Cupcake Cuties Save the (Birth)Day

I've had a run of bad luck in the kitchen lately, culminating in my most recent disaster. In fact, I'd rather just forget all about it and never mention it again. Except that it was meant to be a birthday cake, and, as usual, I waited until the last minute so I didn't have a backup plan, and time was running out.

As luck would have it, I agreed to do a product review for Cupcake Cuties, and it just so happens that the kit arrived literally within minutes of me realizing the birthday cake was yet another kitchen fail. Wow, talk about perfect timing! Now all I had to do was bake a quick batch of cupcakes and then decorate them with the kit! How insanely awesome is that?

           

I love getting packages, and I couldn't wait to open it up and see what they sent me. I didn't request a specific kit, but nearly all of the Cupcake Cuties kits are pretty much gender-neutral, which is handy.

      

As you can see, the kit comes packaged in an adorable plastic box. The picture on the front indicates which kit is inside. I received the Layered Cake Kit, which is perfect for a birthday. The only way to see what's actually in the box is to peek at the bottom. Still, that wasn't really good enough for me, so I went ahead and unpacked it all on the spot. I took pictures, too.

     

Everything is safely tucked away underneath pink tissue. Included in the kit is all you need to make the design shown on the front of the box, except for the cupcakes themselves and icing. This is great for anyone with dietary restrictions because you can use this kit with any cupcake and icing recipe.

   

The Layered Cake Cupcake Cuties kit includes: a bottle of pastel sprinkles, 24 candles, 24 decorative sleeves that go around the outside of the baking cup, and detailed instructions. The sleeves are self-adhesive, so there's no fuss or mess. Just peel off the backing, wrap them around the sides of your cupcakes, and stick the ends together. Super easy!

Before and after.

One thing I'd like to note is that the adhesive, once attached, stays attached. I found this out the hard way when I wasn't paying attention and put a few sleeves on upside-down. I tried to fix one, but I ended up tearing it and had to reattach it with scotch tape, so I didn't attempt to change the others.

Note thumb marks on edge, grrr.

The instructions say to frost the cupcake first, then wrap the sleeve around it. I tried doing it that way, but I kept messing up the icing on the edge of the cupcake, which was frustrating. So I wrapped the sleeves around the cupcakes first. I'm a rebel that way.

I like to use a 1M tip and piping bag to ice cupcakes, but a few of these were iced using just a disposable piping bag and no tip, so those have smooth tops. Once the icing is on, it's a good idea to go ahead and add the sprinkles. They'll stick better to fresh icing. Then, just place the candle in the middle, and that's all there is to it. This is a great activity to share with the whole family. Everyone can help!

  

I realize that technically these are supposed to have chocolate icing, as per the picture and instructions to match the paper sleeve. But nobody here wanted wanted chocolate icing. Unanimously, it had to be vanilla, so that's what I made.

 

By the way, the sprinkles included in the kit are pastel confetti, which is great for general use, and there are plenty. As you can see, there's still most of the bottle left after decorating all 24 cupcakes. But what I really love is the flip-top lid. There are 2 sides: one for pouring, and one for shaking, depending on the need. Very cool.

 

We had a lot of fun with this Cupcake Cuties kit, and I am very pleased with the results. It was quick, easy, everybody got to participate, and it saved me from having to make another birthday cake!

I received this Cupcake Cuties Kit for free in exchange for my honest review.