NEW! Cadbury Winterful Layers Of Joy (Tesco)

Cadbury releasing their new limited edition Layers Of Joy is always a dicey time. Their previous attempts have been a right mixed bag between delicious and grim. Fortunately their last product in the line -the Jaffantastic pots- were at the top end of the 'Joy' scale, but that does mean that they'll be sorely missed if the new winter edition isn't up there with them.

I'm pleased to see that Kev (from Kev's Snack Reviews) has recently stepped up his 'spotted in shops' posts again, so it's to him I owe the knowledge that Cadbury have launched the Winterful pots -thanks Kev! I found them at Tesco for a round pound, but have since spotted them in Waitrose priced at £1.20.

"One winterful gingerbread biscuit dipped in Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate sauce and delicious white chocolate mousse."

I always find that Cadbury are on the sneaky side and slightly under fill their pots; still at least it meant that the white chocolate mousse had retained it's attractive peaks. Admittedly I haven't had the best experience with Cadbury's white chocolate mousse in the past, but I tried to keep my mind unbiased before digging in to the Winterful dessert.

Sigh. They haven't changed it since last year. The mousse was fluffy, but had the same bland flavour and lacked the richness that Milkybar Mousses achieve. It might be due to Cadbury using white chocolate powder (5%) to give it it's flavour. Come on now Cadbury -this isn't marketed as a diet product so surely you can do better than that?

Underneath the mousse layer was the chocolate sauce, which I normally quite like, except this time some rogue ginger had fused with it and messed with the flavour. If you've been reading this blog since the start you'll appreciate that I love a good chocolate and ginger combination -heck I more-or-less lived on Lebkuchen last December- but this just didn't work. Maybe it's because the chocolate was too mild, or too sweet, but the resulting flavour reminded me of washing up powder. Not good. 

I kept everything crossed that the gingerbread would go some way to redeem the situation. It kind of did too -that's to say that it had a bold, fiery flavour- but -and here's the killer- it was soggy, and made me think of the ensuing disaster when dropping a dunked ginger biscuit into your cuppa. Fail.

Last up was yet another layer of insipid white chocolate mousse,which was at this point, totally overwhelmed by the ginger aftertaste of the soggy biscuit. Gah, at least the disappointment ended at the bottom of the pot, right?

Maybe my grumbles are based on high expectations from the 'Layers Of Joy' range, so I'd welcome any comments with reference to how you found them. Or just leave me a note to say hello, that's always nice.

5/10

*or Muller -who Cadbury told me last year make their desserts! 

NEW! Cadbury Jaffantastic Layers Of Joy (Tesco)

Yay! At long last the 'Eggciting' Layers Of Joy have disappeared from the shops. I'm so pleased to finally see the back of them, although I still haven't seen the return of the Caramellionaire versions. I'm wondering if this new edition to the range is replacing both? I hope not!

Either way, the new Jaffantastic desserts have to be better than the horribly sickly Easter version. As a lover of Jaffa Cakes, I liked the sound of these new puds and hotfooted it down to Tesco pretty promptly after seeing them pop up on Instagram.

The pack of two cost £1.20, and isn't suitable for vegetarians.

"Delicious layers of Cadbury milk chocolate mousse, zingy orange jelly and sponge topped with Cadbury milk chocolate mousse."

I have to admit that the description didn't excite me as much as my initial idea of a Jaffa Cake inspired dessert did -and I really hoped that the sponge would be more palatable than the dry disc in the 'Eggciting' version. Fingers crossed.

The mousse was as velvety and as chocolatey as expected, a light mouthful of bubbly cocoa heaven. I wasn't looking forward to the orange layer underneath -but it was crazy good! More like a thick orange sauce than solid jelly, it offered the right proportion of sweet and tartness. tantalising my tastebuds with a bold citrussy flavour. The liquidity of it meant that it was easy to have a mouthful of all three elements together for that true jaffa cake experience.

More praise for Cadbury's as they have done well with the cake in the centre, it was lovely and moist, and in fact more soft than what you'd find in a jaffa cake, but it was delicious.  

I was thankful for the extra chocolate layer on the bottom, it meant that the dessert was well balanced, and was the perfect ending to this wonderful new dessert. Jaffantastic they certainly are! 

10/10

NEW! Cadbury Eggciting Layers of Joy (Co-Op)

Twelfth night is over. Christmas is done, the decorations are back up in the eaves, and I'm no longer nursing a pine-needle carpet. Does that make it OK to start reviewing Easter products? I'm not sure. That said, I did write my first Christmas review back in October, so why not eh?

Today's review is of the new Creme Egg inspired Layers of Joy, Having previously experienced mixed success with the Cadbury's desserts (from the wonderful Caramellionaire and Snowy Delights to the disastrous Bubbles of Joy Duo) I hoped for the best and picked up this pack from the Co-Op for £1.

The top layer was very very sweet and syrupy, rather like a watered down version of the fondant Creme Egg centre. I should probably point out at this point, that although I adore chocolate, I am not a fan of Cadbury's iconic Easter treat. I find their sugary filling far too cloying, detracting from its creamy chocolate casing. So as a non-egg-lover, I found this top layer sickly, much preferring the standard whipped cream topping that all their other 'Layers of Joy' pots are topped with. 

The next layer was the sponge disc, and I expected it to be chocolatey like their existing products, but it wasn't. Instead it was a plain sponge,which I thought was an odd choice considering that there's no cake (chocolate or otherwise) in a Creme Egg. To make things worse it was rather hard and dry, and probably would've made a good frisbee.

Luckily, the bottom layer was the chocolate mousse, which saved the day somewhat. It was light and fluffy whilst rich and chocolatey, and by far the best part of this dessert.

If you -or your children- are Creme Egg-o-holics, and you've been eagerly awaiting their (December!) return, then give these 'Eggciting' pots a go. 

If like me however, you find them just too sweet... then you might want to give these desserts a miss too.

5/10