The Custom Cupcake Company Chocolate Decadence Cupcake (white chocolate)

Product name: The Custom Cupcake Company Chocolate Decadence Cupcake (white chocolate)
Purchase details: £2.00 for one cupcake (The Custom Cupcake Company)
Country of origin: England 

I think The Custom Cupcake Company has become my guilty pleasure – as soon as I have a non-diet day, I’m there!

Two of the apparently staple varieties that have been available on all my visits so far are the Chocolate Decadence Cupcakes that come in both milk and white chocolate. Since I’m a white chocolate fiend, I thought I’d opt for the latter on this occasion.

This cake was quite simply decorated but still looked beautiful. The yellow sponge was topped with a thick, swirled cream-coloured frosting and finished with three giant white chocolate buttons, a drizzle of melted white chocolate, and a sprinkling of edible glitter. The girl in the shop had told me that the treat was filled with a white chocolate ganache and this pale filling flowed almost seamlessly into the frosting.

As much as I love white chocolate, I often find that when it’s used in other things, its own flavour gets lost. However, on opening the carry box, I was surprised to be greeted by a white chocolatey scent. Having actually bought the cake two days in advance, I was also delighted to discover that the sponge wasn’t dry, and its sweet and creamy taste led me to believe that white chocolate had actually been incorporated into the mixture.

The generous frosting had a slightly crispy outer layer which gave way to a soft, grainy depth. As I’ve found previously, it was very sweet but, combined with the mellower elements of the Cupcake, I didn’t find this as extreme as the Berries & Cream Cupcake. The frosting and inner ganache also provided a lovely moisture, with the latter tasting gorgeously of white chocolate and having a fantastic smooth and partly solidified texture.

I’d definitely say that this was another treat for the sweet-toothed but the inner creaminess did offset this. As I’ve said, the subtle white chocolate flavour can be hard to pull off, and the sugary frosting did take away from this at times, but the desired taste was never completely lost and I think the addition of the fantastically sweet, creamy and chunky buttons played a part in this.

If I were to suggest an improvement, it would be to make the ganache a bigger feature – it was so delicious that it was a shame there wasn’t more of it! However, there is no denying that this was an indulgent treat exactly as it was.

I can’t wait for my next visit!

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.75/10

Tesco Chokablok: Utter nutter rock star

Product name: Tesco Chokablok: Utter nutter rock star
Purchase details: £1.40 for an 80g bar (tesco.com)
Calories: 112 per 20g serving (448 per bar)

Country of origin: UK

I’m a big fan of Tesco’s Chokablok range so I was excited when I spotted this new Utter nutter rock star variety.

Made by House of Dorchester, this slab was made up of milk chocolate (containing a minimum of 30% cocoa solids and 20% milk solids) that had been swirled with dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids minimum). It came in the usual simple and transparent packaging, which allowed the glory of the bar to be displayed, and the cardboard was a burnt orange colour to represent this particular variety.

 

The bar was Chokablok (see what I did there?!) of ‘caramelised hazelnuts and macadamia nuts’. Since my only previous experience of macadamia nuts had been with the Subway White Chip Macadamia Nut Cookie, I couldn’t wait to tuck into this product. These nuts contributed to 6% of the bar and were chopped up, whilst the hazelnuts accounted for 8% and remained whole, having the appearance of a slightly less bumpy popcorn. To finish off the attractive appearance, the bar was topped with different-sized milk chocolate stars, as well as edible glitter.

I’d never turned over a bar of Chokablok before, due to the topping becoming dislodged, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was more attention to detail on the base. There were divisions marked for easy breakage (not that I used them!), the product name was imprinted across the chocolate, and I loved that the nuts were visible all the way through.

The Tesco Chokablok: Utter nutter rock star gave off a proper chocolate smell that was of a good quality with a slightly woody nut element. The hazelnuts themselves tasted exactly as you’d expect but, on their own, they weren’t particularly caramelised. In contrast, the macadamia nuts were lovely and sugary, providing a hard and crispy texture that contrasted well with the soft crunch of the hazelnuts.

The slab itself had a smooth and quite milky chocolate flavour which had a slightly bitter aftertaste from the dark chocolate. Despite being thin, the stars added to the very chocolatey experience, and the overall texture from the chocolates was chunky yet soft. The slab also melted well, and the Chokablok logo provided an interesting and bumpy texture, but the nuts obviously prevented a comfortable melt in all sections of the bar.

As hoped, this was a very enjoyable product, and I loved how creamy the chocolate was. However, the highlight for me was the caramelised macadamia nuts, since these provided a fantastic sugary flavour and crunch that reminded me slightly of the Ritter Sport Gebrannte Mandel bar. 

Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 8.5/10

The Custom Cupcake Company Peanut Butter Brownie

Product name: The Custom Cupcake Company Peanut Butter Brownie
Purchase details: £2.50 for a 165g brownie (The Custom Cupcake Company)
Country of origin: England

On Saturday, I was introduced to The Custom Cupcake Company for the first time, and treated to an incredible Snickers Cupcake. Over an hour after leaving (when I was nearly home), I realised I’d left behind my shopping bag that contained my Mum’s Mothers’ Day present, so I gave the shop a call. To my delight, the lady on the phone confirmed that they had the bag and that they’d keep it safe for me until I was able to collect it. I agreed to return the next day and decided it would be rude not to buy more treats while I was there!

On my original visit, the man behind the till had been extremely helpful in explaining the contents of each cupcake (they have a whopping 130+ varieties on rotation), so I knew what I was going to buy as treats for my family before I’d arrived for my second visit.

For myself, though, I knew I just had to have their Peanut Butter Brownie. I mean, just look at it!

Is that not just one of the most beautiful things you have ever seen? Not only was it huge, but the dense wodge of chocolatey goodness had been lovingly topped with peanuts, chocolate pieces, peanut butter, a chocolate frosting, caramel and edible glitter. Now, I love my homemade peanut butter brownies – they make me reluctant to try others – but this seemed to take the concept to a whole new level. I must also express my gratitude to the guy who served me on Sunday since, completely unprompted (and having no knowledge of my review), he served me what I thought was the biggest and best-looking brownie from the middle of the selection, rather than just grabbing the nearest one to him. ‘Someone’s got to have it’, he said...and that someone was me – yay! (For the record, they did all look good, this one just had the edge.)

The brownie had a cakey peanut butter scent and, cutting through it, it felt very moist and gooey. I couldn’t resist trying each part of the topping individually – the peanuts were salty, the chocolate was fantastically chunky, the caramel drizzle was nice and sweet, whilst the chocolate frosting seemed to be like a tasty buttercream.

Since one side of my brownie was an outer edge, I started here first, expecting it to be slightly dry. Whilst this wasn’t the case in itself, it was more like a standard chocolate sponge here, albeit a slightly moister and heavier one. As I got nearer to the centre, though...oh...my...days. This was like a brownie proper – it didn’t have the slightly crispy outer shell that I love but, other than that, the texture was spot on. It was so dense and stiff and, with the pockets of peanut butter throughout, it stuck to the roof the mouth in a way I really enjoyed. There were also a few actual peanuts scattered through this mixture which added a bit of crunch here and there.

In terms of taste, this brownie was extremely chocolatey. I felt that the peanut butter’s flavour in the brownie itself was quite subtle, but there was certainly a bit of saltiness. However, it was the topping that made the brownie so special – it was where the main peanut flavours came from and its rugged texture really mixed things up a bit too.

In case you were in any doubt, I thoroughly enjoyed this Peanut Butter Brownie, and it went superbly with a glass of milk. There is no doubt in my mind that I will be returning to The Custom Cupcake Company – there are a lot of treats for me to work my way through!

Appearance: 9.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.5/10