so i'm using a brand new hand blender to make smbc. the recipe uses 10 egg whites. anyways i'm pretty sure I just saw lightning inside the little fan inside the blender. but I can't be sure. call me paranoid, but am I gonna die? can I electrocute myself if this shorts out? if I don't die, how can I finish the butter cream without a blender? could I just whisk and whisk for hours? i'm at the point in the in the butter cream where the butter is starting to overwhelm the meringue and looks curdled.  ugh I have to make at least 2 more batches this size :/. I made the meringue to stiff peaks and then I took like a 45 min break to let the thing cool down.

Yes, you can be electrocuted if it shorts out and the sparks hit you but it shouldn't really kill you. haha. You CAN use a whisk to beat the eggs but man oh man is that time consuming. I seriously suggest getting a standing mixer. Or using one if you have it. I don't know what I would do without mine.

AThe only reason I don't have a stand maker now is that I can't afford one lol. I would love not to baby sit my butter cream.

AHand-held mixers just aren't up to the task. I went through three of them in short time and finally decided that I needed a good stand mixer whether I thought I could afford it or not! LOL it was so worth it! If you can scrape together the money at all you will be so glad you did. Sorry, that doesn't help you with your present dilemma. Want to come to my house and use my mixer? LOL

ALol I went and bought like a little makeshift one at target at first, it's a hand mixer you can put on a little stand and it has a bowl so you don't have to told it. It's similar (in design not motor spees)to the kitchen aids that have tilt heads. It was a sunbeam and was $47

AIll be right over! And I just make cakes for family so I'm not doing this all that often. My mom used to have one of those sun beams. What I really want yo know is when was smbc invented and how did they make it before ka

Just a tip, totally unrelated to your current issue, lol, check out refurbished KitchenAids, I got my 5 quart for $300 less than retail, and it works like a dream. Came with a warranty as well.

ABefore ka...a whisk and some serious muscle power. I did it once. Took forever. Scrumdiddly...I did the something similar. It was a floor model at sam's. I got it for $189 because the whisk was missing. Bought the whisk for like $50 so I got a great deal.

AI feel your pain! Smbc and hand held mixers just don't agree with each other. I've been in your situation before, mixer jumping and everything lol I stopped using it as i was too scared to carry on. I got a lovely ka now, I can't live without it! Not very helpful to your dilemma but if your in the curdling stage you haven't got long to go now. Try beating it by hand but I would try to think of an alternative for the other batches. Not sure how much hand beating your poor arm muscles can take lol

AThen there is always Craigslist. No warranty, but better than nothing if you can get one for the right price.

I am addicted to KA mixers, lol. I suggest signing up for Kitchencollection.com newsletter, and they will send an email a few times a year that advertise refurbished mixers for about $200. There is free shipping, too. 

I got my first refurbished dark green KA ultra power 4.5 qt in store at KC when I was 19 years old. After my employee discount (employee of the strip mall, not KC) it cost about $150, before tax. I am 33 and I have used it at least once a week for the past 14 years, and I used it about 8-12 times a week for a 6 year stretch, before I got a second mixer off Craigslist for $40, about 6 years ago. 

No joke, it is a 6 qrt bowl lift mixer, older model. Almond color. I don't use it very often now, since I have trouble remembering to lift the bowl and not the mixer head, lol. I am going to move it to the other side of the room and use it for my new pasta attachments, in my decorating area. 

About 3 years ago I got my first refurbished one from KC online, a Komen Pink Artisan 5qt, and I use it every single week, no problems. The pin works out of it when I mix icing, so I use it for batter, so my 14 year old mixes icing, every week. I have tightened the screw to hold the pin in about 3 times, but maybe I don't tighten it enough, or it is the wrong screw, who knows? It is easy enough to push back in, unless I let it falls all the way out. 

Then I got a black Artisan for in my house, and after it sat on my counter for 18 months, collecting dust, with no bowl under it, (I stole the bowl after about 2 months, lol) I finally took the rest of it in there. 

About 2 months ago, at the last saIe, I got a pistachio green mixer, but I really wanted the Ice color one, and I wand a Raspberry Ice color one, so I may sell of my first one, to replace it with a prettier color, and bring the black one back in the house so I HAVE to get another one out in the bakery, lol. 

It's a sickness. 

OH! And since I can't pass up a deal. I bought my grandma one of the Almond colored Artisans, with almond trim, no chrome, for Mother's day last year, lol. Her mixer was white, and 19 years old, and her kitchen is almond, so she LOVES it. She sits in a rocker in her kitchen when she is on the phone, and she will call me weekly to thank me for it, and tell me how good it looks over there beside her fridge :-) 

I also just got a refurbished 7 quart pro off of the Kitchenaid site.  Candy apple red. :)  Just mixed up a huge batch of cookie dough in it.  It has a six month warranty, but is the same motor/insides as both the 7 and 8 quart commercial models (all metal gears inside, and a DC motor).  Mine looks perfect - no nicks in the paint or anything, and works great.  After a coupon code it was $359 (vs. $699 new).  I am going to use the h*ll out of it before the six months is up and make sure I don't find anything wrong with it before the warranty expires.

I also have both a Raspberry Ice and a Green Apple Artisan.  I agree it is a sickness. :)

Liz
 

Yes, raspberry is my favorite color.  Before it came out I was thinking of having my brother paint one for me in that color (he owns an auto body shop).

The red one will go to the bakery, and the green one will be a backup.  I just ordered new bevel and worm gears for the green one - it was beat to hell at our restaurant, and needed some TLC.  I left them 2 battleship grey ones - they aren't so pretty. :)

Liz
 

Yeah, I have a battleship grey 12 qt Hobart. Ugly as homemade sin. I have been seriously considering having it painted the Raspberry color, but I have been debating on the Ice color, too, since it is so stinking big, and Pink is such a dominating color in the bakery already. Pink walls, tons of pink kitchenaid, down to can opener and mixing bowls, scissors, and timer, lol. 

My ceiling is ocean blue, which is very similar to Ice, and then there is black and white accents. with plenty of chrome. First World problems, lol. 

AI wish I could afford to have a ka addiction. I think its higher than a first world problem lol

Mine are all candy apple red, lol, something about bright red in kitchens just makes me happy.

I am getting one of those custom wrap jobs on one though, hehe, I'm so lame. Having flames put on it, and a flaming cupcake on the bottom. It's my 'sportscar' :)

A

ALol. Mine goes like this 1.bills 2.food 3. Oh **** I ran out. The hubs and I have so many student loan and medical bills we barely have any disposable income because of it. And when we buy groceries it looks like we're planning for a long winter :p.seriously I don't think we can go shopping without getting a lot of groceries. We buy enough for a whole month, but the problem is we do it every two weeks. Recently though we are trying to gwt it under control because we have a car payment now

A

This!! I go shopping for groceries with a list and all and buy a heck of a lot of stuff with the intention of going every two weeks. But then days later I stop at the store for ONE thing and come home with a cart full of stuff. I don't know how this happens.

I do a monthly trip to cash and carry for our personal groceries, and buy everything in bulk, especially meat. Then I just youtube how to butcher it, haha. My youtube playlist is full of things like "how to cut your own striploin steaks". I also freeze like a crazy woman :)

The only things I buy weekly are produce and dairy.

Saves me over 30% compared to what I would be spending going to normal groceries.

(that extra 30%, of course, can then go to cake stuff!)

I got this mixer and I love it! http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Dr.-Tech-7-in-1-Multi-function-Stand-Mixer/6655146/product.html?refccid=4A6KXMNTT763QE2PEMUQGMYLCU&searchidx=1 But the best part is I bought it new from Ebay for $77 with free shipping. I would love to have the KA but bought what I could afford and I got lucky that it turned out so well. Some reason the ice cream maker bowl wasn't in the box and the seller sent me one right away.

here is the guy I bought it from http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dr-Tech-6-in-1-Multi-Functional-Stand-Mixer-Blender-Grinder-Citrus-Juicer-More-/390636215326?pt=Small_Kitchen_Appliances_US&hash=item5af3bb9c1e

I buy meat and rice, and ketchup, frozen vegetables, pasta, cheese and stuff at the Restaurant Depot. I freeze everything I can. We make most things home-made.

Grocery shopping is a money pit, my husband will go to the store just to get what we need for the next couple days. If we go shopping for a week of more, we spent $300 and have nothing to eat. The grocery store isn't even a whole mile out of the way, so he swings by after work. 

I still have a pantry full of crap we will never eat, from the last few times we went grocery shopping.