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Hi All,
First off HAPPY EASTER to one and all. I hope you all have some nice time off and recharge the batter before heading back to school, work etc etc
ChocolateMission will be taking a well deserved break over Easter, but posting will resume on Tuesday 26th. During that time be sure to keep an eye on the news page and the Twitter feed - no doubt I will running some Twitter based competitions - you can 'Follow' me by clicking HERE.
Make sure you at least eat ten times your own weight in chocolate .... thats an order from myself ;D No doubt the Easter chocolate sales will be in full flow come Monday so I look out for any updates from myself documenting the extra special deals I spot.
Have a great Easter break
JIM
SNACK OF THE WEEK ..... a new part of '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' which will feature any manner of snacking product I have been products munching on in the week ...
As I mentioned last week the amount of Easter products that have been sent to me this year has been tremendous and unfortunately I haven't had time to feature them all on the site. Despite receiving this particular product extremely late in the day (only Wednesday this week!!), I just had to give it a shout out on the site - it was just so tremendous! Indeed the 'Snack of the Week' award for this Easter Weekend goes to the Paul A. Young Simnel Brownie. Last Wednesday I featured some pretty pitiful Easter themed cakes from Cadbury - this creation from British chocolatier Paul A. Young (and sugar maker Billingtons) just blew them out the water. So what the heck is a Simnel Brownie you ask!? Well if we are talking Paul A. Young style it's a chocolate brownie featuring vine fruits, cinnamon, nutmeg and marzipan. The brownie was sent to me in a lovely gift box, that contained the large cake slab draped in one Paul's stylish branded ribbons. Out it's transparent packet the brownie smelt like a wonderful concoction of spiced Christmas cake and chocolate - I could tell this was going to be good from the minute I opened it!
Take a look at the cross-section photo above .... Yes it really was that dense! This was like brownie I hadn't eaten before. It was viscous, gooey and heavy in both flavour and texture with it's raw, buttery spiced cocoa taste. As a whole, the brownie was beautifully constructed, with sweet fruits such raisins and cherries packed into every corner and mouthful taken. The balance and variety brought to the taste by the cinnamon and nutmeg spices, plus the crunchy sugary top which featured lumps of marzipan, was just epically fantastic - this cake was a flavourful masterpiece. Speaking as a guy who has eaten cakes such as Heavenly Cakes's Billionaire Shortbread, it should give you some sort of idea how highly I rated this when I say it was a truly outstanding brownie. This was one of the richest cakes I think I have ever eaten - if you happen to be passing Paul's shop in London this Easter weekend then I highly recommend you get yourself one of these. It's probably wise to share.
8.8 out of 10
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59 comments:
Have a good easter break Jim. How cruel of you to leave us looking at this monster brownie for the duration of the holiday. It looks absolutely stunning in your pictures. You can just see how gooey it is. Lovely jubbly.
Im not much of a brownie person but I don't think I could possibly turn down the chance of trying that one. I must really make an effort to try something from this Paul Young. Hes ones of those people I keep seeing and hearing about but I never seem to see any of his chocolates.
Thank god its easter finally. Im happy for two reasons
1 - I get to open all my choccie eggs:)
2 - The shops wont have be jam packed full of the bloomin things anymore. Lol everyone seems to be selling them this year. They have all been selling them long enough.
Thanks for all your easter reviews Jim. You saved the best thing until last as you always do lol. Do you know if Mr Paul Young is going to be making his brownies ongoing? I would hate to think you have shown us something to late for us to even be able to buy. It looks soooooooo good.
Woop! I got given one of those KK chunky eggs you had in your buyers manual on Weds Jim. Mine had a mug alongside it though so mine was even better :-P
Happy Easter love. Have a good holiday.
Rxxx
No Hotel Chocolat for me so far this year but my nana is coming round on Sunday so hopefully she will come bearing treats :) Uber jealous about this brownie you got here. I don't like the marzipan content but apart from that it sounds amaze.
Holy brownie batman! Thats one lovely looking cake you have yourself there Jim.
It comes across as a bit of a hot cross bun and brownie hybrid, I bet its absolutely delicious. Have yourself a fantastic Easter break.
What sort of things are you going to be covering after Easter has finished hun? You know you did hot chocolates for winter? How about you do some ice cream or milkshake reviews for summer!
I saw on your news page that Mars have already started making a new milkshake mix. I would love to hear what you have to say about it.
Dx
Well done on your Easter coverage this year mate - top work yet again.
HAPPY EASTER JIM!
I HOPE YOU GET A WEALTH OF CHOCOLATEY TREATS
x x x
Have a great Easter Jim thanks so much for continued dedication to your mission. I wish you would go back to posting one review a day. Can you see yourself ever reverting back or are you just to busy to do it?
Hey J,
You looking forward to the feast of football we got coming up this weekend mate? It's funny how you guys managed to keep your lead at the top with Arsenal buggering up continually. If you lose the title now you lot have seriously screwed it up. Arsenal/Spurs drawing means that we might even have a chance of Europe this season. Thats pretty amazing considering where we were at the start of the season don't you think.
Btw nice work on all of your easter postings this year. The coverage was all as good as ever. I enjoyed them all myself. Even the artisan chocs which I could no way afford lol.
No doubt I will be msging you about the football this weekend. I think this is the first time I want United to win ever against Everton. We could do with them getting off our backs.
Cheers
N
The only thing you didn't do this year was a Hotel Chocolate competition *wub*. Whatever happened to that Jim?
You aren't reviewing over Easter? Man what are we to do Jim? If you're not reviewing chocolate what are you doing?
Thank you for the reviews Jim. I wish you wouldn't show me stuff like this brownie. I now have the sudden urge to get my behind in to the kitchen and start baking. Thats not a problem itself, its more that I don't have any ingredients or any way of going about getting any :( You should have tried the amazing hot cross buns I made last week. I know I'm saying so myself but they were so nice.
Jim I get the feeling you are going to be sent a lot of chocolate for Easter. I've been thinking, if you need someone to take the burden of what to do with it off your hands, I'm more than happy to assist you with that :) Just give me a shout if you think this is going to be a problem for you :) lol.
Isn't easter just the best time of year ever!!!!!!!! Honestly what could be better than massive amounts of choc + time off. If this weather holds out for the weekend its going to be one of the best ever I think.
Happy easter straight back at you Jim. Have a brilliant time whatever you are doing.
Darn I was hoping to see you get some heavenly cakes stuffs in the mix but it obvs wasn't to be. Do you have an update on those guys? Last I heard you said they were busy doing food shows and stuff. Could you post if they are doing any of the ones near London? I still keep meaning to buy some cakes from them online but I just never get around to it.
My haul this year is so incredible im starting to feel guilty. For starters I have 10 cadbury creme eggs lol. I can't see me eating all of them.
The best brownies money can buy are the GU ones. I don't think I've ever tried any others that can match up, their tiffins aint half bad either.
Christ almighty those pics of that brownie are wicked. Did you get your dad to take these again for you Jim? They make this cake look so so good.
Im not sure I like the idea of a brownie having all those off spices in their. I don't really see why they would make the chocolate cake taste any better than they would do without.
So far my lot consists of 5 cadbury creme eggs, 2 packs of assorted cadbury eggs and 3 smarties monsters heads.
I haven't even been given my main chocolate egg from my parents yet =) Hopefully it's going to the carramellow rocky road road one I asked for.
Thank you so much for all your Easter reviews Jim, pretty much all of them have been appealing to me in some shape or form (apart from that passionfruit flavoured thing YUCK!!!). Have a relaxing weekend break and enjoy the good weather with all your chocolate :P
Have a nice easter Jim.
These twitter giveaways sound brill. Im keeping a look out for your tweets =)
Phew! I'm so glad I stuck my thorntons big egg in the fridge. I left one of my smaller dairy milk ones in my room and its turned to sludge in this heat. I think I might have cried if my bootiful thorntons uber egg had been ruined. That would have been a total disaster.
I really shouldn't allow myself to surf sites like this one. I always end up finding something to spend my monies on :-) I see this Paul Young doesn't have an online shop? I live in Devon so there is no way I will be able to visit one of his shops anytime soon. Do they do mail order?
this cake was a flavourful masterpiece
...something tells me you liked it a bit? :P :P :P :P
This was one of the richest cakes I think I have ever eaten - if you happen to be passing Paul's shop in London this Easter weekend then I highly recommend you get yourself one of these. It's probably wise to share.
The first half of your sentence makes sense. The second part does not :P Share!????? Share!????? Now who would want to do a crazy bum think such as that.
Are you going to be doing to be doing any more heavenly cakes posts soon? You haven't done one all year I miss reading up about them. Have they made any new cakes that we don't know about?
I would trade all of my easter eggs for just a bite of that brownie. Wowzzas does it look scrumptious.
Is it fair comparing the Cadburys cakes with this specialist made brownie??????
YEAH why the hell not lol. A brownie is going to have to be on my menu today :-) Im going to walk specifically in to town to buy myself one. Theres no excuse not to go out and enjoy the weather anyways. I needed something to do.
Jim I was wondering the other day. What the heck do people buy you are Easter? Surely people don't buy you chocolate eggs and stuff?
Jim do us all a favour and just start reviewing rubbish things please. Lol its just mega mega annoying seeing many tasty looking cakes and chocolates that I wont ever be able to try. Some of you people are complaining about not living in the same region where they sell these, try not living in the same country people.
I just got a static shock from licking away at my laptop screen :-{ :-P Amaze photography jim. Pass on the congratulations if someone did it for you.
These brownies look amazing - such a lovely combination of flavours. Yay - am looking forward to JCM a competition :P Have a cracking Easter Jim! x
Wicked review of the brownie Jim. I've not seen anything like that before now. Next time just make sure you run a competition alongside it so we feel we at least have the chance of being able to eat one ourselves. Surely if you can talk yourself in to getting one sample you will be able to get one for us lot?
If this isn't your day job you need to make it so asap. I don't want to brown nose you but you have a natraul talent for writing and criticing sensibly. I know a few people who work for some established publications I could forward you on their contact details if you wanted them. Don't let your talents go to waste.
I just love how thick and moist that brownie looks in your photos. That was a really great way of rounding off your easter stuff Jim. Have a lovely Easter are you going on holiday anywhere?
Happy Easter Jim! Hope youre havinga great one! :)
This brownie certainly looks interesting, Ive never seen anything like it before. Ive been put off Mr Young though after the disaster with the salted caremels and the pitiful customer service over the phone. Shame :(
If you are looking for new sorts of things to review you could go down the route of desserts? I thought you said you were going to do some reviews of GU puds a while back. If you still want to do them I would encourage you to do so. Their key lime pie is a good place to start ;)
Jim next year I think you should try and do some more buyers guides and post them as early as possible. I thought it was wicked how you put that one together on Weds but it came just a bit late for me as I had to do all my buying earlier in the week. I will be using it to pick some of the stuff out in the sales though so don't worry its not like your efforts have gone fully to waste. Keep up the excellent standards.
Im very impressed with this brownie here. I just wish I knew about it earlier so I could have gone and got one from his shop in Islington. I hope Paul isn't going to stop making them straight after Easter. Its not like they stop making hot cross buns right away when Easter passes is it.
Hey J, just wanted to drop you a quick note saying thank you for all your help picking out some gifts for my family this year. We haven't exchanged chocolates yet but im sure they are going to love the eggs I have got them. Just so you know I went for creme and mini egg packages for my little sisters and then a cadbury buttons ones for my lil bro. I should probably have bought my parents one to share but neither of them like chocolate that much so I thought I would save myself the money.
If it wasn't for my fear of marzipan I would be well up for trying this brownie. Unfortunately I just can't stand the stuff. I honestly hate it so much it would spoil the whole thing for me. I would much rather have a try of one of his normal brownies instead.
I think the mix of reviews you do already is great but if you are going to start reviewing anything more then it has to be ice cream mate.
I see a load of people are asking for it already. I'm not too fussed to see those reviews personally as I don't eat much ice cream. But if you want to start doing more I think it would be the most sensible thing for you to do.
I wasn't prepared to be looking at something so tasty :( I don't know how you have done it but you have managed to make me feel hungry again :( I've only just had something to east aswell. This site is such a bad influence on my waistline, I'm going to have to buy a brownie later to feed my cravings. Bad Jim bad bad bad!
Another top review from the best chocolate blog on the net :) One would think you have a prize drawing coming up the way I'm talking about you today jim. Lol I do mean it though, I think yours is the best. Enjoy easter.
Jim I know you wont be posting reviews in the next few days but make sure you let us know what you got for Easter. You have to be getting loads of chocolate doing what you do right?
All the cakes you review these days that get the high ratings are the ones made by the smaller companies and not the big ones. You thought all the cadburys ones were crappy but you gave this one the highest score you did all easter. It just goes to show that you don't have to have all the money to be the best around. With success comes money though I guess.
Hey J
Easter predictions as follows
Man U 2 Everton 0
Liverpool 4 Birmingham 0
I can't see you duffing it up today.
Cheers
N
You've been so positive about that brownie I thought we had another Chocolate mission 9 on the cards. What was it that made you think it wasn't worthy of such a rating? Are you going to be reviewing the rest of his brownies to see how they compare? Any reviews we can see from these sort of people are welcome imo.
Im going to be keeping a keen eye on the hotel chocolat site for the start of their sale. Once I'm done with my order I will make sure I share it with the rest of you guys. Only after I have nabbed all the stuff I want though lol :P We have to think of ourselves first in these situations boys and girls lol.
I got so many great chocolate eggs today. Creme Egg, Mars all sorts and a flake one. I've nearly eaten them all already lol.
Heard so many good things about this brownie, looks AMAZING!
droooooooooooooooooooooooool this brownie looks amazing.
Simnel cake is so nice. I imagine it in brownie form is just off the charts.
Hi All,
Thanks so much for the kind words about all the Easter reviews.
I had a really good Easter break which I spent with my family - nice food, relaxation and pleasant company ... you can't ask for more than than that.
I'm not surprised to see the wealth of positive comments heading in the direction of this brownie. It was very good and as I said in the review one of the best things I have eaten for the site all year. I will see if Paul fancies sending any more of his brownie collection on for a review - believe me I'm keen as mustard to try them if he does.
STEVEN - I wish I had the time to post one a day but its simply not feasible anymore :( Sorry.
NIGEL - The football results were kind to me this weekend. It was a make or break for us this weekend against Everton and we pulled it off thank god.
ANDREW - I can't say more than there will be more Heavenly Cakes reviews coming shortly.
MYSTERIO - No I took the photos for these. The old man wasn't getting his mitts on my brownie haha!
SHAUN - My family don't really exchange gifts at Easter time. They all got some chocolate off me this year though.
ANON - I got given no chocolate for Easter this year. I'm rather thankful for that as you can imagine :D
ALAN - I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with Mr Young first time around. It's a shame because he has so much to offfer that I think you would like.
TOM - It was a very very good cake. It only didn't make the 9 grade on some of the criteria. It was very close.
Thanks for all the feedback and Easter best wishes everyone. I hope you had an enjoyable time like I did.
JIM
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