June 16th: Competition Winners ....

Well done to my two competition winners @Bananapancakesx and @magichappensxx

They have won themselves some Hotel Chocolat Goodies which I hope they will enjoy.

Dismayed you haven't won this time around!? Don't be!! I've got plenty more chocolate to be giving away folks so keep your eye out for another JCM giveaway coming very soon.

ANNOUNCEMENT: In some exciting news I've this week secured another partnership for the site - all will become obvious very soon but for the moment all I will say is that JCM has truly become global in terms of the what I will be able to represent on the site i.e. more product reviews of the latest products being released from all corners of the globe.

Before I round up I have a tip for you!! Head on over to the Hotel Chocolat site as I would expect them to be discounting some of the leftover Father's day gear they have in stock - Bargains to be had for sure - SEE HERE.

Have a great weekend

JIM

June 13th: Hotel Chocolat Fathers Day 2012

Over the last few days I've had a number of tweets coming my way (@Chocmission) asking me what I would recommend on the chocolates front for Father's day coming up here in the UK this weekend. Well folks tight deadlines have prohibited me from delivering some full on JCM reviews .... BUT ... I'm making this all up to you loyal JCM readers with a lovely little competition.

Twitter: 'Retweet' my tweet of this post & follow me @Chocmission

or

Facebook: Add me as a friend and post a link to this page on your status via Facebook 

... Doing either of these things will enter you in on a draw for one of the three items I'm recommending for Fathers day below. I will announce the winner this weekend!!! So get to it folks!! Retweet/Follow & Post your way to chocolatey goodness!

Hotel Chocolat For My Dad Pocket Selection - This little pocket pack of truffles contains eight chocolates, namely two of the following pieces: Billionaire’s Shortbread (Superb - See HERE), Simple Milk Truffle (Very Good - See HERE), Choc Chip Cookie, Dizzy Praline (Superb - See HERE). You need only take a look at the individual ratings to establish that this is a pretty safe bet if you are looking for a mini selection box gift.
BUY ME HERE

Hotel Chocolat 70% Dark Chocolate with Chilli Puddles - I don't want to spoil my incoming full review of these but let it be said that these are lovely! The richness of the dark chocolate ... the mouth warmth of the chilli ... I'll say no more but if you know your own 'old man' likes being a little adventurous when it comes to his chocolates then make sure you these are in your consideration.
BUY ME HERE

Hotel Chocolat Whisky Truffles - Now these are the all time faves of my own 'Old Man' and whenever we get a selection box from Hotel Chocolat these are always the first he dives in for (See Jubilee Selection box review - See HERE). I recommend these but I must add a little note of caution that Ladies & Gents ... these are strong!! :-D Approach only if your own 'Old Man' will be able to handle some 'blow your head' off whisky liqueur strength.
BUY ME HERE


Remember to enter the competition folks!!!

JIM

June 13th: Ritter Sport Edel-Nuss Mix (100th Anniversary)

Kcal 559 Fat 37.0g Carbs 47.0g (per 100.0g)

Put up the banners, send the cards and pop open the champagne bottles - it's time to celebrate 100 years of Ritter! Yes indeed our friends over in Germany are celebrating their 100th year anniversary and to celebrate they've seen fit to release a limited edition chocolate.

The bar they've released to mark this special occasion is this Edel-Nuss Mix offering - one of the latest additions to their extensive 100.0g range. On the wrapper I was informed that the Edel-Nuss Mix contained 'Alpine milk chocolate with almonds (7.0%), cashews (6.0%) and macadamias (5.0%)'. Though not explicitly stated, further inspection of the ingredients list also revealed that there was also an element of hazelnut involved, with hazelnut mass coming in just after macadamias in the rank order.

In regards to the packaging and presentation of the chocolate I guess there isn't that much to be said as it was all really standard Ritter Sport fare. I liked the idea of combining several colours into the predominantly white wrapper, though I would have perhaps liked to have seen more made of the '100 year' element as it came across relatively understated and subtle in it's placement at the top left of the wrapper.

When it came to the all important taste test my immediate observation was that the nut content was plentiful but all chopped into small pieces. When it comes to nutty chocolates I often cite this as a bad thing though the quality and freshness of the nuts made this a real non-issue. Speaking firstly of the chocolate it will surprise you little to hear my approval of the 30.0% cocoa recipe. It's creamy milk flavours grew in intensity with the progression of the melt, and it's underlying sweetness was a fine partner to the savoury focused nuts. As aforementioned the small chopped nut pieces were crammed into every block and they produced a delightful array of salty, buttery, woody flavours. This was one of those bars I found tremendously moreish and I found it really hard to not just keep breaking off blocks every time it caught my eye sitting on my work desk.        

Overall I give this 100th Anniversary chocolate a big JCM thumbs up and would like to see it introduced as a permanent addition to the range once the year is up. I'm sure if you look back across my Ritter reviews (HERE) you will note that I perceive Ritter's nut based chocolates as some of their better flavours so to me at least it made sense that they picked this mixed nut theme to commemorate such an important birthday. What I liked about this bar especially was that each none of the nuts took precedence in the taste and at different times you could really detect the differing contributions that each brought to the party. If you would like to get a second opinion/perspective of this one I would suggest you take a look at Cybele's review over at Candyblog (See HERE) - seemingly she thought as much of it as I did.

8.4 out of 10

June 11th: Oreo Superpost

Oreo is fast becoming one of the most recognized global food brands with seemingly every market producing multiple products baring the brand name in all manner of different forms. Today I'm posting mini reviews of some Oreo products from Indonesia, Germany and the USA - the brand has certainly clocked up the air miles here that's for sure :-D

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Oreo Brownie Creme Filled

Kcal 370 Fat 16.0g Fat(sats) 5.0g Carbs 52.5g (per 85.0g brownie)

I'm going to kick off the Oreo reviews today with a product sent to me by my good friends at AmericanSoda.co.uk - a UK based, US snacks & food importer (See HERE). These guys were nice enough to provide me with a few samples of Kraft's Oreo Brownie Creme Filled - 85.0g, individually wrapped, single serve brownies.

At this point I would like to point you in the direction of a review I wrote back in May 2010 on the Oreo Brownie (See HERE). In particular I would like to refer you to this part here ...

"My main issue (that my fellow taste tester agreed with I may add) was that the texture of the brownie was just way too dry. The brownie needed some sort of icing, or inner filling to balance the dryness of both the brownie and the cookie pieces."

Well folks please allow me to humour myself by letting me believe it was my review that brought about this rather awesome Creme Filled variety :-D Indeed as I suspected it might, the addition of a simple layer of creme running through the center provided a much needed moistness to the texture and the resulting mouth feel was far superior to the one experienced previously. The creme itself was exactly like you get in normal Oreos with it's vanilla hinted sweetness a delicious, complimentary enhancer to the chocolate cake flavours. This was a more well rounded and satisfying brownie than the last Oreo one I reviewed in 2010. If you like your brownies and/or your Oreo Cakesters then I would highly recommend trying one of these. - I must be some sort genius you know :-D

8.5 out of 10

    
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Milka & Oreo

Kcal 560 Fat 30.0g Fat(sats) 19.5g Carbs 54.5g (per 100.0g)

Unless I've totally missed something I believe this is the first time that we have ever seen a hook up between these two Kraft portfolio brands. Back in 2010 I remember there being a pretty similar Milka Cream & Choc-Biscuits limited edition bar (See HERE), but to think it's taken until 2012 to see any interaction with Oreo and Milka is really quite incredible. As unbelievable as the situation may seem we now do have a Milka & Oreo chocolate bar available to buy in Germany - 'Alpine milk chocolate with an alpine cream filling with Oreo chocolate biscuit pieces', it sounded awesome.

This new bar comes as new variant in the standard 100.0g Milka range and I guess unlike the post today, the Milka brand is the more prominent of the two. On the face of things I thought the presentation was very high quality and I liked the design of the wrapper and the chocolate which certainly looked generously filled with Oreo cookie pieces.

Cuttng to the chase I'm glad to say that the looks didn't deceive, and this was a bar every bit as notable for it's Oreo influence as it was it's Milka, with the crunchy cookie pieces really creating an impression on the smooth outer chocolate, and cool inner creme. The added cocoa flavours bursts from the Oreo cookie flavours were highly complimentary of the creamy, hazelnut noted chocolate and it made for a multi-layered, progressive taste experience. I found the combination to be extremelly well executed and I liked the fact that the Milka and Oreo elements were equally presented rather than it being just a gimmicky branding variety. Well done Kraft - big thumbs up and worthy of a JCM recommendation.

8.6 out of 10

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Oreo Ice Cream & Oreo Double Delight Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cream

Ice Cream - Kcal 140 Fat 6.0g Fat(sats) 3.0g Carbs 21.0g (per 3 cookies)
Double Delight PB & CC - Kcal 140 Fat 6.0g Fat(sats) 2.0g Carbs 20.0g (per 3 cookies)

These two flavours I found in a local Asian supermarket priced at just under £1.00 each. Both variants came in 137.0g roll packs which contained around 15 cookies in each - 5 servings if the nutritional info of 3 at a time would have us believe. Although on the wrappers it was stated that these were produced in Indonesia, they both contained all manner of different languages and translations in regards to the on-pack blurb. Handily, English was one of them so I was able to determine the different propositions being offered by both. Here are what they both offered and my brief thoughts:

Oreo Ice Cream - 'Chocolate sandwich cookies with blueberry ice cream flavour creme'. These had a very distinctive fake fruit smell that I didn't find all that appealing upon opening. The cookies felt small in size, even compared to the normal Oreo single stuff here we get in the UK. I'm not sure if this was a consequence of the air miles but the outer sandwich cookies didn't quite feel up to usual Oreo par. They had a lesser defined cocoa taste, and the lacking volume of inner cream gave them a very texture that seemed to suck all the moisture from my mouth. As aforementioned these smelt incredibly artificial and the taste of the inner blueberry creme was certainly that. It was terribly sweet and reminded me of the horribly cheap fruit flavoured bubblegum I used to get as a kid. I didn't get much enjoyment from these at all and didn't get anywhere near finishing the pack before they headed to the bin.

3.4 out of 10

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Oreo Double Delight Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cream - 'Chocolate sandwich cookies with peanut butter in chocolate cream'. These I was very much looking forward to as a big time peanut butter and Oreo Chocolate Cream fan. Like the Ice Cream flavour these again felt very small in size in comparison to standard Oreos. I don't think I can be dreaming this up as I had open up no fewer than four different cookies before I found one that had enough creme in to use for the photo you see above. Indeed the filling was lacking in volume and unfortunately taste and sadly I have to report that these also pretty much sucked. Yes, despite the promising peanut aromas, the taste never really developed either a strong chocolatey or peanut edge to it and the blander, drier outer sandwich cookies failed again to hold the usual Oreo quality.

4.9 out of 10

Overall after tasting these two I hope the Indonesian market aren't aware of what they are missing because neither of these were up to usual Oreo standards. I believe both of these flavours are currently available in the US so with any luck I should one day be in a position to compare and contrast.Given what I've tried here I wouldn't say they have much to live up to.

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Oreo Double Stuff Heads or Tails

Kcal 70 Fat 3.5g Carbs 10.5g (per cookie)

I have to thank dedicated JCM follower Thea for supplying me with the last Oreo product I'm showing you today. Thea got in contact with me whilst she was travelling in the US, and via the JCM twitter feed (@Chocmission) kindly offered to bring me back any US products I hadn't managed to source from my pals at AmericanSoda. After a quick glance through some of my fellow American bloggers sites, I happened across a few posts about a new variety of Oreos which I hadn't seen available anywhere in the UK - the Oreo Double Stuff Heads or Tails. Being the awesome person she is, Thea managed to bring back a large 432.0g pack for me - I will of course be eternally grateful :-D

As I'm sure you can tell from my photos, the basic concept behind these Oreo Double Stuff Heads or Tails is that they combine both standard and golden varieties of Oreo (with double stuff filling of course). Personally I don't have much of a preference between either the golden or chocolate biscuits, though if you pushed me I would probably side with the latter. What I liked about these was that they essentially took the decision of either/or out of the equation anyway, and presented me the opportunity to enjoy both varieties at the same time. The golden biscuits offered an enhancement of the vanilla hints from the creme, whilst the chocolate portions delivered the usual, sweet, friendly cocoa flavours synonymous with the standard Oreo cookies. Given there is nothing 'game changing' about these I would struggle to generate an arguement saying these are a 'must try'. With that said I would certainly buy them again given the opportunity, they combine two very good products into one very successfully - not always as easy as it sounds.

8.1 out of 10
 

June 8th: Artisan du Chocolat Tasting Selection Box

It's been a long while since Artisan du Chocolat last featured on the site and judging by the experience that my family and I have just had with this Tasting Selection Box I have to say it has been far too long. Hands up I have to admit we were a bit naughty and opened the box up without the 'Old Man' doing his usual mastery photography - the photos you see today are a mix of the ones I was sent by Artisan and the some shots the 'OM' took of the few remaining pieces left after our first attack on it :-D 

I was sent this 285.0g selection last week and I was instantly struck by the classy presentation and overall high quality feel that radiated from the box. The outer packaging was decorated beautifully with sparkly, subtle branding and the sealing ribbon tie ensuring the inner content remained firmly intact. Opening the box up we were amazed at the sheer number of different chocolates inside - there were so many different colours and shapes in front of us it felt like there was only really one thing we could do about it ....

Assorted Os - These thin disk chocolates felt like a good place to start are there were several different flavours on offer. I went straight for the caramel, my mother the cherry, my sister the lychee & rose and my father went with the honey. All round we felt the chocolate was fantastic and we felt that all of the flavours promised were delivered with stunning accuracy. The fruit flavours were real tasting and distinctive, and the mint discs were refreshing and crisp. The other flavours we sampled were praline, pistachio, passion fruit, cinnamon and the aforementioned mint - all were every bit as tasty as the first lot we sampled. Superb.

No.1 Liquid Salted Caramels - Remember these? (See HERE). I needed no second invitation getting reacquainted with these golden nectar laden truffles. My words will never do these justice but I will try my best. These award winning caramels are some of the finest I've ever tasted and no surprises they all disappeared within seconds of the box being opened. As with everything in the selection the chocolate quality was incredibly high with semi-sweet shells establishing a crisp chocolatey base to every piece. The dusting of cocoa on the shell is a genius, yet slight messy touch with it bringing a welcome contrasting rich cocoa influence on the sweet filling. The caramel centres!? Well what can I say - elements of butter, maple, sugar, honey and salt all rolled in to one. Superb.   

South Sea and Tahiti Pearls - (top to bottom) The top two were white and milk chocolates that contained a rich tasting cocoa ganache. These pieces were not only tremendously good looking, but they also tasted fantastic with the smooth feel centres bursting with cocoa flavours. The bottom Tahiti pearl chocolates were equally as good and hid a delicious hazelnut praline underneath the dark chocolate shells. Very Good.

Dark Truffle - The Old Man made a beeline for these and I don't blame him. This was a simple dark chocolate truffle that had a coating of wonderful cocoa powder. He isn't normally one to comment much on the textures of chocolates but even he remarked on the melt in mouth feel. Very Good.

Milk Truffle - Whilst the Old Man was tucking into the dark variety my mother and sister went about tasting the milk chocolate truffles. These were lighter and more creamier than the above but they enjoyed them every bit as much.Very Good.

Truffle2 - I settled for best of both worlds and tried out this 'Truffle Squared'. This piece was a layered truffle of both milk and dark varieties and was possibly one of my favourite pieces in the entire box. The way the taste built up in it's cocoa strength from it's starter base of sweet creamyness, to it's richer earthier aftertaste was just luxury in every sense. Superb.

Couture Chocolates - Artisan split these chocolates into six different types and we got to try representations of most of them: Fruits, Flowers, Herbs, Spices, Nuts & Seeds and Pure Origins. In our selection box the fruit flavours were the orange and passion fruit chocolates. My fruit chocolate loving mother thought the passion fruit flavour was wonderful and was an accurate depiction of one favourite fruits. Among the 'Flower' cotoures we simply got a honey chocolate - it got a big thumbs up from me. The herb chocolates were sadly not present among the collection. I despise smoking but even I was intrigued by the prospect of a 'tobacco' flavoured coture which was displayed on the menu. The other flavours actually present in the box more than made up for the lacking herb chocolates, the ones that drew the most attention and praise were the Tonka (Spices), Black Cardamom (Spices) and Madagascar Dark (Pure Origins) pieces. The variety each of these different flavours was terrific and made for an exciting and variable experience. Very Good.


Overall it's really hard to sum up this Selection Box without wanting to name every single piece as a 'stand out'. I tried to be succinct in my summaries above but there were just so many good things to say about each variety of chocolate in this wonderful collection that I just couldn't help myself. I get to try plenty of chocolate selections running this site but I don't think there has ever been one that has been able to offer as much variety and quality than this one from Artisan. I think £28.00 is expensive if you are buying a box of chocolates so it's going to have to be something extremely special to justify such a price tag. Well if you ask me Artisan du Chocolat's Tasting Selection Box warrants that price and is one I would recommend to absolutely anybody who appreciates fine chocolates. The truffles are outstanding, the coutures and discs amazingly varied and the caramels ... well ... they are just simply sensational. Before this starts sounding too much like I'm starting up an Artisan du Chocolat fan club (Edit: too late reading this all back haha!!) I will just leave you with the JCM scoring chart - trust me, try it and you wont disagree.

9.2 out of 10

June 6th: Snickers Marathon Smart Stuff Bars

Thank heavens for AmericanSoda!!! Without these guys there would be no way I would be able to keep you lot up to date with all the latest chocolate and candy products coming out in America. The chaps over @Americansoda have just updated their store with some of the newest offerings from Mars, Hershey and Reeses and Nestle (See HERE). Among all the new and exciting products you will see that Mars have developed a brand of bars called 'Smart Stuff' - a sub-brand that they have released under the Snickers/Marathon brand name.

The range consists of several variants of cereal bases bars - three of which I got to try over the last week. Clocking in at 34.9g each and promising no more than 140 calories a bar, these looked to me to be positioned as energy boosting, pro-active lifestyle health bars. What led me to believe this was the on-pack blurb displayed on all three flavours, as each brought attention to the bars packing '8 essential vitamins & minerals', as well as them not containing 'high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners or artificial flavours or colours'. This sounded all well and dandy to me but trust me I've had plenty of so called 'healthy cereal bars' in my time. I was more interested in putting them to the taste test.

Snickers Marathon Smart Stuff Honey Graham

Kcal 140 Fat 4.0g Fat(sats) 1.5g Carbs 22.0g (per bar)

The smell of honey and caramel was very strong here and this was consistent with the taste test that followed. The base layer of chocolate was thin but it was substantial enough to create and impression on the cereal and peanut elements above. Out of all three bars the caramel that fused the cereal together was much thicker and this obviously meant it had a grander say in the total taste. Ultimately this was very very sweet with it's buttery focused caramel flavours, though the saltiness of the peanuts did stem the sugar focus to a reasonable degree. It wasn't the most satisfying out of the three however it was still a good cereal bar in my opinion.

7.7 out of 10
 

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Snickers Marathon Smart Stuff Multi-Grain

Kcal 140 Fat 4.5g Fat(sats) 1.5g Carbs 21.0g (per bar)

This was my least favoured out of the three though that's not saying much as I've rated them all quiet highly. This particular variant was basically the Honey Graham described above, however it didn't have the extra honey and caramel emphasis in the sticky stuff binding the cereal. What was noticeable here was that because there was less emphasis from the caramel, an additional extra hint of cinnamon shone through. Personally I didn't think it played off as well with the peanuts and it was somewhat disruptive to the sweet and salty flavour contrasts as it heavily sent the bar down the sweeter route. 

7.5 out of 10
 

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Snickers Marathon Smart Stuff Chocolate Crisp

Kcal 140 Fat 4.0g Fat(sats) 1.5g Carbs 22.0g (per bar)

In true JCM style I saved the best until last :-D It will probably come as no shock to anyone that the 'chocolate review site' rated the double chocolate variant the best, but I did go in to this comparison review with an open mind and it was frankly just the way it was. The 'double chocolate' proposition lived up to the billing and simply delivered a taste that had a much stronger, more satisfying chocolatey flavour hit. The chocolate taste was sweet and uncomplicated in it's construction of cocoa flavours but I could of cared less because it played off rather nicely with the binding caramel and salty peanuts. I certainly found it the most fulfilling of the three. 

8.1 out of 10

Overall I think Mars can be happy with their cereal bar offerings here and I like the fact they are something altogether completely different to what we have seen from them previously. Mars in the US are a little more adventurous with their new products than Mars UK and it was clever of them to use the Snickers brand to quickly bring a level of familiarity and credibility to the bars straight away. Ask me for a favoured variant and I will point you in the direction of the Chocolate Crisp though the other two are also worth checking out with them being close 2nd/3rd's. Take the health giving credentials with a pinch of salt but there are three nice bars at hand here  I would happily suggest any of them. 

June 5th: Meiji Lucky Stick

Although the summer season has begun in the Far East (thus no chocolates from JList for awhile DOH!!), my friend Peter couldn't help but share one last lot of goodies from his fine array of Japanese snacks and foods - See HERE. Over the past few years I've tried many a different biscuit stick snack from those shores - everything from Picola, Mikado, Fran ... oh yes and of  course the legendary Pocky :-D Well today I got to try yet another biscuit stick brand - this time two flavours from Meiji's 'Lucky Stick' range.

Both of these varieties were sent to me in 45.0g boxes that contained single foil packets full of the biscuit sticks. The two flavours I got to try were the original Milk Chocolate and Cappuccino varieties and I tested them alongside some work colleagues who unsurprisingly were more than happy to lend a helping hand with the taste testing. Before going to detail on that it is worth making mention to the standard of the presentation which was consistent with most products from the Far East in that it was all rather classy. The boxes were constructed with glossy cardboard and articulated the product content well with clear on pack visuals and branding. It was also nice that both had English translations of the on the back so I could tell what the hell I was eating :-D 

Milk Chocolate - 'Biscuit sticks covered with chocolate flavoured cream'

Kcal 210 Fat 10.0g Fat(sats) 5.0g Carbs 28.0g (per 45.0g packet)

These had a nice cookies and cream type vibe to them with the biscuits surprisingly leading the way with the stronger cocoa influence. The milk chocolate coating had a creamier influence on the taste, with the stick portion providing a substantial chocolate, buttery shortbread base for every mouthful. The sticks were noticeably thicker than most other brands but as ever with these sort of snacks to me they were more moreish than substantial. They were universally liked by the taste test group.

7.6 out of 10

Cappuccino - 'Biscuit sticks with cappuccino flavoured cream'

Kcal 220 Fat 11.0g Fat(sats) 4.5g Carbs 28.0g (per 45.0g packet)

These smelt strongly like the instant cappuccino sachets you get and the aromas wafted out the foil packet as soon the seal was broken. Compared to the biscuit sticks of the milk chocolate variety above they weren't as strongly flavoured and had more of a milder, sugary wheat biscuit impact on the taste. The cappuccino cream did bring a creamy coffee aspect to the party, however it was more of a 'fake' coffee influence that one could expect from any run of the mill instant powdered coffee. I was a little disappointed with them in all honesty.

7.0 out of 10 

Overall these were both fair standard biscuit stick products but they certainly weren't special or over and above anything I had experienced before. If you were going to try one of the two I would say to go for the milk chocolate ones as I personally thought they were nicer, more satisfying variety with their stronger taste.   

June 2nd: Heavenly Cakes British Bakewell / Sovereign Shortbread

There's a good chance that 2012 is going to go down as the proudest year in British history. with us celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this weekend and of course the Summer Olympics starting in just a few weeks time. Suffice to say the country is feeling rather good about itself at the moment and there is many a celebration being had up and down the land. I myself will attending a few parties this weekend and no doubt will be raising a glass of swift sherry and burnt banger to our dear Ma'am. Of course I wont be able to turn up at these parties without taking my own contribution to the gathering. Not wanting to be boring and show up with something anyone could have bought from their local supermarket, I thought that this sounded like a job for Heavenly Cakes. Take a look at what they sent across:

Heavenly Cakes British Bakewell

Ladies and Gentlemen I don't like Bakewell Tarts - not even the ones by the daddy himself Mr Kipling. They aren't something I have bought in years, but from memory having them as a kid I just remember them being overly sugary and sickeningly sweet. Suffice to say I really wasn't all that excited by this cake but it managed to exceed expectations and then some. What impressed me first was the look of the cake when I finally negotiate unwrapping it from it's uber sticky wrapper. It looked fantastic with the layers of cake, almond topping, jam and pastry base clearly defined and smelling incredibly fresh. The aromas reminded me of lovely hot croissants so it was no surprise that the taste reminded me of them also. Indeed biting into the cake all memories of Bakewell cakes being sweet and sickly disappeared as I was confronted by a delicious array of golden pastry, buttery nut, vanilla sponge and red fruit flavours.The variety and dexterity of the taste was just fantastic and all these different elements were delivered within a wide range of different textures. There was stickyness, there was crispy pastry and there was moist and light cake, it was just wonderful. I savored every bite of this cake, thank goodness the Heavemly Cakes guys were kind enough to send me a lot of samples. If I only had a few I don't think they would have made it to this weekends parties.

8.8 out of 10

Heavenly Cakes Sovereign Shortbread

Whilst I believe the British Bakewell is going to be available all year round (and so it should be!!), I think I'm right in saying that this Sovereign Shortbread has been specifically created to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee this weekend. This Sovereign Shortbread is essentially Heavenly's Chocolate Shortbread but with a little British twist with the addition of a milk chocolate crown shape at it's centre. Knowing just had good my friend @BettyBakes is with her shortbread I was expectant of good things and Heavenly Cakes being Heavenly Cakes didn't let me down. The biscuit was epically crumbly, and melted in the mouth like butter - a mouth feel entirely suitable given the taste. Indeed the biscuit was just incredible with underlying butter biscuit shortcake flavours complimented expertly with finely balanced elements of sugar and salt. Eating around the middle crown shaped piece it meant I saved the best until very last and the remaining few bites were just utter bliss with the addition of the creamy milk chocolate to the party. Real, bakery fresh biscuits just don't get better than this.

8.3 out of 10

Overall both were superb tasting cakes from Heavenly and part of me can't wait to take them to the parties this weekend to see what everyone makes of them. The other part of me wants to hoard them all to myself but that wouldn't be much in the spirit of British communal cheer now would it :-D I will give an update in a few days to let you know how well these were received.