Three Kitchen Gadgets Put to the Test: Mini Rice Cooker, Hot and Cold Water Dispenser, and a 3D Candy Pen

Introduction

Rice cookers, water dispensers and candy pens rarely share a shopping list, but all three promise to make something you already do a little easier or a little more fun. We put each one through a real kitchen test: cooking rice for two, brewing tea and chilling cordial, and drawing edible designs on parchment. Here is how each product performed, what it costs, and who it actually makes sense for.

Lakeland Mini Electric Rice Cooker

The Lakeland Mini Electric Rice Cooker cooks one to two portions of white or brown rice in about 30 minutes, using a lift-out 500ml non-stick pan and a simple LED panel. Rice cookers are a fixture in kitchens worldwide, but for households that only cook rice occasionally, the usual objection is the worktop footprint. This mini version addresses exactly that, and it also handles porridge.

Operation is straightforward: rinse one cup of rice, add two cups of water, lock the lid, press the rice button, and let it run. A countdown appears over the final six minutes of the cycle, then the cooker switches to keep-warm. In our test, 135g of rice came out with lovely individual grains on top, though slightly wetter and stickier toward the bottom of the pan. The team’s own cooks produced a crispy beef rice dish from it with excellent results, adding a little salt at the start of the cycle. Compared with packet rice, most tasters found the output genuinely good.

If you already cook rice confidently in a pan, a traditional rinse-and-rest method cooks faster and gives you more control. But if you want a genuinely hands-off option for small volumes, this is one of the best small-capacity examples around, and it sips power thanks to its insulated design. At 39.99 pounds, expect closer to 30 pounds around Black Friday.

Aqua Optima Aurora Instant Hot and Cold Water Dispenser

The Aurora is an all-in-one countertop device that heats, chills and filters water, with 49 temperature and volume combinations ranging from a single cup to a full litre. Think of it as the plug-and-play version of those fancy built-in boiling and chilled taps, without the installation cost. For people in hard-water areas, the built-in filtration is a meaningful plus.

Testing started with masala chai at a claimed 100 degrees: the dispensed water measured 96 degrees, which is likely boiling at the outlet before it reaches the cup. Cold dispensing pulled room-temperature water at 23.5 degrees down to 8.5 degrees, and a mid-range oolong test at a target of 80 degrees landed at 81 to 82 degrees, close enough to brew correctly. Accuracy across all three tests was impressive.

There are real arguments in its favour beyond temperature control: you only heat the water you actually use, which is more energy efficient than boiling a full kettle for one cup, and dispensing filtered water reduces tap running and water waste. For someone living alone, particularly anyone who struggles to lift and pour a kettle, it can genuinely replace both a kettle and a filter jug. For households that regularly need a litre or more of boiling water for pans, it does not fully cover that use case.

At 149.99 pounds it sits above most smart kettles, which tend to run 70 to 80 pounds. If it ever drops by around 30 percent during Black Friday, it becomes a much easier recommendation.

Polaroid CandyPlay 3D Candy Pen

The CandyPlay 3D Candy Pen by Polaroid lets cake decorators and candy enthusiasts draw edible 3D designs onto cakes, bakes and desserts. It ships with 48 cartridges that are vegan, sugar free and naturally flavoured, built around isomalt that melts in the pen, sets hard and gives a satisfying snap once cooled. It is rated for ages 14 and up, which makes sense given you are working with molten sugar.

In practice, there is a learning curve. The quick start guide runs to 75 pages, and the first attempts produced wobbly lettering and freeform blobs rather than clean shapes. The workflow is: insert a cartridge, power on, wait for the blue light, press the star button to start drawing, then pause and let each section cool before building on it. It is slower than piping chocolate because you must let each segment set before continuing.

Once set, the sugar behaves exactly as expected: it holds structure, stands upright, and tastes convincingly of strawberry. With practise, the creative ceiling is high. Personal messages on cakes, layered designs built upward like a 3D printer, stained-glass cookies, and festive decorations are all realistic projects. For anyone with artistic flair or a serious interest in cake decorating, it opens up genuinely fun possibilities. At 49.99 pounds it is not cheap, so a Black Friday discount would make it a much easier purchase.

Buying Advice

Each of these earns its place for a specific person rather than for everyone. The mini rice cooker suits households that cook rice in small portions and want a set-and-forget method without giving up much worktop space. The Aurora dispenser suits solo tea and coffee drinkers who value precise temperatures, filtered water and lower energy use, and it is worth watching for a discount. The candy pen is a niche creative tool, best for people who already enjoy decorating and will put in the practise time.

Conclusion

None of these three is an automatic buy at full price, but all three do what they claim. The rice cooker is the safest bet for most kitchens, the Aurora rewards solo households that drink a lot of hot drinks, and the CandyPlay pen rewards creativity with patience.