Cadbury Dairy Milk Decorate Egg feedback thread - £300 John Lewis voucher to be won for feedback! NOW CLOSED

[PoppyMumsnet]

This thread is for the 200 Cadbury panel members who have been trying brand new Cadbury Dairy Milk Decorate Egg and refining their decorating skills.

Here's what the team at Cadbury says about the product: "Cadbury Dairy Milk Decorate Egg is the perfect gift this Easter because it combines delicious Cadbury's chocolate with creativity! Children can have fun designing their own Easter Egg and making it really special. We're really excited to let the Cadbury panel trial the Decorate Egg with their children and hear what they think about it."

Testers, we’d like you to answer the following questions:

• How easy was the decorating kit to use?
  
• Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
  
• Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
  
• Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
  
  We’d also love to see photographs of your decorating skills and original creations, so please also post these on this thread.
  Everyone who posts their feedback on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky winner will win a £300 John Lewis voucher.
  
  Thanks and good luck!
  
  MNHQ
  
  Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

[TheSunnySide]

Our egg arrived a bit bashed up too but we were able to prop it up in the holder so we could decorate some of it.
DS was very excited when he saw it.

How easy was the decorating kit to use? after reading some of the comments above I decided not to warm up the icing and it worked fairly well.


Did your DC enjoy the activity? Yes, though he wanted me to do most of it - he is five. He wanted zig-zags like in 'hens pens'

Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg? yes. He said the tube of white stuff made the egg even tastier.

Would you recommend this kit to a friend? I think I would. Definitely for craftier kids. I think it would be even better with some small sweets to stick on.

[stealthsquiggle]

Yet another completely smashed egg here - so much so that there really aren't any large enough pieces left to decorate.

So, reactions of DC (before we opened it and realised it was smashed): DC1(13) sulked when I said that I was planning on DC2(9) doing it while he was out.

DD was enchanted with th idea of being a product tester, and set to reading the instructions. She found the bit about warming the icing a little confusing until I explained it, but liked the concept and was definitely more interested than if it had been a normal egg. She was intruiged so we opened the box even though we weren't planning on doing it until today, and discovered it smashed.

So her feedback overall was "tell them it's yummy, and it's a really good idea, but that they are definitely not tough enough to post"

I suspect that if we saw them in a shop she would be keen to have one, and also keen on getting them for (younger) friends DC - so yes, you would get the recommendation, albeit with a great big "DO NOT POST" warning attached,

[Firewall]

Initially we followed the instructions for the icing, it came out easily for DC but as expected was too thin. Essentially it's a standard icing pen, which have never been easy for children to use and instructions for those is to just knead it (same as any gingerbread decorating kit from the supermarket). After we left it to cool back down and kneaded it, we were able to use it as normal and it was fine. Same struggles for child as they have never been easy for children to use, but they do get on with it and have fun!

My DC did enjoy the activity, we used more sweets to stick on. He loved doing it and loves the idea of it! Have already had requests to buy more eggs and some of the coloured icing pens.

Yes! Loved the taste.

I would recommend as the icing pen is same as any you will find in the cake decorating aisle and my DC did enjoy the activity! If the price was the same as the small eggs they do then definitely reasonable. Would be more fun to have some little sweets to stick on!)

[purplepandas]

Hoping to get to this today now that it has arrived. Not sure if it is intact or not yet though as I have not checked. Fingers crossed. I will be honest and say that I am underwhelmed at the simplicity of it simply by looking at the box though.

[ninjaturtlesmum]

Well on first arrival the egg was broken and the two halves had split apart. Obviously this happened through the post but if I had paid for the egg I wouldn't have been impressed. Nice simple packaging and simple instructions on the side.

• How easy was the decorating kit to use?
  

The egg stand was easy to set up and the egg easy to unwrap. I followed the instructions for warming the icing unfortunately when my sons drew on the egg, the icing was too runny and it just ran down. I cooled the icing a bit and then it was hard for them to use. Quite tricky to get the consistency right. We have bought icing pens from the shop before and they work straight from the pack with no heating so I think this could be improved. He could have laid the egg down but my other son wanted to decorate the other side too.

-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?

Yes, they did enjoy it although were a bit disappointed that the designs they wanted to do ran and found it difficult to ice with the pen (Minecraft Steve and Kylo Ren). They did however find it funny in the end laughing at each other's designs.

-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?

Yes, absolutely. At the end of the day they love chocolate so they definitely enjoyed this part of the task.

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?

Maybe, it depends on the price. I would always buy a Cadbury Easter egg but may be tempted now to buy one and shop icing pens. If the icing was improved and perhaps another colour (White was a bit boring) then I may buy it.

[Spirael]

Happy to report that ours arrived intact! :)

Having read the comments on here, I warmed the icing up in blood temperature water in the hope it wouldn't be too runny. However it was still a bit thin and DD1 (5 years old) reported that it wasn't sticky enough.

Also, I raided the baking cupboard for various bits and pieces that she could use to make the decorating a bit more exciting.

She preferred using the sparkly glitter icing pens I had in the cupboard (surprise, surprise...) to the plain white provided.

As soon as it was finished I popped the whole thing into the fridge to help the icing firm up, which seemed to help.

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?
The icing in the pen was just too thin and translucent to stick properly and look good. Maybe thicken the icing up and/or add a bumpy texture to the chocolate to help it stick? Having some sort of plastic syringe (sized for little hands) instead of the squeezy tube would probably be easier to use.

-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
DD1 seemed to, it kept her occupied for 20 minutes or so, working on her creation. In her words "It wasn't easy [working with the icing], but I enjoyed it."

-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
Well, it vanished rapidly. But chocolate does seem to...

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
It would depend on the cost. I'm all for creative activities and a degree of playing with food is encouraged in our house. It made for a variation on a decorating activity, but I think without my cupboard raiding for decorations it would have been less interesting and over a lot quicker.

[TwinderelmoBeth]

How easy was the decorating kit to use?
It was OK. The icing was very thin so made it harder to use and it was quite tough for my son to get it out but we improvised.
-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
Yes. He liked that he could decorate it however he wanted but we did struggle to put ideas onto the egg due to very thin stringy icing.
-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
Yes he absolutely loved it and couldn't wait for the icing to dry!
-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
Probably not. It's very basic and didn't take long to complete. May be a variety of colours and/or accessories to add onto the egg may make it a bit more interesting and make the activity last longer.

[edwardrocks]

How easy was the decorating kit to use?
Some help was needed to get the icing out at first. There wasn't quite enough icing in the tube.

Did you enjoy the activity?
Ds 5 said it was really, really good.

Did they enjoy the taste of the egg?
Chocolate always goes down well. They loved it.

Would you recommend this to a friend?
It could be much more exciting if there were different colours. Not sure I would recommend.

[edwardrocks]

Photos

[Emmiy]

SoupDragon I wondered the same. Cadburys chocolate have changed the formula since Cadburys were bought out. I used to love the chocolate ever since I was a little girl and Creme eggs were my favourite and got very excited each year. But now they taste awful and I haven't eaten one for two years. So sad and wish the new owners would listen to us Brits who don't like what they have done to our chocolate .

[Buzzardbird]

How easy was the decorating kit to use?

Very easy, very straight forward. Obviously the hot water to melt the icing meant that an adult has to be involved.

Did your DCs enjoy the activity?

She loved it! It was art and chocolate together, what's not to love?

Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?

She did, I was very pleased that this tasted and smelled like the original Cadbury's.

Would you recommend this kit to a friend?

I would, as long as they keep the ingredients as they are. Would have preferred some extra little decorations in the box, but DD enjoyed it.

[TheOldestCat]

Thanks Mumsnet and Cadbury. I'm off work recovering from an operation and to answer the door to a postman bearing chocolate cheered me up no end.

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?
Pretty simple to construct the stand etc. The icing pen was a little tricky for my 6-yr-old but his big sister 'helped' him (miraculously, they did not bicker for five WHOLE minutes).

-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
Yes, they thought it was great. DD (9) took her product testing very seriously. DS (6) less so, but couldn't wait to get his hands on the chocolate. He knew what he would do - obviously, I don't need to explain what his creation is (see pic) as it is quite clear it's a tie fighter from Star Wars, right?

-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
DS loved it, even DD enjoyed it (and she's more keen on sweets than chocolate). I swiped a bit and it did taste of the Cadbury's eggs of my youth.

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
Yes, although I might nick the idea of a previous poster and advise them to use Smarties (or Cadbury equivalent) to stick on too.

Cheers again.

[KittyKat88]

Thanks for the opportunity - thankfully our egg arrived intact!

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?
The stand was easy to set up - we found it to be sturdy enough for the egg. The icing required more than a minute in hotter than hand hot water before my DDs (age 3 & 5) were able to use it without mum squeezing the tube! The icing wasn't the best consistency and ended up dripping slowly down the egg
-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
Both DDs were excited to try it. DD1 (age 5) had first go - she wanted to draw a heart but quickly got frustrated as she couldn't get the icing to go where she wanted it to. DD2 (age 3) liked having a go too - she just wanted to do a few dots which I surrounded with a heart. I then helped draw their initials on their respective 'sides' of the egg. {SEE PICS] The decorating part lasted about 2 minutes then they just wanted to eat the chocolate!
-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
Yes they did, but then they are never disappointed with Cadbury's chocolate! The icing just tasted of, well, icing!
-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
DD1 complained that there weren't any sweeties to stick onto the icing. To be honest, I don't think the kit is special enough to justify the purchase - I could easily give my girls tubes of coloured icing and a few sweets to stick on, and let them decorate a normal easter egg instead . So, no, I don't think I could 'recommend' this to a friend as I'd hate to think they'd end up disappointed and blame me!! Sorry, Cadbury's

[Sixgeese]

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?

We found the icing very thin, a see though icing not a solid colour which made it hard to draw with, it would have been better if it wasn't so upright on the stand, my 10 year old managed to write on one side, but my 6 year old struggled with her side.

-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
Very much so, they had fun. Whether they would have had fun doing it on Easter Sunday when all they wanted to do was eat the chocolate is a different question. We aren't a hundreds of eggs family, they just get the one so whether they would want to decorate the egg instead of going straight to eating the chocolate, I don't know.

-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
Cadbury's chocolate, what's not to like.

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
Probably yes, but I would like the icing to be improved. It made a nice pre Easter activity.

I will try and post a picture of the egg later.

[clopper]

How easy was it to use

We read the other feedback first and warmed it up by hand which worked well, although it was still a bit runny. We found it best to do a combination of lying it in the box at the start and then using the stand.

Did DCS enjoy the activity?
DD really enjoyed decorating the egg and was old enough to think about sorting out problems such as moving the egg around and runny icing problems. However, being a little older, she wanted a 'proper' design and spent a while thinking about an Easter design for the egg.

Did DC enjoy the taste of the egg.
We all loved it, it's all gone!

Would you recommend it to a friend?
I think older DC might enjoy it more as it was tricky to get the icing out of the tube easily and with the correct pressure. I also think that perhaps coloured icing or a few sweets to add a bit of interest would make it more creative and fun to use. Saying that, we did have a lot of fun with it and it was a fairly quick activity. I think we would definitely buy one again. Instead of the side where it says 'this egg belongs to' maybe you could put some simple Easter line drawings or shapes as a guide.

[JAKK]

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?
Not very! We seem to have been one of lucky ones and the egg arrived whole. To reduce the fighting about decorating we split the egg so one didn't have to wait for the other one's half to dry (not that that seemed to happen anyway). We didn't warm the icing in water, but my DD1 had been fiddling with it so it was pretty squishy and just ran off the egg. Eventually she produced the first piccy and was a bit disappointed with her result. DD2 had put her half in the fridge and this combined with cooler icing seemed to help with the decorating. Plus she is 14! So photo 2. However photo 3 shows what happened to the egg when we left it in the fridge overnight. So you couldn't decorate the egg in advance with a child's name.
-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
Yes kids enjoyed. But I need to apply for 2 samples next time to reduce the fights!
-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
Yes we all did. I'm pretty sure the 'icing' is really creme egg mix, not real icing.
-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
Maybe. The kids enjoyed doing it but you need real icing that will set. Depends also on price. I had expected there to be more than just one icing tube. Overall interesting idea but it needs a little more work. I'll happily give next year's upgraded version a try!😊

[chocolateshoes]

I had an email to say I'd been picked, but no egg ever arrived. Just wanted to put that on the tread so I'm not banned from future testing panels! It looks good and I think DS would probably liked to have had a go at decorating, and certainly would have had a go at eating!

[loosechange]

Thanks for including us in the product test.

The children were very excited about this one. Unfortunately the egg arrived broken.

At the point I realised this I had three children sat around waiting to decorate an egg as a gift, so I went to buy another egg. Not the best value product test ever.


How easy was the decorating kit to use?

Kit easy. Although we didn;'t find the icing too runny, an hour later it still hadn't set and smudged.

-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?

Yes.


-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?

Yup. They loved the broken pieces.

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
Sorry, no.

It is a good idea, but what is available for the retail price isn't worth it. I bought two eggs of a similar size on BOGOF, both with a bag of something else - mini eggs, etc, for only 50p more than this egg.

I then made icing so they could decorate the second egg, and wrapped it in cellophane. The homemade icing didn't smudge.

The stand to decorate with was useful.

Out of interest I asked the children which they would prefer, and they went for the egg with the extra sweets/chocolate.

[loosechange]

The website keeps crashing when I try to post the image, but if you want a picture of the broken egg I can email it.

[gin33333]

HOW EASY WAS THE DECORATING KIT TO USE
My child found it quite was but mentioned it was a little difficult to use icing pen on egg as the icing was a little runny as seen in picture

DID YOUR DC ENJOY THE ACTIVITY

Yes my child enjoyed the activity was different decorating it instead of just eating the Chocolat egg
WOULD YOU RECOMMEND THE KIT TO A FRIEND

DID YOUR DC ENJOY THE TASTE OF THE EGG

Yes very much he loves Cadburys and the chocolate egg as you can see in photo

WOULD YOU RECOMMEND THIS KIT TO A FRIEND

Yes of course this is different to a ordinary egg plus its more fun decorating it I would recommend putting the icing tube in the fridge before use then it might be easier to use

[CombineBananaFister]

HOW EASY TO USE: Not at first, icing too thin to do any pattern on a round surface without it running if you follow the instructions to warm it, so popped it in freezer for 10mins then it was fine

ENJOYABLE FOR DCs: Yes once the icing tube problem was rectified, Ds enjoyed doing his angry Ninja. Icing only stayed useable for a minute max though.

TASTE: Tasted fab and nice size for everyone to share

RECOMMEND: Maybe depending on the price. Before using it I would have seen and bought it as it looks a good idea and packaging is cute. Having tried it once and knowing its only x1 tube icing and an egg its not a repeat purchase thing so recommendation would be price dependent as a one-off treat/novelty.

SUGGESTION - Sheet of Rice paper eyes, noses and mouths to stick on with icing tube, that way the icing is just being used as a glue and easier to decorate for age-group its aimed at. Be great to make Eggheads with it, everyone loves making silly faces .

[Toraleistripe]

Ease of use - a but tricky. Icing either too thick or runny. Stand a bit wobbly.

Did the children enjoy it? Yes when they stopped fighting over it!

Did they enjoy the taste? of course! They love chocolate.

Recommend? Yes it is fun. A novelty.

[mrsronswanson]

Our egg arrived yesterday, and luckily in one piece. The children were excited when we found out we were chosen ( and they are in their teens!)
Q1 - The kit was easy to use, but not with particularly impressive results. The icing was very runny. It would have worked better with other icing pens I'm sure.
Q2 - The children enjoyed the activity, but it only took them 2 minutes at the most.
Q3 - They all enjoyed the taste of the egg.
Q4 - I don't think I'd recommend buying this - but I would buy extra things so they can decorate their Easter eggs when they get them as the idea is fun.

[clam77]

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?

At first the icing was really runny and ran down the egg,after a minute it thickened up enough to be able to create some sort of design before the icing became quite difficult to get out.

-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?

My 7 and 11 year old girls absolutely loved it! They're both into arty things and couldn't wait to have a go. They did mention it would have been good having another couple of colours eg. yellow, pink, blue.

-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?

Cadburys Chocolate is a winner in this house.The egg was broken up and eaten so quickly I'm surprised I managed to get a picture!

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?

Yes, definitely for children who like a bit of arts and crafts.

[CheekySmile]

How easy was the decorating kit to use?
Our egg arrived intact! The kit was very easy to use. After reading some of the comments here I didn't leave the icing in the water for too long and so it wasn't too runny. That being said, it's not easy to draw with (DD is 3) and it would have been better for her to use it as glue to stick smarties etc on in order to decorate.

Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
Yes, she thought it was great fun!

Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
Cadbury's is always a favourite here, and this egg was no exception! Yummy and eaten quickly and messily!

Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
It really depends on the price. As it's just an egg with one icing pen then as long as it wasn't too much more than a regular egg then I probably would recommend. If it's priced significantly higher then I'd expect more than one colour of icing or extra decorating items in order to recommend.