New Instore: Shreddies Max Protein, New York Bakery Cheese Bagels & More

A round up of some more new items spotted instore - this time with a few added Mini Reviews! 

Shreddies Max Protein: This new oat granola cereal is available is also available in a Cranberry flavour. It contains 10g of protein per serving as well as being high in fibre. It's a tasty enough granola with a crunchy texture and sweet flavour, and I'd buy it again if it was on special offer. Spotted at: Asda - £2.49p (for 400g).

Tesco Choco-Nut Malt Wheats: I don't usually buy chocolate cereals but this Choco-Nut flavour appealed to me. Is it wrong that I was secretly hoping it would have a Nutella-y taste? Anyway, the good news is that the combination of chocolate and creamy hazelnut does give this cereal that hint of Nutella that I was hoping for. Don't worry, it's not as super sweet or cloying as a chocolate spread, but these Malt Wheats do have a lovely chocolate and nut flavour. I also want to try the new Golden Syrup Malt Wheats in the same range - the price is great too! Spotted at: Tesco - £1.19p (for 500g).

Soreen Squidgy Cake Bites: Available in Chocolate or Toffee flavours. Each tub has 12 mini bites of squidgy cake. I don't usually buy these types of tubs - I prefer individually wrapped minis. Spotted at: Asda - £1.50p. 

Cadbury Mini Rolls Mega Roll Cake: There were quite a few new celebration cakes at Asda. I love the look of this giant Mini Roll - such a fun and simple idea. Spotted at: Asda - £6.00p. 

Asda Donut Cake: Another cute and appealing cake. This one is shaped like a massive doughnut complete with pink icing and sprinkles. Spotted at: Asda - £8.00p. 

Ghostbusters Cake: This is one of those cakes that made me happy and annoyed at the same time. This would have been so useful for my husbands birthday last year which was Ghostbusters themed! Spotted at: Asda - £10.00p. 

Asda Extra Special Muffins: I spotted two interesting new flavours of these savoury muffins; Mild Red Cheddar and Ancient Grains. If you've tried these then I'd love to know what you thought in the comments below! Spotted at: Asda - £1.00p. 

New York Bakery Co Cheese Bagels: I buy bagels regularly so I'm always on the lookout for new flavours. These Cheese Bagels have been an instant hit with my kids and I'll definitely be buying them again. Each bagel has a cheddar cheese topping which is full of flavour and compliments an array of savoury fillings. Spotted at: Asda - £1.00p.

Warburtons Protein Range: Warburtons has a new range of products that are high in protein and fibre. I saw a Wholemeal Loaf with a blend of pulses, Wholemeal Thins and Wholemeal Soft Wraps in the range. Spotted at: Asda - £1.00p each. 

As always, if you spot anything new instore and fancy sending me a photo then let me know via email: grocerygems@gmail.com or Twitter: @grocerygems.

New Instore: Asda Celebration Cakes, Mr Kipling Bumble Bee Slices & More

A few more new finds spotted instore.

Asda Una the Unicorn Cake (above): Asda always has the best celebration cakes but this unicorn cake might just top them all. It's so cute! £10.00p at Asda.

Asda George the Corgi Cake: This one just makes me smile. A cute little corgi cake topped with a crown. I think Asda have released this one with the Queen's upcoming 90th birthday celebrations in mind. £10.00p at Asda.

Asda Smash Cake: This is a new concept to me but it looks really fun. This large Smash Cake features a hollow chocolate dome, on top of the cake, which can be smashed to reveal lots of sweets. It's available in white chocolate or milk chocolate. £13.00p at Asda.

Asda Baby Elephant Cake: It was hard to get a good picture of this but it's a lovely looking cake - I really like the simple design and pretty pastel colours. £9.00p at Asda.

Barbie Party Cake: This is a super bright and colourful cake. Is it just me or is the design quite retro and 1980's looking? I missed the price on this one!

Batman Vs Superman Celebration Cake: There are two Batman Vs Superman themed celebration cakes available at Asda. This is the simpler one and features a fairly basic printed design on top. £10.00p at Asda.

Batman Vs Superman The Ultimate Showdown Celebration Cake: There is also this impressive looking, and much larger cake, with a chocolate logo on top and black and red capes to decorate. £20.00p at Asda.

Mr Kipling Bumble Bee Slices - Chocolate & Honey Flavour: This is such an interesting new flavour from Mr. Kipling. I love the dark brown and yellow striped pattern on each cake which is similar to the previous Mr. Kipling Tiger Slices. £1.50p at Asda.

Barny ABC Bears: These mini bear shaped biscuits look just as cute as the Barny Bear Cakes. They're available in Vanilla or Cocoa flavours. £1.00p at Asda.

Maryland Creations Choc Dipped Cookies: Maryland speciality cookies are being rebranded as 'Maryland Creations', alongside this new addition to the range, Choc Dipped - Dark Choc Chunk Cookies. £1.00p at Asda.

Asda Carrot Cake Puds: There lots of new cake themed desserts at Asda which come in twinpacks. Thank you to Fran T. who spotted the delish sounding Carrot Cake Puds. There are quite a few other varieties in this range also such as a Gingerbread Latte and Blueberry Muffin. £1.50p at Asda.

Asda Coconut Sublimes & Dessert Islands: These tropical flavours from the same range look delicious too!  £1.50p at Asda.

Many thanks again to Fran for the photo. If you spot anything new instore and fancy sending me a photo then let me know via email: grocerygems@gmail.com or Twitter: @grocerygems.

New Instore: Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough 'Wich Ice Creams & Mr. Kipling Cupcakes

A few more new products spotted instore:

Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough 'Wich: Many thanks to Luci J. who emailed me the photos of these new ice creams from Ben & Jerry's. I can't wait to try out a Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough 'Wich - they look so good! It's described as a vanilla ice cream with cookie dough sandwiched between chewy chocolate chip cookies. Purchased at Sainsbury's.

Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough  Son of a... 'Wich: There's also a mini version of these ice cream sandwiches available; the rather brilliantly named Son of a... 'Wich. Well played Ben & Jerry's. A big thank you again to Luci photos. Purchased at Morrisons.

Mr Kipling Cupcakes: Also new are these single pack Mr Kipling Cupcakes which are available in three varieties; Apple Pie Cupcake, Angel Cupcake and Cherry Bakewell Cupcake. They cost £1.20p each but are also available in a large 12 pack for £8.00. Thanks to Lucy W. for this photo. I believe these are currently exclusive to Tesco but let me know if you spot them anywhere else!

Many thanks again to Luci J. and Lucy W. for these great finds and photos. As always, if you've spotted any new products in store then I'd love to hear from you - email grocerygems@gmail.com or tweet @grocerygems.

Halloween Recipes with Betty Crocker

Betty Crocker recently shared three super simple and cute recipes for Halloween. These bakes are all really easy to make using Betty Crocker ready made cake and icing mixes. It's fun to get creative in the kitchen with the kids by baking some spooky Halloween treats like these!

TWEET OWL CUPCAKES

INGREDIENTS

Cake:

1 box Betty Crocker Devil's Food Cupcake Mix 60ml 

60ml water (4tbsp)

30ml vegetable oil (2 tbsp)

2 medium free range eggs

Topping:

1 tub Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Icing

9 large milk chocolate buttons

White Fondant Icing, cut into 1½cm rounds

Black Fondant Icing made into ½cm dots

9 yellow or orange chocolate beans.

METHOD:

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C for fan assisted ovens) Gas Mark 4. Place the cake cases into your muffin tin. 
2. Mix the cupcake mix, oil, water and eggs gently together and then whisk (by hand or electric mixer) for 2-3 minutes until completely blended. S
3. Spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases. 
4. Bake in the centre of the oven for 16 minutes or until a rounded knife inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack. 
5. Ice the Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge icing over the top of the cupcakes when cool. Place the chocolate button halves on top of the cupcakes to make the ears. Pipe over the chocolate fudge icing to make the feathers and tufts. 
6. Create by rolling out the white icing and cutting large circles for the eyes to place on the cupcake. Then add the milk chocolate button by putting a small dot of icing on one side of the button to stick it to the white icing for the pupils. Add the chocolate beans for the beaks under the eyes. Wonderful! 

CREEPY CAULDRON CAKE

INGREDIENTS

Cake:

1 box Betty Crocker Red Velvet Cake Mix 

65 ml vegetable oil (4 ½ tbsp) 

205 ml water 

3 medium free range eggs 

Topping:

1 tub Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Icing 

½ tub Betty Crocker Vanilla Icing 

Green, Orange and Red Food Colouring 

1 packet milk chocolate fingers, halved (125g) 

Handful of jelly snakes cut in half 

Handful white chocolate balls.

METHOD:

1. Preheat your oven to 180C (160 C for fan assisted)/Gas Mark 4. Grease two 20cm cake tins. 
2. Mix the cake mix, oil, water and eggs gently together and whisk (by hand or electric mixer) for 2-3 minutes until smooth and creamy. 
3. Pour the cake mix evenly into your two greased cake tins. 
4. Bake in the centre of the oven for 23-28 minutes or until a rounded knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean, then allow to cool on a cooling rack. 
5. Ice by sandwiching the cake together with half of the chocolate fudge icing and spread the rest around the top and sides, reserving a little for the rim of the cauldron. Put this into a piping bag with a large nozzle and pipe around the top edge of the cake. Any leftover icing you can use to make the pupils of the eyeballs. 
6. Decorate by colouring ⅔ of the vanilla icing with green and pipe loosely over the top of the cake, using a large nozzle to form the bubbling potion. Colour the rest of the icing with orange, reserving a little to colour red. Decorate the bottom of the cake with the chocolate finger halves for logs. Pipe orange flames around the bottom of the cauldron and then add red centres to the flames. Push the jelly snakes into the top of the cake so that they give the effect that they are crawling out of the bubbling potion. Add chocolate balls as eyes and 'Hey Presto' a Halloween Cauldron to spook your friends.

SPOOKY SPIDER CUPCAKES

INGREDIENTS

Cupcakes:

1 box Betty Crocker Devil's Food Cake Mix 

90 ml vegetable oil (6 tbsp) 

250 ml water 

3 medium free range eggs 

Decoration:

 1 tub Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy Vanilla Icing 

Red food colouring & Yellow food colouring 

Decoration Tube of black decorating icing 

48 black fruit pastilles

METHOD

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C for fan assisted ovens) / Gas Mark 4. 
2. Mix the eggs, oil, water and cake mix gently together and whisk (by hand or electric mixer) for 2-3 minutes until smooth and creamy. 
3. Pour the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases. 
4. Bake in the centre of the oven for 16 minutes or until a rounded knife inserted into the deepest part of a cupcake comes out clean. Leave to cool on your cooling rack. 
5. Stir 3 drops of red colouring and 4 drops of yellow food colouring into Betty’s Vanilla Rich and Creamy Icing in a small bowl, and mix to create orange icing. Spread this over the cooled cupcakes.
6.  Create four black circles on each cupcake using the black decorating icing. Use a knife to draw through the circles from the centre of each cupcake to create the web effect. 
7. Roll out one fruit pastille and cut out eight strips for legs and then place a whole fruit pastille in the middle to create your spider. Do this for each cupcake to create your beastly batch…Scarily splendid!

There are lots more Halloween recipes on the Betty Crocker website including the adorable Halloween Cat Cake above! Check them out here: www.bettycrocker.co.uk.

New Instore: Cadbury Amaze Bites - Chocolate Covered Brownie Cake Bites

A quick post about these new Cadbury Amaze Bites - many thanks to James M. who sent me the photo via Facebook. 

Cadbury Amaze Bites: These new tubs of chocolate covered brownie bites are available in three flavours: Double Chocolate, Chocolate & Mint, and Chocolate & Orange. Each mini brownie contains chocolate chips and is covered in Cadbury milk chocolate. Spotted at Asda - RRP is £1.99p but I think they're on special offer for £1.20p at the moment.

Don't forget if you spot any new products in store please let me know via email - grocerygems@gmail.com or Twitter etc. Thank you!

Retro Baking & Walker's Bring It Back Campaign!

If you're watching the Great British Bake Off final tonight then I hope you've got some cakes or sweet treats in! Walker's recently invited me to take part in sharing a retro baking recipe. It's to celebrate their Bring It Back campaign which relaunched five retro crisp flavours for a limited time. I've reviewed all of the flavours HERE.

When I saw the words 'retro baking' I immediately thought of making either a Black Forest Gateau or a Pineapple Upside Down Cake. In the end I decided to make a Pineapple Upside Cake as I have vivid memories of loving this cake as a child. In fact I'm pretty sure I had it as my birthday cake for a few years in a row! And I realised that my kids have never tried one, and bonus, it's such an easy recipe that they could get involved with making it too. 

Of course I had to add a little twist to the original so this is a Pineapple & Coconut Upside Down Cake! 

Pineapple & Coconut Upside Down Cake

Ingredients

8 pineapple rings

1-2 tbsp golden syrup

150g soft butter/margarine

150g caster sugar

150g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

8 glace cherries

25g dessicated coconut (plus more for decorating).

METHOD

• Grease a large tin. 
• Arrange pineapple rings in a circular pattern in the tin.
• Place a glace cherry or other small fruit in centre of each pineapple ring (I used a mix of glace. cherries and mango pieces).
• Drizzle golden syrup over the pineapple rings.
• In a large bowl, mix butter, sugar and eggs. 
• Sift in the flour and mix until creamy.
• Pour cake mixture over pineapples and smooth down.
• Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.
• Once cooled drizzle a little more golden syrup on top (I used a brush to dab some on each pineapple ring).
• Sprinkle with dessicated coconut to decorate.

It's quite easy to make and the result is a fruity and super sweet cake that was a winner with the family! 

Thanks to Walkers for inviting me to bake a retro recipe. Don't forget you can still vote in the Walkers Bring It Back Campaign until 1st November 2015 with a chance to win £100,000! Enter by voting via the Walker website at www.walkers.co.uk or on Facebook and Twitter using the flavour hashtags:

#VoteLambMint

#VoteBeefOnion

#VoteToastedCheese

#VoteBarbecue

#VoteCheeseChive

Which flavour will you be voting for?

Review: Mr Kipling Tiger Slices

A quick review of the new Tiger Slices from Mr. Kipling. I was quite surprised by these as Mr. Kipling have recently released plenty of new holiday-themed products, such as the Mr. Kipling Witches Hat Fancies and the Mr. Kipling Elf Slices. I'm not sure if the new Tiger Slices are a limited edition release, or if they are a permanent addition to the Mr. Kipling range, but I'll update here once I find out.

The Mr. Kipling Tiger Slices are described as orange flavoured and chocolate flavoured sponges, topped with a decorated orange coloured icing. Don't they look amazing? I love the striped sponge cake and the wavy tops, the whole thing looks very impressive.

The flavour is good too, although it's a much lighter chocolate and orange flavour than I was expecting. Mr Grocery Gems even called them 'slightly bland' but as I'm not really a fan of chocolate-orange, I was fine with the lighter flavour here. The orange flavour is certainly not as strong as the recent orange flavoured Mr. Kipling Witches fancies and thankfully they're far less sweet too. The texture seemed a little drier than the usual cake slices from Mr. Kipling which I often find quite greasy, but the cake itself is still nice and soft. 

Overall, even though the orange and chocolate flavours are not particularly strong, we still all enjoyed these new Tiger Slices from Mr. Kipling. Let me know if you've tried them!

Grocery Gems Review: Mr Kipling Tiger Slices

RATING: 7 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Yes.
Nutrition:  111 calories per slice (29g).
Purchased: Asda.
Price: £1.00p.

Review: Mr. Kipling Elf Slices

Another day, another Mr. Kipling cake! I don't normally buy Christmas products so early in the year but I really couldn't resist these new apple flavoured cakes from Mr Kipling. As Mr. Grocery Gems put it "you just couldn't 'elf yourself could you".

There are six Elf Slices in each box which are helpfully wrapped in three portions of two slices. 

The cakes look really festive with their light green sponge topped with a bright red and green icing. Like all Mr. Kipling Slices, the sponge is lovely and soft, and the sugary icing is just melt in the mouth - a couple of bites and these are gone! Of course most people are going to be interested in the apple aspect and I'm happy to report that the sponge cake has a lovely, sweet apple flavour. It's a slightly strange experience at first because it's a bit like eating an apple pie flavoured cake, but the whole thing is ultimately very tasty. It would have been great to have some flavour in the icing too, perhaps a little cinnamon to make it really Christmassy, but that's just me being picky!

Also check out my review of the new Mr. Kipling Witches Hat Fancies from yesterday. 

Grocery Gems Review: Mr Kipling Elf Slices

RATING: 8 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Yes but nearer to Christmas!
Nutrition:  108 calories per cake (27g).
Purchased: Tesco.
Price: £1.00p.

Review: Cadbury Hot Cakes - Double Choc or Butterscotch

These new Cadbury Hot Cakes are described as melting chocolate or butterscotch cakes smothered in Cadbury Milk Chocolate. They're available in two flavours Double Choc or Butterscotch and can be eaten hot or cold. To heat up they just need to be microwaved on full power for 15 seconds.

A big thank you to Laura who spotted these on the Ocado website a few days ago and let me know via Twitter. I actually found them today in my local Co-Op for £1.29p a pack.

Inside each pack there are two square shaped cakes which are covered in a layer or milk chocolate. Each cake is about the size of two Cadbury Mini Rolls together. Even though they can be eaten cold, I decided to try them heated up.

Cadbury Hot Cakes Butterscotch: Even after 15 seconds in the microwave I could see that the outer chocolate coating already had a melty appearance. Once I cut through the cake for this photo the Butterscotch filling oozed everywhere and seemed quite runny. I would probably heat the next one for only 10 seconds (although it was a different story with the chocolate one below). The sponge here is fairly basic, and a little on the dry side, but the chocolate flavour is fine. The Butterscotch filling is quite delicious with a buttery flavour and slightly salty edge. My only problem was that the whole thing was very sweet, almost throat-burningly sweet. I needed to have a very strong coffee to enjoy this one and even then I only had half.

Cadbury Hot Cakes Double Choc: The chocolate filling in these seems a lot thicker than the Butterscotch variety. After 15 seconds in the microwave the filling hadn't really melted so I put them in for another 10 seconds which did the trick. The sponge is the same as above, basic and a little dry. However the filling is lovely and gooey with a syrupy and quite buttery, chocolate flavour. In terms of sweetness, I found these a lot easier to eat than the Butterscotch variety. They are still very sweet but I could enjoy these with a cup of tea, no problem!

On the back of the packaging it says that these Hot Cakes can be enjoyed with ice cream or custard. Indeed the design on the front shows the Cadbury Hot Cakes served with ice cream. I think that would be a sugary overload for me but if you've tried them with ice cream then let me know what you thought in the comments below! 

Overall, this is an interesting new product from Cadbury. The cakes don't exactly end up hot after 15 seconds in the microwave, it's more of a warm cake, but it's still a nice easy dessert to serve up. I haven't tried them cold yet but I'll update this review when I do.

Grocery Gems Review:Cadbury Hot Cakes

RATING: 7 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Maybe.
Nutrition:  225 calories per cake.
Vegetarian: Suitable for Vegetarians.
Purchased: Co-Op (also on Ocado and Sainsbury's online).
Price: £1.29p for pack of 2 x 50g cakes.

New Instore: Mr Kipling Cocktail Fancies & Galaxy White Hot Chocolate

Mr Kipling Limited Edition Cocktail Fancies: Mr Kipling Fancies are all grown up with this range of cocktail inspired flavours. Thank you to Richard W. via Twitter for the photos!

There are three flavours in each pack; Raspberry Daiquiri, Peach Bellini and Pina Colada. Spotted at Morrisons - £1.25p. 

Galaxy Ultimate White Hot Chocolate: Thank you to Laura who sent me the above photo via Twitter of her awesome white hot chocolate haul! I've mentioned the White Maltesers Hot Chocolate before but it seems to be really hard to find. The Galaxy Ultimate White Hot Chocolate is a new one to me! The milk chocolate Galaxy version is my favourite hot chocolate out there so I'll have to give this white choc variety a try too. Spotted at Asda.

If you've spotted any new products instore then I'd love to hear from you - email grocerygems@gmail.com or tweet me @grocerygems.

Mr Kipling Milkshake Slices - Banana Milkshake and Chocolate & Vanilla Milkshake Slices

Mr. Kipling have launched a range of milkshake flavoured cake slices in Banana Milkshake, Chocolate & Vanilla Milkshake, and Strawberry Milkshake flavours. They are available in four-packs and contain a source of calcium with lower fat compared to other Mr. Kipling cake slices.

Mr. Kipling Banana Milkshake Slices: These are described as banana milkshake flavoured sponge cakes with a vanilla filling and and a banana flavoured fondant on top. The cake has a wonderfully sweet and creamy banana flavour, with a hint of vanilla, that really is reminiscent of a banana milkshake. Some might find the banana flavour too sweet but it's spot on for me. Everything about these is just delicious - the cake itself has a perfectly soft and moist texture too. I haven't always been a fan of Mr. Kipling Slices but this new Banana Milkshake flavour is going to be hard for me to resist! I much prefer these to the previous Mr Kipling Banoffee Slices which had a much lighter banana flavour.

Mr. Kipling Chocolate & Vanilla Slices: These are made up of chocolate and vanilla flavoured sponges with a vanilla filling and decorated with fondant icing. I have to admit I only bought these because the range was on a 2 for £1.50p deal but I'm really glad I did! They're much tastier than I was expecting. Both the chocolate and vanilla flavours come through nicely with a creamy edge. The combination of chocolate and vanilla sponge works well and reminds me of a classic marble cake. Perhaps the "milkshake" theme is not as evident in the actual flavour here but I still enjoyed these little cakes.

Overall, these new Mr. Kipling Milkshake Slices were surprisingly good and I'll certainly be buying them again - I might even try the Strawberry Milkshake flavour too. In fact I would have given them slightly higher scores (and a 10 out of 10 for the banana flavour) if the packs hadn't been reduced in size from 6 to 4 cakes. 

Grocery Gems Verdict: Mr. Kipling Milkshake Slices

RATING: Banana Milkshake: 9 out of 10, Choc & Vanilla: 8 out of 10.
Buy it again?: Yes.
Nutrition (per slice): 140 calories. 
Purchased: Tesco.
Price: £1.29p or 2 packs for £1.50p.