Back in my twenties, before I had children, I always imagined the type of mother I would be. I had it all planned out in my head. I would be the Mum who enjoyed playtime and craft, who spent hours making fantastic creations with the children, and at weekends, the Mum who would bake, the smell of freshly risen bread or a cooling Victoria sponge on the counter top making our home all warm and welcoming. Those of you who read my blog regularly will know that is not quite how my motherhood experience has panned out. Whilst I do LOVE baking, I never seem to have the time, and everything seems to be just that little bit complicated.
With Valentine’s Day (and Galentine’s Day!) fast approaching, AO.com got in touch to remind me that Valentine’s doesn’t just have to be about couples and love, but also a perfect excuse for treating yourself or someone close to you. They paired me up with another blogger – Sarah at Run Jump Scrap to do just that, treat each other to one of AO.com’s top selling products, putting it through it’s paces with a review. We were sent a list of products from AO.com and asked to select an item we felt our friend would love – I knew for a fact that Sarah was desperate for a new vacuum – so chose for her the fab Shark vacuum cleaner. She obviously paid attention to my dreams of being a master baker as the amazing Kenwood Chef XL Elite turned up on my doorstep today.
Here’s what we thought…
The Kenwood Chef XL Elite really is a bakers dream – not only is it aesthetically pleasing with its stainless steel finish, smooth lines and large bowl, but is absolutely packed full of innovative features making it a doddle to create doughs, breads and cakes with ease.
The Kenwood Chef XL Elite comes with a huge 6.7L large capacity stainless steal bowl perfect for making larger portions or for entertaining. If you need a bigger bowl then this, then you seriously need to question whether you are making too much cake!! 🙂 The bowl is deep rather than wide, so despite its size, it doesn’t take up any more counter top than a regular mixer bowl.
The Kenwood Chef XL Elite has an easy change electronic speed control with a range of speeds – and a light clearly showing which speed you are on. The speed can be changed in an instant with a basic turn of the dial, great for starting off a mixture at slow speed and then raising up to maximum speed to get the most air into your bake.
It comes with three attachments in the box, the whisk, k-beater and dough hook.
For cake making – it is recommended you use the K Beater – I will be honest here, with the first set of cake mix I made using the Kenwood Chef XL Elite I used the whisk, before reading the instructions properly and realising that this actually wasn’t recommended and could damage the whisk which was more suited for lighter mixes such as meringue, creams or egg yolks #bakingfail.
That said, I have to say it still worked very well blending sugar and soft butter – but probably not recommended for long term use or with butter straight out of the fridge due to its more flexible nature. On my second bake I found the K-Beater worked well for making my sponge mix silky smooth, and getting lots of air into the mixture as it twisted and turned.
For more adventurous bakers, the Kenwood Chef XL Elite also comes with the dough hook for perfectly kneeded dough without the effort or strength required to do it by hand.
The best part of the Kenwood Chef XL Elite is that its opportunities are endless. There are 20 different attachments available to purchase separately, attaching to different parts of the main product. The high speed outlet on the top of the mixer can be used to add on items such as food processors and a fruit blender, where as at the front, a low speed outlet can be used to house a pasta making attachment, meat grinder or salt and pepper grinder. For someone who enjoys cooking and baking, this really opens up the Kenwood to a wide range of end users. In our house, I love to bake, and Mike loves to cook, so this really is the best of both worlds!
I used the Kenwood Chef XL Elite today to mix up some mini Valentine’s cakes for Mike as a little treat – nothing fancy, just a basic Victoria sponge with butter cream filling and sprinkles on top.
The Kenwood is super easy to set up, with no long winded instructions to get your head around. The attachments are very easy to add and remove, with a simple push/pull and twist to secure them in place. The Kenwood Chef XL Elite also comes with a removable splash guard which is really handy when mixing up liquid heavy ingredients, and is helpful to avoid it flicking out over your worktops. With a cake mix, I didn’t feel the need to use this, but I loved the fact you could add further ingredients using the lift up flap without needing to fully remove the guard.
Compared to other mixers we have used the noise wasn’t particularly loud, but the unit does vibrate whilst in use so how noisy it is will to a degree depend upon the surface that the main body is sitting upon. The bowl does twist and click into place before use, so the bowl itself is securely fixed and does not move.
I was impressed with how quickly the ingredients blended together, the 1400 watt power of the Kenwood Chef XL Elite becoming really apparent when used on maximum speed. The best part was that it was super quick and easy to clean. I HATE washing up, but with dishwasher safe parts too there really is no excuse.
Overall, whilst the Kenwood Chef XL Elite has been in my life for less than 24 hours, I can honestly say I’ve fallen in love with it a little already!! I am now back to my dream of being the perfect housewife, and planning on attempting a marble cake later in the week. Bang goes the diet.
I don’t have much to critique on the Kenwood so far, but as always, here are my pros and cons.
Pros:
- Comes with three different attachments included- for whisking, baking and dough making.
- Huge range of additional attachments for cooking and baking.
- Powerful with high speed making blending ingredients super quick and easy.
- Aesthetically pleasing to look at!
- Splash guard to protect kitchen from unwanted ingredient spatter!
- Relatively quiet considering the scale of the product.
Cons:
- The stainless steel material whilst it looks great does tend to show up the finger marks a little more than a coloured metal or plastic design. Whilst baking you can inevitably expect the odd butter or flour mark to hit the base unit, but it is easy to clean. I guess you can’t really say you are a proper baker unless you have a little mess to show for it.
- Being a tad picky here but the lead length is not particularly long which is fine for smaller kitchens but might prove a challenge where you are limited on plug accessibility.
- Finally the Kenwood Chef XL Elite (clues in the name) is BIG. We have a very small kitchen and as such it is not something we could keep out on display which is a shame as it is SOOOO pretty to look at. There is a smaller version available which may be more appropriate in a smaller kitchen environment.
I am far from being a master baker but the Kenwood Chef XL Elite definitely made my life a lot easier, no excess force needed to mix it by hand, and super easy to clean afterwards, meaning cake making a real doddle.
Erin has already eaten one of the cakes, (Mike better be quick if there are to be any left in the morning!) and has now asked for a Moana cake for her birthday. After last years Elsa creation, I am hoping I will be able to whip up something a little more successful with the Kenwood in my home!
You can learn more about the Kenwood Chef XL Elite on the AO.com website.
*Disclosure – We were sent the Kenwood Chef XL Elite free of charge from AO.com for the purpose of this review however all thoughts and opinions are my own.*
