Mutterings for the Minority

We’ve never been ones to buy special occasion cakes from the big supermarkets, always preferring to order them direct from the local bakery shop.

But as with anything in life, it’s nice to have a change every now and then, so we were intrigued when our next door neighbour told us about the stunning birthday cake and specially made cupcakes they’d had made for their son’s 4th birthday.

The cake was made by a local lady from Swansea, better known as Mrs Cupcake.  After hearing of our neighbour’s rave review, I was curious to find out more and went to see what was being said about Mrs Cupcake on Facebook - which is where my neighbour first heard of her.

It quickly became obvious that these were pretty unique cupcakes.  There were loads of pictures and comments from people commenting on cupcakes they’d had made for all manner of occasions – new baby, birthdays, corporate events, anniversaries, christenings, wedding cupcakes and even thank you cupcakes for teachers!

Now being of sweet tooth (as I’ve mentioned previously in my blog) it didn’t take me long to head off over to the Mrs Cupcake website to get in touch with her and place an order.

With my order placed, I couldn’t wait to see if these homemade cupcakes – which everyone was raving about – really were as nice as everyone had said.

I’d ordered a box of 6 cupcakes (tempting though it was to order 12!) which comprised of 3 different flavoured cupcakes – vanilla, lemon and chocolate.

Given that it was the whole family that was going to be munching the cakes, I thought it best to get a mixture – just to keep everyone happy.

A couple of days later my cupcakes turned up and I was mightily impressed.  The cupcakes arrived in a pretty giftbox complete with hand tied ribbon and were actually hand delivered by Mrs Cupcake herself!

We even got to meet Mr Cupcake (who was driving) and what a lovely, friendly couple they were.

Tea time couldn’t come quick enough as we were all eager to taste the picture perfect cupcakes which smelt as enticing as they looked.

Being the gent that I am, I decided to let the ladies have first choice on what flavoured cupcake they’d like to try first – whilst at the same time secretly praying it wasn’t the chocolate ones!

Thankfully my mam, wife and daughter chose to try the lemon and vanilla ones respectively.

Lemon cupcake

Vanilla Cupcake

My son and I took care of the chocolate cupcakes, but not before sharing a slight (and I mean slight!) slither of each with the girls just for them to have a taste.

Chocolate cupcake

Everyone remarked how soft and light the sponge of each cupcake was and how the toppings added the right balance of sweetness and flavour to give the cupcakes a perfect mix of taste and texture.

The general concensus from all was “MMMmmmm”  quickly followed by “Do you mind if I try that one?”.

Whilst none of us could agree on which was THE favourite out of the 3 flavours, we were all in agreement on one thing – that Mrs Cupcake sure does make some exceedingly gorgeous homemade cupcakes.

And with Halloween and Christmas fast approaching, I’m rather tempted to place a few more orders, but not before trying to win some cupcakes by following Mrs Cupcake on Twitter first!

So all in all, everything I’d read and heard about the homemade cupcakes from Mrs Cupcake was spot on and I’d recommend ordering some special cupcakes for that special occasion – or just because you love cakes.

And if you’re not happy with the cupcakes, then I’ll happily take them off your hands and eat them for you

Now being someone whom has an extremely sweet tooth I am, as you can imagine, a big lover of sweets.

In years gone by, a shopping trip to the high street also meant a visit to Woolworths or a good old-fashioned sweets shop for a big bag of pick ‘n’ mix sweets.  Cola bottles, pear drops, fruit salad, black jacks, candy necklaces, jelly beans – you name it and I’d have tried it!

Sadly, the demise of these high street shops meant that I had to take my quest for retro sweets online and this is where I came across the rather cool concept of The Sweet Club.

As the name suggests, the Sweet Club is just that – an online sweet shop where as a member, you get to choose from hundreds of different and old-fashioned sweets.  The sweets are then delivered to your door (home, work or wherever) once a month or fortnight, it’s your choice of what and when.

The way it works is simple, you choose your 8 packets of sweets online and they get delivered in an attractive red box, with each pack of your chosen sweets individually wrapped and labelled – which is handy should you get your different flavoured bonbons mixed up!

My Sweet Club selection box

New Sweet Club members also get to try the ‘Introductory Sweet Box Offer’ of a their chosen sweet selection box for Just £4.95 including FREE delivery.

This is a saving of £5 off usual price of £9.95 and there’s also no on-going committment to buy again – but after trying them, I’m sure you will!

Right now I’ve described how this online sweet club works, it’s time to talk about the important bits – the sweets themselves.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, my 7 year old son helped me choose which packets of retro sweets we bought.  The choice of sweets was huge ranging from candy to fudge, chocolate to liquorice and even sugar free sweets!

My favourite - Pear Drops

Top of my sweetie shopping list however were the legendary Pear Drops – my all time favourite hard boiled sweet.  Their long lasting flavour, tinged with a little sour kick once at the core, really keeps me wanting to pop ‘just one more’ into my mouth.

Once they’d been added to the shopping cart, it was time to satisfy my son’s craving or rather curious need to try some Bubble Gum!  This was quickly followed by his new found favourite – ABC Letters.

This was rather amusing, as not only did he love the sweet, crumbly candy taste, but also the fact that he could spell out words with them as well.  Who said sweets were bad for you

Learn the alphabet with sweets!

After a quick consultation with my wife, some more of the traditional sweets were added to our pack of 8, in the shape of Chocolate flavoured Bonbons, Orange Chocolate Nibbles, Jelly Beans and her all time favourite hard boiled sweets Rhubard & Custard.

The REAL Rhubarb and Custard

She wasn’t disappointed either and remarked how “they taste as good now as they did when I was a teenager” – which without wanting to incur her wrath – I’ll say was only 20 or so years ago… give or take a year.

So here I am now writing this – having spent most of the week munching my way (with the family)  through lots of different sweets – down to the last packet, the Mixed Selection.

Retro sweets anyone?

We’ll savour it that’s for sure – especially as it’s the last one – but not before making a visit to www.thesweetclub.co.uk to see what other wonderful selection of sweets our new found retro sweet shop can provide us with.

And whilst I slowly let this solitary fizzy cola bottle disintegrate in my mouth, I might start following The Sweet Club on Twitter or start entering some of the sweet competitions run on The Sweet Club Facebook page in the hope of winning or finding a discount code for my next shop.

Right, now where did those other sweets go…..

Getting fit with Wii Fit Plus? Well that’s exactly what Mrs T is trying to do or rather is hoping it will kickstart her to do

Today has been the first proper chance that we’ve had to give the Wii Fit Plus and it’s associated balance board a really good workout – ourselves included of course! In fact we were reliably informed by Wii Fit that it had been 16 days since we last erm, ahem, did any ‘fitness’ work. I must say though that during these 16 days we also managed to lose a 1lb each – well according to the Wii we had anyway.

As for the “game” itself, well as novice Wii users we aren’t able to compare the Wii Fit Plus to the original Wii Fit – except to say that the cover box blurb gleefully boasts six additional exercises to the original.

Personally we were more sold by the fact that you can setup your own specialised workout, so you can completely customise your fitness program however you want.

You can also choose from aerobic and muscle exercises, yoga, balance games – heading, ski jump, ski slalom, tightrope, irritating maze, penguin game, snowboarding, meditation – and Training Plus. As you can imagine with that lot, we were knackered just reading the instructions!

Joking aside though it was great fun – even our 5 year old had a go – and it did in all fairness get the heart pumping and lungs blowing. So it got a big thumbs up from Mrs T whom is now more than happy with her new trainer partner. So if you want to have some family fun and get fit (‘ish) at the same time – get yourself a Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board.

On a final note, the hula hoop exercise had me in hysterics as all I could see in front of me was a gyrating bottom – moving with great rhythym it must be said – and strains of “I see you baby…shakin’ that ass” in my head

Yes these are the new running shoes I’ve bought and which duly arrived today.

My old trainers (running shoes?) – New Balance something or other – had began to fray and wear near the upper heal part. This made wearing them rather uncomfortable!

So I was in the market for a new running shoe that would cater for a overpronator like me. With this is mind I had to have a shoe that would offer me stability and support.

After doing some digging around on the web I headed off to M and M Direct whom stocked the Reebok Premier Road Plus KFS V trainers – in size 12!

[EDIT] M and M Direct no longer have them in stock, but they are in stock on the Reebok running website.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were down to £39.13 from the RRP of £64.99, as a result I didn’t need to think twice about ordering them.

Having now tried them on and gone for a light jog I can honestly say that they are not only extremely comfortable, but also offer the stability/support I needed (especially in my right leg).

I never cease to be amazed how a trainer can be so comfy – like wearing slippers in fact – and yet still feel sturdy regardless of the running terrain.

Anyway, suffice to say that the Reebok Premier Road Plus KFS V trainers get a big thumbs up from me!