Avoid these 4 food mixers if you like to bake

If you’re a keen baker and regularly whip up a cake or take your sponges seriously, a benchtop mixer (also called a stand mixer) can take care of the boring stirring part of the job.

But as our test of 18 benchtop mixers found, some aren’t up to the task – including one that costs nearly $1,000.

We test food mixers on a range of tasks – beating egg whites, mixing cake batter and kneading dough.

Here’s the four benchtop mixers that scored the lowest in our mixing cake batter test. For all of them, the batter wasn’t mixed properly, and you needed to manually scrape the sides of the bowl or push the ingredients to the beater.

Worst benchtop food mixers for mixing cake batter

Best benchtop food mixers for mixing cake batter

What about hand-held food mixers?

If you're an occasional baker, a hand mixer that's compact and easy to use might be all you need. We’ve tested six models, including four models that score 100% in our mixing cake batter test.