Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker

I saw an advertisement in the Sam's Club Christmas brochure they mail out in November. I thought it looked really cute, but I wasn't sure.

I spend LOTS of time in the kitchen "playing" with my girls. We make LOTS of messes! But it can be a lot of fun to bake with them. Some of our favorite things include calzones, chocolate chip cookies, bread, and pretty much anything else I'm doing. Most of the time I enjoy the "help", especially if they are good about sharing and taking turns. It's hard to let them participate when I've just mopped the floor or if I'm in a hurry.

At any rate, I wasn't convinced to make this purchase, but broke down after my Twin said she was getting one for her daughter. Sorry I copied, but it was the final stroke of persuasion.



It says it has 4 flavors of cupcakes (chocolate, cinnamon, yellow cake and red velvet). Plus, four types of frosting. The cupcakes cook in 30 seconds in the microwave. I was shocked and dismayed to discover that it makes FOUR INDIVIDUAL cupcakes! I nearly laughed myself out of the kitchen after we'd mixed the batter and realized when we were ready to pour it that it was to make only one little cupcake.

I was a little leery of whether it would cook, but 30 seconds later (and a little wait time), it was puffy and fully cooked! We then mixed the frosting (chocolate was a little runny) and the girls depressed the pink lever to swirl it onto the cupcake.

Megan, Zoë and their friend Leah all had so much fun! (Ages 3 and 5). They loved seeing the cupcake turn out (as did I), and they loved swirling the frosting on (even though it didn't turn out perfect). They even enjoyed eating it. The taste was not gourmet by any means, but it was passable for a cupcake. This is definitely more of an entertainment for the mind and hand as opposed for the taste buds.

Well, today I decided that spending $1.25 a cupcake was ridiculous! (the refill cupcake packages with 4 individual cupcake mix sold for $5 at WalMart). I actually decided it was ridiculous last night when I realized one package made ONE cupcake. So I looked to see if there was a homemade recipe. I didn't find anything googling the title of the machine, but I did get some success with searching for microwave cupcakes. We made the chocolate cinnamon cupcakes for Grandma's birthday today. I halved the recipe so it made exactly 5 cupcakes, and I had regular paper cupcake holders. They tasted pretty good! I also used regular store-bought frosting in the machine and that turned out great (maybe even better than the chocolate frosting mix that came with the package- I haven't tried the other flavors, yet).

I also found recipes for Carrot Cake and Chocolate Cupcakes and Brownies. We'll have to try those sometime, too.

Would I recommend this purchase? If you have the storage space, and your kids like to cook? Yeah, I think it's pretty good. Especially if you're up for making your own batter (or you don't mind spending $1.25 per cupcake!) They needed supervision, but I think that a responsible 8-year-old or surely a 10-year-old could probably do this by herself (if she knew how to work the microwave). Really, the girls had a LOT of fun, and loved eating something they made so quickly.

Oh, and Happy Birthday, Grandma!



Megan with the cupcakes she helped make and frost. She picked out the green candle for Grandma.

Megan really enjoyed eating her cupcake. I guess it tastes pretty good!
Zoë loved putting the batter into the microwave and pulling out the finished product. She was very careful!
Zoë was excited to eat the cupcakes for Grandma. We were wishing we could share them with her in person.
But, we enjoyed them anyway.

Even Miranda "dug in" to her cupcake.

She was so sweet trying to hold it just right so she could get a bite out of it. However, she ended up getting a lot on her fingers. No problem...

She just licked them off.
And enjoyed every mouthful.