In December I wrote about our Christmas Traditions as a child (or there lack of) and the new ones that I'm starting with my own little family. It was inspired by Baker's Delights delicious goodies they provide me at Christmas.
They also provide me with delicious delights at Easter too. So, in keeping with the tradition theme. Here I am. Again, I don't recall a lot of traditions from when I was a kid. We always got an egg (or 7) and all I really recall about Easter is that I used to gobble my eggs down super quick and my brother was (is?) one of those annoying people that makes treats last forever - nibble by nibble. Which made me very jealous come Easter Sunday or Monday when my goodies were all gone.
As with the Christmas traditions, I am very conscious of making traditions for us. Easter egg hunts are our tradition. At this stage they have been different each year for Leah, but I'm sure as our family grows they will gain some substance. I had a very funny chat with Leah today about Easter and what it's all about. She seemed to think it was like Christmas, but with chocolate and a bunny instead of santa. Well, yes... I suppose in our religion free family I suppose that is what it's about (and 4 day weekends!).
The goodies we recieved from Baker's delight were gobbled up weeks ago! I'm just slack at getting my post up. Because of this, I've also missed the boat on the 'Bundraiser' day that Baker's Delight was promoting with their hot cross buns. Although, I don't see why you couldn't still have a lovely hot cross bun morning tea and raise some money for a good cause, ala' the intent.
PS: The buns are delicious. I have bought a tonne more and although they may cost a wee bit more than your supermarket made, they are very much worth it. I went to Baker's Delight today and the traditional buns were SOLD OUT! But that's OK because I prefer the chocolate... I mean, baby prefers chocolate.. yeah, the baby. <3
I'm stuffed! My week has been an incredibly long one. So among other things... all I'm going to love in the blogosphere this week is giving away Baker's Delight Vouchers.
And the lucky winners are, commenters #2, 1 and 7 - That's you Rachael, Lynn and Jill.
Get in touch with me and I'll get these out to you asap.
Would you like a $10 Baker's Delight voucher? I have 3 to give away.
Perhaps you'd like to purchase some scrummy Hot Cross Buns as featured in my review which you can view by clicking here.
If you'd like to be in the draw to win one of these babies just comment on this post with your email address and tell me what you think you might like to buy with your spoils. You can view the Baker's Delight range here. Gotta be in to win!
I will draw three comments at random using random.org on March 22nd. That gives you one week to enter, please only do so once.
Remember the end of last year when I did a review for Baker's Delight Christmas goodies? They obviously thought I needed more plumping up (yeah right!) and have also offered for me to do a review of their Eater Goodies.
Unlike the Christmas Goodies, I am a complete Hot Cross But moster. I love the things. I wish they could be sold all year round. It's the only thing I rejoice coming out months before the actual celebration - Christmas decorations on shelves in October? Ridiculous, Hot Cross Buns on the shelf in January? Genius!
Let's listent to a happy Australian baker talk about his buns...
I have to agree Bazza (generic Australian name), those buns are fresh!
I would go as far to say that these are the best bought hot cross buns that I've found this year. I usually like the ones from Pak n' Save but they're just not hitting the spot this year. These Baker's Delight ones - spectacular...if you like the yeasty flavour of hot cross buns. These ones were very much yeasty and a bit doughy, which I like, but I understand that others don't like that so much. Mr Man had a wee groan about it, until I reminded him they were free and full of chocolate. I personally love this Baker's Delight. Keep up the good work!
I tried the chocky ones first. I'm not usually one for the chocolate variety, often commenting that I think it's a bit stupid, but these were the cat's pajamas. I ate it straight from the bag, nothing on it, no toasting, no butter, just boom, in my mouth and it was a (wait for the cliche) a taste explosion! They are jam packed with chocolate chips and the cross on top is actual chocolate, not some weird chocolate flavoured bread adaption, actual chocolate. Delish!
Both varieties unfortunately didn't do so well being toasted, they were very floppy and didn't hold their shape very well. Yummy, but not exactly how you would like them. They didn't crisp up much.
The traditional 'fruity' variety were also delicious, fresh as can be and packed with currants. They didn't have any orange rind in which I was very thankful for.
I don't know whose bright idea it was to start putting orange rind in hot cross buns over the years, but if I find you...you better watch out. Ridiculously stupid idea - yuck.
Good on you Baker's delight for saying NO to orange rind. I salute you.
The only thing I can pull up these tradition style buns on is the lack of glazing on top. I love glazing on home made hot cross buns and my ma knew it. I understand, having worked in a bakery in my teens, that not putting a tonne on for buns that will be sold in plastic bags is logical as that stuff is sticky, but still, I missed it.
Here are some silly pictures of Leah enjoying her Chocolate Variety Buns. There was lots of 'mmmmm-ing' during the ravenous consumption of this goodie. Leah was very impressed. She says 'let me review Baker's Delight hot cross buns anytime!'
I was lucky enough Some teachers at school today were lucky enough to get to try some free Christmas cake courtesy of Baker's Delight. Just with a wee proviso that they needed to tell me how it was.
See the thing is, I was offered to sample some lovely Christmas delights and review them on my blog. Only problem? I don't do Christmas cake or mince tarts, but I did really want to do the review, so said I would definitely be able to find some people keen on being guinea pigs. Enter school staff! Hungry, ravenous creatures who will devour anything offered up on the staff room bench.
We were delivered 3 little Traditional Christmas cakes. One slightly larger which would serve around 6-8 people and two teeny weenys which I think are a great size for giving as Christmas presents...so that's what I'm doing!
They were beautifully decorated on top with nuts, cherries and a glaze. The cake was very moist (which got points) but really fell apart when we cut it up, almost like it was undercooked. Luckily for our close knit staff we didn't mind picking at bits and pieces of the cake as picking up a whole nicely cut piece was impossible.
Free edibles go down a treat at school and the reaction to the cake overall was a good one. Apart from the cake being very 'crumbly' from the undercooked nature of the mixture everyone loved it - it was moist, sweet and delicious! Our lovely local reliever said that it was nice that it was a Christmas cake without the yucky almond and marzipan icing and I couldn't help but to agree... ew, how 80s. Good work Baker's Delight.
Inside the cake itself were only currents - which got mixed reviews, "I
would have liked more variety of fruit in the cake" to "it's great that
it only has raisins because I hate all that other rubbish". Another critisism was that it wasn't really very Christmassy and lacked a teensy bit of spice.
One cheeky colleague did comment there was no booze in the cake, or not that she could detect...and she's good at detecting those sorts of things. Lol
But the big feat was that I tasted some and actually liked it. So if you're not really into fruit cake like me then give this one a go. A few staff commented that, like me, they weren't really fruit cake people but thought it was the bees knees!
Kia Ora Baker's Delight. Thanks for the opportunity.
