So you don't have to (kinda)

So last night I made a mess. It turned out just fine, but it was still a little lesson learned in the kitchen so I might as well pass it on.

Dearest Not-So-Ex bought me the incredible Kitchenaid Stand Mixer for Christmas. It is perfect and has made my baking much easier and just generally awesomer. However, the mixer comes with one metal bowl and, if you need one for cupcake batter and one for frosting, you'll have to buy another one.

So, not long after Christmas I started looking for the best deal. Since they have to lock in place on the mixer, you have to buy the Kitchenaid brand. And a duplicate of the bowl that came with it cost $50-$60. So I decided to be frugal and buy the smaller bowl for $20-$30. My thought process went something like "Gee, you never fill the whole bowl up anyway so it'll be fine."

When I got the bowl, I saw that it was about 1 1/2 inches shorter than the normal bowl. I noticed that, when I used it, I had to be careful that flour or milk didn't slosh out of the bowl. But still no biggie.

Last night I was making my Strawberry Champagne cupcakes and wanted to try a new frosting so I decided to make a Strawberry Champagne Italian Meringue Buttercream (a modified version of this recipe). The bigger bowl was dirty from the cupcake batter so I figured that, if the egg whites stayed in the bowl during the whipping stage, then I should be fine for the rest of the recipe.

The whites whipped up perfectly and quickly. I added a little red food coloring to pink it up and then started adding the simple syrup. This is where things got rough.

The syrup went in fine but then you're supposed to crank up the speed and beat it for a while. I tried that and SPLAT! Pink frosting flew EVERYWHERE! It was on the mixer, the walls, my shirt, my pjs, the floor, EVERYWHERE!

Luckily there was still plenty in the bowl so I soldiered on. The next step is to add pieces of chilled butter to the mix. This also got interesting. Especially when one chuck hit the mixing blade when I was adding it and it literally flew out of the mixing bowl.

Anyway, it did turn out lovely in the end. I'll make it again, just with the bigger bowl!