Mini Cupcake Factory, Love Those Cupcakes

 

No question, cupcakes are back, the undeniable rage. Who doesn’t love cupcakes, and especially the little mini cupcakes. Maybe we think the little mini cupcakes won’t take as much toll on our waste line, as long as we don’t eat 50 of those little suckers at one time.

And of course, nothing is better than an absolutely fresh, just-made mini cupcake. Now you can enjoy your favorite mini cupcake anytime you want with this handy Mini Cupcake Factory cooking gadget.

Have you ever stopped to consider why cupcakes are so delicious? Well, one reasone is due to the miniature size. The mini cupcake has a higher crust-to-cake ratio which means a larger percentage of outer layer of extra caramelized batter that soaks up a bit more of the oil. Very yummy! Look, this is Mint Gadgets, we have to get a little geeky here.

And with the Mini Cupcake Factory, we’re talking just minutes away to your next batch of fresh, homemade mini cupcakes. If you include the time to mix the batter and heat the cupcake pad, then add in the mere five minutes to cook the cupcakes, it only takes about 10 minutes from start to finish to crank out a nice little yummy batch of fresh mini cupcakes.

This convenient electric mini cupcake pan heats up in minutes and cooks 7 mini-sized cupackes in 5 short minutes.

Mini Cupcake Factory Features

• Bakes scrumptious mini cupcakes or muffins in just 5 minutes
• Easy to clean, non-stick cooking surface has room for 7 mini cupcakes
• You can use any cupcake, cake or store-bought mix
• Use of paper cup wrappers is optional

Watch The Mini Cupcake Factory in Action

You’ll love the Mini Cupcake Factory. Also perfect for the office when you want to please your co-workers with a quick, yummy and friendly cupcake snack.

Available: ThinkGeek

Price: $19.99

 

Under Cabinet Pivoting LED Spotlights

 

It’s always a challenge to achieve adequate lighting in your kitchen. And coming up with properly focused spot lighting on some of your preferred work areas can lead to even more customized and expensive lighting applications.  But definitely nice to have! A particularly effective and low cost way to illuminate your key work areas in your kitchen is with the Under Cabinet Pivoting LED Spotlights from Hammacher Schlemmer.

These Under Cabinet Pivoting LED Spotlights swivel and adjust to throw a bright wash of light in any direction. The four LED lamp heads rotate a full 360º and pivot from side to side 30º, providing a flexible lighting solution that enables you to direct light over your specific favorite work areas.

Each individual LED light consists of a high output 1 watt LED lamp that illuminates up to 20x brighter than a typical LED. And the best thing about LED technology is the much lower heat output. These lights remain cool to the touch even after they’ve been running for a long period of time. And that makes it easy to reach up and adjust the lights and change the projection angle at any time without fear or worry of burning yourself on a scorching hot lamp or light bulb.

The Under Cabinet Pivoting LED Spotlights have two adjustable levels of light output. And these high quality LED lamps last up to 100,000 hours. That’s an amazing 11 1/2 years if you left the lights on continuously 24/7.  Multiple LED light units can be connected while only requiring one of them to be plugged into a power outlet. This makes it easy and convenient to mount the LED spotlights under your kitchen cabinet and plug the array into a suitable power source.

The Under Cabinet Pivoting LED Spotlights include an easy to install mounting bracket. And the brushed metal finish will add a sense of style and look attractive in any modern kitchen.

Available: Hammacher

Price: $64.95

ZeroWater Filtration Pitcher – Water Purification System

 

With all the concerns about the hazardous effect that environmental pollution imposes on our health, more and more people every day are looking for water purification solutions to ensure safe and healthy drinking water. There are expensive and complex water purification systems for the home, and at the other end of the scale, lots of people simply buy and drink bottled water.

But buying bottled water for all of your water drinking needs is a waste of money when you can achieve the same or better pure water results with your own water purification system. Not to mention all the plastic water bottles that you’re dumping back into the environment that need to be recycled. Truly, bottled water is not very eco-friendly!

One of the most popular and affordable solutions is a water filtration pitcher and the ZeroWater Filtration Pitcher is one of the best water purifiers in this category that you will find.

In fact, the ZeroWater Filtration Pitcher is so good it’s the only filtered water from a pitcher that meets the FDA definition for purified bottled water. The ZeroWater Filtration Pitcher employs a 5-stage filtration process and comes with a convenient push button dispensor. When the filtered water is ready you simply push a button and fill your glass.

The ZeroWater innovative 5-stage ion exchange filter provides far more complete water filtration than ordinary carbon filters. The ZeroWater filter is so effective they even build the superior filtration ability into the name. The “zero” in ZeroWater means a perfect “000″ TDS filtering score by removing 100% of the totally disolved solids (TDS) from your water.

To put this level of water purity in perspective, TDS meter readings for average tap water can range between 075 and 300 total dissolved solids. Conventionally filtered water will typically measure between 030 and 500 TDS. And even bottled water isn’t always 100% pure ranging anywhere between between 000 and 350 TDS.

Watch the ZeroWater Filtration Pitcher Demonstration

The ZeroWater filter is so effective that ZeroWater even includes an independently manufactured battery-powered water testing meter with every pitcher. The meter is powered by two easy to replace 1.5V button cell batteries. Not only can you use the meter to verify that the ZeroWater Filtration Pitcher is actually filtering out the impurities and disolved solids, you can monitor the status of your filter as well and determine when it’s time to replace the filter.

So don’t settle for impure drinking water, putting you and your family’s health and safety at risk. For a very affordable price, you can provide all the safe, purified great-tasting water you’ll need with a ZeroWater Filtration Pitcher.

Available: Amazon

Price: $33.54

 

Trudeau Stressless Safety Can Opener

 

After thousands of different types of can openers have come and gone since the invention of the canning process over 200 years ago, who would imagine you could honestly improve on the common hand-operated can opener? Amazingly, it’s true. You’ll have to try the Trudeau Stressless Safety Can Opener to see for yourself.

We recently picked one of these can openers up over the holidays last year and we’re so impressed by how well it works I just had to include this review on Mint Gadgets!

The Trudeau Stressless Safety Can Opener is truly an easier and safer can opener. And a must-have convenient kitchen gadget for anyone who may struggle with reduced hand strength.  The circular rotating cranking arm provides increased leverage that actually requires 50 percent less effort than a typical hand-operated can opener.

But what’s even more impressive is the safety cutting mechanism. This innovative cutting mechanism cuts along the side of the can and never comes into contact with the food during operation, leaving safe smooth edges. When you’re finished cutting the lid off, both the edges of the lid and the edges of the can are smooth and safe, no sharp or jagged edges. You can literally run your fingers over the edges of the can or lid and you won’t cut or nick yourself. Now that’s amazing!

In fact, the lid removal is so clean and smooth, you could re-use the lid by just placing it back on top of the can and stick it in the refrigerator, as an alternative to plastic wrap.

The Trudeau Stressless Safety Can Opener also has a simple lid pliers to grip the lid for easy and hygienic lid removal. This remarkable can opener is part of the Trudeau stress less kitchen tool collection. They definitely hit the mark with this can opener and you’ll really enjoy opening cans again when you discover just how well the Trudeau Stressless Safety Can Opener works in your kitchen.

Available: Amazon

Price: $24.89

 

The Paperless Scratch Pad

 

Just about every busy family employs some means or another to  communicate messages and reminders to the rest of the household. OK, maybe it’s usually Mom reminding the rest of the family members about the chores, things to  do, the kid’s soccer schedule, and well the list is endless, right? Typically, we like to use a chalkboard, or stick-it notes affixed to the refrigerator, or even a small dry-erase white board that we keep in the  kitchen. Now there’s a better way with the Paperless Scratch Pad from Hammacher Schlemmer.

Forget about the countless stick-it notes that are nothing more than an endless waste of  paper. And dry-erase white boards are really  a mess to deal with. You always have to clean them and replenish your supply of  dry-erase markers, not to mention the markers are always out of dry-erase ink just when you need to write something in a hurry – they really don’t last very long. And let’s not mention those dry-erase ink fumes you probably don’t care to inhale. Chalk-boards aren’t too bad, but they’re a mess too. Lot’s of chalk dust, and constant erasing of the board to keep it clean, as well as keeping track of that eraser – now where did I put the eraser?

OK, managing some form of message board in the kitchen isn’t the most insurmountable problem to contend with, but the Paperless Scratch Pad truly does fulfill the “better mousetrap” promise with new and improved technology. The paperless scratch pad is a completely electronic memo board that erases at the touch of a button. It eliminates the mess and hassle of a dry-erase board. No chalk boards, erasers and chalk dust to deal with. And forget about the endless waste of paper sticky-notes that you chase after every day.

The Paperless Scratch Pad is a durable, scratch-resistant LCD surface that responds to pressure using the included stainless steel stylus to capture whatever you want to write. Text, messages, drawings, diagrams, pictures, etc. You easily create lines of varying thickness, the more pressure you apply, the thicker the line. Less pressure with the stylus produces a thinner line. And you don’t even need the stainless steel stylus, you can simply use your finger to write if you like (but the stylus usually produces cleaner looking text and lines).

And here’s the great convenience. A single press of the erase button and you clear the screen. Now that’s much easier than a dry-erase board, don’t you think? You can even lock the paperless scratch pad to prevent accidental erasure until you have a chance to capture the thought, message, text, list or chart elsewhere for more permanent retention (or just insure that the rest of your household has a chance to see the message pad).

The Paperless Scratch Pad includes two AAAA (quadruple-A) batteries that provide up to 50,000 erases. The electronic scratch pad comes with a durable ABS case, has dimensions of 8 3/4″ H by 5 1/2″ W by 1/4″ D,  and weighs in at 4 1/4 oz.

Available: Hammacher

Price: $59.95