I tested the KitchenAid 5.6L Artisan Stand Mixer Bowl-Lift and it’s certainly not for the faint-hearted

As Food Editor at GoodtoKnow and an avid baker (and I mean avid), I can hand-on-heart say that I’ve never been so excited to test a product before and just couldn’t wait to get my hands on the KitchenAid 5.6L Artisan Stand Mixer Bowl-Lift. 

The KitchenAid 5.6L Stand Mixer is a head-turner, for sure. Give yourself at least half an hour once you’ve unboxed this mixer before you even begin to use it - to just stare at it in awe and appreciate the beauty and workmanship behind the machine. This mixer is for the true chefs looking for a long-term investment that could bring daily joy at the click of a button. Tested for just shy of a year, this stand mixer has continued to impress and still looks and works just as good as it did when I first unboxed it.

When it comes to stand mixers, KitchenAid is one of the most sought-after brands. Established in 1919, the brand has become globally iconic over the years for its high-quality, efficient, and durable cookware and appliances - from mixers to food processors, from kettles to toasters, from blenders to ovens. It’s no wonder we all want a slice of the KitchenAid lifestyle. But with quality and repertoire comes a rather hefty price tag which is why, before you buy, it's well worth getting some expert insight into investing in a KitchenAid product.

With that in mind, here’s everything you need to know about how the KitchenAid 5.6L Artisan Stand Mixer Bowl-Lift fared when I put it to the test over the last year. From chocolate cupcakes to carrot cake, from bread dough to cookie dough, from chocolate brownies to meringue, I certainly gave this machine a run for its money.

Jessica Dady

For this review, GoodtoKnow turned to our Food Editor to put this popular kitchen appliance to the test in a busy family household. The result? This iconic brand excelled at mixing, combining, and whisking ingredients to perfection in minutes. 

Price and availability

At the time of writing this KitchenAid 5.6L Artisan Stand Mixer Bowl-Lift is priced at £749 at John Lewis. It is also available on Amazon for the same price and from the KitchenAid website. Often this model can be bought with a 20% discount on occasions throughout the year - most commonly during retailer sales such as Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. 

A KitchenAid stand mixer is certainly at the higher end of the budget when it comes to stand mixers but with a KitchenAid, you’re not just paying for an efficient machine, you’re paying for the quality of the brand name and the reliability of it. You’re paying for a robust, durable machine that should last 15 years (or more!), and alongside that, you’re paying for a premium brand that is strong, reliable, and efficient. 

A KitchenAid is a multifunctional tool because the body of a KitchenAid stand mixer is compatible with a variety of different attachments, from mincers to pasta makers and spiralizers. This means your KitchenAid becomes an integral part of your kitchen - not just for baking but for cooking too. It’s an investment with a 5-year guarantee and a 15-year repair promise. On average a KitchenAid stand mixer carries a lifespan of 15 years - as long as you look after it.

There are a range of different KitchenAid alternatives on the market if you are looking for a more budget-friendly machine. The Cuisinart Precision, the Kenwood Chef XL, and the Smeg Retro have all been said to share similarities to the iconic KitchenAid, from the colour range to efficiency, with some costing half (or even a quarter) of KitchenAid's price. 

Design & features

Size: 419mm H x 287 W x 371 D | Weight: 13.8kg | Capacity: 5.6L | Mixing speeds: 11 | Attachments included: 4 plus mixing bowl | Dishwasher safe: Yes | Colour: Pistachio | Colours available: Almond Cream, Matte Black & Empire Red | Length of cable: 110cm | Extra: 5 years guarantee and 15 years reparability

Unboxing the KitchenAid 5.6L Artisan Stand Mixer Bowl-Lift was a mammoth task. Not because it wasn’t packaged correctly, oh no, I’ve never seen a product so secure. It was purely because this machine is so heavy. I’d like to think I have ‘mum guns’ but trying to get this stand mixer out of the box on my own was another level. I ended up having to get my husband involved; he held the polystyrene packaging holding the KitchenAid snuggled inside, and I wriggled the box off with all my strength. It was like pulling a giant Christmas cracker hoping that the present inside wasn’t going to fly across the kitchen (it didn’t, by the way).

Once out of the box, I could see this stand mixer in all its pistachio glory. A smart, sleek, and stylish-looking stand mixer with that iconic KitchenAid finish - polished, gloss pastel-coloured body, and silver KitchenAid branded lettering. A chef's dream and certainly a kitchen appliance you would have no problem displaying on your kitchen counter.

That being said, make sure you have plenty of space to house this stand mixer. It needs to be on display, not just because it looks the part but because it's so heavy. Lifting it in and out of cupboards is just not an option unless you want to incorporate a serious workout into your daily baking routine. It’s a large stand mixer too as the machine's body is tall and if you have low kitchen units sitting above the counter you may struggle to find room for it. I would recommend measuring your space before investing in this stand mixer otherwise you’ll be getting rid of the microwave or kettle to house your KitchenAid instead.

Alongside this KitchenAid 5.6L Artisan Stand Mixer Bowl-Lift, you get various attachments; a wire whisk, silver-coated paddle, silver-coated spiral dough hook, and pouring shield. All of these were super easy to attach to the machine thanks to a handy, very thorough guidebook and instruction manual that comes with your stand mixer. 

As an avid baker I couldn’t wait to get started and setting up this stand mixer was a piece of cake. Once again, the instruction manual came in handy here explaining how to attach the stainless steel mixing bowl to the body of the machine. I’ve not tested a bowl-lift KitchenAid mixer before so this was all new to me as you have to attach the bowl to the body of the machine using metal clips or pins. There is also a lever on the side of the KitchenAid body that enables you to lift the mixing bowl up and down to ensure the ingredients are whisked to perfection, including the stubborn flour or knob of butter that often sits at the bottom of the mixing bowl that the whisk can sometimes miss. This wasn’t a problem in this case.

Attaching the bowl securely using pins on either side and a spring latch at the back of the machine was a tad fiddly at first. The body of the KitchenAid doesn’t move so it's all about getting the bowl in the correct place and moving that up and down instead of the mixer body like the previous KitchenAid with tilt mechanism I’ve tested. There is a bit of a knack for putting the bowl in position however, once you’ve got the gist of it,  it’s pretty simple to do. You need to make sure that all of the pins are in place and the spring latch is attached properly at the back otherwise the bowl will not be securely in place and will be unstable during use. The handle on the bowl made removing and attaching the bowl much easier compared to other Artisan models.

When it came to mixing, whisking, beating, or kneading ingredients together, the KitchenAid 5.6L Artisan Stand Mixer Bowl-Lift really did impress me. It took minutes, if not seconds on some occasions to get the ingredients mixed thoroughly and ready to pour and bake. A batch of cupcakes, a Victoria sponge sandwich cake, or ingredients for a hefty bundt cake - no problem. I used the wire whisk to mix up my cake ingredients and the KitchenAid made it a breeze. I was surprised when I realised how quickly the ingredients were combined and how quiet the machine was. For a large stand mixer, you’d expect more sound but it’s certainly a machine to be seen but not heard. I made my Christmas cake using this stand mixer last year and combining the dense ingredients (the dried fruit, the brown sugar, and the butter) with a wooden spoon like previous years always gave me an armache whereas the KitchenAid did it in minutes using the silver-coated paddle attachment. 

Whipping cream, kneading dough, mixing buttercream, whipping egg whites to make meringue - all as easy as pie thanks to the 60 touchpoints around the bowl and the 11 distinct speed settings. With the switch on the side of the body of the stand mixer, you can gradually build up mixing speed to suit the ingredients you’re combining, be it delicate airy mousses or heavier pizza dough. 

KitchenAid says: ‘The mixer 5.6L - Artisan is designed with 11 distinct speeds, giving you the power and control from high to low, and everything in between. Every recipe, however fiddly, is in your power. The 1/2 speed gently folds delicate ingredients, like blueberries and egg whites, keeping the air in batters and without overbeating. Just as if you were doing it by hand. Then just slide through the speeds, right up to 10 for fast whipping, while the soft start feature minimizes splashy messes. And you can trust in our mixers to mix every last drop, thanks to their ‘planetary action’. This means the head of the mixer rotates in one direction, while the attachment rotates in the other, giving a much more thorough mix. The beater spirals to more than 60 touchpoints around the bowl, so nothing is missed. Mix, stir, fold and whip with confidence.’

The large mixing bowl and attachments are all dishwasher safe which is perfect for those of you who would rather spend more time decorating, and less time washing up. However, I did find as the mixing bowl is so large it does take up a rather large amount of space in the dishwasher so didn’t feel it was really necessary and found it much easier to wash with soapy warm water after each use. The same goes for unwanted fingerprints too - wipe the stainless steel mixing bowl and die-cast metal body with a damp cloth and you’re good to go.

How we tested

• Vigorously tested for a year by an avid baker who bakes at least once a week / or three times a month (more if I can get away with it!) 
• Mixing anything from chocolate chip cookies to my son’s giant snake birthday cake, from my annual Christmas cake to making buttercream without being attacked by the dreaded icing sugar cloud (more about that below!)
• The KitchenAid 5.6L Artisan Stand Mixer Bowl-Lift was assessed based on how easy it was to set up, how easy it was to use once set up, how efficient it was in mixing and combining ingredients, what it looked like, how big, noisy, and efficient the machine was overall.

Things you wouldn’t find on the box

As I’ve mentioned several times in this KitchenAid 5.6L Artisan Stand Mixer Bowl-Lift review, this KitchenAid is a large machine. The body of the machine is large, the mixing bowl is large - it is not for the fainthearted and is probably not worth having if you only occasionally bake or bake ‘small’. The mixing bowl is made for bulk baking - big birthday cakes, wedding cakes, loaves of bread, cookies, cookies, and more cookies. 

According to KitchenAid, this stand mixer can ‘process up to 11 dozen cookies, make up to 11 pizzas, whip 8 egg whites, and shred 1 kg (2.25 lbs) of chicken’ in one go. It’s a beast and in my opinion only worth considering if you’re looking to bake in bulk. If not, you’d be better off going for a smaller capacity KitchenAid model like the KitchenAid Artisan 4.8L model, or the smaller KitchenAid Classic stand mixer with a 4.3L capacity bowl. You’ll still get the quality of KitchenAid, but you’ll have a much smaller, more manageable model.

The attachments that come with the stand mixer are ideal, particularly the pouring shield, which was certainly a highlight when testing for this review. I didn’t think much of it at first but when it came to making buttercream in particular, the pouring shield made the experience much more enjoyable. For the avid bakers out there, you’ll know exactly what I mean when I refer to the dreaded icing sugar cloud that explodes from the mixing bowl when making buttercream, but that was a thing of the past thanks to the pouring shield attachment. All the splashback, not just from buttercream, was stopped by the shield. I didn’t even have to wear an apron. Dreamy. 

One thing worth mentioning, that is certainly ‘not on the box’ is the attachment of the mixing bowl. As I mentioned previously, there is a bit of a technique to attaching the bowl to the machine and the same goes for removing the bowl too. I found it a tad aggressive as the spring clip at the back of the machine pushes the bowl off towards you, so make sure you’re holding onto the bowl handle firmly before removing it. On a few occasions, I had difficulties attaching the mixing bowl to the body as you have to make sure the clips or pins are lined up onto the bowl holes but as with most things, practice makes perfect. 

Overall I have given the KitchenAid 5.6L Artisan Stand Mixer Bowl-Lift a 4.5 out of 5 stars. It's a fantastic stand mixer that will surely go the distance, however, it wasn't the full 5 out of 5 as it's heavy, takes up a considerable amount of space, and clipping the bowl in and out can be a little stiff at times - oh, and it's expensive. Other than that, it rocked my world.

Who is it best for?

The KitchenAid 5.6L Artisan Stand Mixer Bowl-Lift is suited to the avid baker, the passionate chef, and the curious cook who wants to expand their repertoire. It’s a professional stand mixer that enables you to unlock your potential in the kitchen - not just mixing and whisking. With the various other attachments (15 I believe, each sold separately), you have a range of different culinary opportunities at your fingertips. 

If you’re looking to invest in a stand mixer that goes far beyond whisking the usual batch of 12 cupcakes, this is it.

Need an alternative?

I thoroughly enjoyed testing this impressive stand mixer by KitchenAid however if you’re looking for an alternative, I’ve also reviewed the KitchenAid Design Series 4.7L Blossom Artisan. I would say it was my favourite out of the two, as it's a little smaller and more manageable, plus I liked the tilt mechanism on the body of the mixer and I found it easier to use when attaching the mixing bowl.