A roundup of 26 giveaways from a whole lot of bloggers!

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Re-Review: Stretchy Bowl Covers

No-name covers look better than they really are.

I recently reviewed the Cover Blubber, a stretchy bowl cover. And that made me think of the reviews I did of three other brands of bowl covers.

Maybe it's time for a re-review of these, since some time has passed.

It all started with some stretchy bowl covers that I saw on a Made-for-TV commercial, but when I went looking for them online, I couldn't find them anywhere. And I wasn't about to call and order by phone.

So I went searching for similar covers - to me, it made sense to have reusable covers for bowls - particularly my stand mixer bowl. I get tired of using plastic wrap to cover it every time I make bread and leave the dough rising in that bowl.

I found some unbranded lids on Amazon, but got frustrated pretty quickly. The description said the lids would stretch to fit different-sized bowls, but trying to get the largest size onto my stand mixer bowl was like trying to put a queen-sized bedsheet on a king-size bed, and the cover wasn't all that much smaller than the bowl. It should have fit.

When I finally wrangled the cover in place, it wanted to slip off.

While I was finally able to get the cover on and it held on fairly well, it was the opposite of easy. I wanted easy.

The covers were okay for other bowls that were smaller, but the range of good fit wasn't quite as wide as I hoped. If the bowl is slightly too large, it's too hard to get the cover on. If the bowl is slightly too small, the covers don't grab at all.

I do have a few bowls they fit well, so I still use them once in a while. I wouldn't buy them again, though.

Norpro Bowl Covers

I also tried Norpro's bowl covers, which are stretchy silicone squares rather than fitted round covers. I liked these a lot better than the no-name covers. I was able to cover my mixer bowl, and it held tight as long as the square and bowl were relatively clean and dry. A little flour or oil on the outside or rim of the bowl made things less stick-able, but not terrible.

The downside was that when I tried to cover a square pan with pointy corners, the sharp corner damaged the silicone square and the next time I tried to stretch it over a bowl, it tore.

Since the tear was at the edge of the square, it's still perfectly usable, but now I know that it's a little fragile, and I should only use it on pans with rounded corners.

Since these don't need to fit a bowl of a specific size, they're really versatile, and they stretch a lot, and they cling pretty well. And, since they're not fitted, you can cover square or odd-shaped bowls just as easily as you can cover round bowls.

I'd love it if I could find them in an even larger size to fit things like muffin pans or other big baking pans. I'd love them even more if they weren't as delicate.

Lekue Bowl Covers

I decided to try one more product with a different design, and that was the odd-looking stretch cover from Lekue.

I hesitated on this one because of the price, but decided to give it a go, anyway. And, good thing I did, since the 10.2-inch lid is perfect for my stand mixer bowl. And that was my primary concern.

Look how well it holds on, despite the expanding gas.

The odd shape means that it holds onto the bowl because of the design as well as the tackiness of the silicone. So a little bit of flour or water on the bowl edge isn't as much of a concern with these covers as with others.

When dough is rising, this thing hangs on tight and it expands to accommodate the gas building in the bowl. And it really, really, really stretches.

The downside is that it's not going to fit absolutely every bowl you own, but it does fit a range of sizes - the one that fits my stand mixer bowl also works well with several smaller mixing bowls I have, like the one at the right.

But there's a point where the cover is too floppy to cling. It covers the bowl, but it's not snug enough to seal. Which is fine, if I'm just covering the bowl to keep out flying things. You know, like flour.

The Lekue covers come in a variety of sizes, from the 10.2 that fits my stand mixer bowl, all the way down to a 3.3 inch size, so you can cover a pretty wide range of bowl sizes with a few sizes of covers. And they come in a couple different colors, if that matters.

Since I first wrote about these covers, I purchased one more large one and a slightly smaller one, for smaller bowls. I use them regularly, particularly the large one that fits my mixer bowl.

Allegedly, you can use these to cover a melon or a cut orange or whatever, but I was mostly interested in having flexible bowl covers.

Conclusion

Out of the three of these, I wouldn't recommend the no-name covers at all, unless you happened to have bowls that are exactly the right size for the covers to fit. Otherwise, forget it.

The Lekue covers are my clear favorites, despite the higher price compared to the others, since I"m getting so much more use out of them. I've been using these covers for quite some time and they're holding up really well. I expect to get a lot more use from them.

The Norpro covers are good, and less expensive than the Lekue. If they fit your needs - or your square bowls - they're a good buy. Since the silicon sticks to itself, you could also use these squares to wrap things - I'm not sure what, but it's an option, if you need it.

Source: I purchased all of these covers.

Cakes Under the Influence Margarita Cupcakes

When you hear that a company's name is Cakes Under the Influence, you have to know that there's cake involved. And maybe some booze.

CUI sells a lot of different kits for making alcohol-themed baked goods. You can make large or small margaritas or martinis, shot glasses, or champagne flutes, or a cake-sized martini.

I received a set of margarita-shaped metal baking molds, silicone holders for the metal baking molds, and paper liners for baking. I also received plastic serving glasses with a little nub on the bottom to fit into a large plastic serving tray that was included. AND, I got a cake mix as well.

It's par-tay time!

The one thing that's not included in the various baking kits from CUI is the stemware bottoms, which allow the plastic drinkware tops to stand on their own, without being attached to the tray. I asked for some to use in this post and they sent them. (Hey, thanks!)

I think it's a little odd that the standard kits don't include those drinkware bottoms, since it seems like having glasses standing on their own would be more convenient for guests who might want to set them down when eating.

I suppose for a stand-up cocktail party, the trays might make more sense, since people would be eating while standing, and the trays would be easy for serving.

If you buy one of these kits, I suggest purchasing the bottoms, though. It makes the glasses more useful overall - for these cakes or anything else, and they're not expensive. They're not the prettiest things I've ever seen, but people should be looking at your cakes and not your serving glasses, anyway.

I was making a cupcake recipe from a book and decided to make just a couple of the margarita cupcakes at the same time to test the baking molds. The silicone holders fit snugly into cupcake pans, but I found that they were sturdy enough to stand on their own on a baking sheet. So that's a plus.

I've never seen a margarita this color, but it still looks good, huh?

I lined two of the margarita-shaped metal baking cups with the included baking papers, and then I decided to try using my own parchment paper to create my own cup liners. How hard could it be?

I managed to get the parchment folded and into the cups, but they weren't nearly as pretty as the ones included in the kit.

If you use these a lot, you might get good enough at folding parchment paper to make it fit the cups, but I suggest buying the papers, particularly if you're using these for a party or event. The purchased ones will probably look nicer, and when you're planning for a party, less fuss is probably a better idea.

Then again, my ugly folded parchment wasn't so bad when I unwrapped the cupcakes to serve them directly in the plastic glasses. So you could do that, if you wanted to. If the cakes don't fit snugly in the bottom of the glasses and you don't like seeing cake gaps, you could use a little frosting or a little caramel or chocolate drizzle to fill those gaps. No one would ever know the drizzle wasn't planned from the beginning.

Or ... according to the company's website, the molds themselves are made from anodized aluminum and are food-safe, so in theory you could bake directly in the mold. How well cakes would release from them - I'm not sure, since I haven't tried that yet.

I also haven't tried their cake mix, but I'm sure it's perfectly fine.

Because of the insulation from the silicone stands, the cupcakes I baked in the metal molds took a little longer than the ones baked in standard metal cups, so keep that in mind if you're using a standard recipe, or if you're using a mix that's not formulated specifically for these cups.

After I baked the cupcake-sized cakes, I realized I made just a little goof. Dark chocolate cake probably wasn't the best visual for cakes that are supposed to represent margaritas. A yellow cake or perhaps a green-tinted lime-flavored cake might have made more sense.

But, after I frosted the little cakes, I thought they looked a whole lot better.

But still, if you're making a margarita-shaped cake, it would make more sense to make it margarita-colored (and maybe margarita-flavored) instead of chocolate. So keep that in mind, hmmm?

Who's it for: People who like fancy-shaped cakes or cupcakes.

Pros: Overall, I thought these were really cute, and they'd be great for adult themed parties.

Cons: The kits are a little pricey, but it's a better value buying a kit than buying everything separately. Once you have the silicone stands, add-ons might make more sense to complete your sets. Kits don't come with the stemware bottoms, so make sure you buy those.

Source: I received these from the company at no cost to me.