If you love to cook and bake for family and friends, a new stand mixer can make your time in the kitchen even more efficient and enjoyable. KitchenAid has been a go-to brand for stand mixers for nearly a century, so you may already have narrowed your choices to the KitchenAid brand. You might choose the KitchenAid Pro 500 for a variety of benefits: 5-qt. bowl, large enough to make nine dozen cookies, seven pounds of mashed potatoes or up to four loaves of bread; 67-point planetary mixing action for quick, even blending; soft start feature for less splatter; and durable, die-cast metal body plus direct-drive transmission.

In addition, the KitchenAid Professional 5-qt. mixer features a lift-bowl design to raise the bowl into position instead of a tilt-head design found in the smaller KitchenAid Classic mixer. While the tilt design works better with basic batters and takes up less space on your counter, the lift-bowl design is better able to handle heavier ingredients and mixtures. If a 5-qt. bowl isn't big enough for your baking needs and you want more power than the 450-watt motor in the KitchenAid Professional 5, you may want to select the KitchenAid Professional 600, which offers a 575-watt motor as well as a 6-qt. bowl with lift design.