Cake Decorating Kit, Turntable and Number Molds Reviewed

The Syntus kit sells on its count: 65 pieces. The list adds up. One turntable, one cake leveler, 24 numbered piping tips, two couplers, a tips brush, one reusable and 30 disposable piping bags, two spatulas and three comb scrapers.

The tips are the part a beginner will reach for most. Syntus lists round, open star, closed star, leaf, drop flower and grass shapes, and a booklet shows what each tip draws. That booklet matters more than it sounds, because a tip you cannot picture stays in the box.

The spatulas and scrapers do the quiet work. The angled spatula has a slight bend between handle and blade, which Syntus says helps lift cake layers without tearing them. The three scrapers carry straight, wavy, serrated and curved edges, so you can comb a pattern into the frosting.

The leveler is the sleeper in the box. Syntus says it trims a layer flat and keeps layers an even thickness, and even layers are what keep a stacked cake from leaning. Couplers let you swap tips without emptying the bag, a small thing when you are going from a border to a rosette.

The turntable is the weak link, and buyers say so. It is polypropylene, with a hidden ball bearing and rotation in both directions, so left-handers are covered, and Syntus calls it dishwasher-safe. One buyer called the material only so-so but fine for practice, and another found it a good size for an 8-inch round cake.

Buyers are warm on the kit as a whole. Nearly every review we read is five stars, and the praise repeats: it is complete, easy to clean and takes the guesswork out of a first cake. The one four-star review says the basic frosting went well and the fine decorating needs practice, which is true of any kit.

Skip it if you already own a sturdy stand, since the turntable is the one piece buyers call basic. The product page also gives no weight limit for that stand, so a heavy tiered cake is a question the page does not answer. If you only want a better base, the aluminum stand is the cleaner buy.

One more point for the kit: it asks you to learn only as fast as you want to. You can level and frost a cake on day one and leave the tips in the tray until the second or third bake.

The booklet helps there, since 24 metal shapes are a lot to face with no guide. If your cakes are mostly birthdays for a household, that pace is about right.

The aluminum Syntus stand is a different animal. It weighs 4.3 pounds, stands 3.78 inches tall and measures 12.17 inches across. Weight is the point: Syntus says the widened, weighted base keeps a cake steady, multi-tier ones included.

Under the platter sit stainless steel ball bearings that Syntus says turn quietly through 360 degrees. The top plate has a non-slip surface, and a silicone pad under the base grips the counter and protects it from scratches. Etched rings on the platter mark 8, 9, 10 and 11.2 inches, which helps you center a cake by eye.

Buyers back the spin. They describe it as smooth, with no clicking or stopping, and one buyer who upgraded from a plastic stand was glad to have done it. Another saw no metal chipping, and a third says it makes icing cakes easier because you rotate the stand and not your whole body.

The same buyers use the word heavy. One calls it slightly heavy, another says it is heavy but durable and easy to clean. That is the trade: a 4.3-pound stand will not skate across the counter, and it is also more to lift off a shelf.

Care is simple but firm. The product page lists hand wash only, or a wipe with a damp cloth, so this one stays out of the dishwasher, unlike the kit's plastic stand. Syntus says the polished chrome finish makes cleanup easier.

One note on the spec sheet. It lists a maximum weight recommendation of 4.3 pounds, which is the stand's own weight, so we would not treat that line as a load limit. The bullets say it holds a heavy or large cake, and one reviewer says it carried their cake just fine, but no cake weight is stated.

Every review we read for this stand is positive, so we have no real complaint beyond weight to report. That is a short list of flaws, though four written reviews is also a small base to judge from, and the star breakdown is what backs them up.

It is also a stand and nothing else: no tips, no scrapers, no leveler. Skip it if you have not yet bought a single decorating tool, and look at the kit first.

If you already own the kit, the question is whether its plastic stand has started to annoy you. The reviewer who moved up from plastic says the change was worth it, and that is the clearest reason to buy this one.

Mozeat Lens sells the odd one out here. It is a set of 14-inch number templates, 0 through 8, in nine pieces. The 6 and 9 are the same piece, so you turn it over, and the product page says so plainly.

These are not pans. They are flat PET plastic stencils, 14 inches long and 9 inches wide, weighing 0.24 kg for the set. You bake a cake, set the template on top, carve along the edge, then spread cream and decorate with fruit, chocolate or flowers.

Why bother with stencils instead of a number-shaped pan? A flat template stores flat and works for every digit in the set. The brand says they are reusable, clean up with just water and take little storage room.

A shaped pan for each digit would crowd a cabinet, and a template does not. That matters if you only bake a number cake once or twice a year.

Buyers like them, going by the three reviews we could read. One calls them a nice large size, one says they make birthday cakes more fun and clean up quickly, and one baker says the numbers are huge and fit a half sheet pan perfectly. That last reviewer also says they have been getting booked out since they started, so at least one buyer puts them to work well beyond family parties.

Written reviews are thin, and stretching them would help nobody. All three we read are positive, yet about 5 percent of the star ratings are one star, and about 82 percent are five. We cannot say what those low ratings complain about, so treat the set as well liked and less documented than the other two.

The limits are plain from the specs. The set comes in a single size, 14 inches, so it makes a tall number and not a small one. The brand also says the templates can decorate cookies and pastries, but at that size the claim fits a huge cookie at best.

The product page gives no oven or knife rule for the plastic, so we stick to what it states: cut around the template and wash it with water. Skip it if you want a pan you bake in directly, or numbers small enough for a cupcake tray.