Cuisinart Power Advantage Plus 9 Speed Hand Mixer Review

In my wider tested review of hand mixers, I found the Cuisinart Power Advantage Plus 9 Speed Hand Mixer to be the very best of the bunch. Ahead, learn more about the features that made it stand out above the rest.

From breezy cakes and cookies and freshly whipped cream for topping sundaes and pie, to airy egg whites for folding into soufflés and supremely fluffy mashed potatoes, hand mixers make everyday cooking and baking easier and more delicious. Today’s very best hand mixers even rival stand mixers in their ability to knead dough for homemade bread and pizza. After testing six popular hand mixers over the course of 2 weeks, I found that the Cuisinart Power Advantage Plus 9 Speed Hand Mixer provided the best results across a range of kitchen tasks at a very reasonable price point.

The Cuisinart Power Advantage Plus 9 Speed Hand Mixer offers power and versatility consistent with ... [+] models almost double its price.

Cuisinart’s hand mixer offered power and versatility consistent with models almost double its price. The beaters moved easily around the bottom of the bowl to incorporate flour into creamed butter and sugar while making cookies, and the long and wide-bottomed whisk attachment minimized splatter as I whipped heavy cream. The mixer’s dough hook attachments also excelled at kneading bread dough—so much so that I have continued to rely on them for bread baking now that my official testing process is over.

I loved how straightforward the Cuisinart was to clean after I finished using it (thanks, dishwasher-friendly attachments!), and I appreciated the mixer’s snap-on storage case, which keeps the attachments together between uses. The only potential downside to the Cuisinart was that it came with one whisk attachment rather than two, which made whipping cream take a bit longer. By comparison, one of my other favorite models, the Smeg Hand Mixer, came with two whisks that whipped cream to fluffy peaks in seconds. But despite that drawback, 2 intensive weeks of testing proved to me that the Cuisinart hand mixer is the best overall hand mixer available in 2023. Ahead, find my full Cuisinart Power Advantage Plus 9 Speed Hand Mixer review with details on each of the features I found to be the most impressive.

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Dimensions: 3.9 x 8.5 x 8.9 inches | Weight: 4.3 pounds | Speed options: 9 | Attachments: 2 beaters, 1 whisk, 2 dough hooks, spatula, accessory case | Warranty: Limited 3-year warranty | Dishwasher-safe parts: Yes

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Cuisinart has built a reputation for its dependable kitchen appliances, and for good reason. Founded in 1971 and beloved by culinary icons Julia Child and James Beard, Cuisinart’s food processors, blenders, juicers, espresso makers and other appliances have made getting meals on the table easier and more enjoyable for countless home cooks across the country. After putting Cuisinart’s hand mixer through its paces making chocolate chip cookies, whipped cream and bread dough, I am convinced that its hand mixer is worthy of the company name.

As a professional food writer and my family’s primary cook, I have typically relied on my stand mixer for recipes that call for ingredients to be beaten, whipped or creamed. But the Cuisinart hand mixer delivered an impressive nine speeds and enough power to rival my stand mixer in many situations. The lower range of speed was all I needed when creaming butter and sugar into a soft and pale mixture to make cookies. The beaters also effortlessly incorporated both flour and eggs, then gently folded in chocolate chips at lower speeds. When it came to whipping cream and testing out kneading bread dough, I was grateful for the additional speeds to provide that extra blitz of power to get the job done.

The Cuisinart came with two other attachments in addition to standard beaters—a whisk and a set of dough hooks. Not all of the hand mixers I tested included these attachments, and I found they made the Cuisinart especially versatile. The whisk attachment had a long handle and wide base, which aerated heavy cream into whipped cream with minimal splatter (which can definitely be an issue with hand mixers.) My kids were thrilled that, thanks to my tests, they got ice cream sundaes for dessert two nights in a row.

The place where the Cuisinart shined brightest was making bread dough. The two sturdy dough hooks (imagine steel rods that spiral at one end) pushed and pulled the bread dough with strength and control—even after several minutes of continual use. The resulting dough was supple and elastic and rose into beautiful bronzed loaves in the oven. After I finished cooking, I felt grateful that the Cuisinart’s attachments were dishwasher-safe and the base was simple to clean with just a damp sponge.

The Cuisinart Power Advantage Plus 9 Speed Hand Mixer's two sturdy hooks pushed and pulled bread ... [+] dough with strength and control—even after several minutes of continual use. The resulting dough was supple and elastic and rose into beautiful bronzed loaves in the oven.

In the larger landscape of appliances, a higher price typically corresponds to either better quality, better functionality or both—at least it should. But the Cuisinart hand mixer defied that stereotype by offering both versatility and impressive power for $80. The other hand mixers that I tested that provided similar consistency and speed cost twice that much (or more). By comparison, the Cuisinart feels like an enormous value thanks to its efficient design.

None of the hand mixers I tested were particularly large (though the two cordless models I tested felt a little top-heavy because of their built-in rechargeable batteries). But the Cuisinart stood apart for being both slim and compact and also for the attachment carrying case that it came with. In my small Brooklyn apartment kitchen, space is at a premium, and being able to tidily store the attachments in between uses was a plus. The on/off and plus/minus buttons for toggling between speeds were straightforward and easy to use with one hand.

While testing the Cuisinart hand mixer, I came across one drawback: It includes only one whisk attachment rather than two. Two of the other mixers I tried out, the Smeg Hand Mixer and the Breville Handy Mix Scraper, included two balloon whisk attachments. As a result, they whipped cream (and, I have since seen, egg whites) to stiff peaks in under a minute. By comparison, the Cuisinart took a couple of minutes to fully whip heavy cream, and the resulting structure of the cream was a bit more compact.

If I hadn’t been testing the Cuisinart alongside five other hand mixers, I might not have even noticed the lack of a second whisk. And from my perspective the Cuisinart hand mixer’s many strengths outweigh this one minor challenge. Still, it feels worth mentioning for anyone hoping to purchase a hand mixer primarily based on its cream- or egg-whipping capabilities.

I tested six different hand mixers in search of the very best. While they were all designed similarly—weighing between roughly 2 and 4 pounds, with a handle on top for maneuvering and beaters extending down into the bowl—they did not all perform equally well. The biggest difference among the models was power. Some models offered seven speeds, while others, including the Cuisinart hand mixer, offered nine speeds. The oomph that extra power provided to handle sturdy batters and thicker doughs was noticeable.

After power, the most important difference between the hand mixers was whether or not they included attachments beyond beaters. The more basic hand mixers only included beaters. Granted, beaters can accomplish a lot, but they are not designed for kneading bread and also not optimal for whipping cream. The Cuisinart hand mixer came with a whisk attachment to maximize air incorporation into whipped cream. It also included two dough hook attachments that easily churned through bread dough, giving it the structure and lift the bread needed to rise.

The Cuisinart hand mixer came with a plastic accessory case for storing the attachments between uses, which set it apart from most of the other models I tried. (An exception was another one of my favorite mixers, the Smeg Hand Mixer, which also included a small bag for accessories.) My utensil drawer is always in a state of chaos, so I appreciated that the Cuisinart offered a clean solution that would save me from wading through a bunch of ladles and wooden spoons while looking for my hand mixer beaters.

Cuisinart’s hand mixer boasted nine speeds and multiple attachments, and I wanted to see if it lived up to its promise of power and versatility. I started with a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, using the beaters to ripple through softened butter and sugar until the mixture was fluffy. Then, I added flour, eggs and chocolate chips to see how fully and evenly the beaters incorporated ingredients. I also wanted to see if the Cuisinart felt comfortable in my hand moving around the bowl, and to check if it was simple to toggle between speeds with one hand so I could add ingredients to the bowl without having to set the mixer down.

Next, I switched to the single whisk attachment and slowly cranked the speed up to 9 in order to whip a cup of cream into large billowy peaks. This task assessed three things: how quickly the mixer whipped cream, whether the whipped cream was light and fluffy (my ideal) or dense and compact and whether or not the whisks splattered cream everywhere in the process.

I ended my testing process with bread dough, using the sturdy dough hook attachments to combine flour, water, yeast and salt into a smooth bread dough. Could the Cuisinart’s dough hooks fully push through the dough? Was it equally effective at the beginning of the kneading process and toward the end after the motor had been running for several minutes?

The Cuisinart excelled at all of my tests and did so at a remarkably affordable price, which is why I determined it to be the best of the best. If you are in the market for a high-end mixer that functions almost identically to the Cuisinart and is also stunningly beautiful to look at, I recommend my upgrade pick, the Smeg Hand Mixer.

I am a food writer with 15 years of experience writing and developing recipes for publications like Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, the New York Times and Food52. I am also the author of seven cookbooks—all of which include recipes for cakes, cookies and other dishes where a hand mixer comes in, well, handy. I also regularly review home appliances for Forbes Vetted, including rice cookers, ice cream makers and cold press juicers.

On the personal side of things, I am the cook-in-chief for my household of four and regularly bake banana bread (among other treats) for my two young children. Having a great hand mixer around makes my life easier by giving me the extra power I need to cream butter and sugar or whip egg whites to soft peaks without having to lug my beloved but heavy stand mixer out of the cupboard.

To make sure my bases were covered, I also consulted with two baking experts for their thoughts on hand mixers—Jerrelle Guy, an award-winning food writer, stylist and photographer and author of Black Girl Baking, and Jessie Sheehan, a food writer and recipe developer, and author of three cookbooks, including the New York Times–recommended Snackable Bakes.

Hand mixers are commonly known as a baking tool because they make easy work of creaming together butter and sugar for cookies, plus they effortlessly blend up batters for cakes and quick breads. But the best hand mixers can be used for many other cooking tasks as well. When fitted with the beater attachment, hand mixers can beat mashed potatoes, shred chicken or pork for tacos or chili or emulsify salad dressings and homemade mayo. Hand mixers that include dough hooks can effectively knead sturdy doughs for bread and pizza crust, and an included whisk attachment can whip egg whites or heavy cream.

A good-quality hand mixer that has adequate power and comes with multiple attachments can be used in place of a stand mixer in many situations. But there are two things to consider when deciding whether to incorporate a hand mixer into your kitchen appliance arsenal. The first is that hand mixers, as their name suggests, require you to hold them. While stand mixers operate virtually hands-free, a hand mixer needs to be manually moved around the bowl, which may not be an issue for most home cooks, but could be challenging for anyone with wrist or mobility issues. The second challenge is that even the most powerful hand mixers can begin to struggle with larger mixtures. When you plan to double or triple a recipe of brownies for a party, for example, a stand mixer is probably your best bet. But for regular baking and cooking needs, a hand mixer gets the job done well.

When it comes to kitchen appliances, most hand mixers are relatively easy to clean. The attachments pop out of the appliance base and can either be quickly hand-washed or, like with the Cuisinart Power Advantage Plus 9 Speed Hand Mixer, popped in a dishwasher’s utensil basket. Depending on what you are cooking or baking, some flour or batter may splatter onto the base itself. But a quick wipe down with a damp sponge followed by a thorough drying with a dish towel is all that is necessary to get it clean and ready for storage until you need it again.