I’ve started baking about few months back (I’ll post results of my attempts soon!) and ever since I’ve been debating the merits of getting a stand mixer.

My mom had a hand mixer that she gave me since she wasn’t using it but while it was better than mixing by hand, it was still not as easy as a stand mixer.

I didn’t really have the money to buy something that is over $300 so I searched on Craigslist but I didn’t really see any that was worth buying.

Thanks to the holiday season, there are lots of sales and with Boxing Day coming up, I thought I would have a good chance of finding a good mixer on sale.

And I did! After researching on the different brands and models, I decided on the Breville Scraper Mixer Pro. BestBuy had it for almost half price, $199 + tax and I had received some gift cards so I took the plunge!

I have to say that the video on Breville’s and BestBuy’s product page really helped sell me on this mixer, as well as the spill guard and the scraper beater. Check it out for yourself:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6htGtZhFJco&w=560&h=315]

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It has a LED indicator for the 12 speeds and it has a timer that can count up and count down! Pretty fancy!

Here it is in action!

I made a coconut layer cake with coconut buttercream tonight and I have to say, having a mixer does make baking that much easier and faster!

Can’t wait to try other recipes! I think the next thing on my list is going to be crème brûlée. Stay tuned!