Appliances
Novelty cooking gadgets`
Introduction
A cupcake or doughnut maker is a fun gift … but for how long?
We tested two doughnut makers, a cupcake maker and a pie maker. The doughnut makers and pie maker are electrical appliances; the cupcake maker is a child’s toy. We tested them for performance and ease of use.
Find out if we think they're worthwhile - or likely to end up at the back of the cupboard.
Models we tested
We tested the following novelty cooking gadgets:
Doughnut makers
- Kambrook Doughnut Factory
- Sunbeam Sprinkles Doughnut Maker
Cupcake maker
- Girl Gourmet The Original Cupcake Maker
Cupcake and pie maker
- Breville Party Pie Creations
Doughnut makers
The Kambrook Doughnut Factory and the Sunbeam Sprinkles Doughnut Maker make doughnut-shaped cakes rather than true doughnuts.
For perfectly and evenly browned “doughnuts” you need to get the amount of batter exactly right – which is fiddly.
Kambrook Doughnut Factory
- Price: $50
- Good points: Easy to use and clean.
- But: Only OK for making doughnuts: they were very small and tasted like cake instead of the real thing. Fiddly to get the right amount of batter in the bottom plate. The longer the doughnut maker is on, the more unevenly it cooks. Dangerously hot around the exterior edge where top and bottom plates meet.
- Comment: Requires adult supervision.
Sunbeam Sprinkles Doughnut Maker
- Price: $60
- Good points: Makes good-sized doughnuts. Easy to use and clean.
- But: Doughnuts tasted like cake instead of the real thing. Fiddly to get the right amount of batter in the bottom plate.
- Comment: Requires adult supervision.
Cupcake & pie makers
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.
Our verdict
Cupcake and doughnut makers are fun to start with – but once the novelty of making your own doughnuts and cupcakes wears off, these gadgets are likely to end up at the back of the kitchen cupboard.
None of the gadgets was particularly difficult to use. But it was hard to get a perfect product – although a bit of practice and using a piping bag to dispense the mixtures may improve results. All the gadgets required adult supervision.
We think there are better ways of having a “fun” time in the kitchen with your kids than these gadgets.
Report by Libby Manley.