Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Today I started baking for the concession at Cranberry Hall on Friday night. I went grocery shopping first thing this morning and found cookie and loaf mixes so that immediately made my life easier. I had a recipe for Coconut Pineapple Loaf that I wanted to try so when I got home I decided it would be the first thing into the oven.

I have had Mum’s Sunbeam MixMaster for several years; Christy had it before me and it is the only mixer I remember Mum using. I’m not sure how old that makes it, but it has definitely had many years of use. Over the time I’ve had it I have had trouble keeping the power cord attached and there was a small part of the electric cord that I wasn’t certain was safe (although it always worked). One of the beaters was rather bent out of shape, but it worked so I didn’t worry. One of the glass mixing bowls had already been replaced with a stainless steel bowl, or was it the other way around?

Today as I went to do my mixing I had trouble getting one of the beaters to click into place but it didn’t fall completely out and it seemed to be okay once I started using it. Just as I finished mixing, the beaters stopped and I wasn’t able to eject them. Pat eventually got the beaters out but one of them still didn’t insert properly so we decided it was time for a new mixer. It just happened that Canadian Tire had them on special so we went right out and got a lovely new one.

I still had a bundt cake (from Mum’s Recipe book) that I wanted to make so it gave me a chance to try out the new machine. It looks lovely and works fine; there are some adjustments I need to make in my processes though. I was adding dry ingredients into the mix and the power setting was too high and I had dry ingredients all over the counter and myself. Starting at the stir speed worked much better. I should have learned my lesson from the first mess but when I added the eggs (one at a time, luckily) the first one popped right out of the mixing bowl. I guess the stir setting should be used for everything that is being added.

We saw the pour attachment while we were shopping but I said that I didn’t think I needed a pouring spout as I’d have to use a spatula to scrape the bowl anyway. Apparently the pour attachment is actually called a Pouring Shield and “fits on top of the bowl to prevent ingredients from splattering”. I think I’ll go back and get one.

For now Mum’s mixer is sitting on the floor of the laundry room awaiting disposal of some kind; I think I’m going to have trouble getting rid of it even though I have saved both of her mixing bowls.