Being a Good Cook Kitchen Expert gives me and my family an opportunity to try different products in our home. This week we tried the Sweet Creations by Good Cook Pumpkin Carving Set. I’m a huge Halloween fan and I love these creative kits with stencils. My huge complaint is that they always break on us. So, I wanted to see if these would hold up to the Barrett’s pumpkin carving skills! First I let my boys pick their own stencils. The kit comes with 10 pumpkin designs ranging in skill levels. That way everyone in the household can have fun.
My 7-year-old picked an easy one, my 9-year-old a more difficult one, I picked a difficult one and my husband wanted no part of the stencils. He chose to carve his own crazy pumpkin face. My husband used the carving tool to cut the tops out of our pumpkins and the boys used the scraper to clean the seeds out. Then the boys cut and placed the stencils on their pumpkins and took turns using the transfer tool. Once my oldest was ready to cut he grabbed one of the tools and began cutting his mummy face out. About halfway through the craving tool broke at the base, my husband then jumped in to save him with the other carving tool that is meant to drill he holes before you cut. That also broke.
Our pumpkins were extremely thick and I’m suspecting that if we carved out the walls on the inside the tool would have worked fine. My husband agrees that this was a much better set than we had purchased in the past. His suggestion is that more reinforcement is given to the tools at the base where they go into the plastic handles. I would say carve more out of the inside walls so these tools don’t have to go through inches of pumpkin to get the job done. I had my stencil on, transferred and drilled, but the carving tools broke before I had a chance to try them on my own.
The good part about this pumpkin carving set is that I felt safe letting my boys carve their own pumpkins. They loved the stencils and the variety included in the kit. Although we had to finish carving these with a knife, I would give them a try again for the kids. This time taking my suggestions. It seems like most of the blogs I have visited have had success with these tools, but we are a bit rough around here.
Want to give them a try yourself? Good Cook is offering readers a 25% off coupon to goodcook.com for any Sweet Creations Halloween products. Use CODE: PUMPKIN25
Disclosure: I received a pumpkin carving kit to facilitate my review. All thoughts are my own.
annette anderson says
Love these pumpkins!