Four Kitchen Gadgets Put to the Test: Frost Form, Egg Shell Cutter, Polygons Spoons and a Sterilizable Knife Block

Introduction

Kitchen gadgets promise to solve problems you did not always know you had. Some deliver, some do not, and a few solve a problem that was never really a problem in the first place. We put four reader-requested gadgets through a proper hands-on session: a frosting kit for decorator-wary bakers, an eggshell cutting tool with a delightfully impractical name, a set of flat magnetic measuring spoons, and a knife block that claims to sterilise your knives with UV light and warm air.

Here is how each one performed, and whether it deserves a spot in your kitchen.

Frost Form Kit: Frosting Without the Fuss

The Frost Form kit is aimed squarely at anyone who can bake a decent cake but falls apart at the decorating stage. Instead of frosting on a turntable and smoothing by hand, you assemble the cake inside a specifically designed wrap, fill the gaps with frosting, chill it, and peel the form away to reveal a smooth finish. The kits come in sizes from five to ten inches, and the tested version was the seven inch kit with a non-stick base, a liner base, a crumb cutter, and a former.

The process is genuinely clever. You trim the cake flat with the included cutter, layer it with buttercream inside the liner, slide the crumb cutter halfway up, and refrigerate for around 45 minutes until the frosting is firm. The brand also publishes recipes designed to work with the kit, including a white chocolate butter ganache, which is a thoughtful touch.

On the first attempt, straight out of the box, the results were impressive: a smoother finish than any hand-frosted cake in recent memory, with just a seam to tidy and a couple of air pockets to fill. The honest caveats are the price and the learning curve. The full kit costs around 74.75, and while it does make frosting easier, it is far from effortless, and a failed attempt on an important cake is a costly mistake. A DIY version with acetate could achieve something similar for a few pounds. As one verdict put it: a frosty reception at this price, despite the genuinely good results.

Eierschalensollbruchstellen Egg Shell Cutter: A Neat Little Trick

Yes, that really is its name. Roughly translated as the eggshell breaking point causer, this gadget is a small dome that sits on top of a boiled egg, with a weighted ball you raise and drop. The weight cracks the shell in a precise ring, and the top lifts off cleanly with a hand or a table knife, leaving no stray shell fragments in your food.

In practice it works exactly as promised, though the egg is filled beyond the crack point, so a little spills out when the top comes off. The shell then doubles as a charming serving vessel for a custard, a chocolate mousse piped back in, or a savoury baked egg custard, which is where this tool earns its keep.

The design is centuries old, which says something about how well it works. At just under ten pounds it is a fun, low-risk purchase, particularly as an amuse bouche trick for a dinner party. The fair criticism is that it is close to the definition of a single-use gadget, and there are other ways to get into an egg without shell fragments. But at this price, that hardly matters.

Polygons Flat Three-in-One Measuring Spoons: Clever in Theory

The Polygons spoons replace a stacked set of measuring spoons with two flat, magnetic spoons that fold and flatten. The magnetic connection keeps them together for storage, the flat shape lets you scrape every last bit of ingredient off, and they work with wet or dry ingredients.

With dry goods such as sugar, salt, and spices, they make sense. They store neatly in a drawer, feel well made, and solve the familiar annoyance of measuring spoons rattling around loose in a cutlery drawer. With sticky ingredients, though, the experience falls apart. Trying to scoop a teaspoon of honey was a struggle: the magnets pull the spoon closed mid-scoop, and there is little leverage for digging into anything firm.

At 14.99 for a set of two, they sit in the middle of the expected price range. The verdict: a genuinely interesting rethink of a design that has existed for millennia, best suited to baking and dry measuring rather than table use, but not a replacement for your everyday spoons.

Sterilizable Knife Block: High-Tech Hygiene With Limits

This is not a regular knife block. It uses UV lamps that, according to the maker, sterilise utensils by destroying the DNA and RNA structure of viruses and bacteria, while fans push 70 degree C air through the device to keep the block and knives dry.

The main problem is what it cannot do. In testing, the instruction manual proved difficult to use, and there was no practical way to verify the sterilisation claim without a swab test. More importantly, two thirds of each knife hangs out of the block, including the handle, which is exactly where bacteria transfer from your hands to your board and food happens. Sterilising the blade while leaving the handle untouched rather undermines the pitch.

At 80.29, it is a lot of money when ordinary knife blocks start around ten pounds, including designs with built-in sharpening brushes. If the storage and drying function appeals to you, it may still earn a place, but as a hygiene solution it falls short of the claim.

Overall Buying Advice

If you take one lesson from these four, it is to match the gadget to the gap in your own cooking. The egg shell cutter is cheap, charming, and works, even if you will not reach for it daily. The Frost Form kit produces genuinely smooth results but demands practice and a real commitment to home cake decorating before the price makes sense. The Polygons spoons are a smart dry-ingredient upgrade if drawer clutter annoys you. The sterilizable knife block is the hardest to recommend, because the core claim is the one thing it cannot fully deliver.

Conclusion

Four gadgets, four very different verdicts. The egg shell cutter is the easy fun win at under ten pounds. Frost Form is the most impressive performer, held back mainly by its price and learning curve. The Polygons spoons are a partial success, excellent for dry ingredients and disappointing for anything sticky. The sterilizable knife block looks the part, but its central promise has too many gaps to justify the spend. Choose based on what you actually bake, cook, and serve, and you will not go far wrong.