Kitchenaid, all American brand, all American dream. KitchenAid is a home appliance brand owned by Whirlpool Corporation. The company was started in 1919 by The Hobart Corporation to produce stand mixers; the “H-5″ was the first model introduced. Si if you want, Kitchenaid was the first brand to introduce the concept of a standing mixer. A range of four colors was introduced in 1955 and the brand got promoted by famous television chefs such as Julia Child and Martha Stewart. Now you understand why they became so iconic and popular.

Enough for the history, let’s have a look at the pro’s and con’s of both brands. I made this comparison based on my own experience and based on many reviews I found on the Internet.

Kitchenaid PRO’s:
- Retro look: let’s be honest, the Kitchenaid looks great in every kitchen!
- Pick your colour: pick and match it with a colour that suits your personality (or your kitchen walls)
- The bowl has a handle, I find this very useful
- Complementary attachments exist but a bit hard to find at a reasonable price if you don’t live in the States

Kitchenaid CON’s:
- Price
- Power: if you plan to make bread you will find that with the lighter models, base will vibrate and move around

Kenwood PRO’s:
- Strong and robust
- You can use many complementary attachments such as the blender, ice cream maker, pasta maker, etc.
- Cheaper
- It is the professional choice

Kenwood CON’s:
- Design

Conclusion:
If you choose a Kenwood I would advise the Major or the Chef. Kenwood is definitely the choice if you are a professional or thinking about becoming one
If you are, like me, a sucker for design and you are a homebaker, I would go for the Kitchenaid Artisan. But get the K5 Kitchenaid PRO if he needs to handle all your preparations.

Kenwood old Chef, source Wikipedia

Kenwood new chef

A pre-KitchenAid Hobart stand mixer, source Wikipedia.

Kitchenaid Heavy Duty, Source Wikipedia

Kitchenaid colours, source Wikipedia

Nobody really know where the name éclair comes from. We know that it means ‘lightning’ in French, but we are not sure about its origins. One thing is sure, you don’t actually need to translate it in other languages. I mean, you can say in English: “Can I have 2 éclairs please ?”.

The éclair has its origins in France somewhere in the 18th century and was possibly invented by the cook Marie-Antoine Carême. Marie-Antoine Carême was a French cook and pastry chef, idol of gourmets and famous writer of books in the field of cookery. He also created croquembouches (choux) and profiteroles. More about that later

Madeleines are very small sponge cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions.

Legend says that one day the cook of former King Stanislas Leczinski quit his job and that a servant girl called Madeleine Paumier took over the job and baked a small shell-shaped cake that the King enjoyed very much. So the small cake was named after this servant girl, Madeleine.