I'm sure I can't be the only person in the world who wanted a decent stand mixer and almost fainted when I saw the price of KitchenAids on Amazon. Whilst I'd love to splash out hundreds of dollars/pounds/euros/Monopoly money on a fancy mixer that claims to do everything under the sun, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
And since I'm not planning on getting married any time soon, I couldn't just add the machine onto my wedding list and therefore accepted the fact that I was never to be the proud owner of a fancy mixer. That's how you guys all got your KitchenAids, right? Added them onto your wedding list? I really can't see any other way of getting one because I'm certainly not prepared to fork out that kind of cash unless my life depends on it. Not that I'm tight or anything, but....yeah, I am.
How are these machines so popular?! So many food bloggers own one and I just don't understand how - the only way I can ever seen me owning one is if I win a giveaway and most of those are only open to people in the US - arghhhh!!!!! So after I accepted that I was never ever going to get my hands on a KitchenAid mixer, I did my best to find an alternative that wouldn't set me back the price of a house whilst still being a high quality piece of equipment that would last for years.
I originally wrote this post over a year ago shortly after I got my hands on this wonderful machine. But since I use it every single week without fail, I thought it was only right that I re-visit this post and add to it, telling you guys how much I still love and value this mixer with all my heart.
The Overview
Enter the Andrew James Stand Mixer, AKA my best kitchen friend. This stand mixer is currently available to buy on Amazon UK for £79.99 - reduced from £199.99 (that's a saving of £120!). The mixer includes a number of useful attachments and additional stuff, including:
- Balloon whisk attachment for egg whites and cream
- Dough hook attachment for dough
- Metal beater attachment for cake mixes and batters
- Rubber beater attachment for sticky mixes
- Removable splash guard
- Andrew James cook book
- Rubber spatula
The Positives
The super powerful 1,500 watt motor is ideal for making all kinds of dough for bread and pizzas, so you'll never have to knead by hand again! Since I got the mixer at the beginning of 2013, I've used it at least once every fortnight to make bread dough and it always yields perfect results. Thanks to the strong motor, the mixer can handle extremely heavy, tough doughs - saving you hours and hours of kneading-related arm-ache!
It also features six different power settings, including pulse, ensuring you always have the perfect setting needed to whip up whatever you're craving. The huge 5.2 litre dish can take up to 2kg of whatever mixture, ideal for batch-making treats, savoury dishes and doughs.
Not only is the bowl huge, but it's also dishwasher safe (yay!) and I've found that with just a tiny amount of oil rubbed all over, it becomes pretty much totally non-stick - something which bread bakers will love.
The removable splash guard is something I'm extremely thankful for practically every single time I use this mixer. Many mixers don't automatically come with a splash guard and require you to buy one separately if you want it - not with the Andrew James Stand Mixer! I can't even begin to imagine how many times this splash guard has saved me from covering myself in bright red velvet cake batter, dry flour and milk. And because it's removable, the splash guard is super-simple to clean.
As if all that wasn't enough, the mixer also comes with a cook book with all sorts of recipes suitable for everyone - from first time bakers to experienced cooks. Without giving anything away, the recipe book features sweet and savoury recipes, including breads, crackers, crumbles, cakes, cookies, pastries, muffins and bars. It's a superb added freebie.
The Negatives
The negative points are very minimal. The main downfall is the noise - it does make quite a bit of noise when you have it set above the third power setting, but in comparison to the previous mixers I've owned, it makes about as much noise as any other.
I've also found that the attachments don't quite touch the bottom of the bowl, so if you're planning on using the mixer on small ingredient quantities (such as to whip ½ cup of heavy cream or to beat 2 egg whites) the attachments will miss the ingredients and nothing will happen.
The Summary
Overall, if you're looking for a strong, powerful and reliable stand mixer which will stand up to everything you throw at it (all for a reasonable price, might I add) the Andrew James Stand Mixer is certainly for you. And I'm not the only one who thinks so - at the time of writing, the mixer has a 4.5 star review on Amazon out of 660 customer reviews!
Click here to view the Andrew James Stand Mixer on Amazon.co.uk.
When I first wrote the post, the mixer was only available on the UK version of Amazon, but it's now available on Amazon.com - click here to visit the Andrew James Stand Mixer on Amazon.com. Bizarrely enough, the mixer is significantly more expensive on the US site than the UK site. So if you're based in America and really want this mixer, I recommend buying it from Amazon.co.uk and splashing out on the shipping costs - it will work out much cheaper overall.
Just a note - the above links are affiliate links which means if you click on them and buy the mixer, I will receive a small amount of money. By doing this, not only are you helping to support Pink Recipe Box, but you're also supporting me, putting food on my table and helping me keep the lights on!
Here are the link parties I link up to.
lisa@ Cooking with Curls
You made the right choice! I have a KitchenAid that I got a few years ago, and I have never been able to get it to work correctly. Now there is oil leaking out all over the place, and it has been used maybe twice. Everyone loves the colors, but no one ever talks about the quality!!! Congratulations:)
Samantha
I have this mixer too, my husband bought it for me last November as a 30th birthday present. Is it bad that he thinks that's an acceptable 30th birthday present, or is it worse that I was delighted!
There's only one thing I would say...don't put your mixer blades in the dishwasher...oops!
Kelly @ Mostly Homemade Mom
See now, I absolutely LOVE my KitchenAid mixer - it is a workhorse. I've had it for 7 years and have never had any issues with it whatsoever. Having said that, I do think the price is a little outrageous and yours seems to be a great alternative! I received mine as a wedding gift, otherwise I would be without also. Great review! Thanks for linking up to Show & Share Wednesday!
Manuela@A Cultivated Nest
That looks like a great mixer! I like the splatter guard on the beaters. I have a Kitchen Aid that's quite old and love it.
Thanks for joining The Creative HomeAcre Blog Hop. We hope to see again this Sunday!
Alison Bayne
I'm right with you on this. I too, long for a Kitchen Aid. Espcially a red one. But it ain't gonna happen, so this post was really useful. You just got featured! Thanks for linking up at The Creative HomeAcre blog hop - come over and collect your "I was featured" button, and we hope to see you again on Sunday at http://mumtopia.blogspot.com/2013/05/homeacrehop26thMay.html
BeColorful
I think a lot of readers will appreciate this. Thanks so much for the heads up and linking this to BeColorful this week.
Have a great week ahead.
p
kumlama
Yes! Finally someone writes about suppliers of plastic.
Vivian
I live in Nigeria,and my sister who lives in Uk helped me to purchase it from Amazon.I just got it last week have not used it yet but I hope it will work well,besides I was encouraged by the many good reviews I read about it.
Floxy
Hello Vivian, I also live in Nigeria and have been contemplating on how to get a Kitchenaid until I saw this post. Was delighted to see your post. How has the performance of your Andrew James been? Can u recommend I can get it too. Thanks
Vivian
Ohh! I finally used my Andrew James 5.2 litre mixer today,Wooh! It was very goood,didn't scrape the sides atall till the cake was done mixing and my cake turned out soft and soo good.thanks to Andrew James the price is also goood,just £80.I used the flexi-beater.
commercial kitchen
Wow, this post is fastidious, my younger sister is analyzing these things, thus I am going to tell her.
bob Dysdale
It looks very like the old Kenwood. We are still using the Kenwood mixer my mum bought in 1960. The free Philps electric whisk she go with it finally packed in last year. Will this one last fifty years?
Josephine
I'm glad I bumped in to this post. I too was looking for a KitchenAid mixer because when I took Culinary, it was all we used. Wow... was it powerful and efficient. Of course the price is not appealing and I really wanted the Yellow one. Oh well, I will definitely look this one up.
Gracias!!
Kelly
I just searched for this and it appears to be about 3x the price of the Kitchen Aid in the US. Much cheaper if ordered from Amazon UK than their US site. Thank you for this post!
Piper
Thank you for this review. I think I'm going to get this mixer as it seems very capable to mix dense doughs http://www.slinkystudio.info/reviews/2014/2/4/andrew-james-52l-food-mixer-review.html
web page
Wonderful article! We will be linking to this particularly great article on
our site. Keep up the good writing.
Relpha
I was looking for a cheaper but quality stand mixer, i really wanted to buy Kitchen aid mixer but the price quite expensive, so I decided to buy this Andrew James mixer and was so delighted to see your blog bout it... I purchased it yesterday and will let you know guys my review when it arrives.
Laura@Baking in Pyjamas
I'd love a kitchenaid but the price is keeping me from having one. My trusty bosch mixer has kept on working every week for the past 2 years. This mixer looks like a great upgrade from my small one. Thanks for linking up to Sweet and Savoury Sunday, stop by and link up again. Have a great day!!
Geraldine
Hello...
Please i need all the whisks/ parts of an Andrew James 5.7 mixer
Nicola Quinn
Hi Geraldine! Really sorry to tell you this, but it doesn't look like Andrew James sell the attachments for their mixture separately.