Cadbury Marvellous Creations Chocolate Review

Cadbury Marvellous Creations Chocolate 

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Perhaps it's the difficult economic times or perhaps we have always been wanted an excuse to access our inner child; whatever the reason the "Willy Wonka type" trend in food continues with Cadbury's Joyville range of chocolates. 

Cadbury's latest entry in the Joyville range is 'Marvellous Creations' an oddly shaped chocolate block/bar with lots of added bits. Now truthfully, I'm not a huge fan of Cadbury milk chocolate I find it too sweet, though I'm not immune to even the scent of Cadbury chocolate evoking my childhood memories of lining up in the lounge room to get a piece of the latest Cadbury block off my mum.

cadbury's marvellous creations advertising campaign with it's "Wonka factory" feel

However, my closest friend Jactina is loving this new Cadbury range so much she has been asking (uhh hmm nagging!) for a blog post. Soooo, lets have a look at what's inside each block.... 

three flavour choices 'jelly crunchie bits', 'peanut toffee cookie' and 'jelly, popping candy and beanies'... so popular is this new range of chocolate the first few stores I tried were sold out. 

Starting with 'Jelly Crunchie Bits'

Cadbury milk chocolate, red jelly lollies and small pieces of Cadbury 'Crunchie' (honeycomb/sponge candy). This flavour is the favourite of my friend Jacinta and my step son Daniel. Daniel saying that "you wouldn't think honeycomb and jelly lollies would work together, but they soooo do!!".

What I think... probably my favourite too, though the jelly bits do have a slightly bitter aftertaste, the crunchie bits are evenly distributed and if you have ever had a 'Crunchie' Easter egg or block chocolate you know that works well with the dairy milk chocolate.

Next up 'Peanut Toffee Cookie'

Daniel thought this one is "pretty good" and wants to have more this week (ensuring his place in the "where is all the chocolate going queue??"), Jacinta has it on her list to try.

What I think... I thought I would like this one the best, but it's packed with rather bland coarse shortbread textured cookie pieces, peanuts and toffee bits, the toffee tastes nice but too much salt overall is coming from the cookie/toffee combo. 

packed with cookie pieces 

Last in the line up is 'Jelly, Popping Candy, Beanies'

Daniel thought this one was "bland" though the piece he tried was devoid of "jelly pieces" and he felt with the jelly pieces it would have been a different story. Jacinta and family loved this, I know Jacinta was smiling during our phone conversation about this block.

What I think... the beanies (M&M type chocolates) don't add much to a block of chocolate, the jelly lollies again have a slightly bitter aftertaste. As for the popping candy, lol ok it did make me smile :) 

I'll leave the summing up to Jacintas teenage daughter Emma who after saying "I like the fun shape of the block" and "I like the bright packaging" added the most important part of any chocolate review "It's YUM". 

Well I'm off now to enjoy a glass of Cabury drinking chocolate, hey I did say I wasn't immune to the lure of Cadbury.

Get yourself in a Cadbury kind of mood and watch their TV ad for Marvellous Creations.

Happy Baking :)

Maybe you would prefer a Bounty Bar? Then how about a Bounty Bar inspired cupcake recipe

Oops!... I did it again.

Pink Lemonade Cupcake with my first lollipop from a more successful attempt at candy making.

Today I did what I manage to do on a semi regular basis, burn my toffee/caramel, it's called "the walking away from the saucepan technique". I wouldn't recommend it!

Melted sugar can be a leave you with a sticky mess, but even with my blackened sugar there is a quick and easy saucepan cleaning method.

Fill your toffee/caramel pot with water, bring the boil, boil for a few minutes then tip the water out.

Your pot is now ready for the dishwasher/sink. 

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Blue Bayou cupcake, pineapple cupcake, ice coconut frosting and blue toffee springs.

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Blue Toffee Springs; whether you colour your toffee blue like I did or leave a natural toffee colour, toffee springs are quick to make with a little practice. They do have that "ooo, ahhh" factor and are glisteningly pretty. 

If you have a butchers steel, you can get a nice shape reducing in size, however I don't have one so I used something I have in abundance a wooden spoon.

A candy thermometer makes testing the temperature easy.

Obvious, but toffee is HOT ... handle with extreme care around kids, pets and yourself!

Toffee spirals last 3 to 4 hours at room temperature, less if it's humid.

This might sound a bit daunting at first, but you will soon get the hang of it and be able to produce them quickly when needed. Perfect finishing touch to a special dessert.

Ingredients

140g (5oz) sugar

140ml (5fl oz) hot water

*2 teaspoons of glucose syrup or corn syrup (optional)

Blue paste food colour

Prepare

Partially fill your sink with iced water.

Oil your wooden spoon/s handles or oil sharpening steel

Place greaseproof paper over your work area.

Method

Put sugar, hot water & the syrup into a small saucepan.

Heat on low heat, stirring until the sugar is fully dissolved. Washing down the inside of saucepan with a wet pastry brush to remove any loose sugar crystals as you go.

Bring the mixture to the boil over high heat, and continue to boil until the sugar registers 155-160°C / 300-318° F on a *candy thermometer. This is hard crack stage. 

Lift your saucepan off the stove and dip base into the iced water bath you have in your sink for 15 seconds to stop the cooking process.

Add your food colour and stir gently with a wooden spoon, first in one direction and then in the other direction to stop air bubbles forming.  Don't over stir. 

Now you wait until the toffee thickens, it doesn't take long, test by lifting a little on a spoon it should slowly drip off. 

Holding your oiled wooden spoon/sharpening steel in one hand, get a spoonful of toffee out of the pot and starting at the lower end rapidly wrap the thread of toffee around and around forming a spring. 

After 20 to 30 seconds remove spring gently from the spoon by pushing upwards from base.  Repeat. 

If toffee hardens before you are finished reheat gently on stovetop. However, if you have used food colour reheating can change the colour pigment. 

*Don't have a candy thermometer? To test toffee manually, drop a small amount into a glass of cold water. The resulting toffee will feel hard between your fingers and make a cracking sound when broken.  

*The glucose/corn syrup stops the risk of crystallisation, you don't have to use it or could replace with a teaspoon of strained lemon for the same result.                                                                                                                              

From one pot of coloured toffee you can produce different shades of colour. Thicker springs have the most intense colour, create thick, thin and medium for varying shades. By adjusting the tension and using a pulling/stretching motion when making a spring will result in a pale ribbon like finish.