Monster Cupcakes by Chef’n with Monstrous Results!
This is not a sponsored post. These opinions are our own.
Always up for an adventure and willing to try something new, I found some products by Chef’n that looked cute and fun.
The two products that I chose were the Chef’n Cake Creature 3D Mold and Pastry Pen.
On the box, it promises that you will be able to easily create cupcake monsters and bring them to life! How hard can it be?
I mixed up my cake mix and used the pastry pen to suction out the batter to put them in the cake mold. Although the syringe supposedly holds ¼ cup, there was not enough suction to fill it. I had to lay the bowl on it side so that the syringe was parallel to the counter so that it would even somewhat fill.
The best part about the pen was the fancy clip that you put on the side of the bowl to wipe off excess or to hold the pen while not in use.
Then it came time to make the monsters!
Because I only had one mold, I had to bake the monsters one at a time. The box indicated that some batter might come out during baking. Some??
To get them out of the molds was a bit like Goldilocks. You couldn’t take them out too soon or they would break, and you couldn’t leave them to get too cool, or they would stick. I ended up with a lot of broken monsters!
Then, came time to ice them. I used the pastry pen to suck up the frosting. Or tried to. It wouldn’t fill. I tried heating the icing so it was runny. Still didn’t work. I managed to get a bit of icing in the pen, but when I went to decorate the monster, the icing came out with a big “farting” noise because of all the air trapped inside. The icing splashed on to the cupcake in a big mess.
This is what the company said my monsters should look like.
This is what mine looked like. In the words of Pinterest, NAILED IT!
By the end of the process I was in a heap of tears at the table. I should mention that in our household, I bake the cakes and my husband decorates them. It works better that way! I get too frustrated and have no patience.
So, my husband suggested that I call in a professional. That’s when I asked my friend Janice, who loves decorating cakes and is a pro at it, if she would help me out.
I asked her to write about her experiences. Here’s what she had to say:
My initial thoughts were that the pastry pen looked hopeful but I had some doubts about the 3D cake mold. I would call myself an “at home” experienced baker. I have taken some Wilton cake decorating classes, I always make home-made birthday cakes and on the weekends my oven is usually always on!
First, the 3D Cake Mold. After the 6th attempt, I was able to get the cake out of the mold in one piece.
It was a long process having only a single mold and meant preparing the mold, baking, waiting, and being disappointed over a 5 hour period. Each bake yielded exactly one broken monster!
The preparation of the mold required cooking spray and flour and if you missed one spot, it was all over at that point.
With the removal, the mold was hot to the touch even after the recommended cooling off period and did not give clear instructions on how to open the mold (standing up? on its back?). Even at the end when my family cheered in excitement at the opening of an unbroken little monster, it barely had any detail and was very blob like.
I followed the directions exactly every time but I have to be honest; I think you just had to get lucky!
Lastly, the Pastry Pen. We gave up trying to fill the cake mix into the pen, there just wasn’t enough suction. We ended up filling the pen from the top with the plunger.
This was the same with the icing. The control on the icing was limited as you really need to push the plunger to get the icing out. My husband said the result was like a caulking gun that kept flowing… frustrating.
The one bright side was that this pen did work excellent in injecting pudding or (seed free) jam into a cupcake.
Overall, I would not recommend either one of these products. The mold was hard to use and I didn’t find the shape to be very detailed or unique. The pastry pen was even worse and I would gladly use a sandwich bag to decorate with any day over the pastry pen.
However, having said all that, Janice’s end results were much better than mine! I told you she was a professional!
So, what do I think of the Chef’n Monster Cake Mold and pastry pen? Let’s replace the word chef’n!
