This hand mixer feels like cheating - it's compact, powerful, and only £40

I’ve been more than impressed with all of Kenwood’s latest releases, not in the least their new hand mixer. Designed with busy, crammed kitchens in mind, the Kenwood has clever storage, unrivalled power, and a smart design, I can see the Kenwood QuickMix GO being a hit in a lot of kitchens.

As people migrate from stand mixers over to hand mixers, I’ve seen lots of people on the hunt for the best hand mixers. There are plenty of people offering up models for the top spot, but nobody has done storage and design as smartly as Kenwood.

The QuickMix GO is packed with useful, well-considered features that make the Kenwood one of the best models I’ve tested.. The cherry on top is that it’s reasonably priced too.

Specifications

Unboxing

Kenwood is brilliant with their packaging. The compact box that this arrives in feels almost too small to house a hand mixer and yet, out of the box, you pull dough hooks, beaters, a whisk, and a storage lid. This clever design lets you keep all the accessories together and in what is effectively a box, whilst also making things tidy.

You can buy the Kenwood in storm blue or rose pink both of which are versatile colourways. The finish doesn’t show up splatters and fingerprints, which is useful, so you get the benefits of a product that is both pretty and practical with the Kenwood.

I like to check the sustainability of an appliance too and this comes in an all-paper wrap with a fully recyclable box. It’s a small touch, but it tells you that this is a quality product coming from a brand that really cares and thinks about their appliances. Trust me, I’ve seen this time and time again.

Who would it suit?

I’ve been told that Kenwood designed their hand mixer for modern, urban living spaces. That’s why you have the super space-efficient storage options and sleek design. Whilst it is, undeniably, a brilliant option if you’re short on space or if your kitchen is already brimming with accessories, there is more.

The Kenwood QuickMix GO is a brilliant option if you’re not looking to spend a lot of money on a special brand, but if you also want good quality. Calling it a budget option under sells how well made this is. It’s a reliable product that makes for a good investment — you’ll get plenty of use out of it as well as a robust hand mixer, so it should last you a long while too.

So it’s brilliant for small spaces and savvy shoppers as a general theme. Whilst it flew through my tests, it’s worth noting that this isn’t perhaps as nuanced as more sophisticated hand mixers. You don’t have as many speed settings or power controls, but that shouldn’t be a problem for anyone, unless you are a keel baker that’s looking for precision versatility.

What is it like to use?

True to Kenwood’s reputation, the QuickMix GO is really easy to use. You have five speed settings that you can flick through on the top of the hand mixer. You’ve got a lot of space between the handle and the main body of the machine, which makes gripping onto it very easy. I used this for long periods of time in testing and didn’t find it strenuous on my hand or wrist, which is a real result.

Test 1: cake

The best basic test for any hand mixer is how well it makes cake mix. For this, the Kenwood QuickMix GO needs to cream butter and sugar together and then gradually incorporate my flour and eggs. It’s a test of textures and versatility that the QuickMix GO flew through. It took less than a minute for me to be happy with the fluffy, light texture of my butter and sugar, even though the butter hadn’t softened as much as it should have before I tested the Kenwood. Then, the slow start on the hand mixer kept any flour from getting blown into a big cloud in the air when I was adding it into the bowl.

I ran some more tests throughout the week, mixing buttercream icing and cookie dough with the QuickMix GO and each result was just as impressive as the last. If you’re a baker that wants a helping hand in the mixing and beating department, this is the one for you.

Test 2: bread dough

Bread dough is a tough one for hand mixers, because it takes a lot of strength to work through and that can be pretty tiring to support. As you can see, it was no trouble for the Kenwood QuickMix GO. I could bring together the flour, water, and yeast really nicely and still knead it well, but I would recommend getting your hands involved too. This bowl in the image above is the result of some hand kneading too as the dough hooks were moving quite slowly through the dough and I wanted to get my bread mix together. It did the messy bit of bringing together the wet and dry ingredients, but it’s no substitute for a stand mixer.

Test 3: whipped cream

This light, simple task is perfect for the Kenwood QuickMix GO. You can see that I whipped up cream into stiff peaks in under two minutes. I had the whisk running for two minutes on its top speed and it wasn’t too noisy, nor did I get a lot of feedback or resistance. The cream was perfectly whipped, smooth, and light as air. As far as scores go, the Kenwood QuickMix GO gets top marks.

Cleaning

All the attachments for the Kenwood are dishwasher safe, so you can simply put them in your machine and let it clean up. Alternatively, you can easily wash them by hand — it was no trouble for me at all.

The plastic casing on the Kenwood is also easy to wipe down and you’ll likely want to if you’ve got your hands sticky baking. Again, it’s an easy job, so you won’t want to skip it.

How does it compare?

As a budget, space-savvy hand mixer, the Kenwood QuickMix GO is unbeatable. However, if you’re ready to graduate onto something more sophisticated, I have to recommend the KitchenAid 9-Speed Hand Mixer.

The KitchenAid comes with another four speed settings, so you get a little more nuance in power. It’s also better at brining together bread dough and absorbing some of the feedback, making for a much nicer baking experience. You’ve got colour options, a premium image, and impressive performance. It’s not necessary unless you’re an avid baker, but is nonetheless nice to have the option of using.

Should you buy it?

If you need a space-savvy option and you’re shopping on a budget, you can’t do better than the Kenwood QuickMix Go. It’s a handy, speedy, effective accessory that will go down as a kitchen must-have.

How we test

At woman&home, we put all of our hand mixers through rigorous tests. Each attachment gets an assigned task: the beaters make cake batter, whisks whip cream, and dough hooks make bread dough. I repeat these tests over time to get a sense of how good the hand mixer is in the long-term as well as on the first day that I use it. I also make notes on what the hand mixer is like to clean, how it compares to other models on the market, and I'll let you know anything else that makes the hand mixer stand out from the rest.