Tag: Easter

Lola’s Cupcakes Easter Postal Cake

chocolate, Easter, Food & Drink, Gifts for Her, Spring, Women

Disclaimer: We received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review but all thoughts and opinions are our own.

Easter’s just around the corner and the shops are absolutely bursting with all sorts of seasonal treats. As well as the classic chocolate eggs there are loads of gorgeous Easter goodies too and this week, we got to try something really special, a chocolate Easter Cake from Lola’s Cupcakes. If you’re after a beautiful centrepiece for your Easter table, then this is the one. And don’t worry if you’re not near one of their London stores as they’ll deliver it straight to your door if you’re in the UK.

The cake itself is a luscious double chocolate sponge – lovely and light – layered with a generous helping of smooth chocolate fudge buttercream. The top is covered in a pretty pale yellow buttercream with glossy chocolate ganache, topped with mini eggs and a scattering of colourful sprinkles. There’s even space for a personalised message. We went with the classic “Happy Easter”, but you can choose your own wording.

It’s always a bit of a worry when ordering cakes online, but this one was packaged so beautifully – snug in a sturdy box, with cool blocks and a thermal liner to keep everything just right during its journey. When it arrived, it looked as fresh as if it had just come out of the bakery that morning. Once opened the cake should be stored at room temperature in an air-tight container and whilst it is best eaten within 48 hours any leftovers can be kept in the fridge for another 2 days – although I can guarantee there’s no chance of that happening in our house!!! I was also pleased to find that the thermal packaging and ice packs can be sent back to Lola’s for reuse and there’s a prepaid label so there’s no cost either.

As for the taste – as a self confessed chocoholic it was absolutely perfect. The sponge was moist and airy, with a rich chocolate flavour and the buttercream was wonderfully smooth and rich. The decoration is charming without being over the top – appealing to children but with a lovely touch of elegance for the grown-ups too.

We all thoroughly enjoyed it, and there wasn’t a crumb left by the end of the day! If you’re looking for a thoughtful gift or something special to share with family and friends, I wholeheartedly recommend Lola’s Cupcakes. Their cakes are handmade daily with care and quality ingredients, and it really does show.

The Easter Postal Cake is available for delivery until the 21st of April, so do pop over to their website if you fancy treating yourself – or someone you love – this Easter.

RRP £29 available here



MGA’s Mini Verse Make It Sets

Birthday Gifts, Children, Christmas, Easter, Gifts for children, Stocking Fillers, Toys

Disclaimer: We received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review and all thoughts and opinions are our own

If you are looking for a non-chocolate Easter gift for an older child or even an adult that enjoys making dolls house accessories, then these MGA’s Mini Verse sets are a great choice.   

The range of pocket-sized miniatures are packaged in plastic balls that are cracked open just like an Easter egg. Once opened you discover a selection of miniature ingredients and accessories along with a step by step guide of how to make them. The sets use a resin which makes the items look more realistic and this needs to be set under UV light – if you have a nail lamp you can use this otherwise just leave it in a sunny spot until the resin has hardened. Once finished you can display the items on a shelf or Iike us, you can put them in a dolls house.

Whilst the contents are mini the attention to detail is amazing, from the working appliances to the detailing on the food and even mini wicks to add to the candles.

Whilst we’ve enjoyed making the food and lifestyle items the Mini Appliances range is our favourite as you actually use the plastic appliances to make the mini drinks. Each machine has working features enabling you to dispense coffee from the coffee machine into the mini cups or dispense mini ice cubes from the Soda and Juice mini machines prior to setting the resin under UV light.

Each package is a surprise, so you won’t know which set you have until you open it but with 60+ Make It Mini Lifestyle sets, 70+ Make It Mini Food Sets and 8 Make It Mini Appliances available it’s unlikely you’re going to end up with duplicates any time soon but if you do you can always swap with friends.

The recommended age is 8+ which is about right as some of the sets can be a little fiddly.

Mini Food RRP £7.99

Mini Lifestyle £9.99

Mini Appliances £12.99

Available from Smyths

Baileys  Easter Eggs

Easter, Food & Drink, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Women

Disclaimer: We received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review and all thoughts and opinions are our own.

Easter Eggs aren’t just for children and when I’m choosing eggs for adults, I like to buy something more luxurious like these Baileys Easter eggs which not only look stunning but are scrumptious too.

The Baileys Salted Caramel Easter Egg is a hollow creamy milk chocolate egg that is flavoured with Baileys and crunchy caramel pieces. The chocolate is nice and thick and the salted caramel pieces go really well with the chocolate. The egg comes with 5 salted caramel truffles which are absolutely delicious, the thick chocolate and the Baileys caramel filling are a winning combination – it’s just a shame there’s only 5!

RRP £8 available from Ocado and selected retailers.

The Baileys Strawberries and Cream Easter Egg is made of white chocolate with strawberry pieces and has a lovely speckled appearance. The chocolate is lovely and creamy and the hints of strawberry prevent it from being too sweet and sickly. There are 5 Strawberries and Cream Truffles which have a milk chocolate shell and a soft strawberries and cream centre with a hint of Baileys.

RRP £8 available from Ocado and selected retailers

The Baileys Easter eggs make a great gift or why not treat yourself – I won’t tell!!

The Ned Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and Fleur de Lise Rose Wine

alcoholic drinks, Birthday Gifts, Christmas, Drinks and Mixers, Easter, Father's Day, Food & Drink, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers, Mother's Day, secret santa, Stocking Fillers, Summer, Valentine's Day Gifts, Women

Disclaimer: We received these products free of charge for the purpose of this review and all thoughts and opinions are our own.

If you’re wondering what wines to buy for the Easter weekend then we have a couple of suggestions that are bound to go down a treat, either as gifts or enjoyed with a meal with friends and family.

Rosé fans will love the Fleur de Lise 2022 rosé from the Saint Mont region of France. In a distinctive tall bottle with attractive label the fruity dry rosé has notes of raspberry and redcurrant and is lovely and crisp on the palate. Best served chilled, the wine is great as with grilled meat, fish and salads. It also goes surprisingly well with chocolate – it is Easter after all!!.  

ABV 12% RRP £9 available from Ocado

The Ned Marllborough is a Sauvignon Blanc wine from the Marisco Vineyards in the Southern Valleys region of New Zealand. We enjoyed a glass with our roast chicken dinner, but it will go just as well with seafood. The wine is lovely and crisp with hints of lime, herbs and gooseberry and we found it to be nice and refreshing to drink. I’m hoping the weather warms up a bit by Easter as it will be nice to enjoy a glass or two with friends in the garden whilst the children are doing their Easter Egg hunt!

ABV 13% RRP £11.99 available from Waitrose

Just Spices DIY Chocolate Kit

Birthday Gifts, Children, chocolate, Easter, Family Life, Gifts for children

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

Easter is now synonymous with chocolate, or at least it is in our house! It’s also the end of Lent, which often is a time for giving up chocolate in most households.  This Easter, you can indulge in chocolate as well as keep the children happy during the holidays with this alternative to an Easter Egg – the Just Spices DIY Chocolate Kit.

The kit contains two chocolate silicone moulds, clear wrappers and cardboard packaging, a booklet on how to make chocolate bars and 11 spice sachets.  The spice sachets, which Just Spices are famous for, include Peppermint, Pink Pepper, Ceylon Cinnamon and more unusual flavours like carrot and Anise. If you’re into gourmet chocolate, you’ll know that all the big chocolate houses are now doing flavoured chocolate bars as well as boxes of your favourite flavours, so these spices will go down a treat with the whole family!

The handy booklet that’s contained in the kit talks you through everything that’s needed and how to make the chocolate. It’s worth noting at this point though, that the kit doesn’t have the chocolate included – you have to purchase that yourself. You also need a saucepan and heat-proof bowl, kitchen scales, a spatula and a kitchen thermometer. The booklet calls it ‘The Ultimate Guide’ to getting started making chocolate and takes you on easy to follow steps through the process. The first step is to heat the chocolate you’ve bought and make sure that it doesn’t overheat otherwise it spoils! Taking the chocolate to the right temperature is crucial and make sure that that the chocolate doesn’t come in contact with the water.

Once you read up about getting the temperature right (I had no idea that was an art in itself!) then you can add the spices. There is an art to this as well, making sure that the spices are added before the chocolate gets too cold and placing it in the silicone mould. It needs to harden at room temperature before it goes into the fridge to set completely. The chocolate is best eaten at room temperature but you can keep it in the fridge or a pantry cupboard.

The whole process takes an hour or so if you’re following the instructions and can be completed by children, especially young teenagers who are supervised around the hot saucepan. Smaller children will need to be brought in at a later stage when the heating is done, but they will enjoy mixing in the spices and smoothing off with a spatula. It will depend on your children’s patience as to how long they are willing to wait for the chocolate to set, but you can guarantee they will love licking the chocolate off of their fingers when they’re finished!

The silicone mould can be used again and again and the spices are available on the Just Spices website if you need more. The packaging is a nice edition but you don’t need it for every time you make the chocolate, only if you’re giving the bars as a gift.

This is a nice way to spend an afternoon with the family or as a give to a family at Easter. Those who are particularly good at crafting will enjoy this starter kit and how the chocolate process works, especially if you go on to make more varieties of flavoured chocolates in the future using the Just Spices ingredients!

£29.99 at: https://www.justspices.co.uk/diy-chocolate-kit.html

Sylvanian Families Easter Celebration Set

Birthday Gifts, Children, Easter, Gifts for children, Spring, Toys

Disclaimer: we received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review and all thoughts and opinions are our own.

Our mini reviewers had an early Easter treat this week when we received the Easter Celebration Set from Sylvanian Families. Presented in a beautiful Easter themed pastel coloured box the set includes two bunnies called Serena & Romeo Marguerite who are both dressed in beautiful Easter outfits complete with matching marguerite brooches and Easter bonnets. The set also includes a selection of Easter accessories, eggs and sweets so the bunnies can have a festive Easter egg hunt.

Serena is wearing a beautiful yellow and green dress and pink hat and Romeo is wearing a purple suit with a matching hat. The clothes are well made and can easily be removed and our mini reviewers, who already have a collection of Sylvanian family figures, loved swapping the outfits around with their other figures. They also enjoyed having an Easter egg hunt with the bunnies, one would go out of the room whilst the other put the sweets in the three mini Easter eggs and then come back in and look for them.

As a parent, the thing I love about Sylvanian Families is that the toys encourage children to use their imagination and it is lovely watching and hearing the escapades the figures get up to!! I used to love collecting and playing with my Sylvanian Family figures (which I still have ) and it is lovely to see my children enjoying them too.

Our mini reviewers loved this set and gave it a huge thumbs up! It is a great addition to their ever growing Sylvanian families collection and will provide hours of entertainment for them over the Easter holidays.

Aimed at children aged 3 and above this set would make a lovely Easter gift. It is available from the Sylvanian Familes website here

RRP £21.99