Breville VTT273 Polished Stainless Steel 4 Slice Toaster

For such a long time, I have had a really cheap toaster from either Tesco or Asda. I say both because they have tended to break quite quickly so I have tried cheap versions from both supermarkets. Now I live with my boyfriend though, we needed more than a cheap two slice toaster. While Sainsburys was having a sale, we decided to buy the Breville VTT273 Polished Stainless Steel 4 Slice Toaster. I can’t remember exactly what we paid for it now but you can find this particular toaster on Amazon for £27.50.

We had a couple of reasons for buying this toaster over the others that were available. The first reason being that it could toast 4 slices of bread at the same time and the second being that the slots were quite wide. I like to have crumpets for breakfast and our old toaster wouldn’t fit them in. We did get this out of the box in the shop just to make sure the slots were wide enough though.

This Breville toaster comes mostly in stainless steel, which was another reason why I liked this toaster. On one of the larger sides, there are the function buttons which include cancel, reheat and frozen along with a time setting dial at the bottom. The three buttons are illuminated in blue once in use which I think is a really nice touch. It means that you can’t forget that the toaster is on and you can also see the buttons in a low light. The time setting dial goes from 1-6 in minutes so you can control how brown you want your toast.

On the side are two push levers but instead of being in stainless steel, this part of the toaster is in a matt black. I like the contrast of the colours but was also glad to see the black doesn’t take over the silver colour that matches everything else in my kitchen. Each of the levers control two of the toasting slots and are easily pushed down and released again if the cancel button is pressed. Underneath these levers are two push buttons which reveal crumb drawers. These are really nicely concealed but also easily opened so that you can empty them. The trays don’t hold too much though and we tend to empty ours at least once a week depending on how much we use the toaster.

Although I love the look and design of this toaster, it does have some problems. The first couple of times we used it, the toasting slots really smelt funny once they got hot. Luckily, our toast didn’t taste any different but the smell was quite unpleasant. Also, this toaster does not brown bread evenly at all. Although each slot is on the same setting, we always have to swap the bread around as the far right slot takes a long time to toast bread. Some of the other slots are hotter/ better on one side than the other which results in one side of the bread being toasted how it should be while the other has barely been touched.

If I had paid more for this toaster, I would have been extremely annoyed with the way that it toasts. I usually stay in the kitchen anyway while making toast so it isn’t a big deal for me to turn it around every now and again. However, £30 still isn’t cheap and it would have been nice to not have to do this every single time I want to make toast. So, overall, this toaster is lovely in the way it looks but be prepared to have to fiddle with it quite a lot. 

Paladone Soldier Egg Cup and Toast Cutter

My boyfriend loves his eggs in the morning and I wanted some fun things to buy him for Christmas. When I saw the Paladone Soldier Egg Cup and Toast Cutter on Amazon, I knew that I had to get it for him. At the minute, this can be found on Amazon for various prices ranging from £6-£8ish. For the price, this does make a nice little stocking filler and not just for a Christmas present. It would also do really well as a present for any occasion.

Paladone describe the product as: ‘This smart guardsman holds your egg under his hat and your spoon ready for action! There's also a clever toast cutter that literally makes soldiers to dip into the egg - yummy!’

The product comes in quite a nice display box. The box is made from cardboard and has the Union Jack flag printed on it. On the front, there is a large part of the box cut out and covered with plastic which makes it possible to see the product inside. On the left hand of the box, there is a picture of a soldier already cut out of bread being dipped into an egg. I really liked the packaging to this product as it was fun and bright, making it stand out.

Inside the box you get one egg cup in the shape of a soldier, along with a black hat for it. The soldier is also holding a small red spoon. Next to this is a red plastic template with the shapes of three soldiers cut out. The egg cup looks really nice and is super cute and this was something my boyfriend really appreciated. However, the egg cup is only big enough for either small or medium eggs and you will have trouble getting a large egg to fit in it well. The black hat also sits on well before you break the egg which helps to keep it warm.

The problem with this product comes with the soldier cutter. The cutter is made out of a really cheap plastic and the bottom side is not very sharp. We like to use quite thick bread for toast and it took some work to make this cut anything out of it. However, after a few attempts, we realised that if you really put some pressure on the cutter and wiggle it around a little bit, it cuts the toast much easier. As the cutting of the toast is not great, this would be a bit of a struggle for children to do on their own, and I’m sure that is who this product is aimed at.

Even with the problems that this product has, we both love it but mainly because it is so nice looking.