Showing posts with label Sweets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sweets. Show all posts

Sunday 2 February 2020

Enjoy the Perfect Sweet Treats from Swizzels this Valentine's Day - A Review

After what has felt like the longest January ever, we are now finally in February, which means that I can begin to get excited about Valentine's Day. My husband and I have now been together for 18 years and we never go over the top on this special day, but instead we set a small budget of around £10 each just to get a card and a little gift for one another.

I do get a bit excited about it though, as over the years we have made it into a bit of a challenge, with the rules being that it has to be something we have never bought each other before and there has to have been a bit of thought put into the gift. This means that the usual teddies, mugs and heart covered socks that you find in every supermarket are out of the question and at the start of February we start to have a think about what we are going to buy.

I was therefore really excited to learn about the Swizzel's range of Valentine's Hampers and Gifts, that are the perfect treat for any lover of sweets. There is a fantastic range of gift ideas to choose from, all at really reasonable prices. Featuring a choice of hampers, personalised gifts, Valentine's Love Hearts and vegan friendly options too, there is definitely something to suit all tastes in this fabulous selection of Valentine's gifts.


Swizzels Matlow are well renowned in the world of sweets and are a 90+ year old family owned sweet factory. Their flagship brands include Love Hearts, Refreshers, Double Dips, Rainbow Drops and Drumsticks to name just a few. They have a whole host of gift ideas that are suitable for a range of different occasions such as Valentine's Day, Birthday's, Christmas and even Weddings. Fortunately for me, I have recently been sent two products from their Valentine's range to review and I couldn't wait to get started checking them out (and eating) some of their delicious sweetie treats.

Firstly is my favourite in the collection, which is the Personalised Love Hearts Tube. My husband and kids always make a point of the fact that we can never usually find my name on anything, with the only exception being a bingo dabber that my son spotted on Llandudno Pier once. However, thanks to Swizzels I now have something that has my name on it and I will be honest when I say I absolutely LOVE it!


This Personalised Love Hearts Tube costs £9.99 and is available here on the Swizzels website. It contains 25 mini rolls of Love Hearts, making it the perfect gift for that special someone in your life. The added benefit of there being 25 rolls is also the fact that the recipient may be willing to share them with you too.

The packaging can be personalised with a name or message, which I think stands out as a really thoughtful and unique gift. I would definitely be very happy to receive one of these on Valentine's Day and for less than £10 it won't break the bank either.


I was also sent the Swizzels Retro Red Sweet Hamper which at only £7.99 is an absolute bargain of a Valentine's gift. Featuring well known family favourites that are sure to put a smile on the recipients face, this hamper is jam packed to the brim with a 500g assortment of classic sweets that include a combination of Love Hearts, Refreshers, Drumsticks, Parma Violets, Double Dips, Double Lollies, Fizzers and Fruity Pops. Contents do vary, so quantities of various sweets may differ from the image below.


It comes beautifully presented in a bright red box, with a printed gold bow that certainly makes it looks the part. The dimensions of the hamper are approximately 25cm in width, 17cm in depth and 5.5cm in height, which as you can see from the photographs, is plenty of room to fill with these delightful sweets.

There is also a great selection of other gifts to choose from including vegan friendly and vegetarian options, large wicker hampers, personalised treats and there is even the option of building your own hamper package where you can personally select your favourite sweets.


Overall, I have been really impressed by Swizzels Valentine's Range and feel that there is a great selection to choose from, with enough to suit all tastes and budgets. The personalised gifts make a great unique present for that special someone, whilst the hampers will be well received by Swizzels sweetie lovers. I think the products offer good value for money and are nicely presented, making them the ideal Valentine's Gift this February.

If you would like to find out more about the range of products for sale, then you can visit the Swizzels website, or their social media pages on the following channels:

Website - https://www.swizzels.com/shop/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/swizzelsmatlow/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/SwizzelsMatlow
Instagram - @swizzels_sweetswizzels_sweets

There is also a special discount code available at present and if you enter the code V15 at the online checkout then you can receive 15% off. This code is valid from the 1st February to the 14th February 2020, making it the perfect time to visit the online Swizzels store.


*Disclaimer - I was gifted the Personalised Love Hearts and the Hamper for the purpose of writing an honest review of the products. All opinions and photographs are my own unless otherwise stated.

Wednesday 4 December 2019

Creating Gummy Sweets with Bandai Foodie Surprise! - Review

Foodie Surprise is a brand new craft toy collectible from Bandai, that combines the fun of getting crafty and creative with a collectible treat. It is the world's first sweet making collectible and the DIY sweet making kits come with everything you need to get started in making your very own gummy sweets.

There are currently four main Foodie Surprise Food Carts to collect which are the Ice Cream Cart, the Pizza Cart, the Sushi Cart and the Bubble Tea Cart.  Each of these come complete with a mould for creating your sweets, along with a sweetie storage collectible containing at least 10 surprises inside. As well as the Food Carts, you can also purchase Mini Collectible Take Out Sets, which are smaller than the main Food Carts, but still contain all you need to get started.


Riley was sent several products from the range to review and he couldn't wait to get started making his very own sweets. We began with the Foodie Surprise Food Cart, as this was the first item that caught Riley's attention and we opened the box to find out what was inside. We had received an Ice Cream Cart and enclosed within the box was:

  • 1 Food Cart
  • 1 Candy Storage Container
  • Numerous packs of Candy Powder
  • 1 Collector's Poster
  • 1 Eye Dropper
  • 1 Mixing Tool
  • 1 Mixing/Measuring Cup
  • Vac Form Mould Trays
  • 1 Ball Chain
  • A set of instructions

We began by having a look through the instructions to get a good idea of what we needed to do, before beginning to create the first part of our Foodie Surprise sweets. The first item we created were the waffle bowls and we filled the measuring jug with water up to the recommended fill line in the guide.


We then added the peach coloured powder and mixed the solution together. We then poured this into the moulds and allowed them to set. Next up was the cherries, so I gave the tools a quick wash and then followed the same process of filling the measuring cup to the guide line and adding the red powder to create our gummy cherries. It was then the same process for the gummy bananas so we were starting to get the hang of things.

The ice cream scoops were slightly different as this involved rolling the mixture into a ball using your hands, much to Riley's delight. We did this for both the Vanilla ice cream scoops and the Strawberry scoops.

With our sweet treats now starting to take shape we commenced the final part of the process to create the drizzle topping, which was really easy to do and Riley was really pleased with his finished Foodie Surprise Gummy Sweets. These could be placed into the food cart, which involved a minimal amount of self assembly and our set was then complete. Our first attempt turned out well with a jelly like texture, so our attention then turned to the Takeouts Box.


Our smaller Foodie Surprise Takeouts Box contained a Foodie Surprise Donut Takeout Set, Confectionary Powder, Moulds, an Eye Dropper, Measuring Cup and a Mixing Tool. The instructions were simple enough, however they are visual with images as opposed to text and personally I prefer written instructions to ensure that we are following the process accurately.


Our Donut set involved three different elements that we needed to make, starting with the donut dough base and then followed by the green and white icing. Riley really enjoyed it and he loved the fact that he was making his own sweets which made our efforts completely worth while. The process is a little time consuming and our donut dough gummy seemed to have a different consistency to the gummy sweets we had created previously, so I was a little unsure as to whether we had done this one correctly and without a written guide to refer to, it was hard to tell.

Overall Riley enjoyed attempting to make some gummy sweets that we could eat and it was fun to try a completely different kind of creative activity. There are 4 food carts to collect in Series One which come in two different colour ways for each theme and I like the fact that the food carts can also be used as storage for the sweets or moulds once you have finished your sweetie-making craft. Riley really enjoyed creating gummy sweets himself and then displaying them in his food cart. He would then pretend that he was running a sweet shop and would invite his brother and sister to come and sample his food. We found the Foodie Surprise Food Cart sweets turned out much better for us than the Takeouts Box, but Riley enjoyed using both items. The products are recommended for children aged 6+ and I think that this is accurate with parental help and supervision. 

The Foodie Surprise Food Cart has an RRP of £15.00, whilst the Foodie Surprise Takeouts Box has an RRP of £8.00. Both of these items are available for sale from toy retailers including The Entertainer, Smyths Toys and Amazon.


*Disclaimer - We were gifted these products for the purpose of writing an honest review of the items and our experience. All opinions and photographs are my own unless otherwise stated. This post contains an Amazon affiliate link.