She needs to reach 250 pre-sale orders by April 8th.

Pay only $1 to reserve your Roller before prices go up!

Check it out here: http://heavenlycakepops.com/?page_id=386

and

here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Best-Cake-Pops/154001857991125

wow.. looks too cool! what a HUGE time saver.. totally ingenious! hmmm could be my next new toy.. but I'll have to let hubby recover from the shock of my agbay purchase which he knows nothing about yet

I despise making cake pops, but even I want one just because it's so cool... LOL.

And since these are all cake, those people who object to the somewhat mushy texture of the usual cake balls might like these. I have a customer thinking about ordering 750 cake balls from me. If they do, you can bet I'm ordering this!

I emailed the company to ask how many they have sold so far. I will report when they answer.

I have never made a large quantity, but I am listening to those of you who have. I have a bad wrist. It doesn't bother me if I don't aggravate it.

Just a thought... this may be a marketing ploy, obviously to finance first production. The price may not actually increase after that date. Plus when the urgency is gone, sales will drop, possibly prompting a price freeze.

How cool is that?! Makes me want to try cake balls again.

Poor Man's Cake Ball Roller ...

For those of you who make many, but not tons, of cake balls and can't afford this new invention .... I was seriously thinking about purchasing "Meatball Magic". It's an As Seen On TV product that is basically a square plastic grid with nine square openings.

You roll out the dough (or meat ). Press the grid into the flattened out dough. Remove the excess dough. Then roll the grid around until you have nine balls. The size of the balls would be determined by how thick or thin you roll out the dough.

I once bought it for my aunt who is famous for her Swedish Meatballs and I've been thinking if it can work for meatballs, why not cake balls!

If I do get it I'll let you know how it goes. But if you try it first, let me know what you think!

Otherwise, this new invention the OP shared with us (Thank you OP!) looks great, but too expensive for me right now.

Funny Tabby I had the exact same thought but I had seen one similiar on QVC or HSN.

I got excited when I saw the info on meatball magic. I can't afford the cake ball maker. I googled it and a tv station reviewed it on a "does it work' segment and it received a "N0" for meatballs anyway.
http://www.kltv.com/global/story.asp?S=1820732

This is amazing. Wow. I'll be watching my friends at Cake Central to see how it works for everyone, but that could be on this years wish list!

This was an eye opener! I remember having bought the Magic Meatball from WalMart years ago thinking , 'Oh, this looks like a fun thing.' I just LOVE gadgets & have so many. Anyway, I just looked & low & behold, there was my Magic Meatball....still in the orginial box & never been used. I'll try using it for cakeballs next time I am in the need of making some & see if it works. See, hang onto your "Stuff"...you never know when you are going to need it.

Very interesting!

If you look at other food service sites, you will see that the pricing really isn't that bad. A similar item sells on pastrychef.com for $329 - it rolls out marzipan/ganache into much smaller balls though.

Personally, I thought the Agbay was way overpriced - but I paid it! Money well spent too.

I just pre-ordered mine.

I respectfully disagree. But maybe instead of Michaels, she should try the get it on QVC or HNC route. It worked for the Cricut machine, so it could work for her. I sure do hope she patented this idea, because I fear that someone with more revenue could sweep this away from her and at a lower price point.

Also, I'm not too concerned with HER economics - but with mine. And for me, the amount of time I will save (I figure I'm worth at least $15/hr.) is far more than the cost of this item. If the price goes up or down doesn't matter to me, so long as I get a good return on MY investment - which I will, if this thing works as well for me as it does in the video.

I don't think she can patent the idea, since there are the exact same item already in production. I mentioned another one (although it makes different size balls) being sold on pastrychef.com.

Linda, that was why I emailed them. I let them know I was interested. Her prototype was probably costly. And of course, she is bringing in the revenue for the startup production. I think she has a good idea, and the price is not prohibitive if she markets to high volume bakeries and chain bakeries. The wages saved would offset the cost. But I totally agree about the return for most of us who run private bakeries. I think it comes down to us doing the cost analysis you referred to for ourselves. One way to look at the justification is to make a decision to market the cake balls more heavily. My other concern, after reading the two threads today, is the hand pain that comes with the higher volume. Since I have only done a small volume, this didn't occur to me. I have a wrist that can get aggravated with repetitive action. I am seriously considering ordering this because no one in my area offers cake balls. I make them with scratch cake and real chocolate, no binder except alcohol. I just have to commit to the marketing.

I think there are plenty of us who like the new "cool" toys that may be luxuries rather than necessities (we are probably the same ones who also drooled over the Agbay) to make this worth her while. I'm willing to pay a little more now (if it works out that the price goes down), but I really think the price may go UP. Similar items are sold for much more to people in the food service industry - I'd rather take my chances and get in now for $200 (which is less than I paid for my Agbay).

Honestly, I don't make that many cake balls right now, because I don't like the hand rolling (it's hard to do with gloves on - which is required since they won't be cooked any further before being sold), so I might be inclined to sell more if I have this and it works. And if not, well, it's still a business expense and gets written off. Win/Win! LOL!

Yes, you both bring up very good points. I think I will ponder this a while, but not too long! There is a presale deadline!

I am in the process of opening a cake shop, so this may be needed. Who knows now that Starbucks is making cake pops it could explode. I do know from my time working at a local bakery that cake pops are not too much in demand. Although it could have been because the ones this bakery made were way too sweet. so it could be a matter of taste. I think mine taste better, but that is because I make them like SCP1127 but without the alcohol as a binder. It is definitely something to think about.

And while I don't have a wrist problem, it is not something I have....yet. We can all develop these problems over time and I do knit, so the odds of this developing are higher for me.

I sell cake pops like crazy and am in the process of expanding so this has the potential to have a great return on investment IPO....unless its a lot harder than what the video shows. i'd definitely like to see more reviews on it though from others who have used it. i think some testimonials would really help her sales.

I think it is a great idea ..However like someone already stated ...a bit expensive.I guess if you get orders for lots of cakeballs it would be worth it but I don't so hand rolling is still okay...

Linda, my husband is a doctor and he has taught me for twenty five years NOT to wear down specific body parts. Once it starts, there is no correction. The reason I started this bakery is because I fell off of a ladder and broke a vertebrae in my construction company. And at 45, he told me I was lucky the injury healed to 90%. But I needed to stop. I have prescription inserts in my shoes that are a preventive step to being able to stand and not injure my arches. They are the best thing I have done for myself physically. This is the main reason I am contemplating this tool. But again, a bigger commitment to pushing them would be needed. I do charity work and I could start putting some out at the right events... obviously without the alcohol. I would love to know what you use. The alcohols I use are the sweeter liqueurs like Bailey's, Advocat, Godiva, and Frangelico. They realy are more of an "extract".

I can't vouch for this particular item, but I've used other rollers (both for clay and marzipan) and they work EXCELLENT. I use the little clay ball/bead rollers to make fondant pearls, and I've used the marzipan fruit rollers to make marzipan fruit. I don't see that this would be much different, which is why I'm willing to purchase one without anyone else's testimonial.

I figure if the cost is going to go up, even if I don't like it, I could probably list it on ebay for what I paid for it and get my money back. Heck, I was just thinking about upping my order to 10 of them and making a profit once the price goes up. Heh.