5 Cake Making Gadgets Tested by Design Expert

Ready?

On your mark, get set, stand back.

[saw scraping]

I'm Dan and I've been designing

kitchen gadgets for 40 years.

I'm going to test some cake gadgets

and see if I can find a way to make them better.

I would exaggerate this shape.

From a cross section at the very end.

Eliminate this entire part.

These are the products I'm going to test.

Perfect Cake Divider, Curved Cake Slicer,

Bonviee Cake Leveler, Zyliss Easy Slice,

Two-Handed Cake Slicer.

[upbeat music]

Perfect Cake Divider, its purpose in life

is to show you how to cut your cake

into perfectly even slices.

Let's see how effective it is.

Step one, I will center this as perfectly as possible.

So the number of slices

that this is preset to is 14, 10, 8 and 6.

So I'm going to set this to 10

because that would be a little more difficult to,

you know, eight slices is easy.

So first slice is made with the green guide.

I'm not slicing all the way through by doing this.

I'm missing the middle, right?

So I'm going to have to go back and do this.

But what I'm doing here is I'm just setting the guide.

Now the next step, is to turn the green part,

so it's over your last slice, then make your next cut.

I'm getting a little messy here

with both the knife and the guide.

The way this works,

if it's off by a little bit, it's going to be successively

off more and more, as you come around 360 degrees.

If I use the guide, as it indicates, I end up

with an undersized slice, because it is collecting

all those inaccuracies and punishing the very last slice.

The next thing I would have to do,

regardless of that, is this now comes up.

Oh, and it's pulling out the middle of the cake.

So that's not too pretty.

So now I've got to come in and finish up those cuts.

Boy, for something that's supposed

to give you evenly divided slices,

I'd say this falls short for person number 10.

Let's say you don't have a Perfect Cake Divider

at home, let's look at some alternative method.

I am going to use a protractor.

[upbeat music]

It's all about the math, in terms of effectiveness,

I would give the Perfect Cake Divider a zero.

It's going to be successively inaccurate.

Time for the left-handed oil test.

By making my non-dominant hand slippery,

is a good way to highlight any deficiencies in the design.

And it's gonna be a little more challenging this time

because we have a cheesecake topped with strawberries.

Terms of usability, there's no difficulty in spinning this.

It's just totally inaccurate

and there's just too much play in the mechanism.

Added to the fact that if you have a topping on your cake,

it's either going to destroy the topping

or you're only going to be so effective

at getting your slices done.

There's no physical difficulty, but the fact

that you have to try so hard to be accurate

and the fact that they call it perfect, boy,

it makes me want to give it a one out of five.

Let's see how I would redesign this.

I'm just going to draw these little fins,

which now look like this.

I would make both of those a little more forgiving

for a knife that's coming in.

So I would flare those out a bit so

that an incoming knife would guide itself more

readily into those grooves.

I would also rethink this part

because this part is tiny as well.

So this is what fits into the cake.

It's not enough to keep it steady in the cake,

as you're spinning this around.

I can feel a play in this.

And again, any sort of play is going to multiply itself.

I would do whatever's possible to make these numbers

more readable.

So not only should the click itself be more definite

but the numbers should be more visible.

In terms of a buy rating

I would give this a zero.

It's a good idea, but boy, it does not live up at all

to its perfect promise.

You've got a ways to go.

Curved Cake Slicer, its purpose in life

is to cut a curvy slice of cake.

Let's see how effective it is.

Center it, give it a push.

Wow, it's not that easy to cut through.

Let me give it a jiggle.

And we're almost through, it's a little painful

'cause I'm pushing down on this blade.

I don't think I'm all the way through,

and lift.

And we have a slice that has a curve.

The slice looks fine,

and may look a little bit better than a straight cut,

but in either case, I'd be into eating this.

Let's try the second slice.

Here's where the mystery comes in.

What do I do next?

I've got a flat cut in the cake here

but I've got a curved blade.

Boy, this is a little mysterious.

Again, I am in a bit of pain.

Hopefully the cake is worth the pain.

Here's slice number two,

I'm just going to put it on the same plate.

The question really is, who gets this slice

at the party?

It's gotta be someone you don't like

or someone who doesn't like cake or both.

So not sure what they could have been thinking here.

The geometry just isn't working.

Let's see how it compares

to a plain old, straight knife and server.

[upbeat music]

On a scale of one to five,

I would give the Curved Cake Slicer a zero.

I just don't know how you would cut that second piece

of cake.

Now I'm going to try the left-handed oil test.

And this is not gonna be a one-handed operation.

Boy, you really need two hands on this.

Let me try it this way, because I really need to push down,

this is not feeling good.

It's got some resistance that maybe was not anticipated,

when someone designed this thing.

I would love to get the design team in here

and watch them cut up the cake.

Again, it's not a bad looking result.

I just don't know what to do next.

This slicer put me in such a bad mood

that I'm not sure I'm even

in the mood for cake.

Well, in terms of usability,

on a one to five scale, again, can't go low enough.

I would give this a zero.

I don't know what anyone's thinking when

they're requiring you to push down

on this metal edge in order to slice

through a piece of cake, let's think about a redesign.

So here's the issue we have.

This is slice number one,

slice number two has nowhere to go.

I can do this and end up with this piece of cake.

This geometry makes absolutely no sense.

I've tried looking at this every which way, flipping it,

turning around, going left, going right, as for a redesign.

Here's what I'm thinking.

A yin-yang thing that would nest into itself.

So your next slice would also be curved

but curved on both sides.

So essentially what I'm thinking is an M.C. Escher type

cake slicer that would just nest itself as puzzle pieces,

as you work your way around the cake.

The other issue is the pressure on the hand.

You're cutting two slices at once

which means twice as much pressure.

With this design, you're expected to actually push

into the edges of the steel.

A suggestion would be of course

to turn this into a handle.

We want something here, some sort of platform for the hand.

Really the best place to apply pressure is going

to be right over the product that you're slicing.

My buy rating for the Curved Cake Slicer is a zero.

It just does not make sense.

If there's anything I've learned as a designer,

you have to respect geometry.

Bonviee Cake Leveler, it's purpose in life

is to cut evenly flat layers of cake.

What I have here is an unfrosted cake that I'm ready

to cut into layers.

The first step is to adjust the heights of the blades.

First thing to do is to loosen up the wing nuts.

There's a spring on the other side, which we'll loosen up.

Need to line the blade up so the blade itself is horizontal.

Not really clear how tight to go here

and this isn't feeling good.

Ready?

On your mark, get set, stand back.

[saw scraping]

Not that easy 'cause I'm cutting three layers

at a time which would triple the amount of force

that I need to exert.

Also, there's no good way to push that way

as I'm slicing, I've got this handle here,

but what I'm finding myself doing is try

to twist the handle into the knife.

I'm not even halfway through and I want to take a nap.

This blade is starting to ride out of the top.

So boy, it's not as level as I would have thought.

Structural failure on the top of the cake.

It's really nice and thick here.

And boy, it's much, much, much thinner, on this side.

Oh, wow, that even fooled me,

I was looking for four layers, but man, the top layer just

self-destructed, boy, I'm not loving this at all.

It's destroyed the cake.

The Curved Cake Slicer made me too angry to eat cake.

Now I think I'm too tired to eat cake.

Let's try it with just the serrated knife and the ruler.

[upbeat music]

In terms of effectiveness on a one to five scale.

This gets zero because boy, it's very difficult to use.

It didn't do wonders for the cake,

it actually mangled it.

Okay, it's time for the left-handed oil test.

I am not looking forward to this.

First thing that needs to be done is

the blades need to face the other way.

I can't actually spin this around

because these connected pieces are not round

they're actually rectangular, what I'm going to

have to do is disassemble this

and put it back together, not loving it.

So let's try something else,

I'm just gonna keep it in its current configuration

and try using it as it is with my left hand.

This is set up to be a right-handed tool that's working

against all left-handers, right from the start.

Ow, ow, ow,

maybe hard to see but it's easy

to feel the pain in my hands.

And you could see again, if I let go,

how high this came up, boy, it's just uncontrollable.

Man, I think I'm going to call it quits.

This just is not worthwhile.

In terms of usability, I would give this a zero.

This gadget requires more effort

than just about any other gadget I've ever seen.

It just doesn't deserve to exist.

There is no shortage of things that can be improved.

The blades themselves really need to be something more

along the line of a bread knife blade.

These blades are just way too flexible.

The other thing as mentioned is

that your force, so that the blades don't lift up,

even with a bread knife blade, it may want to take

on a life of its own, if you end up tilting.

So I would design a handle here

and I would make that a substantial handle

that has either some height.

What we're really talking about,

recommendation is just a complete total redesign.

There's really not much in here

that's salvageable.

In terms of a buy rating,

I would give this a zero, another zero.

It's not because I'm in a bad mood today.

How could I be in a bad mood?

I'm surrounded by cake.

Zyliss Easy Slice, in theory, it's designed to allow you

to cut, cut, pick up the slice and then push it

onto the plate.

Let's see how effective it is.

It's a little tough because what I effectively

have is a thick blade.

Now that there are two layers of material,

one of them being plastic, let me come in from underneath.

I am just about the size and let's push it forward.

Now I'm like, I'm pushing the cake off of the server.

Boy, my next step would be just that.

Let it drop or spin it, you know,

tilt it so that the cake falls off.

Not immediately impressed.

Let's try a second slice, bit hard to push

through because it's a double layer of material,

the metal and the plastic, scoop it up, scoop it up,

make some room on the plate.

I am going to push it forward.

What I'm left with is this.

It didn't magically come off of this server.

So what I still need to do is tilt it.

Let's see how it compares

to a traditional knife and cake server.

[upbeat music]

In terms of effectiveness on a one to five scale,

I would give this a zero, sorry.

I know, I'm giving a lot of zeros today

but trust me, they deserve it.

It's time for the left-handed oil test.

I will slice down.

And boy, this is taking a bit more pressure.

Notice I'm going to choke up

because that gives me better leverage.

Boy, I can also feel some pressure points based

on the shape.

The edges I'm talking about are right here,

they're just a little bit sharper than you would want.

Lift it, bring it over to the plate.

Now, push it forward,

now this isn't working well.

I don't know if you can see this, but as I push forward

my middle finger, ring finger, they're actually pushing

back because the shape is not conducive

to resisting that force, bye, bye cake,

bye, see you, cake is getting further away.

This seems like it's going to just want to fall flat.

Oh, we're getting a little caught up here too.

I'm not sure if that's a function of the fact

that I was sliding against the cake as I was pushing.

In terms of usability, on a one to five scale,

I would give this a .5, maybe a zero

because I don't see any advantage

to this over a traditional slicer.

Okay, Let's think about a redesign.

Because we're pushing forward

that means this part of the handle wants to push back.

I would exaggerate this shape quite a bit.

Not necessarily this exact shape, but you get the idea

is that, at least my index finger

or maybe all fingers to contribute to the resisting force,

I would try a couple of different shapes.

They have a, I was actually designing this.

The other thing I would do

and this is a bit radical is I don't see any reason

for this part of the blade at all.

All we want to do is push off the cake.

So if we want to push off the cake,

there's no sense sliding the cake forward.

I think we just want to limit this to here.

To be clear, what I would do is eliminate this entire part

of this dark gray plastic piece.

Sorry, I'm drawing right on the gadget itself

as opposed to sketching.

But boy, I don't see any reason to use this

at any point in the future,

so I think we're okay.

In terms of a buy rating, sorry, another zero.

I don't see any reason to own this

because it just makes life a little more difficult,

not easier, but boy, another zero.

Two-Handed Cake Slicer,

Its purpose in life is to slice a piece

of cake and pick it up in the same motion.

Let's see how effective it is.

And that was okay.

I will say there's a little bit of a curve to the slice

because the way I'm pulling it in, you can squeeze

or expand this to adjust to any size slice.

The more you squeeze it, it takes on more of a curve.

So let's see, that may be problematic.

This time I'm going to cut a smaller slice.

Let's make a real small one, it is quite curvy.

This slice looks good, but if I do another small slice

or a big slice, I'm cutting against the curve.

Turns out having a pretty interesting shape of cake.

If you don't like curved cake, it's a problem.

Let's see how this compares

to a more typical knife and server.

[upbeat music]

In terms of effectiveness.

I would give this no more

than a three and I think that's being generous.

It's a little bit demanding to require two hands

to slice a piece of cake.

Okay, let's try this again,

using the left-handed oil test.

Oil on both hands,

make both hands slippery.

Two hands down, pressing quite a bit.

I need to exert some thumb pressure.

It's not feeling great on my thumbs.

It doesn't really want to lift.

It's a little bit out of control with a slippery hand,

it is a little bit wobbly.

That's a function of the shape of this handle.

In terms of usability, I would give this a two.

I don't think it deserves as much as a three.

It could've been much better designed

and much better thought out.

I should probably taste the cake, just to make sure

that the device didn't have any affect.

Oh yeah, no problem there, five out of five for the cake.

Hold on, let me wash it down.

Let's talk about redesign.

One thought would be to make the blades themselves

a heavier gauge metal that could affect the ease of bending.

You really would have to squeeze more,

but it could keep the blades a little more straight.

One place I would make a change is in this handle itself.

Your thumb pushes down, but your fingers are pushing up,

because of that, from a cross section, at the very end

the edge of the handle would have a triangular shape

and maybe the opposite at the front.

Maybe we want a triangular shape here, because this is where

your thumb is going to be pressing down.

That's a buy rating on a one to five scale,

I would rate this a one.

I don't think I would run

out and urge anyone to say buy this, this is great.

I don't see it has any major advantage

over a more traditional cake slicer.

I think what's interesting about gadgets that fail

to this extent is they're good examples of what not to do.

And I mean that seriously, it's a cliche to say

that you can learn from your own mistakes, but in this case

I think you can learn from other people's mistakes.

Cake gadgets, I am very disappointed in you.