Nestlé has launched a new chocolate range in the UK called Milkybar Raisin & Biscuit aimed at adult consumers revolving around the funny bespectacled character, the Milkybar kid. The difference? it’s not a kid but an adult wearing the funny outfit

So today, I picked one up. I didn’t really know what to expect. I love the Biscuit & Raisin Milk Chocolate bars that Yorkie does so would this be different? Yes. I love Milkybars on their own but I’m rather undecided about this. It’s rather sweet & sickly after a few bites plus I’m not sure raisin’s work with White Chocolate. I probably need to try another bar to give a better opinion but for now, I think I’ve had way too much chocolate, my body can’t handle anymore LOL

I was out earlier with mom buying new shoes for work as well as other bits I needed to complete my outfit for my friend’s wedding next week & came across an Italian Gelato Kiosk in Braehead. I grabbed up 2 scoops (to help soothe my throat which is still scratchy) and to my delight, they actually had my favourite ice-cream flavour EVER… Pistachio! I got a huge scoop of that along with Oreo Cookie for £3.

A little pricey, but well worth it! Ultra creamy, tasty & refreshing on a warm summer day

I’ve never been to Wagamama before but everytime I walk past it, I keep remembering to go in! So many times I’ve wanted to try it but then friends/family wanted to go elsewhere…. until today!

I took mom out for an early dinner & decided today was the day. The food was amazing, everything on the menu sounded so good & we couldn’t help but stare at everyone’s dish as they got them too!

I ordered Teriyaki Soba Beef which is grilled teriyaki beef on a bed of teppan fried soba noodles with curry oil, mangetout, chillies, red and spring onions, beansprouts and bok choi with teriyaki sauce, coriander and sesame seeds. It was amazing! The beef was so tender, the noodles had a great taste to them with just the right amount of chilli, I will be definately ordering this again! I couldn’t finish it all because mom & I had 2 scoops of Baskin Robbins before going for dinner so I got them to wrap it up in a little takeaway box for me & will happily be munching away the leftovers at work tomorrow afternoon

Mom got Ebi Raisukaree which is prawns stir-fried in a coconut and lime curry sauce with mangetout, peppers, red and spring onions served on sticky white rice and garnished with red chillies, coriander and lime. I actually wanted to order this dish as well as it sounded amazing but decided on the Teriyaki Soba Beef, but we decided to share the dishes so we could try both. Mom’s was amazing, the sauce was amazing & I’m a sucker for prawns and chillies

We also got some Ebi Gyoza on the side which is deep-fried prawn and vegetable dumplings served with a spicy citrus ponzu dipping sauce, these were so yummy & complimented the dishes well! They didn’t last long though, we gobbled them within seconds

So there you have it, my first Wagamama experience & now I want to eat through the entire menu

Ingredients for Dark Chocolate Cupcakes:
40g Cocoa Powder
20g Dark Chocolate, broken into pieces & melted
240ml Boiling Water
175g Self Raising Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
115g Unsalted Butter
200g Granulated White Sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Ingredients for Chocolate Fudge Frosting:
120g Dark Chocolate, broken into pieces
150g Unsalted Butter
160g Icing Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190°c & line a muffin tray with 15 muffin cases. In a small bowl stir the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder until smooth. Add in the melted Dark Chocolate then let it cool to room temperature. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder & salt.

2. With a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until mixed well. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

3. Fill each muffin cup two-thirds full with mix and bake for about 15 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing.

4. For the frosting, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. With a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the chocolate and beat on low speed until mixed well. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is smooth and glossy.

5. Ice the cupcakes anyway you wish, I used a piping bag along with a large star nozzle. Top with Chocolate Squares or Sprinkles. I put the Chocolate & Love chocolate to good use & they turned out amazing!

Chocolate. One of the best inventions in the whole wide world. Everything about it is awesome, except the fact that as soon as I look at a bar, I instantly put on tons of weight. Nevertheless, there is no way I could give the bad boy up & frankly, who on earth could blame me?

When the opportunity to taste test several types of chocolate from Chocolate & Love came up, I just couldn’t say no… for the good of man-kind I had to do it, yes sir!

I was sent a package with 5 different types of Chocolate, I was instantly giddy from the excitment or erm… hard task of actually having to sit down & eat all this chocolate. Suprisingly, my mom nominated herself as a 2nd opinion… I wonder why!

So now the hard work started….

Filthy Rich- Made with premium cocoa from the Dominican Republic and Peru along with cane sugar from South America and a hint of vanilla, this bar of 71% organic extra dark chocolate is very intense. The aftertaste it left in our mouths was great, it was very smooth on your palette & this is coming from someone who has never really loved dark chocolate. From dark chocolate I’ve tasted before, they are usually very bitter which this was not & had to be one of my favourites from all I tried.

Orange Mantra- A bar of 65% dark chocolate combined with orange extract from cold pressing ripe peels in Italy giving the Orange Mantra a wonderful fresh orange flavour & smell. When we unwrapped this bar from it’s packaging, we were hit by the intense orange scent, which I love. The texture was very smooth, tasted amazing with the orange & was not at all bitter which made it a big thumbs up in my books.

Chocolate Tree Raspberry- This 74% organic extra dark chocolate is topped with dried raspberry pieces and handmade in Edinburgh. Unfortunately, I disliked this bar because of the sourness of the raspberries mixed with the bitterness of the chocolate. Both of us could only eat a few slices before putting it down. It’s the first time I’ve never finished chocolate & that’s sad because I tried so hard to like it.

Crushed Diamonds- 55% dark chocolate mixed with cocoa beans from Peru which are roasted & broken into small nibs giving it a crunchy texture. This was by far, my favourite chocolate bar I tried, once again the texture of the chocolate was great, the cocoa nibs an added bonus. The chocolate wasn’t bitter & a great idea for the future would be if the nibs came in different flavours such as orange & mint.

Pacari Chocolate Covered Guava- The title says it all, dried guava covered in dark chocolate. This was very suprising, I’ve never really tried Guava before & this was amazing! The mixture between the bitter dark chocolate & the sweet guava worked, complimenting eachother. Funnily enough, it was a little like eating a more exotic type of chocolate raisins & are a good size for snacking on.

So that was that…. Crushed Diamonds and Pacari Chocolate Covered Guava were my two favourites & would recommend them to anyone and everyone, especially dark chocolate n00bs! But… my tasting session didn’t end there. I decided that since I had tons of great quality chocolate, what better way than to combine it with something else I love; baking. I then created Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting using a mixture of all the chocolate’s I tried then topped them with a square of Orange Mantra. I gave some to my mom & then took them into work for the guys I work with who loved them to bits & are now dying for more!

To find out more about Chocolate & Love, the chocolate club they run, to order exotic chocolates or just be nosy then click here and let your taste buds do the talking!

You may remember that last June, I reviewed just-eat.co.uk giving it major thumbs up & have recommended it to friends within the UK & Ireland and also sent a £20 gift voucher by David Buttress, who runs just-eat.co.uk to give away during my 6 Prizes in 6 Days for 6 years competition. Since then, they’ve under gone a major website re-vamp introducing Belly & Brain as part of their advertising campaign in within the UK (see the TV advert above!). Belly is such a cutie!

So here I am again, pimping just-eat.co.uk out for the simple reason that I love it, so much so that by their records, I’ve used it 23 times & spent over £400 to date *gulp* since I first used it in November 2008.

If you’re in the UK & stuck for dinner, then use the website, it’s great if you don’t have any cash on you (like I rarely do!) & ultra simple to use! If you’re in Ireland or Canada then you can use it too! Not to mention Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands & Norway.

& no, I’m not paid to pimp the website out! It’s just one of my favourite websites around I thought I’d share

Cupcakes! Who doesn’t love cupcakes? They cheer you up when you’re down, give you a sugar rush when you need it most & are addictive as hell! These cupcakes are no exception, in fact they are so addictive you can’t just have one!

Cupcake Ingredients:
60g soft unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
1 egg
20g cocoa powder
40ml red food colouring
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
120ml buttermilk
150g plain flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1½ teaspoons white vinegar
Cupcake Tray filled with paper cases

Cupcake Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Put the butter and the sugar in a bowl and use a hand held electric whisk and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer up to high speed, slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well mixed.

2. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a very thick, dark paste. Add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until evenly combined and coloured. Turn the mixer down to slow speed and slowly pour in half the buttermilk. Beat until well mixed, then add half the flour and beat until everything is well incorporated. Repeat this process until all the buttermilk and flour have been added.

3. Turn the mixer up to high speed and beat until you have a smooth, even mixture. Turn the mixer down to low speed and add the bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Beat until well mixed, then turn up the speed again and beat for a couple more minutes.

4. Spoon a tablespoon of the mixture into the paper cases and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes until the sponge bounces back when touched. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely. When the cupcakes are cold, spoon the cream cheese frosting on top. This recipe makes approx 20 cupcakes.

Frosting Ingredients:
300g icing sugar, sifted
50g soft unsalted butter
125g cream soft cheese

Frosting Method:
1. Beat the icing sugar and butter together in a bowl using a hand held electric whisk on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is well mixed. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy making sure you don’t over beat it

2. Frost your cupcakes with a knife or an icing bag and then top with extra toppings of your choice. I topped it with 5 different things: sprinkles, crushed oreo’s, cake crumbs, pink sugar flakes & icing balls & bunny rabbit.

Ingredients:
115g unsalted softened butter
50g granulated white sugar
1 large egg
140g all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
100g of your choice of nuts, finely chopped (I used a mini food processor to finely chop them into pieces)
A jar of your favourite flavour of jam (I choose Strawberry)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°c. Line a baking tray with grease proof paper and set aside.

2. Cream butter and sugar using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk (separate yolk from the white) and beat until combined.

3. Siv the flour into the bowl (so there are no lumps) with the mix and a pinch of salt beating until mixed thoroughly into a dough.

4. In a small bowl, whisk the egg white until frothy and place your choice of chopped nuts on a plate. In your hands, roll the dough into small balls. Taking one ball of the dough at a time, dip into the egg white and then roll into the nuts coating it completely. Place each ball on the baking tray and using your thumb, make an indentation in the center of each ball filling the indents with 1/2 a teaspoon of jam.

5. Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until brown. Once ready, remove from oven and cool down before eating. These little cookies are golden brown on out outside & taste like buttery shortbread inside, perfect with a glass of chilled milk