This post is a little different
to usual. I wanted to create some very girly and glamorous cupcakes for a
friend's 21st birthday and ended up using a few products that I had never used
before, so I decided that this post should be more of a review of those
products (with a few photos of the finished cupcakes!).
• Cake decor strawberry &
vanilla two colour stripes frosting
Purchased from: ASDA
Price: £2.69 for 1 tube (275g)
Rating: 4/5 This was a great product which created very distinct white/pink dual icing stripes. It was really easy to use, you just remove the lid and the piping nozzle is in place ready. The pink was very vibrant and had a strong strawberry flavour. I managed to ice 8 cupcakes with one tube, so it probably isn't ideal for icing large numbers as buying enough to cover a large batch would be quite expensive. That's the only reason I haven't given it 5/5, but otherwise I was really impressed.
• Jane Asher pale pink edible
glitter
Purchased from: Poundland
Price: £1 for small pot (5g)
Rating: 4/5
Poundland is currently stocking a
wide range of Jane Asher bakeware and cake decorating products. I bought this
as an impulse buy, and I finally got to use it on this bake. I scattered it
over the top of the icing from the tip of a teaspoon handle, and that worked
quite well to achieve an even distribution. Unfortunately it didn't show up
very well, due to the intensity of the pink icing I used, so when I use this
again it will be on white buttercream to get the best effect. Overall, I was
really happy with this product and think I'll be popping back to Poundland to purchase the other colours they
stock!
• Culpitt edible gems - clear
Purchased from: P A SugarCraft on
Amazon
Price: £4.25 for 1 pack of 24
Rating: 5/5
I didn't really know what to
expect when I ordered these, but was really happy when they arrived in the
post. The gems measure 1cm across and are made of soft jelly. They are really
shiny and catch the light well. I was a bit concerned as a few reviews
complained that they were hard to remove from the packet (they come set into a
plastic sheet), but I found them easy to remove if peeled out gently from their
casing. If you need to transport the cakes you've decorated with these gems,
try and refrain from covering the cakes until the last minute, as the moisture can make the gems a little sticky. I
accidentally covered them too early, but the
stickiness soon dried out once they were
exposed to the air again. I really liked this
product and am trying to think up ways to use
the remaining few I have!
• Disney princess pearl crispies
Purchased from: ASDA
Price: £1.25 for 1 pack (35g)
Rating: 5/5
Despite the fact that I found
these in the child baking section, I thought they were brilliant! (Maybe that
says more about my mental age more than the product...) These had a really nice
pearlised shimmer to the outside and came in a white and pale pink shade (I only
used the white ones on these cupcakes as they were more like pearls). Their rice crispy-like texture was also nice, rather than the often very hard texture
you can get with sugar decorations. Also the tube they came in is covered in
Disney Princess animations - what more could you want?!
• V&A lace cupcake cases
Purchased from: Lakeland
Price: £3.99 for 100
Rating: 2/5
I purchased these based on their
pretty design and lovely pastel colours. However, after baking they seemed to
have absorbed a lot of oil from the mix, leaving a greasy level mark about 1cm
above the cakes. As the cakes cooled it subsided a little, but the design was
not as sharp as it was pre-bake. Thinking this might just have been my recipe,
I looked online and the only review available for this product complained of
oil absorption too. This is such a shame as they have such a lovely design, but
unfortunately I won't be using these for cakes intended as gifts again.
Hope you enjoyed this post, I will try and do a few reviews alongside my usual recipes in the future. Here are a few more photos of the finished cupcakes...
Love, Chloe xx
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