Little Debbie Peppermint Swiss Rolls

Once again that fawn-eyed temptress Little Debbie is coyly looking at me from the corner of my box of Peppermint Swiss Rolls, with a gaze that whispers: "C'mon, you know you want to taste my delicious creamy center!" I tell you, that Little Debbie can be quite beguiling.

Little Debbie's regular Swiss Rolls have been a best seller for the company since pretty much the dawn of time. In fact, if you look closely at pictures of dinosaurs, you might even see one or two snacking on some. That's not to say our little minx Debbie is afraid to try anything new, however. This year she is offering a new variation with peppermint added to the classic roll.



The rolls are sold in boxes of six, and are individually wrapped.



They are the same size as the classic roll. They also have a thin chocolate-like covering. The coating is fairly flaky, which I actually like. It's on the waxy side, true, but it does taste fairly close to chocolate...but that doesn't matter, because as soon as you take even the smallest bite, the peppermint immediately makes itself known.



The chocolate sponge cake is both on the dry and moist sides at the same time. I know that sounds like a contradiction -- and probably not a very pleasant one at that -- and on a freshly baked cake, it certainly would be unpleasant. But I think in commercial snack products, that's actually the perfect medium. If it were less dry, it would probably be greasy -- yet at the same time it's moist enough that it doesn't send you running for a drink to wash it down.

The creme: Honestly, it's hard to say much about snack cake filling that hasn't already been said. I will hand it to Little Debbie in that the creme filling in these rolls seems to be lighter and more whipped than most such cremes. And in terms of texture, I really liked that. It doesn't seem to have much flavor of its own -- but let's be fair; how often does a commercial creme snack filling?



As for the peppermint, as far as I could tell -- having actually dissected a roll and eaten it layer by layer -- purely for the sake of a thorough review and NOT because that is how I actually like to eat Swiss Rolls. No, dear readers, I do these things just for you. So where was I? Meandering somewhere within a run-on sentence that just lost its way? Oh, yes...

The peppermint, as far as I could tell, seems to live in the chocolatey top layer. It is a very strong peppermint. But it is quite sweet, and it does not burn or taste like medicine. Because it's so potent I suspect that these rolls will be more popular with adults than with kids -- unless they are weird kids, as I was (I always liked my mint bold).

All in all, I really liked this as a snack cake. Personally, I could have lived without the mockolate outer coating...but as stated, it is flaky and easy enough to just brush away if you don't really want it. For this review, I am knocking a couple points off the rating for the use of mockolate over real chocolate. I believe a real chocolate coating would have taken these from merely good to truly great. Meanwhile, the mint flavor is bold, and I love the texture of the cake. Definitely worth a try!



PURCHASED FROM:
Sample from company

PRICE:
MSRP $1.79 for a box of six rolls.

CALORIES:
210 calories per roll

ADDITONAL INFO:
Contains wheat, eggs, soy, and milk. Peanuts and tree nuts may also be present.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:
littledebbie.com

McVitie's Snickers Flapjacks

It's funny how even when it's still in English, some food names can be completely different in different places. Here in the U.S. when we hear "flapjacks," most of us immediately think about pancakes. Apparently in the U.K., Flapjacks can actually refer to a popular type of snack item.

My thanks once again to Cinabar of Foodstuff Finds for sending me this pack of McVitie's Snickers Flapjacks. I have been dying to try them since I read Jim's review back in October of last year (see it here).



Jim, to be fair, didn't like the Snicker's Flapjack all that much -- but he did say that it had a really good nutty smell. He also said they had an almost too moist, crumbly texture. But I happen to have a soft spot for that particular kind of texture (I am weird, I know).

Anyway, the package contains five individually wrapped bars.

Each bar is slightly longer and just a touch thinner than one of our "Fun Size" Snickers bars. The chocolate topping is much lighter in color than you'd guess from the packaging illustration -- in fact, it's almost a butterscotch color. And as Jim said it would, the bar does indeed have a very strong nutty smell. Looking at the bar I couldn't help but think that it looks like a hunk of chocolate (or butterscotch?) covered particle board. It's a taupe-colored mishmash of grainy looking bits, studded with peanuts. It is far from what one would call a pretty bar.



Looks aside, how did it taste?

Fortunately, it did not taste like something cheap furniture is built of. It is super moist -- moist to the point that it falls apart the moment you bite into it. The main flavors seem to be peanuts and oats. The chocolate, incidentally, may look like butterscotch, but it doesn't taste like it. It actually tastes just like any other commercial, mass market milk chocolate. It melts very easily, and while I have a feeling that on its own I would say it's too sweet, here it added a much needed kick. Without the sweetness of the chocolate, the oats would be too bland and the nuts would have nothing to jazz them up.



Also oddly missing from the Flapjack was any trace of caramel. Why is that? Caramel is such an important part of a classic Snickers bar that I don't get how they could possibly skip it here.

It's sort of hard to rate these. As a chocolate/peanut/oat flavored snack cake, they really aren't bad. I did like the texture, and I liked the fact that the cakes are just sweet enough without going overboard. On the other hand, as a Snickers flavored item, they are an epic fail. There's no caramel, and it just doesn't much seem like a Snickers bar at all.

In the end, I think I am going to just split the difference and go with:



PURCHASED FROM:
Gift from Cinabar of Foodstuff Finds

CALORIES:
167 Calories per Flapjack.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Contains peanuts, milk, soy, gluten, and is processed on equipment that also handles eggs and nuts.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:
unitedbiscuits.com

Burton's Jaffa Cakes

Jaffa cakes are actually fairly easy to get on this side of the pond. In fact, LU's version (called Pims) are carried in pretty much every supermarket I have ever been to, plus WalMart, Target, etc. And I have been known to eat a box or two appallingly quickly. (If you should see the pear flavor -- which seems to be the hardest to find -- just get them and thank me later.)



A Jaffa cake, should you not know, is a sponge cake base (sort of like a "black & white" cookie) topped with a jam-type fruit filling, and then the jam is covered with a layer of chocolate. According to the all-knowing Wikipedia entry, they were invented by the Scottish company McVitie's. They were called Jaffa cakes because the first batch was made with orange filling, and they were named after a type of sweet orange that grows in Jaffa, Israel.

My Jaffa cakes were made by Burton's, which has been making biscuits and sweets in the U.K. for so long that Queen Elizabeth (the second, not the first!) could have eaten them as after-school snacks. My cakes were the traditional orange-filled, and topped with what the box describes as "plain chocolate" -- which, from the looks and the ingredients, I am taking to be milk chocolate.



What I like about Jaffa cakes as rule is the springy softness of the sponge cake. My version was a bit on harder side. It was well within code, so am not sure if I simply got an "off" box, or whether this is the normal texture for this brand. Texture aside, the cake is pretty bland. It's not bad -- there's just not much flavor at all.



As for the orange jelly: this was some seriously good filling! The texture was moist but not gooey. And at the same time, it was not as firm as, let's say, a jelly roll candy. It has a bittersweet quality, like a smooth marmalade rather than a sweeter orange. And that is a beautiful thing. If I could get this stuff in vats, I would smear it on everything.

The chocolate: nothing special, it's just sort of a generic semi-sweet. It's not outstanding in any way, but it's not bad either. The melt is a little waxy, but it covers the cake nicely. Think of store brand chocolate chips and you've got it.

This is hard to rate because I am not sure if the texture issues that I experienced were the results of a stale box, or if that is the "normal" texture for the Burton's version. Based on some random things I read online, I am apt to think that what I had was the "normal" version. But without another box, I don't know for sure.

At least the jam was great. And the chocolate was serviceable. Giving the cake the benefit of the doubt, I am going to rate these at...


PURCHASED FROM:

Gift from my mom

Cadbury Mini Yule Logs

We are going to make another trip across the pond for this review. Inspired by Jim, I tracked down one of the many cake offerings that Cadbury makes in the U.K.



The Mini Yule Logs cakes feature a very thin layer of chocolate coating over a roll of chocolate sponge cake, with a chocolate butter-cream frosting swirled in the center. Even though the box photo doesn't show it, each log is also dusted in powdered sugar.



I was hoping that these rolls would be like an edible, imported version of David Tennant:



(Hey David! I got something I'd like to show you over in the TARDIS... ) But I must admit, I was also slightly worried I would be disappointed and get something more like Mr. Bean than Dr. Who-let-you-out-of-my-room.



What a careless worry!

The thing that first caught my taste buds is that the cakes seem to have a nice cocoa powder taste to them. This is good, as it cuts any excess sweetness that might overpower the other flavors. And the chocolate has a good milky quality.

The outer chocolate melts in your mouth. It's just sweet enough that it takes the bitter edge of the cocoa flavor off. The cake roll inside is moist. The butter-cream keeps the crumbs in check and reminded me of fudge. Slightly grainy and a little more deeply flavored then the other layers.

Everything about this roll is good! Now how do I get David to wrap himself in one and show up at my door...




PURCHASED FROM:
The British Emporium (Upland, CA)

Hostess 100 Calorie Strawberry Cupcakes

It's the new year and maybe we should be looking at some lighter options...
OK, my real motivation for trying these cupcakes is they were on sale for less then $2.00 at Walmart* but in my defense I had been wanting to try them.

The cupcakes come in packs of 3. The cakes are about the size of a half dollar. Each cake is covered in a light pink fondant like frosting. They have a light strawberry smell- sort of like the old school Strawberry Shortcake dolls did. The frosting is OK, it doesn't really have much taste but it does add a slightly gritty texture.

As for the rest of the cake it tastes EXACTLY like a Twinkie and a children's vitamins mated. I think the scary thing about that statement is that while it is completely accurate - it doesn't mean that the cupcakes aren't good. They are oddly addicting in fact. No, the strawberry flavor isn't remotely natural but that's why I liked it. "Real" strawberry probably would have been over kill.

For a 100 calorie snack it's pretty tasty.



PURCHASED FROM:
WalMart*

Hostess Orange Cupcakes

This is the 200'th post!!

Wow! that sort of snuck up on me. Once again let me say thank you to everyone out there who reads this. I have more fun then I probably should admit too putting this blog up.

I thought that it would be fitting that for the 200'th post I review one of my childhood favorites. And that would be the Hostess Orange Cupcake.

My first memories of the orange Hostess stems around grocery shopping. Way back when I was much, much younger and my parents would select me as the lucky kid out of three that got to go to the grocery store with them, somewhere around kid time hour seven of the task it went from being fun to being about as boring as the ingredient list on a bottle of water. I am not not really sure if my Father was also as bored (my Mother could and still does spend about a half an hour in the detergent aisle alone)or if he was simply sensing that whining was about to start had sort of a seventh inning stretch up his sleeve.
It was at that point that a package of Hostess Orange Cupcakes would make an appearance. There are few things that bring as much joy to a bored kid as sugar. Because they were as far as I ever knew only sold in the two cupcake packs they never seemed to make their way home and were a covert snack- not to be shared or even mentioned to my Brother and Sister at home (an even number of snack and an odd number of kids is a recipe for diaster). Ever since them I have been in love with the things! When I see them at convince stores or once and a while at the grocery store I can't resist getting a package.

They are still sold two to a pack. Much like their better known chocolate sibling they feature a fondant like frosting top (complete with squiggle)and a filling of too sweet "cream".

The base cake is vaguely orange flavored and spongy. The main orange flavor come from the frosted top. And I do love those frosted tops... Yes, I have been known to pull it off and eat it on it's own. The orange flavor is zesty, yes it is on the artificial side but it's one of those cases were if it is wrong then I would rather not be right. The texture is gritty and sugary but again that is one of the charms as far as I am concerned.

These will also be a childhood guilty pleasure, and I will always love them.

PURCHASED FROM:
Kroger (Ralph's depending on your location)

Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes

Larry The Cable Guys dream girl strikes again!

As much as I tend to not like Little Debbie snacks I have to admit to liking these.

Really they are so horrible they have gone past bad and come back to good.

The cakes are a white cake that is best described as grocery store birthday sheet cake... that sat out for a couple days. Sandwiched in between two thin layers of cake is a layer of frosting-type cream. It reminds me of an evil hybrid of cheap tub frosting and Cool Whip. The whole thing is enrobed in a thin wanna be fondant and if that wasn't enough sugar for you it is also liberally dotted with crystal sprinkles!

The whole thing is waaay to sweet- and I can't get enough of the damn things! honestly these are empty calories in they're purist form and I love them.

Oreo Cakesters

I have to hand it to Nabisco...

No matter how many products they slap the name Oreo on no matter how good or bad they are I will buy them at least once.

And with only two exceptions (both ice cream products) every time I find myself wondering why I bothered.

Why is it that with the exception of the classic sized cookies and the ice cream everything they stick the Oreo name on manages to taste nothing like an actual Oreo?

The Cakesters are no exception. They are sized slighter larger then your average cookie and are comprised of two soft cake layers with either a vanilla or chocolate cream in the center.

The cake.
Texture wise it is quite good. Moist and flaky. It's the taste that kills. A combination of cheap chocolate and oil. If they had managed to recreate the taste of the Oreo Ice Cream Sandwich wafers these snacks would have been fantastic. But since they didn't...

The cream:
The vanilla cream was like a slightly thicker version of the normal cream. Gritty, too sweet. The chocolate version however is good!. I am not going to say I went as far as licking the cream and discarding the cake on one... but it might have happened.

I can see kids loving these but I will be sticking to regular old Oreo's.