Cake Pop Stands from KC Bakes
Feb 28, 2012 Product Review
I’ve been making cake pops for a few months now. They’re fun, easy, and incredibly delicious (and a nice morning treat with my current “dessert with breakfast” diet). But the one thing that bugged me about the whole process was the Styrofoam blocks I was going through. I tried wrapping them in packing tape and poking holes through with a sharp pencil so that they wouldn’t fall apart so easily. I tried buying the denser blocks used to make “fake” wedding cakes. I even tried making the cake pops upside-down, which gives them ugly, flat tops.
Then I found the pretty, practical, affordable cake pop stands by KC Bakes. I purchased three of them at a discount, with a promise of a write-up if I found them useful. And oh my yes, I do. So does my number-one cake pop helper.
First of all, they’re infinitely reusable, as opposed to Styrofoam, which breaks down rather quickly with all of that poking and wiping. If you’ve been using Styrofoam, these stands will pay for themselves after not that long.
The holes are the perfect size for regular sucker sticks. They’re well spaced so that you have access to each cake pop. They come in a variety of sizes and colors.
These stands clean up easily. If you drizzle chocolate on them you just wait for it to dry, and it lifts right off cleanly with the help of a fingernail. If you drip chocolate into one of the holes, it can be picked out easily with a toothpick. This was the biggest improvement over my Styrofoam blocks: those were nearly impossible to clean.
The “skinny mini” six-hole size is also perfect for gift giving, at $15. If I’d had my act together I would’ve bought a half dozen of the small ones and given them to teachers for Christmas, filled with cake pops, of course. End of the school year, perhaps.
If you’re a cake pop maker – or want to be – I’d definitely recommend these stands. They’ll make it so much easier to produce pretty, professional-looking cake pops. Your friends and family won’t believe you didn’t buy them from a bakery.
Plus, I can’t wait until my next party: the centerpiece of the buffet table will definitely be a gorgeous display of cake pops!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Gorgeous, easy curls with The BeachWaver
Jan 26, 2012 Product Review
I’ve wanted curly hair longer than I can remember. I’ve gotten more perms than I can count. I’ve purchased at least ten curling irons in my lifetime. But have you ever seen me with curly hair? Rarely. Even the irons that do work take so long – I have a ton of hair and hate to do anything to it besides throw it in a ponytail.
Then along came Sarah Potempa. She’d been telling me for a while that she and her sister were working on a revolutionary new way to curl hair, and now it’s here!
I bought Sarah’s new BeachWaver Rotating Curling Iron the day it went on sale on QVC. I played with it a little bit last night, but took it for a real spin today – and video taped the whole thing! It took me only twenty minutes to do all of my hair, less than half of what it took with my old iron. But, I was doing it without a mirror! I could barely see myself in the little camera monitor. I bet with a mirror I could get this down to under fifteen minutes, easy.
I’m thrilled with this purchase, and can’t wait to wear my sexy hair to an event or a party or…the grocery store! Anywhere!
Check out this before and after:
Soft, easy curls that don’t look like they’re trying too hard. And that was without any product what-so-ever.
Watch my video to see how easy this was. Trust me: if I can do it, anybody can.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: BeachWaver, hair, Sarah Potempa
Bing Travel: It does the guessing for me
Dec 5, 2011 Product Review
A few weeks ago I was presented with an in-depth look at Bing Travel. This was not the first time I’d heard of it – I go to a lot of Microsoft events and it’s always being demonstrated – but all of the other times I’d pretty much ignored it for shinier, flashier things. Why would I need Bing Travel when I have a bunch of other sites that I always check?
This time, though, I was a captive audience, sitting in a comfy chair with nothing else to pay attention to. I swear, I’m like a toddler sometimes. If you don’t take all of the other cool stuff out of my line of sight and make me sit still, I won’t focus. So, I paid attention this time, and I have to say it was rather revelatory. I had several batches of plane tickets to buy, and I couldn’t wait to get home and give Bing Travel a whirl.
For starters, Bing Travel looks at hundreds of sites when searching for your flights, so I didn’t have to check all of those other sites (but I did the first time anyway, just to make sure Bing was finding what it was supposed to). I was kicking myself for having waited so long to book my flight to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show in January, but was thrilled at what Bing Travel found:
$408 round trip on Virgin America? Score! And yes, I know what you’re thinking, I would’ve found that flight on one of the other sites I routinely check (and I did). But then I clicked on the Fare Predictor and saw this:
Confirmation that if I’d purchased my tickets back in October, I could’ve saved about $180. And while that’s not exactly good news, I was fascinated that I was getting that info with my search. It even told me that it was 75% sure that I should buy my tickets now. So I did. The search results gave me several choices of where to buy my tickets from, so I picked buying directly from Virgin America and clicked over to their site, where my chosen tickets came right up. It was really easy.
Next I searched for tickets for a trip to Florida. These worried me even more than the Vegas tickets. Not because I’d waited too long, but because in the past we’ve paid wildly differing amounts for tickets between NYC and Fort Myers. I never know when to buy and I know I’ve totally overpaid some years.
The search found lots of options, but they were all more than I wanted to pay. The Fare Predictor told me that I should wait, though, and it was 80% certain! So, I’m waiting. I’m going to check it every few days and see what it says. I got the same results – 80% certain I should wait – for a third trip I need to book. So, I’m doing lots of waiting, but based on the past ticket prices I’m not worried.
I also tried out the Bing Travel Hotel Search. While not as excitement-inducing as the Fare Predictor, everything was very organized, and I ended up choosing my hotel from that search.
The one complaint I have about the hotel search is that I re-sorted my initial results by distance, and after clicking over to read more details about one hotel, I had to re-sort again when I went back to the search results. From then on I remembered to open the details in a new tab, but I think that should be done automatically.
Other than that small complaint though, loving Bing Travel. Can’t wait to plan more trips!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 8. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Headphones that feel as good as they sound
Nov 22, 2011 Product Review
My husband, son and I have been fighting over a pair of Sol Republic Tracks headphones since they arrived from the company for me to review a few weeks ago. At a retail cost of around $100 they would be a fantastic gift for someone in your life who really appreciates good sound.
Luckily I had them to myself for the first day, since my husband was at work and Jake was at school. I put them on, adjusted the headphones – I’m sorry, the “sound engines” according to the box – and cued up “Defying Gravity” from the Wicked soundtrack on my computer. Now, this is a song I’ve heard probably two hundred times, mostly in my car or through earbuds (and I don’t use cheap earbuds, I’ve got good ones). But from the first notes I could hear the difference. I could hear a string bass line that I’d never heard before, deep and rich! A few more songs had me convinced that these headphones were worth the size. Normally I go for whatever’s tiniest, but I don’t think I’ll ever wear earbuds in the house again.
When I was done listening I started doing other things on my laptop. It wasn’t until I got up about half an hour later that I realized I was still wearing the headphones; they’re so comfortable I hadn’t even noticed I’d left them on. That’s kind of a big deal for me, because most headband-style headphones give me a headache. The ear pads are big and cushiony and fit snugly over my ears without squeezing my head.
These headphones have a unique design that allow them to feel just as comfortable on my daughter’s little head as on my son’s larger one. Instead of the headband part being adjustable, the sound engines slide up and down. They even come completely off, and the cord can be removed. This would be extremely handy when traveling, since wrapping the cord and squishing the headphones in to a suitcase or bag would make me nervous.
For what it’s worth, the website claims that the band is nearly indestructible. Having lost a couple pairs of pricey headphones to a cracked headband, that’s rather important to me (although I’m not willing to sacrifice mine in order to test that claim – sorry!).
They have several features that I don’t think I would ever get any use out of, since I don’t think I’d ever use these out of the house (like, on the subway or walking around), and I rarely use Apple products. But they have a microphone that can be used with most Android and Blackberry phones to take calls, and a three-button iPod/iPad controller for iTunes. There’s a list of compatible devices here.
So now, my husband can sit on the couch while someone else is watching TV or playing music, and listen to his own stuff on the iPad. They don’t cancel out all outside noise, but they muffle it enough that I have no problem hearing what I want to hear through the headphones when the kids are being their crazy selves or the TV is blasting. I’m able to work on podcasts or videos without having to tell everybody else to quiet down.
These would make an excellent gift for that person in your life who cares about the sound coming out of his computer or phone, but values comfort first and foremost. I really love these headphones and highly recommend them.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Style Snaps review: I was shocked that they worked
Oct 28, 2011 Product Review
Whenever I see a product being sold primarily on TV I assume it doesn’t work. I assume that the producers tried to get it sold through regular channels, with no luck, and turned to bad TV ads and direct shipping instead. So I’m always shocked when one of these products works. This is what happened with Style Snaps.
Style Snaps are little adhesive plastic snaps that you put on your pants to make them shorter, and then unsnap to make them longer. I have many pairs of pants that I can only wear with high-heeled shoes. If I want to wear a pair with flats I fold the hem under and use double-sided tape to keep them in place, but I have two problems with this. First of all, I’ve yet to find double-sided tape that will stay put for an entire day, even the ones made specifically for clothes. Second of all, it means having to find the right length for the pants every single time. Pain in the butt.
I tried the Style Snaps with my favorite pair that Not Your Daughter’s Jeans had given me and found them easy to put on. I had to be careful getting into the jeans so as not to rip the snaps right off – the snaps are very strong and the adhesive will give before the snaps will open. Once the jeans were on the snaps weren’t too obvious – you can see one of them a little bit in the picture below – and these jeans are fairly thin. I haven’t tried them on other materials yet, though – I can imagine the snaps showing through very badly on a flimsier fabric.
My assumption with these was that I could wash the jeans with the snaps in and not have to position them again, but I’m not sure where I got that idea – the only washing instructions were for the snaps themselves. Apparently if you want to reposition them or reuse them you can wash any fabric residue off and they will remain sticky for 8-10 uses. That’s great, but frankly not the solution I was looking for – I want to be able to leave them in the pants indefinitely. So, after wearing the jeans two days in a row I put them in the washing machine on the delicate cycle, and crossed my fingers that I wasn’t going to ruin my machine with sixteen little plastic things floating around.
I have to admit, I was shocked when all sixteen pieces came out of the washing machine attached to the jeans, exactly where they had started. I don’t know how many times they can go through this, but if it’s at least a few then I think it’s worth the trouble of putting them on. Keep in mind, though, the gentle cycle on my washing machine (an awesome Whirlpool Duet HT) is extraordinarily gentle – I don’t know what a top loader would do.
I’ll do a follow up when I try them on some different materials, but for a pair of jeans with fabric on the not-too-heavy side, they get a thumbs up from me.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1 (for the jeans). Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: As Seen On TV, Style Snaps
Pandigital Picture Frame: great gift idea for WiFi-less folks
Sep 27, 2011 Product Review
I’ve looked at a few different wireless picture frames to give to various relatives over the years, but the problem is that the older relatives don’t have WiFi in their homes. So, I would have to rely on flash drives or SD cards to get new pictures to them, and honestly there’s not much chance that I would keep that up. But the Photo Mail frame that AT&T sent me* to try has solved that problem.
The concept is simple: the person using the frame needs no internet hookup whatsoever, since the frame works over AT&T’s network. You can email pictures directly to it, with no ongoing subscription. The frame comes with its own unique email address, and sixty download credits. After that you can buy download credits for ten cents each, or less – the more you buy at a time, the cheaper each one is. You can buy these credits online or directly from the frame.
The frame comes with a remote control, and in a stroke of genius the remote can attach magnetically to the back of the frame, so that it won’t get lost. The look of the frame is like any good picture frame – no plastic in sight. Just wood, and then matting under the glass framing the image area. A second matte is included in case you want a different color.
Setting the frame up was extremely easy: within ten minutes of opening the box I had transferred pictures from my computer to the frame, over email. I plugged it in and turned it on, and using the email address on the back I sent two pictures to it. Within a couple of minutes I’d gotten an email that the pictures had been received by the Pandigital system and would be delivered soon to the frame, and then a couple minutes after that received a notification on my frame that I had something to download. I clicked enter and the images downloaded in under a minute.
The frame has an internal memory of 1 gigabyte. Pictures of about 1 megabyte or more look very crisp on the screen, so you could store almost 1,000 pictures on the internal memory and have really good quality images.
Playing and adding images from an SD card was very easy. There’s an option to import all images, or you can go through and choose which ones you want to add to the internal memory. There are lots of options for how the slideshow plays, from transitions to the order to adding music. Photos can be arranged into certain folders and slideshows can be played from just one folder at a time if desired.
Some things I didn’t like:
- The remote control is very temperamental. It only works from a maximum distance of a few feet, and has to be pointed directly at the bottom of the screen. I usually had to press a button a few times to get it to work. (However, you don’t have to use the remote control – there are buttons on the back that can be seen easily when looking over the top of the frame.)
- Internal WiFi would make this frame so much more flexible.
- The slots for SD cards and flash drives are so close to the frame it can be difficult to get them in.
- The frame comes with way too many features – greeting card making, clock and alarm, etc. – that are too cumbersome to use and just clutter up the menus. Simpler would be better.
- The video feature supports only .avi files, which is very limiting.
- The User Guide is very out of date, mentioning Microsoft services that haven’t existed for quite a while.
To sum up:
Basically, if you want a really simple and attractive way to get photos to a loved one almost instantly and don’t want to worry about WiFi connections or monthly subscription fees, this frame is an excellent choice. The price is much lower than many digital frames of the same size (I found it for about $87 on Amazon), and it will fit right in with non-tech decor. Buying additional credits is easy and inexpensive, and most people wouldn’t have a problem navigating the one or two clicks necessary to download new photos from the Photo Mail service.
The one big suggestion I have for future versions of this frame (besides stripping out the unnecessary features) is to make the photo downloads completely controllable from a remote source. I mentioned in the last paragraph that most people wouldn’t have a problem navigating the simple download process, but it would be great to have an option for those who might have trouble. For example, the purchaser could set the frame to download all images sent to the frame automatically. As long as they don’t give away the unique email address to anyone else, they would have complete control over which pictures make it to the frame.
But this is a minor suggestion. The service is already very simple, and I would absolutely use my own money to buy this frame as a gift for anyone who wanted to receive frequently updated pictures of my family.
*AT&T send me this frame in conjunction with their fabulous sponsorship of the SheStreams conference, which I attended last week. Huge thank you to AT&T for supporting bloggers, vloggers, and podcasters!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Toss and Chop review: chopped salads at home
Aug 29, 2011 Product Review
Last month I went out for lunch with my fellow Blogging Angels and got a delicious salad. It was one of those great places where you can add whatever you want and then they toss it in a big bowl with dressing and charge you an insane amount of money. But I don’t care, those salads are always so much better than the ones I make at home (and I make awesome salads).
But this time, they asked me if I wanted it chopped, and of course I said yes, because chopped salads taste even better than regular salads. You get every single flavor in your salad in each bite. I watched in amazement as they fed my salad into a big machine that spit it out chopped!
Since that lunch I’ve been obsessed with making chopped salads at home. I researched all the different gadgets you can get for chopping salad and decided to try the Silvermark Toss and Chop. It’s like two pairs of scissors glued together with a little scoop on the bottom. It also has a little clip that holds everything closed for storage – very good design. The blades are very sharp and you wouldn’t want to come across them while rummaging through a drawer.
I gathered my ingredients. I tore the lettuce leaves, used a peeler to slice the carrots, cut the onion into big chunks, and left the grape tomatoes and chick peas whole.
I set a timer for two minutes and got to work. This instructions said to hold the Toss and Chop in one hand and steady the bowl in with the other, scooping up salad and then moving on to another area, so that’s what I did. After two minutes, my arm was killing me and the salad looked like this:
I had chopped a lot of it, but not very small, and not uniformly – there were plenty of pieces still almost untouched.
I went to work again, but this time I held the Toss and Chop perpendicular to the bottom of the bowl, and squeezed with both hands. I was able to get a lot more control this way, work faster, and not tire my arms out so quickly. I stopped every 30 seconds or so to toss the salad around and see which parts still needed work. After about two minutes more I had a very nicely chopped salad! There were a few pieces of onion that were bigger than the rest, and a couple of chickpeas had remained whole, but that was it. Everything else was done beautifully. The blades were even sharp enough to actually cut the tomatoes instead of smooshing them.
I tossed it with some croutons and dressing and was done. But – and trust me on this part – before I sat down to eat my salad I rinsed the Toss and Chop off and left it on a towel to dry. If you leave it until later, even a little later, you’ll be digging bits of lettuce out of the grooves with a toothpick. But rinse it off right away and it takes about ten seconds to get completely clean.
My salad was absolutely delicious. I’m not sure I’d make the effort every time I make a salad to chop it, but it’s nice to know that doing so only adds a few minutes to the prep. Now I just have to invite Rebecca over for salad – not sure that’s enough to get her to Brooklyn though.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
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Tags: cooking, Food, kitchen gadgets, Shopping
The best non-stick pan I’ve ever used in my entire life. Seriously
Jul 21, 2011 Product Review
How’s that for a review headline? It’s not an exaggeration. I’m something of a cookware nut, with a drawer full of expensive pans, including lots of Calphalon One. But I’d never even heard of GreenPan before encountering the company at a gift guide trade show. I didn’t linger at the table too long because, well, I’m not all that green. I’m happy to do my part for the environment up to a point, and that point is when I have to give up quality in exchange for being green. I never would have purchased this pan without trying it first. I would have been too skeptical. I was curious enough to accept a unit for review, but didn’t expect to like it.
Turns out they already had me pegged on their site. They describe their mission as bringing “constainability” to their products: “‘Convenient’ as we don’t ask you to change your lifestyle, ‘sustainable’ as we are preserving the natural resources of our planet in a responsible way.” I’m helping without having to do anything. That’s how I like my green living.
I can say without reservation that this is the best non-stick pan I’ve ever used. GreenPan sent me a 12-inch frying pan from their GreenPan Copenhagen collection. I’ve had it for a couple of weeks now and have been trying it out with foods that usually require lots of oil or butter to keep from sticking. When I make scrambled eggs I want them to slide out of the pan, and I hate it when a thin layer of egg sticks and burns and then gets all over the “good” egg, but that usually requires an amount of oil that I’m just not willing to use.
I first tried cooking scrambled eggs in my GreenPan with a small amount of butter. I couldn’t believe it, but the eggs just slid around like they were on a thick coating of oil. Next time I tried them with no butter or oil at all. Not only did nothing stick, but there were no little overcooked bits, and once I took the eggs out of the pan you couldn’t even tell I’d cooked anything in it!
This morning Jake wanted pancakes, so I did the ultimate test: pancakes in the GreenPan with no oil or butter whatsoever. Adding to the difficulty, Jake likes chocolate chips in his pancakes, and they usually burn right onto the surface of whatever pan I’m using. But not this one! It was flawless. I was able to wipe out the little bits of chocolate that remained with a paper towel, instead of the scrubbing I have to do on my other pans. (Of course, I wouldn’t use this pan routinely for pancakes, unless I only needed to make one at a time – I just wanted to test out the surface.)
I even used it to reheat macaroni and cheese. I figured that all that cheese sauce would stick and get crusty, but no. Not one bit. I’m seriously impressed.
The design of this pan is fantastic, with no rivets inside for food to cling to. Plus the handle is all metal, which means you can put it right into the oven no problem.
I think the best test of a review unit is asking myself, would I buy it with my own money? Well, I love this pan so much that I purchased an 8-inch GreenPan as well. I’m pretty sure that the next one I’m going to buy is the GreenPan Dubai 8” loaf pan – just the other day I ruined a loaf of rye when I couldn’t get it out of its oiled pan. I can’t wait to report on that one.
I also desperately want to purchase GreenPan universal lids for my pans, but can’t seem to find them online in the US – I’ve written to the company and will update this post with what I find out. UPDATE: The universal lids aren’t available in the US yet! Wahhhh! But I’ll let you know when they are.
So, to sum up: if you care about the environment and want to buy your cookware and bakeware from a company that also cares, GreenPan is for you. And if you don’t care about the environment at all but just want the best nonstick pan out there, GreenPan is also the company for you. I almost wonder if they’d have better sales among people like me if they marketed the same products under a non-green name.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
