, but I expect that of a stand mixer, otherwise it’s in danger of walking itself across the worktop when mixing heavy doughs.

The main mixing attachments are either stainless steel or aluminium and the model that I had for the review came with a stainless steel bowl. Some of the kMix models come with a glass bowl. Personally, I prefer the more lightweight and durable stainless steel option. And I love that the bowl has a handle, something my current stand mixer lacks.

There’s a lever at the back to release the tilt head from its locked position. It doesn’t spring up on its own though, you do have to help it up. In this position it's easy to twist the attachments in and out of place. Then you have to press the lever again when you want to drop it back down.

The speed control dial is very self explanatory, the first setting is a slow fold function. Then you can move up through the six speed options, it couldn’t be simpler. It’s also worth mentioning that the bowl twists into the base so that it’s locked into position during use.

On the front of the tilt head there’s an attachment outlet, hidden beneath a cover. It’s only used if and when you purchase compatible attachments. And there are plenty to choose from, ranging from pasta makers to a mincer, grater, and even a juicing attachment.

In the box there’s a handy spatula and also a splashguard that attaches to the tilthead and helps stop ingredients from ending up on the worktop if you’re a bit heavy handed with the speed dial.

What is it like to use?

On the day the kMix was delivered, I’d planned to make an apple crumble for a weekend treat. But I was itching to make use of the newly unboxed mixer, so I decided to pivot, and found a recipe for apple crumble cake.

The apple crumble cake consists of a layer of cinnamon flavoured sponge cake, topped with a layer of apple puree, followed by a crumble layer on top. I doubled the cake recipe so that it was a four egg mix, that way I could make a few apple cupcakes too.

I used the K-beater, which did a great job of creaming together the butter and sugar, creating a light and fluffy mix. Like most mixers, you have to scrape down the sides a few times during the various stages of making a cake batter and the included spatula comes in handy for this job.

I added the four eggs one at a time and it mixed them in well. Then, before adding and mixing in the flour, I installed the plastic splashguard to prevent any flour clouds from billowing up into the air. I didn’t need to worry though, turning the dial up gradually meant the flour mixed in effectively without any trying to escape the bowl.

On the whole the cake batter was light and airy and well mixed. The kMix worked exactly as I expected and I particularly loved having a handle on the bowl. It made tipping the mix into a cake tin much easier.

Whilst making the cake mix I noticed the K-beater was hitting the base of the bowl slightly on every rotation. So once I’d cleaned it, I followed instructions in the manual to adjust it. I had to find my own spanner, but it was easy to make a small adjustment to the knut on the K-beater so it no longer hit the base of the bowl during use.

Mixers aren’t one of the appliances that can be called whisper quiet. This one wasn’t any noisier than others I’ve tried though. When I measured the sound as it mixed on speed 2 it was 75dB. Then when I cranked it up to max speed the sound level went up to 85dB. It's a bit noisy on this higher setting, but I’m okay with that given how much arm ache it’s saving me from.

I tried out the dough hook when making a batch of bread dough for pizzas. Regardless of whether you’re making pizza or a loaf of bread though, the recipe I used was for a standard amount of bread dough (500g of flour and 300ml of water). So it meant I could see how the dough hook would cope with an everyday bread recipe.

After dissolving my yeast in water, I bunged everything into the mixer, with the dough hook and the splashguard in place, then set it going on the slowest speed. I had to stop it once to scrape the sides down, but apart from that, the dough came together nicely in a few minutes.

My recipe required 5-10 minutes of kneading, so once the dough was mixed, I left the mixer on the slowest speed setting for 10 minutes to do the kneading for me. There’s a bit of play in the tilt head of the mixer, so it jogged up and down as it kneaded the dough, making some clunky noises as it did so. Though compared to 10 minutes of an exhausting arm workout doing the kneading by hand, it’s very easy to put up with.

I’ve reviewed mixers in the past that have moved around on the worktop when mixing something heavy like bread dough, luckily this one stayed firmly in place. I did have to take the splashguard off while it kneaded the dough, the movement of the tilt head was rattling it and since it was no longer needed, it made sense just to take it off.

On the whole, making my dough in the mixer was far easier than doing it by hand. Plus the dough was nicely kneaded and the pizzas turned out perfectly. They rose well and had a light and airy crust, so I couldn’t ask for more.

Since I was reviewing this mixer during the very same week that Nigella joined The Great British Bake Off and the first episode aired. It only seemed fitting to revisit a recipe of hers that I’ve enjoyed in the past. So I used the whisk attachment to make Nigella’s chocolate olive oil mousse.

The big balloon whisk made short work of creating stiff peaks from four egg whites. On the maximum speed setting it took just a couple of minutes to create white fluffy clouds of aerated egg white.

After removing the egg white, I used it again to whisk the egg yolks and sugar together to a pale creamy consistency. Four egg yolks and 50g sugar is quite a small volume, but because the whisk reaches right to the bottom of the bowl, this wasn’t an issue, and it took just a few minutes.

I did the final mixing by hand, since it requires gentle folding with a metal spoon to mix the fluffy egg white with the chocolate and egg yolk. But it was the mixer that did the bulk of the work and the mousses were incredible.

What's it like to clean?

Every removable accessory from the bowl to the splashguard is dishwasher safe, which makes cleaning hassle free. After making cake and chocolate mouse mixtures, I popped everything in the dishwasher. When cleaning up after making bread dough, the bowl and dough hook were quick and easy to wash by hand.

The mixer I had for the review had a matte finish, and I wondered how easy it would be to clean. But after making chocolate mouse and realising I’d managed to smear chocolate all over it, I’m happy to say it all came off with a quick wipe. What’s more, the matte finish doesn’t show smears or fingerprints as much as a glossy finish would.

How does it compare to competitors?

The obvious comparison in terms of appearance is the KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer. Depending on the exact colour and finish you’re looking at, the two brands are comparable in terms of price and bowl capacity as well as accessories included. However the 300W power of the KitchenAid is substantially less than the 1000W motor in the Kenwood kMix.

If you’re a very serious baker, you may wish to consider the Kenwood Titanium Chef Baker which can now be found for under £400 if you shop around. It’s not as pretty, but it packs a 1200W motor and integrated weighing scales, to simplify the process.

Should you buy the Kenwood kMix?

The thing is, yes you can make cakes or whisk up egg whites and cream using an inexpensive electric hand mixer, but in my opinion you’ll get better results with a decent stand mixer. Because when you take arm fatigue out of the equation, you’re less likely to rush, and more likely to cream, mix, or whisk your ingredients for the correct amount of time, thereby leading to better results. So can a stand mixer turn you into a star baker? Probably not, but it’ll definitely help.

The kMix is a great choice, it’s powerful enough for most home bakers and it’s well made and good looking to boot. If you want to start an at-home baking business, you’ll need to look at Kenwood's more professional models. But for general use, the kMix is a great choice that’ll take the hard work and effort out of baking home made treats.