Mothers day gift idea – The Review Studio

Lola’s Cupcakes Mother’s Day Cake

Family Life, Food & Drink, Gifts for Her, Home, Mother's Day, Vegetarian, Women

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

You can never spoil your Mum enough on Mother’s Day, but you probably struggle to find enough in the way of presents. Lola’s Cupcakes have the perfect Mother’s Day Cake which Mum can enjoy, or you can enjoy with the whole family with their range of sponges, fillings and sizes. Lola’s Cupcakes sent us this special delivery today and we can’t get enough of it!

This cake, which is available for delivery nationwide, is the lemon and elderflower version in size medium. There is the option of three different cakes; lemon and elderflower, chocolate sponge with chocolate buttercream filling and vanilla sponge with buttercream and raspberry jam filling. The wording on the top is either “Happy Mother’s Day” or you can leave it blank to personalise yourself later. This lemon and elderflower version is lemon curd and buttercream filling with an all-over lemon buttercream icing and delicate, edible real flowers. It’s a pretty pink board and well fitted into a Lola’s Cupcakes box so it’s easily deliverable.

The lemon sponge is incredibly light and fresh, with the hint of lemon which only comes from using real lemons as a flavouring and not artificial flavourings. The lemon curd filling is evenly matched with the buttercream filling so that the lemon taste isn’t overpowering but it’s definitely there. The elderflower mascarpone makes a nice change to the usual flavours and overall, the combination make for a light, tangy taste. The flowers, including daisies, also add some flavour to the icing. Even better, this cake is vegetarian so more people can enjoy it!

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This medium sized cake, which is about 4 inches tall (10 centimetres) has 14 generous sized portions so could easily be used for a meal on Mother’s Day this Sunday. It’s available from today (6 March) to be delivered over the weekend and can be ordered online or over the phone – details are available on the Lola’s Cupcakes website: https://www.lolascupcakes.co.uk

I’ve never tried Lola’s Cupcakes before and certainly not a home delivery service for cake but I was overly impressed with this. This cake is beautiful, and huge, and is delivered in perfect condition. The taste is exquisite, with a stunning combination of flavours that really work together to create a memory for Mum on Mother’s Day. It looks straight out of an Instagram page as well, but rest assured, it didn’t stay looking like that for long once my family all had a piece!

Available from £27.50 (£40.00 for the medium size shown) at: https://www.lolascupcakes.co.uk/Web/Sites/Cupcakes/OrderingPage.aspx?ID=1529

The Official Tower Single Basket Airfryer Cookbook

Birthday Gifts, Books, Family Life, Food & Drink, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Home, Home & Garden, kitchen appliances, Mother's Day

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

I’ve had an air fryer for a couple of years now and whilst I hear of people creating amazing culinary delights in theirs, I must confess that up until now ours has only been used for cooking chips and fishfingers! When I received the Official Tower Single Basket Air fryer Cookbook from Tower Housewares it was just the push I needed to liven up mealtimes and I have been enjoying experimenting with some of the delicious recipes – it’s fair to say my family have been thrilled with the meals and our air fryer has had a new lease of life!

With over 100 years of experience in manufacturing everyday kitchen appliances the new Air Fryer recipe books have been carefully created by the Tower development team to make the most of Tower air fryers. There are recipe books for all three styles of air fryer so whether you have a Dual Basket, Single Basket & Oven there is a recipe book for you.

With 249 pages the book is organised into the following sections, Breakfast, Starters & Light Bites, Midweek Dinners, A Taste of Takeaway, Meat Free, Sharing Snacks & Sides, Pizza & Savoury Bakes and Puddings & Sweet Treats. It contains a really good selection of recipes and there is something to suit every taste. Many of the recipes include “Top Tips” which suggest alternative ingredients or serving suggestions and they all show the Prep time, Cooking Time, Number of servings and difficulty level.

Each recipe spans two pages, one for the ingredients and method and the second for a colour photograph which shows you what the finished dish should look like.

The step-by-step instructions are easy to follow and as we’re trying to save money at the moment we decided to create our own Chinese meal rather than going to the takeaway. The dishes were surprisingly easy to make and the whole family were really impressed with the air fryer versions of our favourite dishes.

The Sesame Prawn Toast was simple to make and tasted amazing – so good that we all agreed that we won’t be buying it from the Chinese take away any more!

Another favourite is Crispy Chinese Style Chilli Beef, this was a really easy dish to create and cost a fraction of what we normally pay at the Chinese take away.

With the Chinese dishes going down a treat we tried a mix of Indian dishes next, Tandoori Style Chicken, Onion Bhajis and Crispy Bombay Potatoes. As our air fryer only has 1 basket, in order to have everything ready together I did prepare the Onion Bhajis and Crispy Bombay Potatoes earlier in the day and then reheated them at the last minute and this worked really well. The Tandoori Style Chicken was much easier to make than I expected, only taking 5 minutes to prepare and was a real winner with my family.

This book contains an excellent selection of recipes which are easy to follow and actually turn out exactly like the pictures. It’s been fun experimenting with the air fryer and I’m looking forward to working my way through the recipe book. I’m so pleased I’ve upped my air frying game and whilst I might still cook the odd basket of chips and fish fingers our air fryer is now fully occupied cooking much more exciting cuisine!

RRP £19.99 but you can save 25% off by using promo code RECIPEBOOK

Bruler Bergamot & Oud Luxury Soy Candle

Autumn, Birthday Gifts, Fragrance, Gifts for Her, Gifts for teachers, Home, Home & Garden, Mother's Day, secret santa, Stocking Fillers, Valentine's Day Gifts, Winter, Women

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

Lighting a scented candle is a simple way to create a cozy and relaxing atmosphere in any room and with Valentine’s Day coming up, make the perfect gift for a loved one. For a special occasion it’s lovely to have a luxury candle but premium scented candles, whilst smelling amazing, can be a little pricey so I was really pleased to discover Bruler Candles whose mission is to make premium scented candles at an affordable price. With over 15 scents and a choice of candles and reed diffusers there is a great selection to choose from.

In my experience the sign of a good candle is always when you can smell the fragrance before you take it out of the packaging and the Bruler candle did not disappoint on that score! After unwrapping the Bergamot & Oud luxury soy candle l couldn’t resist lighting it straight away and within minutes the sublime fragrance was diffusing around the room. The balance of bergamot and oud is perfect, the fragrance is noticeable but not too overpowering and it fragranced my room beautifully, lasting long after the candle had been blown out. With the 30cl candle having a burn time of 40 hours my home is going to be smelling lovely for the next few months.

The design of the candle is nice and simple, a solid glass jar with a white label meaning it will suit any style of décor and not look out of place. The 30cl glass candle costs a very reasonable £23 and there is the option of adding a gift box for an extra £2. Standard delivery is £3 and orders over £50 (with standard delivery) are free.

So if you want a candle to create a romantic ambience this Valentine’s Day then take a look at Bruler candles, they will add a luxurious feel to any home without an expensive price tag. And if there isn’t anyone special this year then why not treat yourself!!

Belledorm Duvet Cover and Pillow Set

Family Life, Gifts for children, Gifts for Her, Home & Garden, Mother's Day, Vegan, Vegetarian

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

Mother’s Day gifts are always tricky in our house. I bet my Mum is like 90% of everyone else’s and just says that she isn’t worried about what she receives, doesn’t know what she wants and says that she has everything already! The other end of the scale is buying her something that she needs but doesn’t necessarily want, like the year my brother bought her a frying pan (so that she could cook him a proper fry up) and an A-Z… because she always got lost whenever he needed to be picked up from anywhere.

Since those days, we’ve all been super careful about what we buy Mum for her birthday! A few years ago she had her bedroom decorated in her favourite duck-egg blue, complete with post wallpaper and new carpet. It meant a whole new set of soft furnishings too, which is the fun part, but can also be expensive.

Belledorm have exceptional home linens available online, specifically some beautiful bed linen like sheet, duvet covers and pillow slips. We were sent this brushed cotton set in blue (which is more of a duck egg blue) to review and see how Mum would like it as a Mother’s Day gift.

The Brushed Cotton set is 100% cotton, and if you’re not familiar with what brushed cotton is, it’s a fleece-type finish which is softer and slightly fluffy. It reminded me a lot of some types of pyjamas and pyjama shirts. The cotton is brushed slightly after weaving, giving this super soft-to-the-touch texture which is also very cosy and warm. As the set is 100% cotton, it’s also very breathable and can control your body temperature compared to synthetic materials.

The duvet cover is button fastening along the short end with hand holes at the opposite end so that you can pull the duvet through. It’s machine washable at 40 Centigrade and can be drip dried or tumble dried and ironed afterwards. It should not be dry cleaned. The pillows have the same washing instructions and neither set should be bleached. As an added bonus, the pieces all have a 5 year warranty with them so you can buy in confidence if any of them develop any problems.

I found the pillow cases were really easy to put on a they had a lot of room and were easy to manoeuvre. I find buttons easy to use as well, and the hand holes were something I’ve never seen before but were great for grabbing the corners of the duvet to pull them through. It was easy enough that children could make their own bed from this design. The block colours, of which there are 10 available in total online, are classic colours that won’t go out of style and fit most décor especially as there are a lot of neutral colours. The soft brushed cotton was lovely to sleep in, it was not only warm to touch but was really comfortable.

For a gift for Mum on Mother’s Day, there are worse things you can buy her, but a gift like this Brushed Cotton bed set will last, as well as tell Mum that she’s loved.

Available from £45 upwards for a double duvet cover. Pillow cases sold separately.

https://www.belledorm.co.uk/product/brushed-cotton-duvet-cover?instance_id=70610