cheesecake, here i come

several weeks after a friend an i gorged ourselves on 4 slices of cheesecake from the cheesecake factory, i decided it was time i learn to make my own. all i would need is, well, everything. after purchasing pans and spatulas and bowls and such, the last item on my list was a mixer. i would have loved to buy one of the grandiose kitchen-aid mixers i've seen martha stewart use countless times, but such extravagancies are quite out of my price range.

while at my local drug store i saw this proctor silex for $9.99 so i picked it up figuring it couldn't be that bad. boy was i surprised to find it was that GOOD!

so excited to have the final piece in my cheesecake puzzle, i was in no mood to let my cream cheese soften. i dumped it into a bowl and immediately went to work on it with the proctor silex. it may as well have been room temperature the way this mixer dug into it. it was creamy smooth within seconds.

i went to add more ingredients and was pleasantly surprised to see how the mixer rested nicely on the side of my bowl. no need to pull it out of the mix and set it down on the counter. how quaint! i've read this only works with certain types of bowls, or bowls of certain weight. my bowl was medium sized and only contained 16 ounces of cream cheese. i had no tipping whatsoever.

for $9.99 i don't think you can beat this proctor silex. there is great variation between speeds. i tested them all out on my batter and there was no splatter or bad smells. in fact when i went to wash the beaters, i noticed there was not a single drop of batter on the base of the mixer. i wiped it down with a wet cloth just in case, but the clean up couldn't have been simpler.

oh and by the way, my cheesecake turned out beautifully for a first effort. i will definitely be using this mixer in the future in my quest for the perfect cheesecake!