Learning Resources Smart Snacks Shape Sorting Cupcakes

My daughter is in speech therapy and we use this toy all the time! It’s super cute and can be used in so many different ways for both learning and pretend play. The pieces are a little tough to pull apart and push back together, so it may be better suited for slightly older toddlers — but that actually works great for practicing speech because we can repeat “pull, pull, pull” and “push, push, push.” We also use it for pretend eating, dumping the muffins out of the tray (“oh no, they all fell out!”), and for teaching colors, shapes, and imagination. It’s made of durable, hard plastic that holds up well (even with teething and oral stimulation), and it’s easy to clean. Not a lot of tiny pieces to worry about losing. Overall, a fantastic toy for development that grows with your child and keeps playtime fun and educational.

This review is for the Learning Resources Smart Snacks Shape Sorting Cupcakes. I bought this shape sorting set for my 3 year old son. He currently is enrolled in the Early Childhood Special Education program. I'm constantly looking for activities that will grab his interest as well as assist him in the various areas he struggles in. This does that. Included in this purchase is a pan which accommodates 8 cupcakes. On the bottom of each spot on the pan is a raised image of a shape. Also included are 8 cupcakes- each cupcake consisting of 2 parts. The icing is removable. On the underside of the icing is a raised shape which fits snuggle into the cupcake bottom which has its entire center cut out in the coordinating shape. The bottom of the cupcake not only snugly fits the shape in the icing, but it also slides onto the raised shape on the pan- allowing 2 separate opportunities for shape sorting with each cupcake. Please see included images which showcase this. The cupcakes are firm and have the feeling of a rubber and plastic combination. My son has chewed and thrown them and they're still in perfect condition. They are not slippery and have a nice thickness to them (without being too big)which makes it easy for lite hands to grasp. They all have a vibrant color to them and have maintained their vibrancy even after heavy usage. These are extremely durable and are very versatile. We use this for both imaginative and structured play. They are used in our toy kitchen and on pretend shopping trips. We use them for color identification, sorting, shape identification and counting. My 3 year old is able to remove the pieces and place them back together on his own without issue. The box it comes in isn't suitable for long term storage with almost daily use. We keep it stored in a plastic container with latches so that it's easy for my son to take out and put away on his own, while also managing to keep all of the pieces together so none get lost. I have read a number of reviews about the cupcakes having a terrible smell. This was not the case for us. My son has sensory issues and we've had to get rid of toys that he said he can smell. He's never complained of an odor and happily plays with it when we bring it out. I'm very pleased with the quality of the cupcakes and tray. I have no doubt that it will last for many years. As soon as my son no longer uses it, I will be donating it to our early childhood program so other kids can benefit from it. I am positive that this will be a great addition to a preschool setting and will hold up brilliantly to heavy use.

We knew my son liked other cupcake toys from a friend's house and his one day a week daycare. I compared several different versions online and chose this one as it was gender neutral and had the shapes, colors, assembly and sorting aspects to it, which seemed to be a fun learning tool at this age. He received it for Christmas and absolutely loves them and can even distinguish between dark blue and light blue (we will have to work on "aquamarine" later"). :) I was very glad for reading the previous reviews, as I was prepared for the chemically-odor when opening. The good news is that it disappated quickly and seemed to be mostly gone from the cupcakes by the end of the day. It is a bit of a struggle to pull them apart at first, but it seems as though they are getting better with use. There are 8 diffent colored cupcakes with corresponding shapes (circle, square, rectangle, triangle, heart, star, diamond, hexagon) and the bottom of the pan has a picture of each of the shapes as well. The shape is cutout through the entire brown bottom piece, leaving a hole through the cupcake and making it where you can turn the bottom piece upside down and still fit the topper into the cupcake. The adults have seemed to enjoy this much more than my son who likes them put together the "traditional" way. The pieces are a nice size being too large for my 3 year old and 1 year old to stuff in their mouths, but small enough where they can grab them one-handed easily. The cupcakes have a stiff/rubbery texture making them hard enough where I am not afraid of peices coming off if a child pretended to bite one, though I have not tried to myself.

Let me say that my twin boys love this set! Very well made, holds up to drops and tossing and live bites. I had little smell issues with this as others have mentioned. We have found it to have multi levels of play encouraging different levels of learning. From colors to shapes to matching all the while developing hand/eye coordination through manipulation and as they are cupcakes pretend baking/eating. I bought when they where a little over two and played with the set like we where baking cupcakes pointing out the different colors and shapes. Taking then no time to pick up and learn for themselves. They did not always matching shapes in the pan to shapes on cupcakes but as playing continued they learned that the cupcakes had their own "home" in the tray. The colored icing can be removed from the chocolate cupcake to sort shapes and later become a fun game for me and my boys as we take them apart (more me then them as they tend to be hard to pull apart) and then put them back together ( as shapes do not all go in any old way the child as to manipulate the top and bottom till they fit just-right making for great hand/eye coordination) and then place in proper tray "home". As now they are almost 3 1/2 they still play with the cupcakes as food items and can take most apart on their own and put back together if the chose. They do tend to go missing though out the house as there are two of them sharing and splitting up the cupcakes. But all this has caused us to create a new game called find the missing cupcakes!! I do highly recommend these for any child two and older as they have been a much loved addition to our toy collection that actually gets played with multiple ways.

This is an adorable set. Well made and educational with all the sorting shapes. The cupcake holder is very sturdy. There is a definite smell to these cupcakes even after washing with soap and water and vinegar and baking soda. The frosting part doesn't smell that bad but the chocolate base has a strong rubber smell that is hard to describe. Reminds me a little of rubber cement glue. With all the complaints about the smell I don't understand why they couldn't be made with a different compound. The brown base looks like little reese's cups with a cutout shape in the middle. I bought this for my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter. She loves them, but some are extremely hard to pull apart, even for me. I think it has to do with the cut-out shape. The pink cupcake which is the round circle is easy to pull apart, but the yellow cupcake with the star is very hard to pull apart. Out of the eight in my set, the two that are the most difficult to pull apart are the star and the heart. They might loosen up with time because when I first received there were more than just 2 that were difficult to pull apart. Love teaching my granddaughter colors, but I wish the teal blue which is very pretty could have had been either a lighter blue or a true green which would have been easier for a small child to recognize and say the colors in the set. If it wasn't for the smell and difficulty separating the cupcakes, I would have given this item 5 stars. Revised review - I ordered another set through another vendor and in this set none of the cupcakes were hard to take apart. In fact some were quite loose but they do stay on the cupcakes. Also found out the colors and matching shapes were different than my original set. One thing stayed the same was the awful smell but my original set does not have as strong a smell as when I first received. My granddaughter loves these cupcakes and plays with them often so her mother asked that I get her a set for her birthday for her own home. This product is great and I am so happy with my purchase.

This is a VERY cute, VERY well thought out and VERY well made toy!! While I'm sure it mostly caters to girls, it's not girly looking. I actually bought this for my autistic 3 year old son. We are always in need of educational activities that force him to sit still and use his mind for a few minutes. The fact that this requires no batteries and is QUIET is just a huge bonus because it's something we can take to church or other quiet places to occupy him for a bit. This little cupcake set covers several learning bases: colors, shapes, hand/eye coordination and matching. Each cupcake top has a shape that can only fit into the correct cupcake base. Each shape also is represented on the bottom of the "tin" (though it's plastic) so you can match each completed cupcake to its correct spot there as well. Any cupcake will fit in any hole though. The cupcakes are made of really high quality somewhat rubbery feeling plastic. They're not squishy at all but they feel a lot heavier and softer than just hard plastic. The quality is outstanding. We've had these for over a year now and they've held up to a LOT of abuse, including being chewed on, and still look new. My son is a whizz at these now and we time him to see how fast he can get them all put together and in the right spots. I get asked all the time where I found these because other kids are always wanting to play with them! This would also make a great addition to any play kitchen set. I have nothing but the highest recommendation for this toy!

This item may smell terrible AT FIRST, but after about a week or so, the smell DOES GO AWAY! I was looking for a small gender-neutral toy to fit in a small toy kitchen oven. This set fits in BOTH the oven and microwave, which makes it even more fun! We got this for our child at the age of 3, who is now 4, and baby sister has also been playing with it since she could move around (she is now 18 months). Whenever my friends' kids come over, they also love to play with it (ages 5 and 6), so this toy will last a long time, for both boys and girls! This is always the go-to toy when the kids play any form of "house". When we have a "tea party" they will first put the cupcakes in the "oven", sit everyone down for tea time, and then pull the cupcakes out to serve "hot fresh cupcakes" which, just like a typical 4 year old, mine always "eats" just the icing and has the "chocolate" cupcake base left over. The matching is a plus! At first, the pieces were hard to separate, but after some play (again, when the smell faded...), they started to be easier for the kids. They are also really durable, because baby sister has tried teething on these a bunch, but I have not seen any teeth marks. They are a thick plastic, and easy to wipe down without deterioration. In case you misplace any (they tend to roll under the couch for longer than I'd like to admit), any Learning Resources brand cupcake will fit in the mold. We also have the Learning Resources New Sprouts Picnic Set and the Learning Resources New Sprouts Brew It! , and cupcakes both fit in.

I was looking for new food for the kitchen in my playhouse. I came across these learning toys and I thought I'd give them a try. I love them all 3 that I bought! I got these sugar cookies, the Counting cookies in a jar and the cupcakes in a muffin tin. They are bright and colorful and very well made. They can be used mindlessly for fun in the play kitchen or can be used as a learning toy. These cupcakes are especially adorable! The frostings have different shapes and go into the correct muffin tin and then the bottom of the tin also has the same shape. But even if they cupcakes are not matched up at the bottom, they still lay in the tray good enough to play tea party with. My two year old grandson can't stop playing with this and he can get almost all of the shapes matched up. I did not expect that. He carries it around everywhere. And then his 2 year old cousin came over and also was obsessed with this toy and figured out how to match the shapes. I highly recommend this toy! It's educational and fun!!

Excelente calidad y tamaño para manitas de bebés. Mi niña es de 1 año y medio y le encanta morderlos y jugar con ellos y el material queda como nuevo siempre. Muy fácil de lavarlos :) Desarrollan mucho la motricidad con este jueguete. Colores/ separar / embonar / figuras, etc

I bought these for my 4 year old son and he loves them! He was wanting a tray of cupcakes for his kitchen which I found really difficult to find but came across these and am really delighted by them. They are the perfect size for little hands and are great for teaching younger kids shapes as they must pop the base into the right spot on the tray and also the topping into the right base. They also feel very sturdy and are not made of cheap plastic and are lovely vibrant colours. Some of the shapes are hard to pull apart but they seem to be loosening up the more they are used.

Sehr hochwertiges Spielzeug. Wird gerne bespielt.

My girls LOVE these cupcakes. We have had them for over a year and it is still a favorite toy in the play kitchen. It was a tad hard to separate the tops from the bottom initially but after a month or 2 of play they loosen up. Some reviews mention a horrible odour....ours never had anything. Our girls love the matching aspect, the bright colors, the cupcake tray to carry them all in (other cupcakes from toys r is only have a platter for the cupcakes so they slip off...these ones sit very nicely inside their pan and are not frustrating for our girls to carry around the house), and they are the perfect size for little hands (our 6 month old loved chewing on these - hard & durable & yet not too small to worry about choking on!)

Ces cupcakes sont tres apprécier de mes enfants! On peut soit jouer avec a la dinette, soit en trieur de forme, et pour les plus petits tout simplement a les mettre dans le moule, dans les emplacements. Même a 8 ans ma fille y joue encore!