Here's another product review from Matt Powell, junior at Columbia University in the City of New York and GHRI intern: This isn’t the first time that Jamie Oliver has stretched beyond making the most of his selling potental and slipped into unethical profiteering. But it is the most blatant and it makes you wonder whether he is suffering ethical slip – gradually having his morals and principles dragged down. In the grand universe of kitchen gadgets, I categorise Jamie Oliver’s Flavour Shaker as a toy: cute, friendly and plastic. Now that I’ve had a chance to use it, I’m glad I didn’t actually buy it. There are too many annoying things about it: the guide arrows don’t align; it takes too long to get a mediocre grind, and cleaning it is more than a pain. Suddenly it starts looking like all the really good stuff he has done is more to do with him relieving his conscience, rather than, as he has claimed, the real reason behind his commercial efforts.

Then there was an Italian “holiday” which was of course filmed and which was nothing but another TV vehicle. It was something that Jamie of old would have turned down. I shook it for about 15 seconds before adding cardamom seeds and whole cloves. As Jamie would say, I gave it a good bash for 30 seconds, and produced a course grind: discernable bits of spices, not anywhere close to the powdery and slightly gritty texture I was accustomed to with my trusty mortar and pestle. I closed it up again and shook it for another 30 seconds: medium coarseness: mostly homogenous, but there were still chunky bits. I closed it up again and bashed it for another 30 seconds: I still considered it a medium grind, just with more powder. If using a round or oblong tin, sprinkle a tablespoon of pearl sugar over the batter just before baking the cake.

Tony Diggs says: “The concept is good. The delivery not so much. Mine broke after very few uses. The threads crossed and that was it. This was several years ago. Maybe they’ve fixed it.” [They haven’t Tony] Cardamom cake would feature in most Swedes’ top 10 classic fika treats. It can be baked in a round or an oblong tin or, as in this version adapted from Mat Magasinet (The Food Magazine), in a Bundt pan.

He certainly put in alot of effort and for that he is to be admired. But at the same time he started doing more and more commercials that I would argue were dubious in his position of a chef. And he involved his family and his personal life more and more, and it started to feel a bit wrong. If you've got one, I recommend using a Jamie Oliver "flavour shaker" for grinding cardamom as the seeds have an annoying habit of jumping out of a mortar. (It's about the only time I bother using a flavour shaker!) Jamie Oliver is going to be a very rich man but in five, ten years’ time he is going to wonder why no-one respects him. I hope he doesn’t succumb to the even-worse fate and become bitter.A couple of months ago Catherine, Food TV Canada’s resident blogger , found herself with quite the dilemma: her workstation was overrun with Jamie Oliver Flavour Shakers in need of homes. Whomever received one had to try it out and blog about it. Always one for toys – especially kitchen toys – I dropped her a note and the gadget appeared last month. It’s taken a while for me to complete toy testing as my sore wrist kept me from unscrewing the tool. When Jamie Oliver started off, he was a breath of fresh air. Here was someone clearly passionate about food who was inclusive rather than pretentious or arrogant. He loved cooking food and wanted you to love it too. I poured in about ten whole cloves and shook the canister for two minutes. It was fun, and my arms got a good work-out. (Although I bet the people in the other Good Housekeeping Research Institute I stopped then because I realized that the Shaker probably wouldn’t mimic the fine-ish grind I prefer. Bake for about an hour until it is golden brown, just beginning to pull away from the side of the Bundt and a skewer poked into the cake comes out clean.

Swedes normally grease the inside of the Bundt with butter and then dust it with dried breadcrumbs, but you can use baking spray (NOT cooking spray) if you prefer.Cream the butter and sugar until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes on a moderate speed using an electric beater.