It sort of snuck up on me but I now have a collection of vintage mixers. I just inherited one from my grandmother and as I cleaned it up and thought about where to put it I realized that there are probably enough of these mixers in my kitchen to qualify as a collection. My workhorse mixer is a KitchenAid but even that is vintage - the newer one lives at the resort.
This is the latest addition and it is a beauty - love the red. These old mixers were so sturdy - made of steel and aluminum with few frills - really very little to break which is why most of them are still serviceable today. Most of the time the bowls that came with them are gone, broken a long time ago, and sometimes it turns out the beaters aren't the right ones. But I think every one of these mixers still works.
They aren't built like this anymore. Now they are cheap, lightweight plastic and practically disposable.
These were manufactured to pass down from mother to daughter and they were made to make possible the baking of many, many cakes. Nowadays how many people actually bake cakes for birthdays and such? I know people who do, and do it well, but I also know a lot of people who just run out to the closest market for a cake. I'm guilty of it myself. Probably because I just don't know how to decorate them.
We'll never see mixers like this made in the United States again - the time for those manufacturing plants is done and gone. We live in such a different time now. So maybe part of the collecting of these is a nostalgia for a time I skirted but never really knew.
I can't remember the first one I bought or why I bought it but I think these stand mixers just have such great lines. They seem influenced by airplanes or something. This one I think I got at a yard sale and it came complete with the two white glass bowls. It is a Hamilton Beach and in great shape; I don't think it was heavily used by its owner. I believe this one works but doesn't have the right beaters.
I like to think about the kitchens these lived in - like my grandma's kitchen. Functional, workhorse kitchens. My grandmother cooked and baked food all the time. Every day. Practically three times a day, except that she worked part-time at the local drive-in in the small town in Oklahoma that she lived in and sometimes we ate lunch there.
Here's another one - again, with that rounded, aerodynamic look to it. I haven't purchased a mixer since the darling little blue Mixette - but the collection is still growing. I'm going to run out of room soon and then what? Will the vintage blenders have to go to make room for the mixers? Will we have to find a bigger house? Or will I find a way to display them at the resort - perhaps along the walls of the cafe?
Many of these were made to be both a stand mixer and a hand mixer, but hand mixers were also produced during this era. I'd have to say that most of these came out of the 50s but I've never really gone to the trouble of dating them.... any ideas out there?
I use this little mixer all the time for beating egg whites. It works like a charm, it just doesn't have a lot of power and will bog down easily. I use it but I don't want to burn it up cause then it becomes just a decoration. Part of the attraction of all of these mixers is that each and every one of them still works. Could still play a role in baking a cake.
And here is the beloved Mixette. Such a perfect shade of baby blue. Who wouldn't love one of these? This one I bought at a local collectables shop - and it has the wrong beaters too, so even though it works I can't use it. Someday I'll find the right beaters or maybe not - maybe it will always just be something the right shade of blue.
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