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