Gearhead Mom

Monday, January 07, 2008

Mmmmm…Cupcakes

Posted by Missy W. @ 9:18 AM

I saw these cupcakes featured over at Oompa way back in 2007. I wanted to get them for Sy, but we’d already met her one toy limit for Christmas, so I just had to sit around and hope that one of Sy’s pals would receive them. Jackpot! Kara got a set and boy are they pretty in real life, even the family dog thinks they should be his toys. They have a good heft to them and are knitted together well enough to withstand a few beatings and chewings by toddlers. Each kid who saw them at Micky’s the other day went straight for them and tried to pop ‘em right into their salivating mouths. And you know, they just look really cute.
Sy gets a bit irked that the knit wrapper on the bottom half does not come all the way off. She pulls with all of her might to rip it off, I fear that someday soon she’ll be successful. I remind her every time that it’s a pretend cupcake and that the wrapper is just a decoration, but I am not sure she believes me. Regardless, she loves to play with them. A good addition to the picnic routine.

I am only giving it 3.5 stars because they are only surface washable, two words I find to be completely maddening in the world of little kids. As I mentioned earlier, the non-removable wrappers really tick Sy off. Although as a mother, I see this as a good thing, because otherwise the little wrappers would be under the sofa and collecting dust in no time. Lastly, the price. $32.00 is steep for four cupcakes. They are hand-made and aligned with the Fair Trade Federation, so yeah, I’ll pony up for them at some point because my kid truly LOVES them but still, it’s a spendy purchase.

Micky put the cupcakes in the “My Little Shopkeeper” from Djeco for Christmas morning. It’s a nifty little two sided market stand. The footprint isn’t too big, and two kids can parallel play without too much scrapping.

Snapshot:
Yellow Label Kids works with the Fair Trade Federation to ensure that the artisans crafting their products receive real living wages. Made in Bangladesh.
Spot clean only. Have they met kids? Everything goes in the mouth!
Quite a treat in the pretend food world, but with a high price tag.

Ed. Note: 1/11/08 - I just heard from the folks over at Yellow Label Kids regarding washing the cupcakes. They wrote to me and said, “I wanted to let you know that all of Yellow Label Fair Trade knit toys are not only hand made, use no heavy metal dyes and are AZO-free*, they are also completely machine washable and can be dried in the washing machine as well…A couple of months back, we had a potential client test a few in her washer/dryer (delicate/low) and, aiming to see if those frustrating wrappers (frustrating from your daughter’s point of view, of course) would really still bounce into place after the wash/dry cycle. I’m happy to say that the little cakes passed with flying colors.”

*AZO-free means the fabric is not dyed with an AZO pigment dye which comes along with some nasty chemicals!

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