40+ Cake Mixer Recipes and Hacks | Save Time and Effort! (2024)

You can use your stand mixer for a lot more than just dessert! Try one of over 40 cake mixer recipes and hacks in your kitchen to save time and effort today!

Not too long ago someone told me they’ve had a KitchenAid mixer for years but had never used it.

I was shocked!

There are plenty of kitchen appliances that you don’t need, but I would never put my stand mixer on that list. I use it several times a week because it saves me SO MUCH TIME!!!

Using my KitchenAid stand mixer is like having an extra set of hands in the kitchen, and just like I’m constantly using my Blendtec blender for all sorts of things, I keep my KitchenAid busy with cake mixer recipes and hacks too.

THE BEST STAND MIXER FOR HOME USE

My husband and I were given a red KitchenAid 5-quart Artisan Stand Mixer for our wedding 10+ years ago. It’s met all my baking needs so far, and that’s one of the main reasons why I don’t have a set of old-school beaters, although that’s what I started out with.

My KitchenAid 5-quart Artisan Stand Mixer is one of my kitchen BFFs. With that said, however, there is one thing that’s now on my wish list:

That my friends, is the KitchenAid 7-quart Pro Line Stand Mixer.

As you’ll soon see, I use my mixer for ALL SORTS OF GOODNESS and one of my (few) complaints is that I often wish I had a bigger bowl. It would be nice to make a triple batch of Pizza Dough or a batch of Buttermilk Potato Bread without the dough getting all stuck in the mixer attachment. The 7-quart holds FOURTEEN cups of flour!!

I also think it would be nice to have something with a bit more horsepower (is it weird to say horsepower on a food blog?) so I can crank out a massive baking marathon without wondering if my mixer might need a rest.

But it’s certainly not a need. My 5-quart Artisan mixer has been holding strong, despite the toll that running a food blog requires, so I’m not complaining.

40+ CREATIVE WAYS TO USE A KITCHENAID MIXER

CAKE MIXER RECIPES FOR DINNER PREP

1. Shredding Cooked Chicken. Use the dough hook and turn it on for about 20 seconds at a time. This gives you shredded chicken, not mushy chicken. I most often used either roasted chicken or slow cooker chicken.

2. Shredding Cooked Pork. Same method as the chicken! The very best carnitas recipe is a perfect candidate for this.

3. Shredding Cooked Beef. Just like chicken and pork, you can have shredded beef sandwiches without shredding the meat for hours!

4. Mixing Meatballs. This is my favorite meatball recipe. Five minutes of dumping and mixing and 15 minutes of baking make dinner ready in a flash.

5. Mixing Meatloaf. I don’t necessarily think of meat when I think of stand mixer recipes, but just like with meatballs, you can mix up meatloaf really quickly in your stand mixer.

6. Mixing Ground Beef for Hamburgers. You can find my favorite burger recipe here. But of course, the mixer does the work.

7. Mashed Potatoes (white or sweet). There’s an art to mashed potatoes, which includes not mashing them for too long. Use the paddle and mix when they’re hot so they don’t dry out (which leads to adding too much liquid and overmixing, which leads to gummy potatoes). They’ll mix up fast so be careful not to overdo it

KITCHENAID MIXER RECIPES FOR SIDES & SNACKS

8. Granola. Part of the art of granola is to make sure ALL the dry is covered with wet. The mixer takes care of this beautifully. My family likes both Cranberry Orange Granola and Strawberry Chocolate Granola.

9. Granola Bars. This is one of the KitchenAid mixer recipes I make most often. Every week I make my husband a batch of Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars. I can tell you right now this wouldn’t happen if I didn’t have this mixer.

10. Guacamole. Mashing one or two avocados isn’t bad, but Simple Guacamole for a crowd? Or to make it in bulk and freeze it for later? That’s a mixer job.

11. Mixing Dips. You know those dips where you add spices to cream cheese and you stir like crazy, but it’s hard because the cream cheese is lumpy? Those come together much more easily in a mixer.

12. Stuffing. I’m talking about stuffed mushrooms and ravioli here – the stuff you STUFF into other stuff.

13. Egg Salad. This is another one of those cake mixer recipes that once you try it, you won’t go back! Use the wire whisk attachment for this one after a rough chop and you’ll have the perfect egg salad, every time.

KITCHENAID RECIPES FOR BREADS & DOUGHS

14. Pizza Dough. This is my Pizza Dough Recipe for our famous Friday night pizza tradition. I bust out the mixer every Friday at 4 pm, like clockwork.

15. Traditional Bread. Man Bread, Whole Wheat Bread, White Sandwich Bread…these are all KitchenAid recipes in my kitchen. Kneading with no hands is the best!

16. Cinnamon Rolls. These are THE BEST Cinnamon Rolls on the planet. Well worth loads of butter and overnight rise.

17. Biscuits. Nothing cuts the butter better than the paddle attachment. Convert all your butter-cutting recipes to stand mixer recipes. Trust me. (This is my original biscuit recipe and this is my sourdough biscuit recipe, but if you’re a Bisquick-type of person, use this homemade Bisquick recipe instead.)

18. Scones. Similar to the reasoning for biscuits (cutting the butter is SO EASY NOW), except you can add the liquids and mix-ins too and never EVER mix it by hand. Try Cranberry Orange Scones OR Chocolate Chip Scones. Both are awesome!

19. Quick Bread. Classic Pumpkin Bread is my favorite, but Caramelized Banana Bread is a close second.

20. Muffins. Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins anyone? Or do you prefer Banana Walnut? Mixing up your muffin recipes with KitchenAid mixers means they come together fast.

21. Donuts. Your choice – Strawberry Lemonade or Pumpkin Spice.

22. Tortillas. Homemade Tortillas are THE BEST, and since you need to cut the fat, they’ve never been easier.

RECIPES WITH KITCHENAID FAQS

HEALTHY DESSERT RECIPES FOR STAND MIXER

23. Brownie Batter. I usually make Black Bean Brownies in my blender, but I make my traditional brownie recipes with KitchenAid (using Homemade Brownie Mix).

24. Cake Batter. This is my Homemade Yellow Cake Mix Recipe and this one is for chocolate cake. Probably the most obvious of this whole list of cake mixer recipes, but the cake mixer is perfect for whipping up a light and fluffy cake!

25. Cupcake Batter. Officially speaking, cupcakes are different than cakes, but for normal baking people like you and me, we’ll just use our favorite cake recipe.

26. Cheesecake. Cheesecake is one of those cake mixer recipes that it’s really important to make sure all of your ingredients are mixed together well. This yummy No-Bake Cheesecake comes together in the mixer bowl.

27. Meringue. NOTHING whips up egg whites into glossy firm peaks better than a stand mixer.

28. Whipped Cream. Ditch the processed can and get heavy cream instead. A smidgen of powdered sugar and you’ve got delicious Homemade Whipped Cream. Make Chocolate Whipped Cream for an even greater treat!

29. Buttercream Frosting. Whipping butter into submission – by hand – for buttercream icing is no easy feat. Using a mixer makes this SO much easier. Plus it’s helpful with cream cheese frosting.

30. Cookies. Cookie doughs are a cinch with a stand mixer. You like it when the chocolate chips are evenly distributed in Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, yes?

31. Biscotti. Mix up the dough for any of these three flavors of delicious biscotti in your cake mixer.

32. Pie Crust. I repeat, CUT THE FAT people. Trust me on this. You’ll never look back. (Here’s my recipe.)

33. Marshmallows. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a method for these besides recipes for stand mixers. In my kitchen, they don’t happen often, but when they do, they ONLY happen in a stand mixer.

OTHER AWESOME STAND MIXER USES

34. Brown Sugar. I actually quit buying brown sugar when we quit processed sugar altogether. Now I use a ratio of molasses and Turbinado sugar – in my mixer – to make my own. Here’s the recipe!

35. Natural Peanut Butter. 99% of the jars of natural peanut butter I buy come with a layer of oil at the top. I dump it all in my mixer, whip it up, scoop it back into the jar, and store it in the fridge. Never again do you have to make a mess, spilling oil over the kitchen counter when you open a new jar of peanut butter.

36. Scrambling Eggs. One or two eggs get scrambled in a mug. But when I’m hosting company? Or making a quiche? Into the mixer, they go!

KITCHENAID RECIPES USING ATTACHMENTS

I still have the same 3 tools my red KitchenAid 5-quart Artisan Stand Mixer came with, and you can use them for all of the cake mixer recipes and hacks listed so far:

• Wire whisk
• Paddle attachment
• Dough hook

But additional attachments mean that you can do EVEN MORE with your cake mixer!

37. Scraping Frosting. My mother-in-law gave me a flex-edge paddle one year for Christmas, and that’s super cool too. So awesome to not scrape the bowl in the middle of Our Favorite Peanut Butter Frosting Recipe!

There are other awesome attachments too though:

38. Make fresh pasta with the pasta maker attachment. I don’t have this one, but homemade pasta topped with my Quick and Easy Alfredo Sauce? Yes, please.

39. Grind your own meat with the meat grinder attachment. My Breakfast Sausage Recipe starts with ground meat, but if you do your own butchering or processing meat, you can go from cuts of meat to ground meat to sausage in one fell swoop!

40. Make ice cream with the ice cream maker attachment. We have this ice cream maker, which we use to make our favorite Vanilla Ice Cream, but if you don’t have an ice cream maker and you DO have a stand mixer, you could consider getting the ice cream attachment for your frozen dessert cravings.

41. Spiralize zucchini or other vegetables with the spiralizer attachment. This would make preparing a batch of Butter Parmesan Zoodles a snap!

I have zero experience with these last couple. I could see though, how they’d be life-changing if I had them (perhaps I should add these to my wish list too?).

RECIPES STAND MIXER

However you currently use your stand mixer, hopefully you’ve added some new ideas to your repertoire. Take this list of cake mixer recipes and hacks and see what else your stand mixer can do!

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