Jakks Pacific sent me the new Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker to review, and when I unpacked the box, all my kids came running from different corners of the house at the thought of “having” to make cupcakes for a review! The cupcake maker comes with everything you need to make four cupcakes, each a different flavor with a different flavor of frosting. There’s chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon sugar, and red velvet cupcake mix, with chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and cream cheese frosting mix. The cupcake maker kit also includes a microwave container with cupcake holder, four cupcake papers, sprinkles, a mixing bowl, a double-sided measuring spoon, a spatula, recipe cards and an instruction sheet.

To make each cupcake, you empty a packet of dry mix into the mixing bowl, fill the large side of the measuring spoon with water, dump that in, and stir with the spatula. You put a cupcake paper into the holder, then scoop the batter in. It fits into the microwave container securely and there’s a lid that goes on top, and you microwave that for 30 seconds. Who knew it was possible to make a fresh cupcake in 30 seconds? Genius!

The only difficult part is that because you only get one mixing bowl and spatula, you have to wash both of those before you can make the frosting. Now, I suppose I could have dirtied another bowl and used a spoon, but I wanted to use just what came in the kit. Besides, the time it took to wash and dry the bowl and spatula gave the cupcake time to cool after it came out of the microwave. While the directions say to frost the cupcake immediately, I know from experience that if the cupcake is too hot, the frosting just melts and runs all over the place. Trust me on that one.

So after you use the smaller side of the measuring spoon to add water to the dry frosting mix, you stir and stir and stir. It will seem like it needs more water but keep stirring or you’ll end up with liquid instead of frosting. Trust me on that one too. Now here’s the cool part-you scoop the frosting into the open end of the frosting tube, then it fits into the cupcake maker. The cupcake in the holder goes underneath. Then you or your child (Kaitlyn loved this part) press down on the thing in the photo that looks like a cupcake with pink swirled frosting-that’s the handle. As it goes down, the cupcake spins and the frosting comes out of the tube and swirls around onto the cupcake! You also get a packet of sprinkles and a little canister with holes in the top to pour them into for shaking onto the cupcakes.

Check out the Girl Gourmet website too, with fun interactive ways to get the cupcake recipes, submit photos of your cupcake creations, order mix refills and accessories, and more!

The Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker is priced at $29.99 and four additional packets of cupcake mix and frosting mix are $12.99 each. The best part is, unlike the Easy Bake Oven which uses a hot lightbulb to cook the treats and has been known to cause burns, the Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker requires adult help to use the microwave (at least for younger children). And it’s fun! The hardest part is that you only make one cupcake at a time. I recommend dirtying a few bowls and spoons getting the batter and frosting mixed up ahead of time to speed up the process This is a HOT TOY for Christmas 2008, trust me!