Review: PiiPER Hero Brings Glitter And Sparkles To Buttercream, But Does It Shine?

Recently, I had the opportunity to review a new line of products from an equally new brand, PiiPER. The company focuses on creating fun, unique items that shake things up in the bakery aisle, with branding that's highly targeted towards the younger generation. This is an idea I can get behind, having spent most of my early life in bakeries before starting a 15-year-long food industry career. But my favorite thing these days is when my children help me in the kitchen and make messy memories of their own. This is something the company seems to understand. "My teenage daughter loves to bake, and I kept noticing that nothing on the shelf matched how much fun she was having with it," said Co-Founder of PiiPER Matthew Biggins.

PiiPER sent me an adorably decorated shipping box of some brand-new products so I could try them in my own home alongside my two children. Based on the branding and message, I made a point to test out the products with my 17-year-old daughter for this review, and incorporated her opinions throughout to offer an inside view from PiiPER's target audience. I judged each product based on branding, usability, smell, and taste, as appropriate, and encouraged my daughter to consider the same things. Ready to discover whether these new baking products are worth trying? Let's get into it.

I was sent seven unique products from PiiPER to try, including two buttercream frosting flavors, two color sprays, two types of edible glitter dust, and real silver edible flakes. The buttercream frosting flavors were first tasted on their own off a spoon, and then tried on a classic buttermilk vanilla cupcake. When decorating the cupcakes, I allowed my children to help, and focused more on testing usability while having fun over professional creations. Smell, taste, and branding were also factors we considered.

To test buttercream usability, I topped cupcakes using three methods: a butter knife, a large decorating tip, and a thin tip. For all other products, they were tasted on an iced cupcake. My teenage daughter, Victoria, was included in each step of the review as PiiPER's target audience, and her opinions are incorporated throughout. For the fullest disclosure, my final judgments of each product relied about 30% on Victoria's opinions and 70% on my own.

To make my determinations, I relied primarily on more than 15 years actively working in the food industry and around three decades of home baking. Previous work creating rankings and reviews for the Daily Meal also contributed. This includes similar sweet-based articles like my recommendation of milk chocolate bars to try or skip and my baker-approved tips for making pineapple upside-down cake. Although personal preference played a role in this ranking, I aimed to be as unbiased as possible about product quality.

The first thing that caught my eye was the branding of the PiiPER Buttercream Frosting Vanilla Vibes — a fact that's true of all the company's products. Its marketing department deserves a raise, and as someone with an extensive background in marketing, I really appreciated the commitment to a fun design. A bold pink container accented with blue and sparingly decorated with very Gen-Z-style stickers is eye-catching. However, Victoria noted that — while it's striking — "it looks more like a paint or spackle container than frosting, which is a little confusing."

As soon as I pulled the lid off, I was greeted by the warm, appealing smell of sweet vanilla. The taste was a very full-bodied vanilla spice accented by moderate sugary notes, which was delicious. There were faint chemically afternotes, but this was fairly easy to overlook and didn't completely ruin the experience. Texturally, this buttercream was on the thicker side of medium. While it worked well for detail piping using a small tip, it lost all of its shape when using a larger flooding tip. It worked fine when applied by a butterknife, but was a little challenging to get smooth. Although there were redeeming aspects, I probably wouldn't buy this again, and would stick to creating my own traditional buttercream frosting instead.

Victoria appreciated the smell of this vanilla frosting, and found it fun to decorate her cupcakes with. However, she thought the flavor profile was "mid," and said she wasn't sure if she'd eat it again.

The same notes on superb marketing apply here, where a bold purple and pink design with carefully placed stickers would definitely catch my eye on a shelf. And the smell? Oh, it was an absolutely mouthwatering scent reminiscent of rich fudgy brownies, and if I could have simply eaten the scent, I'd buy this a hundred times over.

Unfortunately, I can't eat the scent, and the flavor profile was nowhere near as divine as the smell made me believe. The initial taste was definitely brownie batter, but less like homemade and more like Little Debbie's famous snack, Cosmic Brownies. Then came an aftertaste that tasted so strongly of chemicals that it overwhelmed my senses and made sure I'd never buy this again — which is unfortunate, when it showed so much promise. Texturally, this frosting was way too thick for detailed piping, although it did alright on the flooding test, and fine when applied with a butterknife.

Victoria loved the smell of this brownie batter frosting, and enjoyed using it. But, she wasn't a fan of the flavor profile at all, saying it had a very chemically aftertaste that "didn't pass the vibe check." Unfortunately, she agrees with my assessment and wouldn't eat this again.

Before I dive into the review of PiiPER Edible Glitter Dust, I want to issue a quick word of warning: These glitter dusts come out fast — I mean, so fast that being careful I ended up with way too much on my cupcakes. This was a super simple issue to fix and didn't really negate the overall positive experience here. Long story short, be careful when pouring.

The glitter dusts don't have a strong flavor to them, but they do add a subtle sweetness that tastes exactly like powdered sugar but slightly more muted. Gold Rush offered a very shiny, glossy finish that paired nicely with the chocolate frosting, providing some complementing depth to the dark brown tones. Chrome was more glittery and metallic than shiny or glossy. When paired with the vanilla frosting, it added a nice pop primarily along the raised edges.

"I love the glitter, and I think it's so Gen-Z," Victoria said. She went on to explain that she believes her peers would love this specific PiiPER product just as much as she did. Her statement was punctuated by a question of whether we could get more, which is something I'm willing to agree to — I also quite loved these PiiPer products.

The PiiPER Real Silver Edible Flakes were fine, but they weren't anything special — this is exactly like any other silver flake I've ever used. After playing around with it for just a moment, I let the kids take the wheel on this one, which led to two very covered, very silver cupcakes.

They don't have much of a taste, but they do stick to the mouth and throat, so I recommend having a drink on hand when you're eating something decked out with PiiPER's silver flakes. The small container was a bit more condensed than I expected, which caused the flakes to stick together in a clump, which may have contributed to how difficult it was for the kids to use them. I might buy this again if I needed decorative silver flakes because it's just as good as every other product and it comes at a nice price point.

Victoria thought this product was cool, but challenging to use. Notably, she enjoyed how shiny it was, and thought it could be really cool if she had more practice in using it. When asked if she would buy it again, she said maybe.

The PiiPER Edible Color Sprays were my favorite products in this review, and the one thing I can say I will 100% be purchasing again. I'm excited to try out the three additional flavors available at Walmart, too. Before telling you the many reasons I love these and think they're better than what I've used in the past, I do want to offer a quick tip — trust the process here. These sprays don't show their true colors (litterally) right off the bat, so give it time after use for the full effect.

I love that these sprays are tasteless and leave no chemical tones behind like some low-quality options. Even better, these are easy to use and provide an even finish across the baked goods with minimal effort. You truly don't need to be a baker or cake decorator to make good use of these sprays, and they're the one truly professional grade product in this list. The colors turn out vibrant and shiny, with the gold rush being a bit bolder than the chrome.

Victoria thought these were amazing. She loved the colors, and said these sprays were really easy to use. "These low-key pass the vibe check," she said, before going on to say that she knows her friends would like them, and she definitely wants me to buy more of these for the next time we decorate baked goods together.

It's hard to come up with an overall impression of PiiPER as a brand because the products I had a chance to try were a mix of amazing, mediocre, and completely disappointing. I love the aesthetics, branding, affordability, and smells. I also loved that the fun vibe made my kids excited to help, so the company is definitely nailing that specific goal it has. But, the usability varied from bad to great, depending on the products, while the taste of the buttercreams were overall just okay. The artificial chemical aftertaste of the brownie batter was truly awful.

The big questions here are whether I'd buy them again, and do I recommend you run out to grab them. Definitely immediately run out to grab the PiiPER Color Spray and Edible Glitter Dust — I know I'll be restocking these on my next grocery store run. You can take or leave the silver flakes, and I'll probably be leaving them since I don't use this product often. Skip the buttercream frostings. They have a lot of potential, but they're nothing I would wholeheartedly recommend. If you're going to pick up any of PiiPER's products, make sure you brush up on the cake decorating tips every beginner should know first so you make the most of them.

The PiiPER Vanilla Vibes Buttercream Frosting contains 180 calories per 2-tablespoon serving, along with 20 grams of total sugar. Ingredients include powdered sugar, non-hydrogenated icing shortening, water, corn syrup, natural flavor, salt, mono and diglycerides, guar gum, potassium sorbate, and citric acid. The PiiPER Brownie Batter Buttercream Frosting contains 180 calories and 20 grams of total sugar per 2-tablespoon serving. The ingredients list is mostly the same as the vanilla option, except with the addition of cocoa processed with alkali.

Both bottles of PiiPER Edible Dust contain 15 calories per teaspoon serving. They also both contain the following ingredients: powdered sugar, mica-based pearlescent pigment, corn starch, silicon dioxide. The Edible Color Sprays both contain no calories or notable sugars. These are made with alcohol, propellants, glycerin, mica-based pearlescent pigments, water, vanillin, and cellulose — they do, however, differ in their color additives. Finally, the Edible Decorative Real Silver Flakes contain only non-toxic silver and zero calories or sugars. All products include cross-contamination warnings for egg, milk, and wheat.

According to the official press release, PiiPERs products are currently available at Walmart and Target. It also says the products will be available in the near future at Kroger, Michaels, and Amazon. Additionally, future limited-edition flavors (including Pumpkin Chai, Candy Corn, and Caramel Apple) will be available at Target this coming fall.

I found the PiiPER Vanilla Vibes Buttercream Frosting and Brownie Batter Buttercream Frosting at Target for $5.99 each. At the time of this writing, I could not find any of the decorating items on the Target website. However, they were all available on Walmart's website, along with a few other PiiPER products that weren't included in this review.

The brand's Edible Color Spray in Gold Rush and Chrome are priced at $6.07 at my local Walmart — additional available colors that don't appear in this review include Neptune Blue, Pinky Promise, and Blackout. PiiPER Edible Dust in Gold Rush and Chrome are available for $5.98, along with the unsampled colors Rose Gold and Diamond White. The Edible Decorative Real Silver Flakes are $6.56 at Walmart. Please note that prices vary based on location.