Hotel Chocolat 'You Crack Me Up Extra Thick' Easter Egg

The wonderful people at Hotel Chocolat contacted me recently asking if I would like to review one of their Easter eggs....and of course I said yes! (I would have been a fool not to, since their chocolate is to die for!)

......So when the postman delivered me a beautifully presented, gift-wrapped parcel the other day I was incredibly excited!!

'Easter 'You Crack Me Up Extra Thick' Egg'

 The description of this Easter egg on their website certainly gets the mouth watering!

'When we first started making our eggs 13 years ago, we were 

advised by experts to make them as thin as possible and put the chocolates on the outside.

 We did the opposite!

Our irresistibly upbeat extra thick Easter egg is cast in milk chocolate 

and our award-winning high-cocoa white chocolate, and inside you'll discover 

12 smiley face pralines and happy chicks.'

....with a description like that how can you say no?!?!

'Thick Easter Egg accompanied by 12 smiley face Pralines and happy Chicks'

'Cast in Milk Chocolate and our award-winning high-cocoa White Chocolate'

Hotel Chocolat are fabulous chocolatiers that have a strong ingredients philosophy to use only wholesome, real ingredients and their mantra is 'More Cocoa, Less Sugar'. 

What makes these eggs even more enticing is that they are suitable for vegetarians, and are alcohol free!

Now onto the actual egg!

After spending about 20 minutes convincing myself that this egg needed to be opened in spite of the gorgeous parcelling, I finally mustered up the courage to rip into the beautiful packaging and stopped short in shock when I came across what seemed to be a mahoosive egg-shaped lump of chocolate...

'415g/ 14.6 oz'

....Now i've never had a Hotel Chocolat egg before, and I am admittedly a bit of a pessimist. So when I read the description of this egg and saw that it was supposedly 'extra thick'....I thought 'Yeah right....it might be a tiny bit thicker than the competition on the market but it won't be amazingly thick'

Guys.....it was AMAZINGLY thick!! I have to say I am delighted to let you guys know that I was wrong, and I am pleasantly surprised with the thickness of this egg!

Aesthetically, this egg is simply fantastic! The mix of their award winning white and milk chocolate creates an eye popping 'marble' effect and gives this egg that added 'oomph' that you desire in a nice high-end egg!

'Suitable for Vegetarians'

Taste wise...the egg is even more amazing than it looks! The chocolate is creamy and smooth and melts wonderfully in the mouth. I can honestly say I have no complaints whatsoever with this egg, appearance or taste wise!

'Extra Thick Egg!...Warning! May require excessive force to dig in! ;)'

Following the mad frenzy that ensued when my family pounced on this egg....all eyes (and stomachs) turned towards the 12 delightfully cute chocolates stuffed inside the egg. These were;

'More Cocoa, Less Sugar'

Chocolate Brownie x2 : Crispy chocolate buttercream encased in milk chocolate.

Crunchy Praline x2 : Crunchy biscuit pieces and praline encased in mocha chocolate.

Milk Praline Fried Egg x2: A milk chocolate, hazelnut, praline-filled half shell, topped with a white chocolate fried egg.

Milk Chocolate Chick x2:  A flightless, fabulous chick cast in mellow and creamy 40% milk chocolate.A

White Soldiers x2: Creamy white chocolate soldiers pre-dipped with a dollop of creamy chocolate yolk.

Smooth Caramel Bow Tie Bunny x2: A dapper Easter bunny cast in smooth and sensual caramel milk chocolate.

'12 Delicious chocolates found within each egg!'

Overall, all of these mini chocolates tasted delicious and fit in nicely with the egg. My personal favourites were the Chocolate Brownie (the smoothness of the chocolate buttercream was simply divine) and the White Soldiers (the white chocolate was the best white chocolate i've ever tasted).

In Conclusion, this egg is all you could ever want or need from an Easter egg. It does come at a marginally expensive price of £28....however believe me when I say this: These eggs are well worth the cost!!

As said previously, I have never brought a Hotel Chocolat egg, this is most likely due to the price which I assume is quite a big issue for many people. However, since trying this egg I am 100% certain that I will from now on buy Hotel Chocolat eggs. Compared to the typical Dairy Milk or Malteser Easter eggs that can be brought for £5 or £10....this egg is much more upmarket, and the taste certainly matches price! This was a 'eggcellent' egg, and an even more wonderful tasting experience! 

Quality over quantity was never more true!....Their mantra of 'More Cocoa, Less Sugar' is definitely apparent in these eggs!

To buy one of these fabulous eggs (which I definitely recommend to all my fellow chocoholics!)...You can find it (and other varieties) on Hotel Chocolat's website here.

....And for offers and competitions you can follow them on twitter here or like them on facebook here.


I received this product in order to produce an honest review, and all views/opinions expressed are completely my own.

Would I buy this again? YES!....100% 

Cadbury Wishes: 'Little Wishes'

 Today's review is another Christmas themed product brought out by Cadbury to target the Christmas market!
This time it's miniature versions of the 'Cadbury Wishes Chocolate Star' that we saw last year at Christmas time!

128g packet...contains 175kcal per 1/4 bag

I've got to say before even opening the packet, the fact that Cadbury have teamed up with the 'Make a Wish' foundation and 10% of all profits from this brand of their chocolate goes to the foundation pretty much sold me on this chocolate! Especially at Christmas time, I think this partnership is amazing and hopefully the profits will go a long way in making seriously ill children's wishes come true!

These 'Little Wishes' are essentially mini versions of the larger Cadbury Wish except that there are two kinds of mini stars. Pure Milk Chocolate or Milk Chocolate with a truffle centre....sounds intriguing!

Inside the bag there is definitely a fair amount of chocolate, so well worth my money! Each bag weighs in at 128g and contains 175 calories per quarter of the bag...so a perfect evening treat! Currently these chocolates are reasonably priced at £1 and can be found in all major supermarkets.

First appearances, these little stars look very cute....and dangerously tempting! As mentioned above, there are two separate fillings and these can be recognised by the two different designs on the front of the stars. The 'Pure milk chocolate' star can be recognised by another star bordering the inside edges (shown on the left above), and the 'Milk chocolate with truffle filling' star can be recognised by three smaller stars in the centre (shown on the right above).
 Whilst I found the Large 'Cadbury Wishes Star' from last year very enjoyable, this bag of mini 'Little Wishes' is much more my style as these last longer and can be shared with family and friends...which I think is nice especially around Christmas!
Truthfully, there isn't much difference between the two different fillings apart from the 'truffle filled' star tasting softer and smoother than the 'pure milk chocolate' star.

Overall, these 'Little Wishes' taste like the Cadbury chocolate we know and love (very soft and creamy) and are extremely moreish...one handful turns into two, then three...and so on till they're gone! The best part of these 'Christmas themed chocolates' for me is that 10% goes to the Make-a-Wish foundation...this partnership with Cadbury shows fantastic Christmas spirit...so I urge you all to treat yourself to some Cadbury chocolate...and to take the guilt away by knowing that you're donating to the Make-a-Wish foundation!

Furthermore, if you feel like doing some baking and incorporating these fabulous Little Wishes here's a fantastic little recipe from the Make-a-Wish website:

The following recipe serves approximately 12 people. Preparation take around 20 minutes, and cooking time should be about 15 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 100g unsalter butter, softened
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 100g self-raising flour, sieved
• 12 Cadbury Little Wishes, chopped
• 12 cupcake cases
• 200g Dairy Milk, melted
• 12 Cadbury Little Wishes

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5, 190°C and place 12 paper cases into a 12 hold tray.
2. In a bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy, add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Fold in the sieved flour and the chopped  Little Wishes and divide the mixture between the cases. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, until well risen and golden brown. 
3. Leave to cool.
4. Prepare the topping by melting the Cadbury Dairy Milk and then spreading the mixture on each cake.
5. Decorate the tops with the individual Cadbury Little Wishes, one on top of each cake when the topping is still warm.
6. Serve to guests at a Bake-a-Wish event.

-Above recipe & picture attributed to the Make-a-Wish foundation and can be found here.