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

I agree with a comment further up about what this icing like. They might want to reconsider colour and consistency,

-How easy was the decorating kit to use? ours arrived a bit broken but my son has still managed to decorate it. just not able to show pictures.
-Did your DCs enjoy the activity? he loved decorating it and made a bit of a design and his name
-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg? he really enjoyed eating it and i had a bit too couldnt resist lovely chocolate!
-Would you recommend this kit to a friend? i would because its fun easy to do and a bit different. would have liked coloured icing that piped a bit better as it was a bit runny and not very bright. He did enjoy it though and i think its a good product. Thanks for letting us try it

Sadly our egg arrived in pieces due to packaging, however, we still tried out the icing on the pieces and ate the chocolate!

I love the concept of this product. My daughters were very excited to be decorating an actual chocolate egg so were disappointed to find it broken, but did have fun with it nevertheless.

How easy was the decorating kit to use?
Although easy to use with minimal pieces required, the icing was not suitable as it was very runny and messy so it is unlikely a great art piece could be made by slightly older children. I also feel the stand could have been a little sturdier although we were unable to use but will try out with another Easter egg nearer to Easter.

-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
This would have been a fantastic activity. My daughters love arts and crafts and the addition of chocolate is a huge bonus!

-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
My daughters loved eating the chocolate egg pieces. They are big fans of Cadbury's chocolate so I get lots of mummy points for doing these product tests :-)

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
I would recommend this kit to a friend although would suggest it for younger children who are not too fussed about trying to create a 'masterpiece' to show off.

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?
The icing was not the easiest to use, it was too runny to start with after following the instructions and once it had been left for a while it was too difficult for DS aged 6 to squeeze the tube.
-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
DS got a little bored and gave up on trying to decorate the egg due to the problems with icing and asked me to take over the decorating.
-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
Yes he really liked the taste of the egg.
-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
Probably not because the icing is not very easy to use.

Egg arrived - Packaged well and fully intact! :)

I decided to try the kit out myself on one side of the egg and then let my children do the other side! As you will read later in the post the photo of their creation is missing but I can honestly say they enjoyed it and had lots of fun (and that's all that really matters!)

• How easy was the decorating kit to use?

We found the decorating kit easy enough to use. The icing pen worked fine once warmed and was actually quite easy to write with. The only problem we had was that because the egg stand is designed for the egg to stand up so that you can decorate it the icing was too thin and soon started to run! I solved this by lying the egg down instead and putting it in the fridge to dry! Once dried my daughters' decorated the other side. All went well until the stand came undone and the egg rolled on to the floor and cracked! (My daughters however were not bothered by this at all as kit meant they could eat it! Although I never got the chance to take a photo of their side of the egg! But never mind they enjoyed themselves!)

-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
They definitely enjoyed the activity, my eldest enjoyed decorating the egg with the icing pen and they both enjoyed eating it! I think children will definitely love the concept and its a fun activity which in the end involves eating the egg so definitely pleases them!

-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
Yes definitely (and Mummy enjoyed a few little pieces too!)

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
Yes I would recommend to friends although I will tell them 2 tips! 1 - Secure the egg stand with a piece of sticky tape and 2 - Lie the egg down in the stand, decorate one side, leave to dry in the fridge then do the other side!

(Have actually bought a few of these eggs for the Easter Bunny to bring as we had lots of fun with them!) :)

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?
It was easy to squeeze out the icing onto the egg but it was difficult to get a good design (even from an adult) because it is so runny.

-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
My daughter was too young to really understand what to do (13 months)

-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
Yes, she has loved the little bit of Cadbury's chocolate she has tried.

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
No. I think a lot more thought could have gone into this product to improve it. Firstly the icing needs to be a lot more solid so that it can be used for drawing without it running everywhere. Also the plain white icing isn't that exciting, it would be better if there were 2 or 3 colours of icing to stimulate more creative ideas. Additionally I think extra chocolates or sweets should be included to stick on. If these improvements were made then I would recommend it and would be willing to pay more for this product.

Ours arrived intact, hurrah! We'd read the other testers' feedback first and so did not warm the icing first. It was tricky for my 3 year old but I squeezed while he directed and it worked out ok. The older kids were fine with it and were able to write their names. Also tipped off by this thread, I had bought chocolate buttons and this definitely extended the activity and made the eggs look more fun.

They did enjoy the activity - it took about 10 mins with taking turns.

They enjoyed the taste of the chocolate. It all disappeared very quickly. I thought it was a bit tasteless with a cheesy aftertaste. I feel the taste of Cadburys has changed recently. It's not so creamy any more and leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth.

I don't think I would recommend this to a friend because it was a bit basic. My children suggested different coloured icing would be more fun. They also suggested a flat surface would make it work better - but personally i think the fact it was an egg made it more entertaining. I might do this activity with my kids again - but I would not buy this set. I'd just buy some basic writing icing and a packet of sweets or buttons and let them go crazy.

Thanks for letting us try the product. I hope this feedback is useful.

Picked ours up from the sorting office today. Smashed to smithereens.
Tried to ice a bit but it was rather pointless to be honest. The icing wasn't a great consistency and the DC couldn't really see the point as no piece was big enough to draw a picture on. So no photos.
In the end we took the egg as part of a picnic and snarfed it in the giraffe house at London Zoo. At that point I wondered if it was off as the chocolate was a bit oily and weird claggy texture. Checked the packaging and discovered it contains palm oil. Not even sustainable palm oil. And nothing about whether the chocolate is fair trade. Sorry to sound like an ungrateful bastard but I would not buy this product as it tasted rank and I would prefer fair trade chocolate without palm fats in it. Also I have been reading a bit about the Cadbury brand owners and the amount of tax they pay (or rather don't pay). So I wouldn't recommend to a friend.
Thankyou though for the egg and sorry if I sound ungrateful. I used to love Cadburys but something has happened to the brand somewhere along the line.

I would not buy this product as it tasted rank and I would prefer fair trade chocolate without palm fats in it.

Aldi's Moser Roth milk chocolate uses fairtrade cocoa, and NO palm oil. It has 50% more cocoa in the recipe. It's delicious AND cheaper!

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?
My DD is 14 months so I wasn't sure how easily this would work but she loved it. It was easy enough as a concept for even such a young child to do, with a little help from mum.

The stand is more useful for older kids. DD wanted to feel the egg which meant she was accidentally pushing the egg off the stand, so we went for the more stable option of putting it down flat, using the handy box insert to keep it stable.

To decorate, I squeezed the tube (unwarmed following other mumsnetters' advice) while she moved it about and she drew lots of lines and splodges on the egg. She seemed very pleased with the effect. She also enjoyed sucking on the icing dispenser between lines. When we ran out of icing, she used the dispenser by herself to move the icing about and continued playing with it for several more minutes.

It was all over a bit quickly so I got out some stickers to decorate the box insert. DD decided that she didn't want them on the insert and they should go on the egg instead. She was even more pleased then.

(photos to follow)

-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
Absolutely. We both had a really fun time decorating the egg together. My only complaint is that it didn't last long enough, so I agree with some of the comments upthread about adding rice paper shapes or other icing colours to make it a bit more involved. I would happily pay a few pounds extra for an egg kit with more entertainment value. I really love the idea of giving the kids something creative to do rather than just giving them unhealthy chocolate... it makes it feel more appropriate as a gift.

-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
She loved the icing. And sucking the icing dispenser. And the icing dispenser again. And again. The grown-ups are enjoying the actual egg part of it. Yum!

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
I have already recommended the activity... it was a lovely, seasonal way to spend some creative time with DD without too much mess. The kit is very convenient and a lovely idea, so yes I would recommend. Personally I'd prefer to pay a bit more and get a better kit though.

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?. It was very easy to use. I left the icing in the water for a couple of minutes then kneaded the tube a lot and the icing was perfect for decorating with. It has run a bit but it wasn't runny icing, just gravity! The downside is you can only decorate one side of it easily

-Did your DCs enjoy the activity? DD age 7 thought it was fun. She drew an Easter egg in the middle and flowers around it. I wrote my MN name on it.

-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg? yes but DD loves Cadburys anyway. She thought this was a fun way to eat an egg.

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend yes I would but it would be betteR with a couple of colours and maybe some buttons to stick on. It didn't take long to ice it.

Thanks for selecting us, this was a nice activity. Although maybe next time send out in protective packaging? I was one of the lucky ones to receive my egg intact!

Thanks for letting us try out the kit!

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?
This was a very easy product to use. So simple. 😃
-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
She absolutely loved it. She didn't want to let go of it. She had a whale of a time. Laughing and smiling the whole time. 😁

-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
Oh yes, she is a fan of Cadbury chocolate so this went down well . 😋

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
Most definitely. I would do this for a group activity with her friends and cousins. 😃

Thank u for letting us product trial this for u. Very much enjoyed. 😄

How easy was the decorating kit to use?

The icing tube was a bit fiddly and I had to help my three year old at times to squeeze out the icing. However this could of been my fault as I'm not sure I left it in the hot water long enough.

• Did your DCs enjoy the activity?

My little boy was very excited to do this activity, however after trying to squeeze the tube of icing and making a few marks on the egg he got a bit bored. Like others have said I think the product could be improved with different colours of icing and maybe a few sweeties to stick on too.

• Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?

He enjoyed the chocolate very much but he ain't that fussy when it comes to chocolate. He also enjoyed licking off the icing. He was very good and shared the egg with me and I too thought it was yummy.

• Would you recommend this kit to a friend?

Depending on price I would recommend this product to my friends and family.

The first pic is what my son done and the 2nd is mine as I'm a big kid

Unfortunately our egg was broken on arrival. However DS still enjoyed eating it! If I saw this in the shops I would probably buy as DS loves this kind of activity. I agree with previous posters that additional items would be preferred I.e jelly tots or similar to decorate, I think he would get bored with the icing on its own. Or perhaps a few different colours would be good?

Sorry we can't participate in this test fully but thank you for the chocolate. As always, delicious!

i would recommend, alongside additional purchases of alternative decorations.

Oh shit, the pp is right, they do look like spunked on eggs.

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?
Although the egg arrived in pieces we still had a go at decorating the fragments. My dds found it a bit trucky to control the flow of the icing but had fun trying!
-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
Yes, it's a winning product for them.
-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
Yes and so did I , it disappeared quite quickly once the decoration was complete.
-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
Yes, I might even buy them for Easter holiday play dates at the right price.

Many, many thanks, Poppy, Mumsnet and Cadbury, for the opportunity to trial this product. My responses are as follows:-

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?
The decorating kit was very user-friendly, with minimal, straightforward instructions. Sometimes it's better to keep things simple - extensive instructions can turn people away. Having said that, although the instructions on the outer box were spot-on, there could have been further 'Icing Tips' inside. That will help people to avoid common pitfalls. For example, children avoiding squeezing too much icing onto one area. We made this error - 6 hours later, and the icing still hadn't dried, and worse still, it was dripping down like Elsa's tears in 'Frozen'.

-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
Very enjoyable activity, although can (will) get messy without adult supervision of very young children.

-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
As always, the Cadbury's chocolate was of very high quality. In a funny way, chocolate egg always seems to taste better than standard chocolate bars (although I'm sure that we make ourselves believe that due to the novelty factor).

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
Yes, recommended, although the popularity of the product will inevitably depend on the retail price. The decorating option ensures for interactive & creative fun - that, added to the quality chocolate egg, makes for an innovative product. However, without getting things too convoluted, the product may have included multiple coloured icing (maybe 3 small tubes of white, red and blue/green). Additionally, the hollow eggs should always have something inside them, I feel - works great with Smarties in Nestle chocolate eggs and toys in Kinder Surprise, so why not with Cadbury's?

The maximum allotted 3 photos uploaded - We had 2 different designs - the more complex, but failed, initial design was on the back of the egg. The simpler 2nd attempt is pictured.

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?
It was relatively easy to set up but DC struggled with tube ie squeezing it out. The icing was runny but we used this as part of the design which went from flower to rainbow in seconds
-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
She did especially as she made it as messy as possible but hubby loved it more - he eat as we tried to decorate
-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
Yup the little amount she could get away from daddy
-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
Yes depending on price / I would have like more colours as the rainbow was just a white smug

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?
The stand seemed handy, but a bit flimsy, but I suppose you can't get much better in a product such as this.
The icing would be fine for an adult to do, or help with, but my fiercely independent children wouldn't let me, hence the poor design. They struggled to squeeze and direct the nozzle, resulting in just a few splodges.

-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
Despite them not being able to really draw on the egg with the icing they seemed to really enjoy it and even managed to share and avoid fighting which is a small miracle!

-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
I can only assume they enjoyed it, as they didn't make a single peep whilst sitting and stuffing their faces with it, and all the evidence I have of the egg ever existing is the wrapper and some chocolatey finger prints on the table!

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
Despite the kids enjoying it, I don't think i would. Its a pretty basic kit and given that you can pick up small easter eggs very cheaply, and icing pens in different colours from poundland, and add jelly tots and whatnot, I suspect that whatever its RRP I'd not find it good value, though I suppose if you were left desperate with a grumpy child and the local shop it would be worth buying just for ten minute peace.

Thanks for letting us try this out, I think this would be a great product if it came with say, two or three icing pens in different colours and some white chocolate buttons and / or jelly sweets. I'd happily pay more for a ready to use, quality, decorating kit.

How easy was the kit to use?
Quite easy, but the icing was hard to get to the right consistency and difficult to control.

Did the kids enjoy the activity?
Yes and no. The icing made the novelty factor wear off pretty quickly. It was saved by the chocolate though :)

My son did really enjoy the chocolate, but I think the kit would be better with some added bits to stick, or a template or some glitter or some such.

I wouldn't recommend this to a friend unless it was really cheap and the icing was easier to use.

Thanks for letting us test it though!

We received our Cadburys Egg in fine shape so off we go !!

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?

The icing pen was a little hard as it didn't really firm up very well so we had to guess when it was ready ?

Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
My 6 yr old twins thoroughly enjoyed it I have to say, great fun was had all the way !!

Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
It's a Cadbury Egg ? Need I say more !!! The kids didn't even offer me a little piece !

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
I would recommend this for younger aged children as its a good exercise for them to learn how to draw and hold a pen shaped object !

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?
it was very easy to use, we just popped the egg on the stand, warmed up the icing and off he went
-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
he found it tricky to squeeze the icing onto the egg as he wasn't strong enough, however he did enjoy it when he managed to get it out
-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
yes, we all shared the egg and we all enjoyed it
-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
I would recommend for children over 6. at four years old I felt my son was too young for this. he struggled to get the icing out, he could only do random patterns, not a specific design and had enough after only 5 minutes. however I think older children would get more out of it and would enjoy the process

The egg arrived and we thought it might have survived, but alas, no, we got a broken one too. The children plodded on regardless, photos attached. This is what we thought:
-How easy was the decorating kit to use?
We found the icing pen really stiff to use and it hurt the children's hands/fingers to squeeze the icing our, we had followed the instructions on the box but didn't seem to make any difference. It helped when we put the icing pen on the radiator to warm it up (like we do with Nutella!), but they were frustrated to start with. Also, they thought the stand was pretty useless really, just not stable enough to hold the egg whilst trying to decorate it.

-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?
They might have done if the egg wasn't shattered, the pen was easier from the start and the stand was more stable, on the whole they lived the idea but the reality was different from what they imagined.

-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?
Yes, we all very much liked the taste of the egg, we all love cadburys chocolate, and that is the brand we go for mostly because of its taste, we weren't terribly keen with the addition of the icing though, just a bit too sickly and sweet, the kids were better with it (sugar + kids = happy kids), but as a mum and the whole buzz about sugar at the minute, I'm not sure I would want them to add icing to chocolate of this size, I don't mind things like biscuits at Christmas, which is probably a bit hypocritical, but the use of putting icing straight onto a big egg then eating it just turns me off. Sorry!

-Would you recommend this kit: I'd recommend the idea of decorating an egg for the fun, creative aspect, from a reality point of view, it's really disappointing if they arrive smashed and it's impossible to tell from the packaging as it looks fine, chances are you'd buy one from the shop thinking it was intact and get it home for Easter to find like we did it was not fit for purpose. Then you'd have a bit of disappointment as they were really looking forward to decorating a bit of egg each, also the pen is just not great for decorating, maybe something bigger or softer or different colours also?

-How easy was the decorating kit to use?

I didn't read the instructions about the icing tube, so the first squirt was just clear liquid (oops!) but once I put the lid back on and kneaded it for a bit it was actually easier than I expected. 3yo DS managed to squeeze it by himself. And his hot little hands kept it nice and soft. It was a little runny on the egg, and the stand looked flimsy. We didn't try the stand as out egg was in two pieces when it arrived.

-Did your DCs enjoy the activity?

Think so! DS didn't last long using the icing as he just wanted to eat the egg. DD(nearly 2) liked the idea of the icing, but her fingers weren't strong enough to squeeze the tube.

-Did your DC enjoy the taste of the egg?

Yes! Cadbury chocolate as yummy as ever. I was impressed with the flavour of the icing pen. Sometimes the coloured ones taste weird, but this tasted just like creme egg fondant - yum

-Would you recommend this kit to a friend?
I probably wouldn't recommend it to friends with DCs the same age as me, but I think DCs aged 5 and upwards would get more out of it.

I do really love idea of decorating an egg with an icing pen, but would probably buy a normal egg with icing separately (especially if this is the same price as one that comes with chocolate buttons)

I liked the all-cardboard packaging. Nice and easy to recycle and doesn't take up large amounts of space for just a small egg as packaging has done in previous years.