Are you the office de facto cake decorator? The staff seems to celebrate everyone’s small-to-medium size life milestones, which means lots of celebratory cakes. Unfortunately, many of those cakes are purchased the day of a forgotten milestone, and in the poor planning, a personalized message is often omitted. No personalized message on a blank sheet cake makes it fairly obvious that the staff forgot about the milestone until the last second and someone ran out and got a generic sheet cake anywhere they could find it. Finding a bakery that will write a custom message at the last minute is not always an easy task. I also dislike having to buy a store-bought or bakery cake just so that I can get writing on it. These cakes are often less tasty, somewhat pricey and too much cake for the size of our office, which frequently means half of it goes uneaten. So to remedy this, there is an easy way to write your own message on a cake without mastering advance frosting techniques.

So I was pleased to find this Ice Decorating Pen. I hold it in my hand like a magic marker and write letters with frosting. It is portable and easy to use and clean. I just use either chocolate partial melted in the office microwave or frosting directly from a can if needed.

HOW TO USE
It is easy to fill: pull out the red cap part and fill the white tube about 60-80% full. It can be filled, but I find it easier to use with slightly less icing. Then depending on the thickness of your icing, gently squeeze the white tube to enough to help the icing flow while holding the tip just above the surface of the cake.

It gets easier with practice. Use your dominant hand to press on the red top of the pen. Use your non-dominant hand to guide the pen body into place while you shape the letters. Ease up your grip in between words or letters to stop the icing flow. If the icing doesn’t flow, depress the red top lightly. Practice first on wax paper or a plate until you get the hang of how to hold the pen and write before writing on an actual cake.

CONCLUSION: A very useful tool for last-minute celebrations or doing your own cake decorating to create delicious, personalized cakes. Well made materials and it is easy to fill and clean.

WHERE TO BUY IT

Find it at https://www.newxshop.com/silicone-chocolate-cake-pastry-ice-decorating-pen-cake-decorate-tool-siliconetool.html

The spiralizer is simple to put together; you don’t need directions, but it comes with step-by-step instructions. The only thing I would mention is to make sure to push the top semi-oval bar piece in tightly.

I like that the device has three suction feet to keep it stable during use. You don’t particularly have to hold the device down while using it, although there is a spot to put your finger just to stabilize it if needed.

EASE OF USE

As the name indicates, it is a vertical spiralizer, which it turns out, is exceptionally easy to use. I thought it might require a lot of elbow grease, but it takes very little effort to turn the handle to make a spiral. There is no resistance to the handle.

I tried zucchini and carrots; the zucchini spiralized very quickly and easily. The carrots took a few more tries to get an even rhythm going, but it still was easy to rotate the handle and get an even spiral out of the carrot.

One of my favorite parts about this spiralizer is that I didn’t have to stop and re-adjust the vegetable mid-spiralizing. It just vertically rotates downward until it is a tiny stub of veggie, which can still be spiralized, just a bit slow-going at the very end. This is an advantage over horizontal spiralizers, which require pausing and readjusting.

Another thing I like is the spiralized results go into a clear drawer under the device instead of falling out onto a plate next to the spiralizer. This seems to make for tighter, neater spirals and easier clean-up. For cleaning off the blade, it comes with a tiny bristle brush similar to a vegetable brush.

These very long spirals can make for a beautiful meal that is simple to make.

PREPARING THE FRUITS & VEGETABLES FOR SPIRALIZING

It is important to cut the vegetable or fruit so that it has a flat top and bottom so that the two points that secure the to-be spiralized item can grasp it well. I also thought positioning it slightly at an off angle towards your choice of the two blades makes for a more consistent curl to the spiral. They curl up tightly like very long curly fries; there were very few chips of pieces.

It would be possible to do thicker, fibrous fruits and vegetables, cut away the seeds from fruit whenever possible.

Cut vegetables such as carrots and zucchini into about 5″ long pieces so they fit comfortably into the device. Larger pieces do not fit well.

Note that there are two blades, so if you feel you need to hold the spiralizer during the process, only hold it from the top rounded surface or one of the vertical side bars, not the base. Be mindful of the second blade, so you don’t cut yourself. While it is a wonderful advantage that turning the handle requires so very little effort, the blades are VERY sharp! A child can easily turn the handle but should NOT be left unsupervised.

CONCLUSION

A VERY easy to use vertical spiralizer, it takes very little “muscle” to create spirals, it is something an elderly person could do with ease or a supervised child. The spirals are amazingly long, they are not weak or broken, they are tight, springy, beautifully appetizing spirals. Spiralizing a vegetable is very quick and easy to do. Quick to make spirals and quick to clean up.

Find it at Amazon.

DISCLAIMER
We received the Brieftons Vertico Spiralizer for testing and review purposes and received compensation for our time and effort. The opinions expressed in this review are 100% our own.