Row.co.uk Blog

Take a bow Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry. Thanks to your sterling efforts, baking has been elevated to the status of a treasured national pastime in Britain these days. Spending a lot more time at home through the coronavirus lockdown has helped, of course.

With more of the same set to follow this winter - and The Great British Bake Off back on our screens just in time - it is fitting that we are about to celebrate National Baking Week to get those cake-sensitive taste buds match fit again.

But what’s that? You’ve never baked a thing in your life before and wouldn’t know a whisk from a wooden spoon? Never fear, because in this technological age, there are plenty of clever kitchen gadgets to help even the most culinary-impaired of us bake up a storm. Here are some of our favourite baking appliances to try out.

best baking appliances in the kitchen with mum and daughter baking together in kitchen with flour on table wearing aprons   

Tefal Cake Factory

If you feel like you only have to look at an oven for your baking experiments to end in disaster, the Tefal Cake Factory is definitely the appliance for you. This brilliant standalone appliance will have you wowing family and friends with your baking skills, no matter what it is you want to bake. Cakes, cookies, brownies, you name it, the Cake Factory delivers perfect results every time with five intelligent baking programs that set temperature and time just right. All you have to do is make the mix, choose the container and voila, sit back and wait for a tasty treat!

Ninja 3-in-1 Food Processor

For anyone who thinks all the beating and whisking and folding and kneading involved in baking sounds too much like hard work, a food processor is a must have. Essentially an electric mixer with different attachments to perform different tasks, the beauty of a food processor is how versatile it is. The Ninja 3-in-1 goes above and beyond in that regard - not only will it whip up a cake mix or cookie dough in seconds, it also comes with two different blender attachments (big and small) for whipping up everything from smoothies to sauces.

Bosch MaxoMixx Hand Blender

Speaking of versatile, the Bosch MaxoMixx is a super-handy stick blender with bells on. As well as having the usual blades for blending smooth sauces, soups and pastes, it also comes with a whisk attachment, which makes it a baker’s best friend when it comes to beating eggs or creaming a cake mix together. Not only that, it comes with not one but two containers, one a measuring vessel and the other with an integrated blade attachment of its own - perfect for blitzing nuts or making your own homemade spice mix.

Salter Cook Bluetooth Smart Kitchen Scale

Finally, no wannabe baker should step into the kitchen without a good set of scales. Salter has been leading the market in kitchen scales since the 1760s. And although they still do a great line in classy traditional mechanical scales, we love this ultra-modern digital version. Not only does it have an impressive weighing range of 1g all the way up to 10kg and provide instant conversions to imperial and to fluid measurements (ml and fluid oz), it also connects to the Salter Cook app, which gives you recipes to follow step-by-step and lets you read measurements on your phone.

 

Once you are all set up and ready to start baking your masterpieces, don’t forget to protect your shiny new appliances with Row.co.uk’s fantastic value kitchen appliance cover

*The information in this blog is designed to provide helpful information on the subjects discussed. Please seek a professional for expert advice as we can not be held responsible for any damages or negative consequences upon following this information.

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Five Essential Gadgets to Take On Holiday

Row.co.uk Blog

Five Essential Gadgets to Take On Holiday

It’s bare comprehendible anymore. How did people get through day-to-day life without smartphones? How could you shop with confidence if you couldn’t read an Amazon review as you wandered around a shop? What did people do on buses and trains without games or YouTube? How did anyone ever socialise without Facebook?


It isn’t just smartphones that have transformed the way we live, either. We now live in a gadget-driven society, where if there isn’t a piece of digital tech to help you do it, it probably isn’t worth doing. We depend on our gadgets at work, rest and play. And when we head off on holiday, well, the gadgets have to come with us, too.


Apart from our smartphones (obvs), what other gadgets can we absolutely, positively not do without when we go on holiday? Here are five we wouldn’t be leaving behind - what do you think?


Image result for phone on a beach

E-Reader / Tablet

There are two reasons why tablets and/or e-readers are essential on every family holiday. For mum and dad, those two weeks by the pool while the kids entertain themselves bombing off the diving board are perhaps the only quality time you will get to sit and read a book all year. Don’t make do with the trashy paperbacks you remembered to pick up last minute at the airport. Take your Kindle, and the literary world is your oyster.


As for tablets? Well, there are times on every holiday when having some video games or a collection of favourite cartoons to sedate the kids with is worth its weight in gold. Every parent knows it makes sense.

Action Cam

Holiday snaps are not what they used to be. The days of making do with overexposed family huddles in a restaurant with the waiter’s finger obscuring half the picture are long gone. Nowadays, if your holiday pics don’t involve you riding a wave, jumping into a swimming pool (as you take the picture) or doing something that involves falling from a great height, you might as well not bother your Instagram followers.


Yes your smartphone can take great pics. But unlike an action cam, your smartphone is not waterproof to several metres depth, virtually indestructible and designed to take immaculate quality motion pictures. With an action cam (plus perhaps a selfie stick), your photos really can go wherever the fun is.

Sat Nav

Need we even explain this one? If you are going on a road trip, a Sat Nav is the difference between apoplectic arguments over whose left you meant when you said left at the roundabout two hours back, and a calm, peaceful, trouble-free transit to your next destination. Plus, when one of your party wants to make a quick detour because they’ve just found something they absolutely have to see on Google, you can do so without suffering the dread of wondering if you will ever find your way back to your main route again.

Headphones

It isn’t just professional footballers who ‘need their own headspace’ 24/7. Every now and then, we all deserve to tune out, unwind and enjoy a few favourite tunes in the privacy of our own ears, without someone complaining that our taste in music is rubbish. What better time to enjoy this luxury than on holiday?


There is no longer any need to suffer the indignity of trying to listen to music on the move through headphones that make all music sound like cats scratching a tin roof. Whether your brand is Beats or Bose, you deserve a high-fidelity listening experience as you chill by the pool. Plus, of course, they will double up nicely when it’s time to give the kids some downtime with their tablets.

Solar Charger / Mobile WiFi

Ok so we’re cheating slightly with this last one by squeezing two into one, but they do serve a similar and essential purpose - making sure all your other gadgets keep working. One of the Top 5 holiday packing disasters has to be turning up at a destination only to realise you haven’t brought any plug adapters, immediately rendering all of your electronic devices useless within a couple of short days. The solution? Invest in solar chargers, and then you can have your phones and Kindles charging even as you sit by the pool or on the beach.


It’s a similar story with Mobile WiFi. Although better than it used to be, data roaming for mobile devices can still be pretty expensive. So instead of paying the charges for every device, why not buy one Mobile WiFi unit with one international SIM, and get WiFi connection for up to 10 smartphones and tablets?

Insure It All

Finally, having your favourite gadgets with you on holiday is great. But, should something untoward happen and something gets broken or lost, it could all end in tears. Protect yourself by getting whatever gadgets you take insured. At Row.co.uk, our specialist gadget insurance comes with international cover included, so your must-have devices are always protected, at home and abroad.

*The information in this blog is designed to provide helpful information on the subjects discussed. Please seek a professional for expert advice as we can not be held responsible for any damages or negative consequences upon following this information.

Mobile Insurance Free Quote
Comments are closed