Kitchenaid Professional 6 Series Stand Mixer

What It Comes With: Bowl (six quarts), flat beater, wire whisk, dough hook, and splash guard.
How It Performed: On this 525-watt professional-grade mixer, a lever raises and drops the bowl, rather than the head, so you can add ingredients while the mixer is running. The supersize bowl lets you double some recipes. The stir function (found only in professional mixers) smoothly folded in chocolate chips in 10 seconds.
Caveat: At twice the price of the other winners, this makes sense only for frequent or bulk bakers.
To Buy: $430, six colors, 800-541-6390.