Kitchenaid mixer and sponge cake disasters!

Does anyone have a Kitchenaid food mixer and have the same problem as me-curdling cake mixtures? I was very lucky to get a lovely new Kitchenaid mixer for Christmas, a present from my husband and son. I am an experienced home baker (over 35 years, been baking since I was 11!), but have had more than a few disasters with my new mixer when baking sponges using the creaming method. Last night I tried the good old Victoria sponge, a great bench mark standard and used the same old recipe I've used for years and never had a problem with when using my trusty old Kenwood hand mixer, and guess what? Curdled mixture and a too dense and pretty flat sponge! It's brilliant for making butter cream for cup cakes, it made the most wonderful and voluminous meringue for a pavlova, great for mixing doughs for breads and pizza bases, but all my sponges have been a disaster! Please help!

Hey littlebee,

does your mixer have the possibility to alter its speed?
As I recall it you need a really fast mixer to make a sponge cake properly.

Have a look into my chocolate cake recipe, it is a good one astraunic.com/yummy-yummy-cakes/
But my mistake was the excess heat, so it became a little harder. But it is sure that with it you can make a good one.

I have the same issue with my mixer. I got the groupon one for christmas, and have never had an issue with a handmixer, but all my cakes have failed to rise after using my stand mixer. I've heard that the all in one method works best with stand mixers, but i'm a bit reluctant to do that, as I've always been taught the creaming method, so the all in one method seems alien to me

Hi Cakebaker. I've been experimenting, and yes you are right, the all in one method works fine in my food mixer. I made a Victoria sponge again, this time I followed Mary Berry's recipe for the all in one method and it came out great-well risen, light and even.
The beater in the mixer doesn't seem to have the right beating action for the creaming method-I've stood over it watching and it doesn't seem to whip up the butter and sugar like a hand mixer, it just seems to have more of a 'stirring' or 'swirling' action. I'm really disappointed to be honest, after spending all that money

Hi Abnimex! Thanks for your reply. I've tried all sorts with my mixer-making sure the eggs and butter are at at room temperature, using fast speeds, slow speeds, a mixture of speeds, adding the eggs a teeny amount at a time, adding a spoonful of flour to prevent the curdling. You name it, I've tried it. I've come to the conclusion now that stand mixers do not do the creaming method very well, which is very disappointing when you think how much one costs, the Kitchenaid one costs over £400!!!

I've got a Kitchenaid as well, and while it never really stopped my cakes from working our well, I think I did notice that the creaming method doesn't really work that well in the mixer. My suspicion up to now was that the bowl is rather large, and usually the ingredients do not really fill up the space. So I thought that it's down to the mixer just not having enough material to really whisk through it - when you have a hand mixer, I used to move it around to make sure it gathers up all the butter.

In any case, I would try to put the mixer to a higher speed if you want to give the creaming method another go.

All the best

flour-ish

Often with stand mixers, the actual mixing attachment does not get near the edge of the bowl - certainly not like using a hand mixer where you can get the whole mixture beaten. Perhaps stop the mixer now and then and lift the mixture back together by running a spatula round the bowl?

I have always used the same Mary Berry all-in-one recipe for a Victoria sponge with my K-Mix and it has been very consistent and reliable.

Hope you get it all sorted as these are an expensive thing not to use!

Kind regards,
Mathew

I too have just bought my first stand mixer and yes it is the much coveted Kitchenaid. However, only used it twice and both times not happy with the result. First time was for a banana cake where the recipe asked for the butter to be melted and then mixed with the sugar and then eggs till light and fluffy - never had a problem with a hand mixer and cake always lovely. But used the Kitchenaid stand mixer and the mix never got beyond a greasy liquid type of mixture - I finally cut my losses and folded in the flour and the cake was fine...

Today I tried my first victoria sponge using Mary Berry recipe for a 15cm cake tin - having read the above and other advice I put all the ingredients into the Kitchenaid mixer straight onto high speed and after about 5 to 6 mins with two breaks to use the spatula to scrape the sides down and continue mixing, the batter was light and fluffy and lovely.... I cooked in my fan oven on 160 degrees for the required 20 mins - I touch tested and it had risen beautifully and sprung back to the touch... waited till it cooled, and then the rise deflated to almost flat... and then sandwiched with strawberry jam ... all good so far... but when I served it a couple of hours later the middle looked wet and the cake was dense and not light and looking even at all...

Does anyone have any ideas where the problem might lie with my first attempt?

Thank you in anticipation of your help

kindest regards
Sandra

Hi Littlebee - have just joined this group after finding your thread in utter frustration with my Kitchenaid stand mixer. Similar story , got it for my 50th birthday after what I thought was thorough research. My old Kenwood mixer of 29 years loyal service was unable to be repaired - part no longer available. I'm really disappointed with the Kitchenaid and your post is correct - creaming butter and sugar is hopeless and the number of times I have to scrape down is ridiculous. It is good for frostings and pavlovas (I'm in New Zealand) but so much of my baking requires butter and sugar being creamed. I'm thinking of selling mine and buying something else.

Hi all, Just joined to add my bit to the Kitchenaid saga. I got mine at Xmas and at first used the all in one method for sponges which was fine. But when I wanted to use the creaming method for another cake I used the balloon whisk instead of the flat beater. Butter needs to be really soft or it will clog in the wire, and start off fairly slow until it mixes in with the sugar. Then crank it up and it whips the ingredients to beautiful, soft creamy mixture-try it.

I have since bought the new flexi beater which scrapes the side of the bowl as you beat and lessens the amount of time you need to scrape down.

Hope this helps-don't sell your mixer Apronaddict, they are lovely and I'm sure this method will restore your faith in it.

Newbiebaker.....Was your cake baked in one or two tins? When I make Victoria sponge in two tins I have the fan oven set at 160 degrees but it takes much longer than 20 mins to cook-more like 30-35 minutes at least. Once you can see the cake slightly shrinking away from the edges of the tin it is done.

Like MaBaker I have purchased a Flexi Beater for my Kenwood Chef as the K Beater just didn't do it! This tool really assists with light fluffy sponges.

Regards

Chris

Hello everyone,

I too have a KitchenAid and I absolutely love it. I haven't experienced those issues, but I did get poor results until I figured out exactly how to use the mixing speeds and for how long (its easy to over beat), such a different animal to the hand mixer.

As to scraping down the sides of the bowl, mine seems to get it all but I do give it a scrape if I don't have much in there. I think the more you have in the mixing bowl the more it gets and the better it mixes.

Have you tried various speeds? The handbook is quite good for explaining that however it takes a bit of practice.

Best wishes
Goldilocks