All new Cakelings @MOD

Mad Over Donuts introduces Cakelings – a range of premium cupcakes deliciously designed in 8 different flavours to satisfy any sweet tooth. These gourmet treats are freshly made and crafted from scratch at Mad Over Donuts every day by their very own pastry chefs, using the highest-grade ingredients & baking methods. The Cakelings are packed in an irresistibly cute take-away box.

Whether you’re a chocolate or an Oreo fan, or simply love bananas and strawberry or you relish the refreshing flavor of lemon, Mad Over Donuts has a Cakeling for every one! Cakelings are available in the following flavours:

• Chocolicious: Dense chocolate cupcake with a swirl of rich chocolate ganache 
• Rich Crumble: Chocolate cupcake with Oreo buttercream frosting – creamy, crunchy & utterly addictive
• Nutella Frost with Snickers: Rich chocolate cupcake topped with Nutella buttercream and garnished with chopped Snickers chocolate! Contains nuts
• Coffee Cream: Chocolate cupcake with a creamy coffee buttercream frosting, dusted with cocoa powder
• Strawberry Chocolate: Chocolate cupcake with strawberry buttercream frosting, topped with choco chips
• Berry Bliss: A vanilla cupcake with blueberry buttercream icing, garnished with blueberry filling and silver candy sprinkles  
• Lemon Swirl: A vanilla cupcake with refreshing lemon buttercream 
• Caramel Banana: A vanilla cupcake with caramel & banana buttercream icing, with caramel drizzle 

Available in beautifully designed boxes of 1, 3 or 6, Cakelings are the next generation cake to celebrate any occasion. They are glorified cupcakes really, but when they look so pretty, who really cares?

Packaging: Box of 1, 3 and 6
Price: INR 65/ Cakeling. Buy 5 Get 1 Free at Rs. 325.
Website: www.madoverdonuts.com

Hokey Pokey Double Chocolate Therapy

Hokey Pokey Double Chocolate Therapy

So it was lust at first sight when a known food blogger Instagrammed a picture of the Double Chocolate Therapy, a signature dessert by an ice cream brand called Hokey Pokey. So when I spotted an outlet at Hiranandani, I had to give it a try because I was intrigued not just by the dessert, but also the company.

 Hokey Pokey is an Indian ice cream brand by DRUMS Food International Pvt. Ltd., established in Mumbai but the brand has quickly grown and they now have 14 company-owned outlets across cities like Pune, New Delhi, and Nasik. It is heartening to see at least one home-grown brand being serious about ice creams. The Amuls, Dinshaws and Kwalitys have only tabled the standard set of flavours over the years. In short, the Indian ice cream scene has been very vanilla. One would head to a Naturals (which, I love) or  Baskin Robbins occasionally when the palate craved some texture and different flavour.

But thanks to Hokey Pokey, ice cream eating seems to be taking a turn for the better.

The frozen stone slab is used to mix ingredients for the Signature Creations

Hokey Pokey serves a set of single flavours yes, but their specialty are the shakes and signature creations. Their Signature Creations are a blend of 2-3 ingredients, which are hand mixed on a frozen stone slab and served in a waffle cup. The Double Chocolate Therapy is one of their signature creations and boy is it sexy!

The Double Chocolate Therapy is a dessert created using Dark Belgian Chocolate Ice Cream, Chocolate Brownie, Chocolate Fudge and Nutella!! The presentation is even better with chocolate sauce drizzled on it and a chocolate accent stuck on the top. The result is a fabulously tasty and variously textured dessert. The best part is that it is not overly sweet and one-dimensional like regular ice cream. A single serve (in a waffle cup within a paper cup) costs INR 85, but it is totally worth the money. I cannot wait to go back and try their other Signature Creations. Highly recommended.

RATING: 4/5

Nutella Chocolate-Hazelnut Spread

What can I say about Nutella that the world does not already know? The chocolate spread comes from the house of Ferrero and was first made in the 1940s by Pietro Ferrero, a patisserie maker and one of the original founders of the company. To compensate for the cocoa shortage during the second World War, Ferrero started experimenting with chocolate products with additions like nuts. He used roasted hazelnuts and substituted cocoa butter with hydrogenated vegetable fat (palm oil) and eventually gave us the chocolate spread Nutella as we know it today. It was introduced in the market in 1964. Since then it has become insanely popular; so much so that people actually celebrate World Nutella Day on February 5.

Because the main ingredients of Nutella are sugar and palm oil (followed by hazelnuts, cocoa solids and skimmed milk), it is a rather unhealthy product to have at the breakfast table. Sample this bit of info from Wikipedia: Nutella contains 67% saturated fat and processed sugar by weight. A two-tablespoon (37 gram) serving of Nutella contains 200 calories, 11 grams of fat, 3.5 of which are saturated and 21 grams of sugar. To put that into perspective, a typical chocolate and nut candy bar has 250 to 300 calories and 12 to 16 grams of fat.

That said, I continue to buy my jars of Nutella pretty regularly like a million others, although I'm not a fan. Before I started this blog, I hadn't paid it much heed to it. It was only when I tried the Pillsbury Choco Spread for the blog did points of comparison start cropping up between it and Nutella. Apart from its taste, it is Nutella spreadability that makes it such a popular product. See how wonderfully it glides over a slice of bread or any other carb things you want to load up with chocolate!

Nutella is smooth, creamy, sweet and everything one can possibly want in comfort food. It is both very chocolaty and hazelnutty and makes it impossible for you to stop digging in that spoon and eating it straight off the jar - the gym be damned! Yes I do that even though I claim not to like it too much. Basically, there is no hope for those who actually do and will probably polish off this 180 g jar much sooner than I will.

RATING: 3.5/5