chocolate Archives - SAHARASPLASH

saharasplash7 January, 2017

A Cadvent Kind of Christmas

I hope that 2017 has been treating you right so far. I am just settling into married life, though I don’t see much of Paul with his crazy busy work life, and into our new home. For those of you who don’t know, Paul and I moved out of London over the Christmas period and into an annex attached to his parent’s house. We were always planning on doing this after getting hitched so it’s not something we jumped into. I have some wonderful memories and photos I’d like to share with you all from the past few weeks and it involves lots of chocolate! This Christmas has been a Cadvent Kind of Christmas indeed!

Cadbury’s and I have worked together before if you remember back to last summer’s Obey Your Mouth campaign. So it was lovely to hear all about the launch of their first ever Cadvent knitwear collection last month. I think that this is a wonderful step in an ever expanding direction for Cadbury’s, so of course I had to get involved!

The products come with hidden compartments including a scarf with deep 18cm pockets that can conceal even the most generous of gorgeous goodies – such as a box of Cadbury Roses or Cadbury Heroes?!

A great idea to keep the cold and the cravings at bay!

My friend Tash helped me take some shots in Saffron Walden, I adore this snowflake-bedecked hat. I felt bad making her take shots while it was sub-zero in the centre of the town but it was too lovely a winter’s morning not to!

I also had to get my Great Dane to strike a pose with the scarf, isn’t purple just his colour?!

The collection is now launched on Cadvent.co.uk so why not take a look and see for yourself?

Now onto a few memories from Christmas 2016.

Paul and I had my friend Natasha over for a few days. We had a day trip out to Shoreditch’s underground mini golf course The Junkyard and I took Tash to see Ipswich as well.

We met these cretins (otherwise known as Evie and Ruby) and my oldest friend Cleo for a few rounds of a pub quiz (Talking Tables).

We munched on these Cadbury snacks and the snow bites went down a treat!

Let’s hope next year is a Cadvent kind of Christmas too, you can never say that too much chocolate is a bad thing around Christmas time to see you into the New Year!

Saharasplash x

Up for more winter fun? I teamed up with Simply Be and one other sassy blogger for this post- size doesn’t matter, but style does

saharasplash2 June, 2016

Cadbury’s Obey Your Mouth

So this is a really quick and quirky post all about chocolate. So now I have your attention, I wanted to share a few images of what fun I had with Merrell at the Cadbury’s Obey Your Mouth house at Southbank London. Cadbury’s are doing a brand new campaign right now with 5 of their original best sellers and tying it in with some bank holiday fun from this Friday to Sunday. You can experience your inner child or entertain your own child with this free attraction for all ages as you go through the different rooms based around 5 different chocolate bars.

First up there’s some spinning fun with Double Decker, but I didn’t get my camera out until we hit part two, the Twirl ball pit!

Then we had to challenge a Panda with Wispa! It’s not as weird as it sounds, you have the panda to distract you as you try and throw ping pong balls into the goals behind him-

The next stage includes space hoppers and Boost, I almost fell off several times! You can race your friends to the end as you are timed, bounce as fast as you can there and back, I’ve got the videos on my snapchat right now so go take a look (search saharasplash).

And last you make your way down the slide (while snapchatting of course)…

…and it’s into a party room with Crunchie and a DJ! Props are provided for some camera moments 🙂

Bonus pic of us slaying on the roof, I’m sporting a suede effect dress and duster jacket both from Primark:

I hope you have a chance to get down there and try the Cadbury’s Obey your Mouth house for yourself, it’s really worth it if you are wondering what to do in London this weekend

Saharasplash x

If you liked this, you should try something completely different and check out this beauty post featuring Elemis!

saharasplash4 March, 2016

Mon Dessert Macarons for Mother’s Day

This one is for all the sweet-toothed mums out there and for all the cool kids who want to bake something extra special for their mummas. On Wednesday night I successfully baked my first batch of macarons thanks to Mon Dessert. So get ready for some seriously awesome baking skills as I’m making Mon Dessert Macarons for Mother’s Day!

Mon Dessert is a fabulous patisserie owned by Samina who is a London based baking queen. She has honed her skills through time and effort and has managed to create her own business which caters to big weddings and events as well as small gifts such as this beautiful Macaron Kit.

This is available to buy from Fortnum and Mason as well as online here. It comes with everything you could possibly imagine, right down to the icing bag and the macaron mat. It is a wonderful little gift that you can use to make something for your mother this weekend. The Macaron Kit can also work as a gift itself if you want a little less work! I found the kit so beautifully designed and decorated, each item was carefully packaged and wrapped so neatly, and the instruction booklet was so easy to follow.

So, onto the baking! First I made the white chocolate and raspberry ganache:

Then onto the macaron mixture! I had a little trouble getting my eggs to peak for some reason, though I am putting this down to either my whisk or my skills. At least my hair looked good from this angle!

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About ten minutes later it was ready to go and so I folded in the almond powder and the icing sugar as instructed.

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The mixture was so colourful after adding the beetroot powder! Next it was onto the piping!

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It was really easy to pipe out and after a bang to get the bubbles out and a few shakes to even the mixture out, here are the results!

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20 minutes later…

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Look how they’ve changed! I was so happy with how they rose, and the colour change to a lovely burnt orange was a nice surprise. I decorated them with rose petals which came in the kit for a professional effect. They popped off the mat with ease, and so I turned them over to cool as instructed.

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Once ready, I used my pre-made ganache for half, and the other half I used Jim Jams raspberry spread– it’s the best jam ever!

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Here are the final results, just perfect! I used the macaron tin to lay them gently onto a bed of ripped paper and they were ready to send off to my mum!

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She knows they are coming and is very excited to try them- I really enjoyed making these macarons for Mother’s Day and want to thank Mon Dessert for giving both me and my mother such a great gift.

Give making macarons for Mother’s Day a go this year, and make them with Mon Dessert!

Saharasplash X

If you want more gluten free goodness, head over to read my review of London’s best gluten free restaurant- Niche!

I received this product for free for my honest opinion and review

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