Big City, Little Kitchen

Dear Santa,

If you know a baker who has been very good this year (and already has the tilting-head KitchenAid mixer), I would suggest gifting him or her with the SideSwipe Blade.  This is a tool similar in design to the one that comes with the mixer, but covered in rubbery, downward-angled fingers that reach and sweep the sides of the mixing bowl, sending the batter back down into the bowl.  The good news:  it works really well!  I’ve tested it with cake batter and with cookie dough, and the bowl remains clean every time–even the bottom, where I always have to scrape up remnants to be incorporated back into the mixture.

The blade has an aluminum core and is coated in dishwasher-safe silicone.  If you do have a dishwasher, I would recommend using it, and not your hands, to wash this, as the little fingers can be annoying to wash individually.  A small price to pay, though, for a tool that saves you a lot of scraping labor.

The SideSwipe costs $24.95, and can be purchased directly from the company at www.sideswipeblade.com.  If you order now, you can have it in the sleigh in time for Christmas!

Sincerely,

Gena

P.S.  While we’re on the subject, I wouldn’t object to finding a new pair of Louboutins under the tree on Christmas morning.

Two caveats:  the blade, so far, only comes to fit the tilting-head KitchenAid, although the company promises to have blades to fit bowl-lift models in early 2008.  You will also probably have to adjust the mixer’s height (easy to do, directions are included); otherwise, the blade repeatedly hits the bottom of the mixer’s bowl and causes a thumping sound.