Valentino Panettone

This is the last review for anything to do with Christmas until at least September... I think! 

And what better way to finish the festive season than with a Panettone. The Valentino Panettone was only £1 in Sainsbury and Mr.1T really enjoyed the Asda Panettone we tried, and so once again, I found myself buying yet more junk food!

In my review of the Asda Extra Special Mini Chocolate Panettone I decided it wasn't as nice as my favourite Christmas cake - Stollen, but I realised afterwards that I didn't really give Panettone a fair try. All the Stollen I've loved have actually been German and imported, so authentic, whereas poor old Panettone only got a review based on a UK supermarket version of 'authentic'. This one however is made in Italy for an Italian company and Sainburys import it in, so no excuses this time round! 

The box was a little busted but it was decorated just as nicely as any other I've seen and the actual cake is kept fresh inside a sealed plastic bag inside. Ripping it open revealed a lovely buttery, fruity smell and where the Asda Panettone had a papery dry outer layer there was nothing of the sort here, it was so moist it felt a bit greasy. 

It's strange, it feels thick and full, for want of a better word, in my mouth but it's actually light and airy. I suppose you could say it has a substantial chew but its not a dense stodgy cake. 

It's not very large but is much bigger than say, a fairy cake and is too big to pick up and stuff the lot in your gob so I took half from where I'd cut it apart to take a photo. Initially, I wasn't impressed with the amount of fruity bits but the cake had a lovely flavour. It was deliciously sweet and buttery, nowhere near as dry as I hoped it wouldn't be and I didn't actually take a sip of drink in the whole time it took me to eat the cake. Impressive for a plain(ish) cake flown thousands of miles over in a little cardboard box! 

I managed to cut through the most sparsely filled part of the whole cake as the rest was jam packed with raisins and candied orange peel. The raisins were large, very sweet, juicy and nice and chewy - there's not much else you can ask for with raisins! The candied orange has a very enjoyable (surprisingly, orange isn't one of my favourite fruits) quite strong flavour and both fruits went perfectly with the buttery cake. 

I'm not a great lover of cake, strangely for someone who nearly survives on junk food, I like a bit of substance in texture but it cant be stodgy and I can't stand fresh cream, again weirdly considering ice cream makes up a good 50% of my diet! As most new cakes include something like salted caramel or a thick chocolate, I find its just too much. Too rich, too sweet, too everything. 

This little Valentino Panettone is the goldilocks of the cake world for me, a lovely thick feeling, un-stodgy cake with sweet, light, almost refreshing flavours from the fruits. 

I'm so sad I found this weeks after Christmas! Until next year Sainsburys!! 

8/10   

Asda Extra Special Mini Chocolate Panetonne

Panettone is a traditional Italian all butter cake and I'm ashamed to say I've never tried one before! In all honesty this is the first year I've tried lots of Christmas treats, I was so fussy I normally stuck to chocolate, Danish cookies and shortbread. Last year was the year of the stollen but I thought I'd be brave and try some new things this year. 

I should probably preface this review with another admission. I'm not that keen on cake either with the exception of muffins, plain fairy cakes and stollen. This wasn't looking good! 

I chose the Asda Extra Special Mini Chocolate Panettone for one reason and one reason only. I wanted a small, one portion (in case I didn't like it) chocolate chip Panetonne and Sainsbury's had sold out. I hadn't read any of the guides on Panettone so I had no clue whether this was one of the better supermarket ones or not.

The box was beautiful, it felt a real shame to tear it open and the contents looked lovely too although the paper wrapping around the bottom half of the cake did mean I lost a good chunk when I removed it - still silver linings, that must mean the bottom is nice and moist, surely. 

It smelt buttery with a slight hint of chocolate and strangely raisins, there aren't any raisins in here at all so I wonder if my brain has just associated the sweet Christmas fruit cake smell with the buttery sweet scent of the Panettone. 

It was a strange one, the outside of the cake had like a thin, papery feeling layer which was dry and tasteless but the actual inside was much better. It was a lot moister than it looked but still was quite dense and doughy feeling. Somehow despite this doughy type texture it was surprisingly lighter and less stodgy than it should have been - a complete contradiction I know! 

I wasn't keen on the chocolate chips, they were OK - it doesn't say whether they're dark or milk chocolate but they seemed a little too strong and rich for milk. They worked against the airy, sweet, buttery cake but I wouldn't eat them alone. 

Mr.1T raved about this but Stollen still holds my heart! 

6/10 

Mr Kipling limited edition Cocktail Fancies

I've said before I don't really like cakes, I'd normally walk straight past these Mr Kipling Fancies but a Daiquiri is my absolute favourite cocktail so I had to try the Cocktail fancies. 

There are eight to a box, a strange number if you ask me considering that gets you three of the cream coloured Piña Colada flavour, three of the orange Peach Bellini flavour and only two pink Raspberry Daiquiri. 

All three are your normal sponge Fancie with a vanilla flavoured topping but the cocktail flavours lie in the fondant icing. There is no alcohol in any of the cakes. Sadly. 

I don't like fondant. That is what it is with these type of cakes, I'll happily eat as many Fairy Cakes as you can put in front of me but that horrible icing you can keep thank you very much! 

The cakes were fluffy and moist, tasty for a mass produced cake, the vanilla cream was fine too - not too much and not too strong tasting, in fact it got lost a little but the texture was good with the sponge cake and the thick icing. 

I started with Peach Bellini, as I don't really care for peach so though I'd get the one I was least looking forward to eaten first. I'd read on other blogs (linked in the side bar >>) that people were quite disappointed as it wasn't very peachy. That wasn't the case with the one I picked out of the box at all! When I had all three cakes infront of me all I could smell was peach! The flavour was much the same, a sweet strong Peach, I couldn't taste any champagne though but the Peach could have overpowered it. Really tasty flavour, despite my usual dislike of peach! 8/10 

I then tried the Piña Colada flavour. While it had a nice summery taste to it I couldn't have picked out Pineapple or coconut at all. I even looked on the box to double check what this was supposed to be and I definitely couldn't taste either in my cake. It was nice but coming after the Peach Bellini it has to get a 6/10 

Last but not least (hopefully) was Raspberry Daiquiri. My Daiquiri of choice is banana if fresh ones are available, closely followed by strawberry but raspberry will do just fine. The raspberry was quite a mild flavour and left more of a lingering aftertaste rather than the flavour jolt the peach gave me. The flavour is described as raspberry Daiquiri rather than raspberry but I couldn't taste any rum flavour at all. Another light, tasty cake but not as strong as the flavour in the peach. rating 7/10 

Overall I really enjoyed these little Fancies, they tasted very summery and would go perfect with a glass of something sweet and fizzy on a warm evening in the garden! Hopefully they'll still be on sale by the time an evening like that rolls round in this country! 

Rating 7/10 

Mr Kipling milkshake cakes

I'm not a great lover of cake I have to be honest, we always have cakes in the house for my fiancée but they're usually from the bakery with lots of fresh cream - not for me. I noticed these new flavoured and smaller sized packs of milkshake cakes from Mr Kipling and if there's one thing I do like its a milkshake. 

All three have vanilla flavoured filling (14%) between the flavour of milkshake sponge topped with the chosen flavoured fondant icing (24%)

I decided to try the chocolate first, although I don't even want to think about how much chocolate I eat normally I can't remember a time where I've ever picked it as a milkshake flavour. Still it's a chocolate cake so should be easy enough. 

I don't really have much to say about the chocolate and vanilla milkshake cake. Some positives were the cake was soft, moist and pretty tasty. The negatives were where was the chocolate? This is the only one of the three to have two different flavour sponges - vanilla and chocolate and from the packets the only one not to have a flavoured fondant, just a decorated one. That came across in flavour, I could taste the vanilla filling but really the sugary fondant drowned out any chocolate I might have tasted in the cake. I tried this one first, and my other half last and he agreed it didn't really taste like a milkshake so I didn't just have a dodgy one either. 

Rating 6/10 

I went for banana milkshake for the next one I tried, he'd already had one and despite hating banana was raving about it so no pressure after chocolate! As soon as I opened the little individually wrapped square the smell of banana struck me. It was very strong especially compared to the chocolate. This has a banana flavoured sponge and fondant and mixed with the vanilla Mr Kipling has got the taste of banana milkshake bang on. There's nothing more to say really, I had no faults with this little cake, it's a delicious treat and I'll be fighting with the so called banana hater over the last one! 

Rating 9/10  

Last but not least I tried strawberry milkshake, my first choice when it comes to actual  milkshakes - the cake and fondant are strawberry flavoured like with the banana. As with the previous two the cakes are nice and moist, despite having been in my cupboard for a couple of weeks and nearing the end of their shelf life, with a thick firm fondant. The scent was again very strong when I opened it up but interestingly my immediate thoughts with this was that it smelt like strawberry milkshake - the banana smelt of a slightly artificial banana but this didn't smell like a punnet of strawberries or even strawberry sweets - more like a thick creamy milkshake from Wimpy (my guilty pleasure! You can keep the Bender in a Bun though, thanks). The flavour was again spot on - I'm not sure which was stronger, probably the strawberry but together. With the vanilla they combined to make a perfect milkshake taste in cake form. If I wasn't so impressed by the banana milkshake this would be a 9 too. 

Rating 8/10 

Thorntons Sticky Toffee cake slices

I don't think these cake slices are new but I've not noticed them before, maybe it's new packaging. 

I decided to have one today as I fancied something sweet but even I've managed to overdo it on the chocolate this Easter. 

When we bought these we were unsure as you can't remove the cardboard without breaking it, but all 5 slices are individually packaged. It's nice manufacturers have finally cottoned on that so much nice food is wasted when you only fancy one or two sweet treats and the rest end up going stale. Not that that happens often in this house, I open something nice and he polishes them off while I'm not looking! 

The icing on the top of the cake looks pretty, has a decent toffee flavour and as it's quite thick gives a slight crunch to each mouthful. 

The cake is where my problems lay though. Maybe it's just my pack as they do go off tomorrow, but considering they're all in air tight little compartments, they're quite dry. Not stale tasting, just dry and left me needing a swig of drink once I'd finished it. 

I don't think I'd buy this version again on that basis - but there is a chocolate version available too that was returned to the shelf in favour of this, that I'd like to try. Hopefully the cake itself will be moister as Thorntons have managed the flavour. 

Rating 6/10 

Müller Light Dessert Inspired Apple Pie

I finally got around to trying the Apple Pie variety of the Dessert Inspired range from Müller light today, I reviewed Banoffee Pie here but I've been putting off trying this one. I'm not a fan of apple pie to be honest, I love apples, not so much pie but you can't buy these separately at the moment. 

This time round the yogurt had developed that horrible watery layer, nothing a good stir didn't fix. It does look similar to the Banoffee Pie albeit slightly less yellow but it's not apple green thank God! 

Again the cake pieces are plentiful, they aren't as big as they were before but it doesn't really make any difference. 

This yogurt really confused me. I had a mouthful and couldn't really taste apple, then I got the aftertaste which was pure apple. It kind of carried on this way again throughout the tub, some mouthfuls being a lot stronger than others but the overall flavour - when I took proper spoonfuls and wasn't rooting around for cake - is quite an artificial apple. It's weird but it's an addictive artificial taste, it wouldn't stand up against the real deal but I liked it here! 

Towards the end I started finding pieces with a different texture to the cake and noticed that this was where the flavour was more concentrated. On the ingredients list there are two separate apples, one being a vague "Apple (3.5% )" and so I'm going to guess that there are little pieces of this in here. You can't tell to look though, as they're roughly the same size and shape as the cake and once it's all covered in the yogurt the same colour too. 

I didn't really like the idea of an apple pie yogurt, but it wasn't actually bad. I wouldn't buy it as a stand alone, but as I won't give these away the next time I want to buy the multipack with the banoffee. 

Hopefully now I don't have to continuously keep writing apple it will start to sound like a real word again! 

Rating 6/10 

Müller light Dessert Inspired Banoffee Pie

Müller have release a new line of multipack light yogurts called Dessert Inspired, today I picked up Banoffee Pie and Apple Pie. 

They're yogurts with added crushed cake pieces and first up I tried Banoffee Pie. 

The yogurt suprised me actually, while light yogurts can be quite watery this one was slightly creamier and it didn't need a good stir to get rid of the layer you sometimes find on the top of these types. 

The flavour itself is nice, it's a bit of a mixed bag with some mouthfuls predominantly banana and others more toffee. Looking at the ingredients there are flavourings used aswell as 1.5% actual banana purée which probably explains why every now and then like eating a liquidised banana! 

It's driving me mad but the taste really reminds me of something banana/Banoffee flavoured I've eaten quite recently but I can't remember for the life of me what it was. If anyone try's this and knows what it tastes just like please let me know! 

Although according to the ingredients, cake pieces only make up 2%, I seemed to have a lot in mine. The pieces were larger than I expected aswell and I did enjoy them, they make a nice change from fruit, cereal and chocolate. 

The crushed cake didn't have a noticable taste to itself, but I think that's a good thing, the yogurt gives the flavour and the cake adds a nice, spongey texture. 

I preferred this Müller to the one I tried last week. If you like banana or Banoffee Pie it's worth trying. 

Rating 7/10 

Hostess Twinkies

If you're reading this and you've never heard of a Twinkie I'm impressed! They're mentioned in hundreds of films and TV shows and I believe there was a (obviously) succsessful campaign to bring them back last year after production was stopped. 

I've never been tempted to buy them as they always seem to hover around the £5 mark but my fiancé appeared with a box he found in B&M claiming he had to buy them as he'd loved them when we visited Vegas a few years ago ?!

Seeing as I'm out of chocolate I gave one a try. Each cake is individually wrapped and the box we have contained 10 pretty decently sized cakes. 

The cakes are lovely and moist, you can see in the photo of the bottom how soft they are - although that could be slightly worrying as I'm sure if you shipped a box of cakes the other way they wouldn't still be as 'fresh'. This is probably to do with the ingredients list as big as 3/4 of the large box! I've just actually sat and counted and there are 40(!!) ingredients listed, E numbers galore and a nice warning about adverse reactions and activity and attention in children... Yum! 

Ingredients aside I tried this 'sponge cake with creamy filling' and was seriously unimpressed. For all the hype Twinkies have I was expecting at least something a little special but this is just a glorified fairy cake! The cake itself is fine, literally just a sponge cake. The filling is a bit strange not whipped cream, not cream cream. I think it does make the cake slightly more enjoyable but not more so than a decorated fairy cake. Do yourself a favour and buy 12 fairy cakes from any supermarket or corner shop for around 90p, I'm glad it wasn't my money spent on these! 

Rating 5/10