Oh Cadburys, tease!

Now, if you are a chocolate lover, then like me you will be majorly excited about the new Dairy Milk anouncement's on Twitter! I have a really good feeling about these new flavours & as soon as I get my mitts on them I will be sure to taste & review them... because, ya know, I'm self-less like that.

Twitter is marvellous, yet a monster tease all at the same time. 21 hours ago they posted this cryptic, mouthwatering tweet: 

I did try and guess. I really did, but I'm shocking at guessing... So the first picture reminds me slightly of a Rocky Road bar - and that was my initial thought... however after a couple of minutes of drooling and pining over this tempting picture a crazy thought popped into my head: COCONUT!?

See how I've typed it? That's exactly how I thought it. It seems too crazy but then again turkish delight seemed crazy and that's a firm favourite of many chocolate fiends!

FIRST PICTURE:

The second picture from afar really reminded me of a Milky Way, a soft nougat look. A child friendly choice - an audience I feel Cadburys have slightly neglected. Are they going for sophistication? A grown up choccie? Upon enlarging the picture and studying it for a while my final guess was Cheesecake... I know, ridiculous again BUT it does look cheese-cakey... don't you think? *INSERT LAUGHTER IN DISBELIEF HERE*

SECOND PICTURE:

Anyway, when I find out I will be sure to  let you know/ridicule my insane suggestions! If you try them, then please, let me know :) What were your guesses?

x Danika x

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Why, how refreshing!

Ooh, I do love a good Childhood memory.

So I haven't had a Refresher bar in absolutely ages! Last night my younger sister decided to take an impromptu trip to the local shop and being the wonderful sister I am I decided to accompany her sans money... No, I wasn't expecting anything, I swear ;)

However, I did get a little treat. Yep, you guessed it a Refreshers bar. For only 12p from my local shop it feels like somewhat of a steal.

I chose the strawberry flavour, it's always been a firm favourite of mine, since my days as a child & into sixth is was an affordable sugar fix that tastes just so darn scrummy. The taste is, as you'd expect from a 12p sweet, very synthetic. There is no way you could confuse what you were eating for a real strawberry, but it is enjoyable and the added 'fizz' from the popping candy pieces in it makes for a fun treat experience. My only grumble is the initial break-your-teeth consistency of it, although its easily resolved with a bit of moisture and heat - ya mouth! I'm always pleasantly surprised when I eat a refreshers bar too, I mean the fact that I spend minimal time trying to get it out of my teeth is - PUN COMPLETELY INTENDED - refreshing! Normally with a chewy sweet you are constantly fixing your teeth or unsticking the roof of your mouth, such a pain and no way to enjoy a guilty little pleasure!

I'm a bit of a sensory girl, smells and tastes often remind me of people and past events, refreshers are no exception, I always get a real feeling of summer as a kid when I eat these, I can only assume they are a staple sweet treat in the summer holidays for me!

Who else has childhood memories with confectionary? Original or Strawberry flavour? Lemme know.

x Danika x

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I WANNA SATCHEL!

Oh Juno Temple. Isn't she marvellous?

Now to the business at hand... ASOS is without a doubt my favourite Online Shopping experience, whether it's for browsing or a serious shopping spree, I love the layout & graphics and pure selection of fashion items. BUT shall I tell you why else I'm loving them right now. They only went and sent a bar of Galaxy chocolate with the monthly 'magazine'. I was chuffed to say the least! 

To keep on topic (roughly) of this blog, I would like to share with you my ultimate sweet treat this month! SATCHELS.

The top row of bags are to die for, and with their bright, candy colours I think they well and truly deserve a place on this Blog. 

Having spotted various young women sporting the satchel look with teeny, tiny jeans and oversized knits & jumpers I initially turned my nose up to the trend as a total hipster/indie look - something I just can't get on board with, no matter how good it looks on other people. This all changed, one fateful day when I was flicking through the painfully cool pages of ASOS and happened upon the above page... BUSY BAGS. Take a peek at the top middle bag, a Kate Sheridan Triangle-Print Bag (Product Code: E1NW88) for £122 - OOFT I WANT IT SO BADLY! Sadly, my poor bank account just cannot handle that type of spending... my dreams dashed right? 

WRONG!

I was trawling my local highstreet just yesterday when I spotted some gorgeous satchels in Beales, which, although still a rather pricey brand, 'Zatchels', the prices are easier to stomach and with an impressive selection of designs from pastel to polka dot to classic it's so hard for me not to lust after them all! So next paycheck... need I say more?

Anyone else liking the Satchel trend? What do you think about Zatchels?

x Danika x

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i heart baking!: fresh plum ice cream

i heart baking!: fresh plum ice cream: It's plum season!  And so I decided to make a batch of plum ice cream.  I found the pefect recipe in my favorite ice cream book, David Le...

GlossyBox... For Sweets!?

I've just had a run in with google. 

Greatly frustrated I have turned to this blog for a little moan about the lack of understanding between myself and the google search box. 

First Search: Is there a Confectionary version of Glossy Box? 

In hopes of being led to a yahoo answers page or something similar I innocently typed this question into the search engine... To no avail. To be honest I thought the search might prove FAILSOME but all the same I was mildly frustrated. Instead of answers I was given alternatives. I didn't want alternatives. I wanted the darn answer!

So I proceeded with: Confectionary Taster Box

I know. A long shot. This was even more vague than my first attempt but sometimes simple terms are the only way google comprehends. How wrong this combination of words turned out to be, luxury gift boxes of chocolate was 100% NOT what I was looking for. 

Finally: Confectionary Box

I typed this in pretty heavy handedly, thought slight annoyance. It turns out that 'angry typing' doesn't encourage the search AT ALL! This time I think googles little brain exploded, it chucked out links left right & centre. As long a there was 'BOX' or 'CONFECTIONARY' somewhere in the description google seemed to think we were onto a winner. We weren't.

No, I'm not mad at Google really. I'm mad at the stupid confectionary business for having not realised how awesome Glossybox (& other such brands) are and then not creating a lovely sweets based version. Imagine the 'international box' - a box I know recently featured with glossybox - with Candys & Chocolates from USA & most excitingly, Japan!? 

Let me know your ideas on this or more importantly if you know of a company then get them more google-fied & tell me about them. I'm itching to sign up!

x Danika x

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Raspberry Glory

Raspberry Chocolate Cupcakes.

Now, I don't profess to be a master of the baking world. Infact, my cakes have been known to go hideously wrong. But when I get it right, my goodness do I get it right. Cue image of head expanding. I adore Raspberries, I mean they're wonderfully refreshing & beautiful fruits. Berries always envoke a major summer feeling with me & to combine this with the cosy taste sensation of cake & dark chocolate is quite frankly mind-blowing! Honest.

So just to wet your appetite, to give you a taste of what you can expect from here I am giving you a recipe & a YOU-HAD-TO-BE-THERE story of the shopping trip that proceeded these cakes. Lucky things.

*Skip now if you hate funny stories that are only funny if you were there*

THE SHOPPING TRIP.

So myself & a wonderful pal took a trip to Southampton Asda. It was , needless to say, thrilling. Upon arrival we were confronted with a rather inconspicuous thief of a man, walking out of the premises with a full trolley of clearly unpaid for goods (he was leaving from the entrance - cunning) ... brazenly he left the building with not so much as a second look for security or many other customers. We did start to worry we may not have witnessed anything at all, that maybe it was just a strange coincidental hallucination. It shall always remain a mystery!

After the shock had worn off, we began to mull over the various beautiful baking goods. Again I was forced to question my own sanity when I began to feel dripping water upon my forehead. Never has a more puzzled look been seen upon a woman's face than the look upon mine at that very moment. Luckily, sanity prevailed and it was infact a leak in the roof, and typical of my life I managed to pick the exact position of this leak to stand under to browse the decadent aisles. I did complain about the leak, health and safety & all that ya know!

Finally, after much deliberation we has purchased our baking goods. It was exciting. We decided, very wisely, to use the self service checkouts, causing us to witness the greatest queue moments ever. The most determined & 'bare-faced cheek of it all' queue jumper of all time approached a young woman in the line at the till. I kid you not, these very words fell from his mouth "Sorry. Can I go before you? I don't want to line. I only have this. I just want to go in front. Let me go in front of you!" She refused, and rightly so, but the complete look of shock on everyone's faces were brilliant, I mean... WHO DOES THAT!?

Supermarkets are fun. I enjoy human watching.

THE RECIPE!
PREHEAT OVEN: 180*c/350*F/Gas Mark 4

50g (2oz) Dark Chocolate
120ml (4fl.oz) Water
2 eggs
225g (8oz) Brown Sugar
100g (4oz) Softened Butter
100g Self Raising Flour
2 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
100g Frozen Raspberries
Tub of Butter Icing & Pink Food colouring
OR
150g (5oz) Butter Softened
250g (9oz) Icing Sugar
2 drops Vanilla Essence
Hot water (roughly 2 tablespoons)

(Don't splash out on fancy ingredients. These cupcakes are divine with Tesco Value, Sainsbury's Basics etc products!)

STEP ONE
Stir the Chocolate & Water over low heat until smooth in texture, then let it cool.

STEP TWO
Mix the eggs, brown sugar & butter. Beat until the mixture is just combined. Here is where you should put on your Workout Playlist... serious effort require next. Unless you have special gadgets in your kitchen, in which case stick to Enya.

STEP THREE
Next you want to sift in the flour & cocoa powder, this is where you need to get those muscles working and stir until well combined. Otherwise you'll find it will be lumpy & bumpy in consistency!

STEP FOUR
Now, hopefully you haven't lost that chocolate and water mixture during this process. If you you haven't WELL DONE, mix in to you cake mix until just combined. If you did lose it then I'd suggest taking up another hobby!

STEP FIVE
Right, I like this part! Using a teeny tiny teaspoon, transfer your Cake Mix into 12 bun cases up to half full. Then fish out your frozen raspberries & put 2 to 3 of these yummy creatures into each bun case. Then using the remaining mixture, cover the raspberries. (I'll admit, that last bit cause me great distress as I was so excited thinking the remaining mixture was for eating!) They're now ready for the oven, give them 20 - 25 minutes (20 is normally plenty!) then let them cool.

STEP SIX
Decorate however you wish. Seriously, butter icing is wonderful, but I think some lovely melted chocolate or chocolate spread would taste marvelous on these cakes. Now eat & enjoy my lovelies!

Comment if you wish, tell me of any variations you tried and let me know how this recipe worked out for you!

x Danika x

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Sweets & Such Like.

Hello there. My name's Danika. This is what I love. 

Not just that, I love theatre, music, socialising & general life shenanigans. It has come to my attention that Blogging & YouTube is super fun and full of shenanigans, it's a no brainer really then that I've signed myself up and started a YouTube Channel (as of yet Video-Less whilst I magic up a lovely first video for you) & to Blogspot for a spot of blogging ... I'm hilarious.

I guess what you can expect to see are reviews, favourites, recipes, taste tests, tutorials & stupid challenges I probably shouldn't do but the temptation will be too strong, I will crumble beneath the pressure and subsequently regret eating that tablespoon full of cinnamon. 

If you like it then follow & subscribe please, I'd love that. It would probably make me resemble the Cheshire Cat a little, which would be fun. I think I'd Instagram (@SweetestThingSnaps) that or Tweet (@SweetThingTweet) a witty analogy. Who knows? 

x Danika x