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Cadbury Freaky Fingers
Kcal 105 Fat 5.5g Fat(sats) 3.1g Carbs 12.8g (per 4 fingers)
'Crisp biscuits covered with white chocolate'.
We have what appeared to be a little bit of a lazy one from Cadbury here! Not only was the name of these rather similar to a Mr Kipling offering I reviewed not so long ago - See HERE (N.B. they have been around for several years!!), but these Cadbury Freaky Fingers were simply just a dressed up version of the Cadbury Dream Fingers - See HERE. The only difference between the two products was that these Fiendish Fingers came with the biscuit innards dyed a rather funky looking red/pink colour. They still tasted surprisingly nice for biscuits coated in cheap white chocolate, and the pack I bought for work was hoovered in seconds. Nothing new to see here, but what the hell I'm feeling generous ... ChocolateMission recommended :D
8.0 out of 10
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Hotel Chocolat Milk & Yummy BonesKcal ??? Fat ??? Fat(sats) ??? Carbs ???
'Spookily life-sized - 40% milk chocolate and creamy white chocolate'.
Changing tact somewhat we move from the £1.00 biscuits to this mammoth-sized offering from our friends Hotel Chocolat. Described as the 'Perfect centrepiece for your Halloween party or simply to keep you company through the long night' I cannot disagree that this massive chocolate skull is the business. I needn't bore you with the details of how utterly delectable both chocolate types are - you must know that by now :D The main talking point of the product has to be it's sheer size (450.0g!!), which the packaging claims to serve eight people ... more like eight-hundred if you ask me! At £15.00 a pop it's one of the more expensive chocolate foodstuffs to splash the cash on this year. If you were to part ways with your cash though I can't imagine you being left disappointed.
8.9 out of 10
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McVities Jaffa Spooky Cake BarsKcal 96 Fat 3.5g Fat(sats) 1.8g Carbs 15.2g (per bar)
'Bittersweet dark crackly chocolate, light sponge and zingy orange centre.'
This isn't a review as such ... it's a conundrum :D :D .... and it could potentially carry a prize (a Ritter Sport bar of some sort of course haha!!) if the answer to the question is a) interesting or b) difficult to find! What's the question you beg to ask!? Well it's not is the Jaffa Cake Bar a biscuit or a cake ... that we know the answer to :D It's more:
'How can the original Jaffa Cake Bars (See HERE) have 129 calories in them, yet these 'Spooky Cake Bars', which just so happen to be the SAME VERY THING & SIZE!!!, have 96 calories'???????
It's a mystery! What's not a mystery is how jaffa-licous they are.
7.2 out of 10
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Fabulous Bakin' Boys Spooky Blackcurrant & Apple CupcakesKcal 139 Fat 8.0g Fat(sats) 4.0g Carbs 16.2g (per Cake)
'Apple flavour sponge with a blackcurrant flavour topping'
Last up today we have our third Tesco £1.00 deal, seasonal special, these Fabulous Bakin' Boys Spooky Blackcurrant And Apple Cupcakes. My past reviews of FBB's Cupcakes should have told me to stay clear of further varieties, but there was something about the apple and blackcurrant cake proposition and the interesting look of the pack that managed to capture my attention, so I thought I would give them one last chance. As I should have pre-empted these apple and blackcurrant followed a very familiar pattern - lovely tasting base cake but with a really quite disgusting waxy feeling topping. Indeed on the positive side of things the bottom layer of apple cake was divine and manage to integrate a pleasant, real tasting cinnamon noted apple element to the standard vanilla sponge. Unfortunately just as is always the case, the topping placed on top of the cake had a hideous mouth feel, and came across as horrendously fake feeling and unnatural. The blackcurrant flavours it produced were a little crumb of comfort - they had a nice tarty zingyness to them which contrasted nicely with the sweeter apple. If you aren't one to be put off by the texture of the toppings of these cupcakes then I would feel comfortable suggesting them to try.
6.8 out 10
Posts
69 comments:
I love how you sneaked in hotel chocolat for the third day running, even in bits and bobs we cant escape their excellence. Im not complaining, the more the better if you ask me.
I was disappointed with the cake selections that mcvities and cadburys came up with this year. Last year I remember all the ones like the cinder toffee and the vanilla/blackcurrant feeling new but this year they just released them all again and didn't change it up at all. I know halloween isn't our biggest holiday but a little more effort would have been nice.
Its about time you got all these reviews up ;) its not like we've been waiting on them or anything lol.
As much as we would all like to splash fiffteen notes on chocolate for halloween im sure for the mjority of us its the cheaper things here that are more realistic for us to buy. Out of the four i haven't had any of these. The only halloween things we have bought this year are the fiendish fancies, which considering they are cakes we buy pretty much every week anyway didn't do much for me.
A halloween bits and bobs. Thats exactly what the doctor ordered Jimbo. Nice one.
Another Ritter giveaway? Lol you must work for them I swear! No one man can have that much chocolate from one make to give away without being some kind of insider.
Have you ever had candy corn Jim? Its one of the most popular confections we have here for halloween in the US.
Im surprised that you weren't sent some by american soda, I would imagine them being one of their best sellers around this time of year.
Drat! I need some cakes now :(
What do you make of all that John Terry stuff Jim?
I think its disgraceful that our england captin can even be linked to such disgraceful matters. The guy needs a total reality check .... actually, all those premaddonas need a reality check. The games becoming embarassing to follow.
<3 <3 <3 <3 White chocolate fingers <3 <3 <3 <3
I loves them.
Jim can you ask Hotel chocolat if they have finished putting the halloween stock up on their site i.e. are they now not adding anything more?
If thats the case then i have missed out on everything i had in mind to buy a few weeks ago :( I waited to see some reviews and left it to late it seems DOHHH.
Thanks Jim this was exactly what I needed. I have a halloween party at the weekend and knowing me I would have ended up buying the wrong things.Not now! Thanks for this.
Lol you and your ritter give aways Jim. You love it. Its annoying I dont have an answer for you cause I would love to win :(
Why didn't you go for the Count-Choc-ula =) Hes ten times nicer looking than this moody skull. The vampire shape looks a lot less threatening and creepy.
I had enough sense to give up on fabulous baking boys cakes a long time ago Jim. They have got worse over time I think. The only ones worth their salt are the newer big sized muffins. Apart from them I think the flapjacks etc are all pants.
Hey J
Gd win for Man U last night then. Lol imagine if you had lost to aldershot, the press would of had a field day with that lol I dont know about you but I still cant believe some of those resuits from the weekend. We get a chance to turn our shocker around tonight vs stoke today. If we lose im officially going to start worrying. People say the man u defence is bad!? They should look at ours, its terrible.
You got a good lot of halloween bits and bobs here m8. That should keep the moaners quiet for a bit lol. Keep up the good work. I know you will have your fingers crossed for us tonight lol ;)
Cheers
N
That is so annoying. The one time i could actually win something and I dont have a clue.
Good mix of chocs Jim thanks so much. The only halloween chocolate I have had so far this year are the caramel dead heads by cadbury. I just haven't had the chance to get around to trying any of the other yet. This weekend I will see what is still about.
Halloween is so lame. I wish it would just be over with.
As impressive as the skull thing looks its essentially just a big slab of their chocolate isn't it. Not that its a bad of course lol. I would love someone to buy me the white and milk version.
I was going to buy those white chocolate fingers but then I saw the new fabulous fingers and thought they looked nicer. I guess we will see a review of them one day yeh?
Jim this is unrelated to Halloween but have you done a review of any of the new mcvities quirks? All of them have some kind of chocolate in and I think you can get them all for just one pound in tesco atm
They also have some new ones called temptations but i havent had the chance to get any of the yet.
This time next week and all of these will be being sold at ridiculous prices you know. The supermarkets will want to clear all their stock to make room for all the Christmas stuff. I might hold off buying some of these cakes until then.
I think most your ratings are spot on here. The two I cant confirm or dispute are the freaky fingers (though ive had white fingers b4) and the hotel chocolat skull (obviusly). The jaffa cake bars are the winners today if you asking me.
p.s. no idea about your calorie conundrum. I wish I did know know :( I wants the Ritter.
x
x
Quality reviews man. I like the way you have covered all angles from expensive to cheapo stuffs. Thumbs up.
You can forget about the cakes on show here in this post. If its the halloween ones you are after you have to go for the blackcurrant mini rolls cadburys do. Nom nom.
I feel almost embarassed to tell you that i have both of the cakes today *ooops*.
Im not so bothered by the top bit of the cupcakes so I would give them a better rating than you have done. They are a decent 7/10 for me because I love apple cake lol.
As for the jaffa cakes I have no clue whatsoever why one has less calories than the other. They didn't taste any different to me.
I knew you were going to get one of those big skulls shown off on here eventually.
Good on ya I hope you enjoyed - your score seems to suggest you did lol.
If that skull is as big as you say it is then that is very good value for Hotel Chocolat. I think a little investment is in order here :)
What more can I say other than thanks so much for more outstanding reviews Jim. Someone said on monday they get better and better and I wouldn't disagree with them. Please keep up the good work.
Are you going to review the Demon Slices made by Mr Kipling? They were nice when I had them!
The difference between the two jaffa cake things has to be down to size doesn't it? There isn't any other explanation that makes sense. Its either that or the ingredients and you dont seem to think that its that.
Is it a crime that I haven't ever had any hotel chocolat chocolate? I only recently found this site but everytime I see you review them you give them the highest ratings.
Something tells me I should get some on order. I will treat myself next time im paid.
I was close to buying the freaky fingers but then I saw the fabulous fingers and bought them instead. To me it didn't seem worth buying these halloween ones just because the biscuit bit was coloured red. If anything I thought there were a little pointless.
Thanks for these reviews J. Nothing here has tickled my fancy to much but they are all nice things to see. Have you any idea when you will be starting your xmas reviews this year? A months time? A few weeks?
I need to be well prepared this year because my family are going abroad two weeks before so we have to take our presents with us.
No oddities or surprises here then. Its pretty much exactly what we would all expect all these to get. Great pics today.
My favourite halloween cakes this year are the slime jaffa bars (the ones with a lime filling). I saw your review on them when they were just out as limited editions. If I remember rightly you also thought they were pretty great.
HC are skitz man. To have something as cute looking as that pumpkin thing and then having this evil looking skull is mental dont you think.
Did you see the other Fab baking boys cupcakes they made for halloween? Spooky chocolate and blood orange.
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=268899356
I think you picked the right ones to review ;) I think these are normally out all year round anyway.
I gave up on anything fabulous bakin boys made a long time ago. Its just cheap tacky crap. I wouldn't advise any of their cakes at all.
Oooh a halloween bits and bobs how novel :) Great thinking Jim. Lovely to see you get in the spirit of things.
*piches ones self* Did you really just rate those apple and blackcurranjavascript:void(0)t cakes that low :O
Im shocked. You are so wrong dude. They are so addictive, I swear they must have some addictive drug in them.
I guessing cause we got the four here we wont get a review on Friday :( That sucks dude. Are you not any less busy yet?
I wish we knew what you did for a living. Im intrigued to know even more now.
Are there any more hotel chocolat things to come mate or is this our lot? For me the best so far have been the caramel eyes you showed us on Monday. I still cant get over the pic with the caramel in it. It just looks so tasty.
I believe the difference in the jaffa cakes is in the orange jelly. If you look at the colour of these halloween versions compared to them normally you can see there is a big diff. Does that mean I win =]
Three days of hotel chocolate in a row? Someones been lucky with their samples recently haven't they. Lol ignore my teasing hun im just jealous. Fab reviews, thanks so much for doing them.
Rxxx
I know the ratings low but I do fancy trying those apple and blackcurrant cakes. I think I would be more forgiving of the kind of topping the cupcakes have. Its not something that has bothered me with the FBB cakes in the past. Saying that I will be looking out for it more now you have mentioned it :P I hope you haven't spoilt them for me.
Why do we never get any pumpkin flavoured confection in GB?
If you look at the American market they pretty much have them all year round+ they go extra mad for them at Halloween for obvs reasons. It just seems odd that our markets are normally so similar yet we don't have anything to do with pumpkin when it comes to consuming it as a sweet food.
Bits and bobs with an inbuilt comp. What more could we ask for :) Thanks Jim.
If that hotel chocolat thing was cheaper I would buy it man. I just cant justify giving that much to choc though. Especially when its just for me lol.
Your graph for the fingers says fiendish fingers when they are actually FREAKY fingers.
Sorry for the nitpicking but I just thought you would want to know.
The reason why the Spooky Jaffa Cake bars and the original ones have a difference in calories is that they ARE NOT the same size. The original is 18.8 g, while the Halloween one is 15.2 g (and therefore has less fat (5.5 g vs. 3.5 g) and carbs (2.8 g vs. 1.8 g), so less calories).
The hotel chocolat skull looks odd amongst all of these. Still everything here is nice to see. The variety is what makes these ones the most interesing if you ask me.
Seeing as those spooky jaffa cake bars contain less fat and less carbs than the original, I can only presume that they are smaller than the originals ;).
Alternatively, maybe you become so spooked when eating them that you feel the need to run away from them, thereby burning some of the calories that you are about to eat :P
450g? That skull must be huge!
Lauren beat me to it, but there has to be a slight change in ingredients as well. Even if you incrased the spooky version from 15.5 to 18.8g size the fat would only jump from 3.5 to 4.2
if you get really curious here are the ingredients
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=268952188
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=268308629
I saw the cadbury's fingers in the store the other day, but considering their skill with white chocolate, I decided to give them a miss.
Does HC's skull slab taste any different from their usual, non-halloween shaped chocolate, or can you get just the same thing from another of their products?
As for the Jaffa Cake bars, I've done a little digging and have found out that there is a slight difference in the % of ingredients. For example, the original has 32% jaff filling and 30% plain chocolate, where as the spooky one has 33% and 31%. At first this might suggest that the spooky one should have more calories, but if the plain chocolate content is slightly higher then it might mean there is slightly less sugar in it.
Another factor is the flavouring. On the box of the original it just says flavouring, where as the spooky ones say they have have 'natural flavourings'. The spooky product also notes that it has 'no hydrogenated vegetable oil or artificial colours or flavours, where as the original does not say this.
Hi All,
Thanks for sending through all your responses to the reviews today. It appears that not only are their a wealth of positive comments about some of these, but it is also apparent there are some detectives amongst you all ... :D :D Good work to all that have explored the Jaffa Cakes issue - it seems like you are all on to something! I will have to get your names in a pot and draw a winner for the Ritter.
BRYAN - Candy corn is something I see on a lot of the American blogs/import sites etc. It is off that its such a big thing over there but not here.
CHRIS - Probably best I don't share my comments on John Terry :D I don't think much of him put it that way.
TOM - I'm pretty sure they wont be adding more to their site now. It's too close to the actual date.
NIGEL - Indeed the press would of nailed us if we hadn't of won last night. It's good to be back in form :D Unfortunately my hands are too busy typing to cross my fingers for Liverpool tonight chap :D
XEN - I wrote that review yesterday as part of another bits and bobs. Next week perhaps/
HENRY - I reviewed the Choc/Hazelnut version not so long ago. If I see the other two going for cheap I will give them a try. I cant promise they are a priority though sorry.
ANON - Demon slices? Sorry I dont think there is going to be time before the weekend.
PAUL - They should be starting midway through November. Thats the plan anyway.
BRADLEY - Thanks for sharing that. I do believe they have chocolate orange ones normally so you are right there. I don't think I've missed out on much.
IAN/RODDY/LAUREN/CLAUDIA/BJ - Wow guys and girls! All great investigating here I appreciate the efforts you have shown :D Well done you will all be in the mix for the Ritter chocolate once I get the chance to sort it out at the weekend. For the minute you can just determine yourselves as Jaffa experts haha :D
Thanks everyone! As ever its busy busy busy on my side. I hope you aren't all feeling neglected, I'm trying to keep the maintenance of the site at an ok level.
JIM
I missed the bit about the Ritter Jim. That's very generous of you but please keep the drawing among Ian, Lauren, Claudia,and BJ. I wouldn't want to take away form your other loyal readers, as I have a site myself. I'm just always interested to weigh in on ingredients/nutrition.
not to mention, international shipping would be a pain ;)
Grr another message not showing up :S (on the wispa gold post). it says its logged, but they dont get through lol. hopefully this one will. Fingers crossed!
i asked if youd tried the re released wispa gold? you should do jim, as its abit different and theyve altered the ingredients :S
So much for not doing any halloween reviews this year. This time last week we had none and now we have 6. Sorry for doubting you choccie dude.
As for my ratings. Well i havent had the hotel chocolat one but I can score the fingers and the jaffa cake bar (both a 7 1/2 out of ten if you ask me). Neither were that great but they were fair enough for the small sum spent on them.
If I was picking one to recommend I would tell people to go for the jaffa cake bars.
+1 for a review for the fabulous fingers. They are the best ones I think cadburys have made ever!!!!! I include the double choc ones in that aswell.
How much money do you think these companies make when they sell all these things for just a quid?
I wouldn't of thought it would leave much in the way of profit for each one they sell. Once you facotr in everything like ingrdients, packaging and labour etc. It really can be much at all.
In future if you are including so many yummy things in one post can you warn us please :p I know have it in my head that I want to try all of these. Hopefully I can do some savvy sales shopping for the hc halloween stuff. Im going to hold off until the weekend which is when I think it should start.
Cadbury Fingers FTW!! Seriously I shouldn't be allowed near those things. Once a packet gets opened near me its game over. I just cant help myself when im around them.
Argh Jimmmmmmm! You've given me a real hankering for some jaffa cakes now. Im going to have to get some of some sort or other today. You cant beat a good jaffa cake I say. Theres just something special about them isn't there. You can only have the real mcvities ones imo. The supermarker ones dont compare.
I tried doing some investigating about the differences in the jaffa bars but I haven't come up with anything :( Do I get points for effort? :-S :-S :-S
Its a real conincedence you should review the jaffa cakes there. They are what my mum has bought in for the trick or treaters if we get them.
We have a lot of trouble with those idiots round our way. A load of front gardens got messed with last year when they were refused, its so anti social.
RODDY - Thats very kind of you chap. Thanks for bearing that in mind. This is the point when the others tell me they are all from distant islands in and around Japan only gettable to by air mail haha!!
ALAN - Your comments are getting through ... im just getting slower at authorising them because we are attracting record amounts + extra spam + me having less time to sort through them all. Sorry. As for the Wispa Gold ... well what can I say :D tune in Monday chap :D I look forward to your extended views on the matter :D
ULTIME - Request noted coming soon.
SAJ - I doubt they make much ... but the point is they take market share away from another company. Better £1.00 than nothing at all!
Thanks everyone
JIM
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