Girl Gourmet The Original Cupcake Maker
The Girl Gourmet is aimed at children aged eight and older. You bake one cupcake at a time in a microwave container. You then mix up the frosting mix and use the “cupcake froster” to ice the cupcake. We found the cupcakes were best eaten immediately, otherwise they became dry and chewy.
The Girl Gourmet came with enough cake and frosting mix to make four cupcakes. The manufacturer recommends using only cake or frosting mixes from the Girl Gourmet cupcake line. At $12 per refill (which gives you another three cupcakes) that’ll soon become expensive.
Decorating is the fun part – so put together your own “cupcake decorating kit” with a piping bag and assorted nozzles, paper cupcake cases, and sprinkles or sweets … you can then ice your own home-baked cupcakes.
- Price: $80
- Good points: Easy to use (eight-year-olds and up can follow the instructions).
- But: Poor at making cupcakes. Cake and frosting mixes are very sweet and artificial-tasting. Each packet of mix makes only one cupcake. Expensive to buy and refill.
- Comment: Cooking the cake in the microwave requires adult supervision.
Our tester’s verdict
Our eight-year-old tester Greta found the Girl Gourmet instructions easy to understand but it was tricky to get the icing right – mixed “as directed” it was too thick and when it was thinned down it ran out of the icing chamber too easily.
Greta’s favourite part was decorating the cupcakes: “I only really like the cupcake froster and I will probably make my cupcakes in the oven and use the froster to ice them”.
Breville Party Pie Creations
The Breville Party Pie Creations was the most versatile of the gadgets we tried. It can make muffins and quiches as well as pies and cupcakes: we tested it on cupcakes and pies. It made eight very good little pies in six to eight minutes but its cupcakes did nowhere near as well.
Making perfect cupcakes relies on getting just the right amount of cupcake mixture in the bottom plate – the same problem we had with the doughnut makers.
- Price: $90
- Good points: Very good for making pies. Easy to use and clean.
- But: Only OK for making cupcakes. No cupcake recipes included. Fiddly to get the right amount of batter in the bottom plate.
- Comment: Can also make mini quiches and muffins. Requires adult supervision.
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