I love my Kitchen Aid mixer.  When baking from scratch I always pull it out, even though it is a bit heavy to do so.  It is well worth the effort as it saves time while baking by leaving your hands free to do other tasks.   You can whip egg whites while you measure out ingredients, grease the cake pan or even tidy up as you bake.  The mixer is perfect for mixing light or heavy batters. The motor is heavy duty and the mixer has never failed me yet, even one Christmas when my friend and I decided to make a triple batch of biscotti.  That was a very heavy batter and the Kitchen Aid mixer worked...