Tag Archives: review

February 11, 2011 · 4:52 am

It looks like I will be doing a lot of baking this weekend.

I need to do my review on the set of acrylic cookie stamps I received today from Gourmac. Michael’s birthday is the 13th so that will require a cake and I do have the supplies to try the cake pops again. Last but not least, I wanted to bake some cut-out sugar cookies with Ethan and Luke for Valentine’s Day. All this should make for a very sweet weekend. I will be having another contest for a set of brand new cookie stamps just like the ones that I am reviewing. They will be sent to the winner direct from the company and I will post rules later. We still have the “My Little Cupcake Pop Mold” giveaway going on so be sure to get in on that as it ends on the 14th. I have lots of other reviews and give-aways coming up so stay tuned.

Are you all doing some yummy baking for Valentine’s Day? Do tell. Well, I better rest up for my baking marathon. Have a good night everyone!

Baking Flowers!!! My Review of the John Wright Flower Cast Iron Muffin Pan!

The UPS driver had a treat for me today. The John Wright Company sent me one of their cast iron flower muffin pans. The original Wrightsville Hardware Company was founded in 1880 near their present location in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. Along with their foundries, they have a retail store and outlet in a converted turn-of-the-century warehouse on the bank of the lovely Susquehanna River. John Wright remains America’s oldest continuously operating manufacturer of cast iron products!! Their products are proudly made in the USA.

The first thing to note about this pan is its weight. One could easily get a great bicep workout just by lifting the pan a few times. The detail is also amazing. There are 7 different flowers and the name of each flower is written into each cast iron mold.

A nice assortment of recipes accompanied the pan. I chose to make the corn bread muffins. The recipe is as follows:

Corn Bread Muffins

1 Cup All-Purpose Flour

1/4 Cup Sugar

3 Teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1 Cup Yellow Corn Meal

1 Egg Well-Beaten

1 Cup Milk

5 Teaspoons Butter, Melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add corn meal. Add to mixture: egg, milk, and melted butter. Beat until smooth, but don’t overmix. Bake in the greased muffin pan at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned.

I made the above mixture and it filled the muffin pan exactly.

The muffins are a very generous size. As soon as they achieved the desired golden brown color, they were removed from the oven.

The muffins just lifted right out of the pan without any problem or sticking. The muffins were beautiful, big, and airy.

Add some butter and enjoy!

Don’t they look delicious?

I give this pan and the John Wright Company 2 thumbs up! I think I am going to have to try their cookie pans next. They have great cookie pans that have lots of neat designs like: Alphabet Cookie, Sweetheart Cookie, Sleigh Full O’Toys Cookie and many more. Their molded cookie recipes with these pans, I just have to try. All of the John Wright molds are coated with their exclusive non-stick coating, “Ironclad Non-Stick Coating” If you would like to purchase one of their pans you can call their toll free number for the nearest store, 1-800-444-9364. You can also order from their website at http://www.jwright.com

I hope you give their pans and recipes a try. I am telling you these are the most delicious corn muffins I have ever had. Try it, and see if you do not agree.

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Tagged as baking, cast iron pan, cookies, corn muffins, Flowers, Ironclad, John Wright, mold, review

February 6, 2011 · 4:15 am

My Little Cupcake Pop Mold Review.

Well, I just got done making about 40 cake pops. The “My Little Cupcake Company” sent me a mold and one to giveaway to a reader of my blog. They sent everything out so fast and gave me a nice history of the company and business cards and brochure. The mold was invented by a mother of 3. I love mom-invented products. The mold itself is very sturdy and easy to use. It has a hinge on the bottom which is very handy and makes the mold really easy to operate even with sticky hands. The company will be coming out with at least three more designs in the near future. If you can’t wait to see if you win the giveaway, you can visit their website at http://www.mylittlecupcakepop.com/ You can purchase the mold direct from there or they are available as well on Amazon.com.

The first step is to take your cooled baked cake and put it into a large bowl and break it up into small pieces.

Then I added my cream cheese frosting and mixed it all together.

Then take the mixture and scoop it out with a cookie scoop and put the balls in the freezer for about 30 minutes.

You will have about 40 balls. Then take your “My Little Cupcake Pop Mold”

Open the mold and put one of the balls in.

Close the mold and let the excess squeeze out. Then wipe off the excess and put it into a bowl to re-mold later.

Open the mold and you should have a nicely formed little cupcake.

Repeat with the rest of the cake balls and then put the formed cake balls in the freezer again for at least 30 minutes.

Melt your chocolate, then dip the bottoms of the cake balls into the melted chocolate.

After you dip it in the chocolate, put a pop stick in it and let it dry upside down. When dry, melt the white chocolate and dip the top in white chocolate and sprinkle with decor of your choice.

Stick the pops into Styrofoam and keep going.

Okay so that is it. Now for my review. This was not a lot of work until the end. The dipping of chocolate is messy and tedious. There are also some casualties where the ball falls off the stick. I think that is why some people just make cake balls and not pops. The mold itself worked well. It is just a lot of work and for me I do not know that I would do this again. I mean the end result was okay but nothing that spectacular that I would have to make these again. Maybe it is me. Maybe I am not that creative or this just is not my thing. I do not feel the need to rush and make another batch. Like I said, someone else may have a knack for it, and I do appreciate that the mold was designed by a mom. As I said in a previous post she does recommend using a pack of Oreo cookies and a brick of cream cheese. Maybe that mixture holds better and definitely is less work than making your own cake and frosting. Maybe sometime soon I will give that a try, who knows? It depends how fast I forget. I am giving away one brand new mold. If you want it and you will give this a try then you need to subscribe to my blog and like my Facebook blog fan page. In the next day or so I will post a post about the giveaway and it will have the instructions for the contest. I think I am going to spend a bit of time with my treadmill now. Have a great Saturday night!!!

I will leave you some pics of the little guys eating them. Luke had a problem with it falling off the stick but he solved that by just stuffing the whole thing in his mouth. : )

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Tagged as baking, blog, cake pops, Chocolate, contest, dipping, Facebook, give-away, Like, make, my little cupcake pop mold, review

February 5, 2011 · 6:01 pm

2 New Product Reviews and Give-Aways Coming Up!!!

I am so excited. I have two product reviews and give-aways coming up and many more to follow. I will let you know that the first is a “My Little Cupcake POP Mold.” It is super cute and I will be doing a full review and making the cake pops hopefully today or tomorrow. I will also update with the specifics of the contest later but I will tell you, you need to subscribe to my blog and like my Facebook fan page to be elgible for this and all future give-aways. I have a lot of great stuff coming up as well, so stay tuned.

To Vitamix or not to Vitamix…that is the question.

Well, no mystery here that hubby and I like gadgets. We also both like to cook and bake so we are looking into a high-powered emulsifier blender. There are a few choices but it was down to the Blendtec and the VitaMix. After watching an episode of “Whatever” with Martha Stewart’s ultra friendly daughter they had the Blendtec inventor on. He was demonstrating his machine and bragging it does not need a tamper stick like the VitaMix. However, he did need a tamper stick and that with all of the reviews we have been reading, videos we have been watching cinched it for us. We have decided to go with the VitaMix 5200. This model appeals to us for a variety of reasons. Some of the most prominent are that it has a very large container that is BPA free, that it has a good reputation and is favored by most chefs above any other blender.

Now that we have made a decision I can hardly wait for it to get here. I am so looking forward to eating RAW. I cannot wait to make delicious, healthy green smoothies. The health benefits are many and I am anticipating being able to fill up on delicious low-calorie but filling and nutritious smoothies and the fact that they most often lead to weight loss. I also think it will be great for the babies and to be able to make them fresh natural applesauce with the skins, seeds and stems adding fiber and vitamins and minerals. I also like that fact that I can put a variety of fruits and veggies in and make a delicious drink that they can drink that will give then so much nutrition in a drink.

I will let you all know how it goes when we receive our unit. I cannot wait to whip up some delectable concoctions with this jet engine blender.