Cake Decorating Product Reviews

Reviews

The pancake puff is so much fun to use. The picture shows two sticks being used to flip, but I found it is easier with only one. I have made eggs, pancakes, and I am trying to find a good doughnut recipe. I can definitely see myself using this for a long time!

I got this on clearance and was somewhat apprehensive after reading the less than glowing reviews here. I have to say that they must have done some improvements to the pan because I had no problems whatsoever making these today. 1) The pan comes with a cover for the handle, so no worries about it getting too hot. 2) I had no issue with the pancakes sticking. I used a non-stick coating spray and heated the pan for 10+ minutes on low. There was no sticking, no burning and I was able to flip the pancakes puffs easily using the stick and my fingers. 3) I used regular pancake mix, so I can't speak to some of the concerns with the brownies and such. I will try that tomorrow. If you can get this for a good price, I would not let the negative reviews deter you.

I just got this today and used a brownie mix from a box as my first attempt. I haven't gotten the hang of flipping them yet, and stupidly used a spoon which scratched the teflon. I didn't think it'd scratch that easily. Hopefully it'll be ok. I plan to keep using it and mastering it. So until then, my rating is only 3 stars.

The pan is non stick and a child could turn them over. They are the easist food to cook. It is basically mistake proof. You polk the long tooth pick to the side to scoop it up against the edge of the pan and turn it with the other forefinger. It's that easy and they come out delicious. You can use regular pancake mix and put maple syrup on it. Or you just fill the pan half way and put chocolate, fruits or what ever you like and then just pour the rest of the mix on top and turn them in two minutes. That's it. You can make them sweet by putting powedered sugar and cinnimon on the top. Trust me, adults love these pancakes too and they are impressive looking. You can get good recipes on the willima sonoma site. The only down side is the handle gets very hot. The new william sonoma pancake pan has now eliviated the problem.

I have wanted this pan for a while since I seen it on TV, even my husband thought it was cool! I found it at Target for half price which was a steal! I read through the previous reviews and took a lot of things into consideration before using it. Let me tell you it's so easy to use! Yes learning how to use the sticks is a bit of a challenge, but once you figure it out, easy. A few quick notes. You have to be PATIENT with this pan, if you are not patient then it's probably not a good choice for you. You have to make sure the pan is preheated but not too hot, I use between 3 and 4 on and electric stove. Grease the pan as well with a little oil, not much a little goes a long way! My kids love this pan, the little bite size pancakes that come out of it, which I tried first, they loved!! Then they wanted to try eggs as puffs, so I cooked scrambled eggs, they were too cool! Again they were loved by my children! And with 4 kids, trying to get them all to eat can be a challenge! The only complaint that I do have is it only makes 7 at a time, with a big family it can be time consuming. I will be going out to see if I can get another one, running two pans will me things go smoother. I can't wait to try more things. I really want to try the brownies that everyone seems to be having a problem with. I think an even lower temp like 2 will work well for them. I'll post my results after I try them! Overall, fantastic pan, fun and so easy!

Reviews

I am physically disabled, and scraping and cleaning pans in a pain in the rumpus roast. While I felt this item was more gimmick than fact, I thought it'd be OK for heating an occasional item, so I bought these. Was *I* wrong. When cooking my premade items, not TV Dinners, frozen prepared Chicken Cordon Blu, etc they have more flavor, cook more evenly, and clean much easier. Also the cupcake/muffin tins make great mini j-ello- molds. I gave my brother's professional chef partner some for his birthday and he loves them.

At first I was skeptical about these silicon bakeware items, but they work great. Remember to let cakes cool in the pans before you turn them out or you risk tearing the cake. They do not need any spray on the pans before use! I'm giving away my old pans!

Reviews

It is remarkable what TLC has managed to turn into a viable reality show. For years cooking shows have been the staple of specialty programming, and with Cake Boss, cakes are the stars of the show. The bakers/designers are the window dressing, and for half an hour at a shot, viewers can imagine that Buddy Valastro and his staff at Carlo's bakery are working just for you! It doesn't often get better, bigger, tastier, and more ornate than that. Season 2 takes us into zany adventures like cakes for Drag Queens, Sesame Street, 50 cakes in 7 days, Retail Bakers Association, aquariums, and more. Working in retail for many years, I never experienced clients like this! The bonus features are Sauce boss that includes: Linguine with Giant Shrimp and Baby Spinach Mushroom Risotto Mama's Sunday Sauce Brocoli Rabe Chicken with Potatoes and sausage Pink Sauce Fra Diavalo This is a cool show that far out entertains many of the other entries at TLC. Make my next case a Carlo's Bakery Cake!

Reviews

I have watched this DVD several times already. It's really fun especially to see how Chef Irvine first started out with Dinner Impossible. I look forward to other seasons being released soon because the "missions" get more challenging - and also more hilarious.

Reviews

The fun of creating these cakes really reels in my teens and I can see that - but the shows are chopped up into lots of soundbites that are repetitve -- and they repeat themselves a lot too - and they include a lot of pointless filler -- they just sort-of don't have anything to say a lot. (That's a sample.) They are best for people with a desire to feel like they are buddies with the people they are watching and don't mind that 10 minutes of content has been stretched to fill 30 minutes of your time. The people are nice tho and the cakes are fun.

Reviews

I've baked bread for years the traditional way, but this book offers a unique simplified method to produce delicious whole grain bread. Baking these types of breads the traditional way, the bread is very dense, but using this method, bread is lighter in texture, and truly quite delicious. The instructions are very well written, easy to follow, even for a baking neophyte I would think.

Product was purchased as a gift. It arrived on time, in good condition. From the recent bread samples made by the recipient I think it was a good choice.

I love food. I love whole foods. I love homemade foods. I love artisan foods, especially breads, crackers, pizzas. I was skeptical about this book because 1) I actually like to knead and 2) my experience with these no-knead, no-work kinds of bread recipes is a disappointment. That has not been the case with the breads I've made from my first batch of the main recipe of bread dough. I've made a few boules, a regular free form loaf, 2 pizzas, some crackers and the olive-oil breadsticks with Rosemary. Goodness are those breadsticks amazing. The loaves turned out chewy with a crispy outside. Not the dense monstrosities I've made from no-knead recipes before (my apologies to Mark Bittman who I otherwise culinarily love). The crackers were a challenge as it was hard to roll them thin enough. The pizzas were awesome. I love homemade pizza dough. So much that I don't like most commercial pizza and NONE of the frozen disk crap. But, even with the short rising time of most pizza dough recipes, it still isn't practical for a week night supper. This IS! I came home, my in-laws are visiting. I'd spent some time at the library, so I had less time than usual to make my supper. I started the oven, cut some tomatoes and garlic scapes (what's in season and available, not a necessary obscure ingredient) and threw them in a small sauce pan. I pulled out the right amount of dough from the container waiting for me in the fridge, and shaped the dough. In no time, I had a hot oven, sauce, and dough ready for assembly. I just put some torn up slices of lunch-meat style ham on top of the sauce and cheese and thew on some torn basil (in season and available, not a necessary obscure ingredient). Threw it on the pizza stone and made a salad. 10 minutes later supper is ready! You can't heat a frozen pizza that quickly. My mother-in-law raved that it was pizza she couldn't taste the preservatives in--she loves breads but hates that. I have a small complaint that while the measurements in the bread dough are easy to follow (cups, ounces or grams), the measurements in some of the other directions are not so hot. For example, roll the dough to 1/8 inch and then cut it in 1/8 inch wide strips for the bread sticks? I don't think so. I just rolled it real thin and cut it some what wider but not WIDE. I also don't get to knead, but given what I DO get, I can go without kneading and get my stress relief elsewhere. There is a very real possibility that this will be the only bread my family eats--with soup or salad, alongside a roast, making a fabulous gourmet sandwich, and even for sliced bread for PB&J in the kids' lunches. It is that good and that easy.

I have only made one loaf of bread so far, but it is the first time in my life I've made bread and it came out great. I'm glad I bought the book.

The book came in a very timely manner and is in very good shape. Thanks Nana

Reviews

This book is amazing! So far I have made the Chocolate Peanut Butter Heaven, Cookies & Cream, Dulce Sin Leche, Banana Split, and the Smores cupcakes. Every single one has turned out moist and delicious. And they are so much fun to make and decorate. I own every cookbook written by these two and I thouroughly believe they are both geniuses!

I have baked my way through most of this cookbook. I've sent them out into the community for friendly get togethers, bake sales and classroom parties and they are always some of the first to go. Though I am at the point where I like to tweak them to be a little more 'me' simply following the recipes in this book is a sure fire way to produce a plethora of baked goods that aren't just "yeah, I guess it's good for something that's vegan good" but "ZOMG gimme the recipe good". Cupcakes are really coming more into style and I think it's fantastic that there are a lot of vegan in the movement as well. Plus, the majority of the recpies don't require speciality ingredients but were already hanging out in my well stocked vegan pantry. Point and case, "Of course they are vegan, they are too delicous to be anything else!"

book was in good condition but it looked like someone tried to laminate the cover with packing tape.

Just a warning to any of you who are offended by swearing or wanted to give this to a younger person-the author has no sense of respect for young readers-to bad since vegan cupcakes rock!

This tiny book packs a mighty punch with a great array of easy to follow recipes and pictures so that you can tell you are on the right track. Vegan does not mean low calorie, so be warned. I highly recommend this book be added to your shelf.

Reviews

Delicious easy to follow recipes! The explanations about how to use the various ingredients and what to expect was invaluable. Awesome booK!

I have been cooking/baking gluten free since our now 21 year old was diagnosed at 15 months. Cookbooks like this did not exist at that time, and so, with the plethora of gluten free cookbooks now available (gluten free is the new black!) you need to weed through. As an avid cook, cookbooks never were an issue, as any recipe can easily be adapted. However, baking is much more of a science. This IS A BIBLE for gluten free baking. If you buy it for nothing else, do buy it for the coconut cake recipe. I used it to make cupcakes and they rivaled any cupcake from Magnolia, Sprinkles, Crumbs, Babycakes.....you get the picture. And....I might add that the people doling out the compliments for my cupcakes had no clue that they were gluten free! Kudos to Annalise Roberts, Agate Surrey....and her literary agent (just giving a shout out to literary agents/our daughter in NYC....for paving the way!!

I have tried about six recipes from this book and they are wonderful. My husband and family were surprised that they were gluten free. I haven't purchased the various shaped pans for different breads but the ones I have tried still turned out using what I had already.

All the non-bread recipes use Authentic Foods GF classic Blend which you can purchase or make your own - 2 parts brown rich flour extra finely ground and 2/3 part potato starch and 1/3 part tapioca flour. The two different bread flour mixes include tapioca and potato starch. Author emphatically states that if you substitute any ingredient you will need to adjust ALL the other ingredients. So if you are allergic to either potato or tapioca, this recipe book is worthless to you; you might as well start somewhere else. This is a recipe book about how to make a variety of GF goodies from the one blend. So you are eating the same foods over and over again; not good if you have allergies and desire to not develop more allergies as this book would not work if you want to be on a 4-day rotational diet to prevent developing further food allergies. I would not have purchased this book if one of the many reviewers had given this information in their review. Also from pages 12-13 of book: IS IT POSSIBLE TO USE SUGAR ALTERNATIVES? Sugar acts as a liquid in baking, and since sugar substitutes contain varying amounts of liquid, each recipe would have to be recalibrated for dry/wet proportions, cooking time, and maybe even baking temperature, based on the substitute you use. The recipes in this book were originally all for traditional, classic baked goods made with wheat. They were not based on recipes for special diets or restricted dietary needs. That said, you could try substituting the sugar alternative of your choice based on your own knowledge of how to make substitutions (for example, rice syrup was used by some as a sugar substitute in some of my recipes, but the total amount of several ingredients had to be adjusted. If you are interested in reducing the sugar in my recipes, it is possible - but not always easy. I don't recommend taking out more than 1 tablespoon if a recipe uses less than 1/2 cup total sugar, or more than 1/4 to 1/3 cup if the recipe uses 1 cup or more sugar. Depending on the recipe, you may have to adjust liquid (more) and baking time (less), or you will have a dry baked good. I haven't bought cane sugar in 25 years and am not about to start now! I am looking for delicious ways to improve my health not develop diabetes and cavities as well as weaken my immune system and exacerbate my autoimmune condition. I think it is generally accepted by AMA and all that #1 to help your immune system is to avoid things that trigger your allergies and/or autoimmune response (read gluten + whatever else is specific to you here). #2 thing is to AVOID SUGAR which weakens your immune system almost immediately; please google for an in depth discussion about all the different ways that sugar destroys your immune system. However, I have met shamans who believe that sugar (as well as poison) strengthens them because they are shaman. While not purchasing cane sugar during the last 25 years, I did not go without cookies, candy and cakes and was hoping this recipe book would give me some more recipes to try, but EACH recipe contains cane sugar as well as the author's warning about substitutions. Please if you choose to eat sugar, do it with gusto as guilt only makes it worse. After looking at this book, I think more healthy alternatives for me would be The Wholesome Junk Food Cookbook: More Than 100 Healthy Recipes for Everyday Snacking for sweets and Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients for artisan breads. Or maybe just continue to use The Cravings Place Create-Your-Own Cake & Cookie Mix, 19-Ounce Bags (Pack of 6) and use the healthiest oils and healthiest sweeteners available to me and add healthy ingredients to create a variety of great treats. No matter what ingredients I select, they always come out great! I suppose I could even recreate this mix using Authentic Foods Brown Rice super fine grind flour and maybe even improve the results even more. I hope this review has been helpful to you. The author commented on my review within hours and seems kind, helpful and conscientious. It seems there is quite an audience for what she offers and I bet her recipes taste great. I have to agree with her that Authentic Foods Brown Rice Flour is the BEST! BTW, Authentic Foods has come out with a new Chocolate Chunk Cookie mix and a Double Chocolate Brownie Mix that are each made from this same fantastic flour and make the best gf cookies and brownies I've ever had! DELICIOUS! The secret probably is in the flour... oh, and both of these mixes are potato free although they do have cane sugar. If you don't mind ingesting potato flour, Authentic Foods also has some very delicious cake mixes using their fantastic rice flour I've heard. I have re-read all the comments on this book's Amazon reviews and found this remark: You can substitute arrowroot for potato starch. Spectrum puts out a delicious in baked goods vegetable shortening that is made from Palm Oil. Whole Foods version is not as good. Palm Oil is saturated but recent science is finding that palm oil has many health benefits. When you need a cookie fix, it's great. This is the best bread book on the market - well worth keeping if you make the potato substitution." so maybe I will try some of the recipes with goldberg's tips or contact the author at her website. I do wish there had been a more detailed description on the website answering my questions before ordering. I am not saying there isn't a market for this book when obviously there is and I heard Bisquick is coming out with a GF version and I am sure there is an audience for that as well. I just prefer it when the information is available before purchase so that each person can find what is right and best for them without wasting money along the way.

I found out about 5 months ago I did not have Celiac Disease, but a gluten sensitivity. I have made many recipes in this book, and all have turned out very good. I love the pumpkin muffins and lemon poppyseed loaves. I actually tried mixing in white rice flour instead of brown rice flour for the initial flour mixture and all recipes have turned out great. I would highly recommend this cookbook to anyone. I have told a few friends about it already and they now own it. It has been a wonderful book to bake from since making the transition to a gluten free diet and lifestyle. Enjoy!!!-----------Michelle