This Easter HARIBO have some awesome new sweets out which are ideal for Easter Egg hunts. We're working with HARIBO and so they've sent us loads of their goodies to have some fun with. Needless to say this is a popular job and I had no shortage of help.


We've been sent some of the brand new Eggs Galore! which come in different sized bags depending on how big your household is - the treat size multipacks are ideal for egg hunts. A mix of Easter Eggs and the all-time favourite Fried Eggs.


We've also been sent the Spring Time Friends, and the Chick'n'Mix and Bunny'n'Friends specially shaped packs, which have a selection of different sweets inside. Here are the sweets in the Chick'n'Mix - bunnies, chicks, sheep and eggs.

The Love Heart is synonymous with Valentines, and Swizzels Love Hearts sweets are the perfect way to pass on your messages of adoration on Valentine's Day, or any day. We've been sent some to review, along with some other goodies from the Swizzels range...and EVERYTHING they've sent me is vegan!!!


I'm vegetarian and so are several of our children. Swizzels have spent the last couple of years adapting their recipes and this year you have a whole host of sweet treats to choose from. No longer need anyone face disappointment.

I've been sent a Vegan/Vegetarian Hamper, Personalised Love Hearts Tube and some Limited Edition pink Love Hearts - all suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

I've worked with HARIBO quite a lot recently, partly because they've brought out a whole range of vegetarian sweets which I can eat too! They asked if I'd be interested in sharing the #HARIBOFestiveFun by making a gingerbread house and decorating it with HARIBO sweets. I replied that I was already planning to, so it couldn't have fallen better really...


Gingerbread houses are synonymous with Christmas, even though there's no law that says you can't eat them year round. Those festive flavours and the spectacle of a gorgeous sweet treat in the middle of the table are just perfect, and ridiculously easy to make. Trust me.

Christmas is about treats and spoiling yourself, and in our house that generally includes some HARIBO for family - my partner for one says it wouldn't be Christmas without it, and those little bags are perfect stockingfillers.



This tasty bundle brings together HARIBO favourites with an extra special treat – the opportunity to create magical Christmas memories by decorating your very own gingerbread house. This is a tradition my family love, and I will be writing about making our gingerbread house again this year - it's been a while since I blogged my Gingerbread Castle.


Included in this prize package are a gingerbread house cutter kit and two new frosty friends from HARIBO - Pip Polar Bear and Puck Penguin. Festively packaged in cute polar bear and penguin themed gift boxes, these jelly and foam treats are going to be at the top of a lot of Christmas lists.

This year HARIBO and MAOAM have not only released their own special edition Halloween sweets, but they've teamed up to bring us a giant Duo Pack. They asked me if I had some ideas for how we can all 'Share The Scare' this Halloween without spending a fortune on what is essentially one night.


Ever popular here are Revolting Rotten Halloween Cupcakes and a good old-fashioned home-made Witches Broom, and we've really gone to town to create our double-sided Trick Or Treat Lucky Dip Box - I think you'll like it...


We were sent a box of goodies to nibble while we work, and you couldn't get better inspiration - or bribery for my partner. He adores sweets and I don't let him have them every week. There's a video with sound on my Instagram Highlights. Yes - I actually jumped when it said 'Boo'.

Yes it's true! One of the biggest sweet names in the UK has increased and revamped their vegetarian range just in time for National Vegetarian Week, and they've very kindly sent us a bundle to try. As the only vegetarian currently living in our house full time, I'm claiming these as mine!!


The Giant Strawbs Gone Mini are a brand new addition to the range, the flavours of the Jelly Beans have been tweaked and Funny Mix has a new recipe with real fruit juice.

It was down to me to take on the difficult job of taste testing... and I did get the view of a regular HARIBO eater as well. He's been eating HARIBO for 25 years and his informed opinion was "They taste the same as the non-vegetarian ones". So there you have it...

If I ask my family what their favourite sweet brand is then HARIBO is going to be the winner - my partner adores them and would rather have HARIBO as a sweet treat than anything else. It's no surprise to learn that HARIBO is the UK's leading confectionery brand. It doesn't matter how old you are, the sight of those colourful sweets always makes your mouth water.

I've written about Swizzels before and I've expressed my adoration for their sweeties plenty of times. This year the Derbyshire confectioners are celebrating a staggering 90 years in the business and they have a very special Sweetest Invention competition to celebrate.


Swizzels want members of the public to design a new sweet for their factory at New Mills to make. The four most inventive, interesting and delicious ideas submitted by entrants will be judged by a panel of experts.

Summer is well and truly here, and the holidays are upon us. To help with the fiesta feel, and get us ready for the Summer Olympics this year in Rio, for a limited time only HARIBO have released 2 new Frenzy Carnival sweet bags featuring the iconic shaped sweets from Starmix and Tangfastics, but in a frenzy of exotic flavours and bright colours.

If you are in the Manchester area over the next 2 days and visit the Arndale Centre,  you will be able to bag yourself some delicious sugar-free Ricola Swiss Herbal Sweets in exchange for binning your sugary snacks.


Research about to be revealed shows that 65% of Manchester’s adults are careless about their sugar intake and Ricola want to introduce more people to a lower sugar lifestyle. Expert Dietician Kirsten Crothers will be on hand to give advice and information, and they will have plenty of their Stevia sweetened sweets to hand out.

This Christmas will be a happy one for HARIBO lovers as the treats giant have released a selection of special Christmas themed treats for your children - and lets face, for you!

The HARIBO Share The Fun Tub has all of HARIBO's most popular gums and jellies in one tub - bringing Starmix, Tangfastics and Super Mix together - no more having to choose - you can have them all! 720g divided into 24 mini treat bags to keep everything fresh until you're ready.

Who doesn't like Haribo? They're the sweet of choice for grown ups and children the world over, and this Summer they've launched special Frenzy editions of the very popular Starmix and Tangfastics. They'll only be available for the next few weeks though - so you have to be quick!

We were really lucky a couple of weeks ago because we were invited twice in 3 days to attend events at the Chill Factore, at Trafford Park in Manchester. Even luckier because one event was for the over 12's and one event for the under 5's - which suited my family really well!

I do sometimes get surprise parcels through the post - things I have forgotten about, things I haven't agreed to review or sometimes things I haven't even heard of. Today I got 2 surprise parcels. This amazing Krash Video Head X1 Helmet - which no doubt you'll be seeing more of over Summer - once I find out who sent it and why....


and this selection of sweet shop goodies.....with the new Cusson's Carex releases - Bubble Gum scent hand wash, and Strawberry Laces scent hand gel.


We actually use these Cussons Carex Complete 'Fun Edition' handwashes and hand gel already, and have done for ages. They're excellent. I'm more than happy to endorse them because of several reasons.

1. They clean your hands without stripping them and making them dry and sore
2. They smell absolutely amazing. My bathroom smells delicious, my hands smell delicious.
3. My kids love them and even the 4 year old offers to wash his hands because he loves the smell.
4. They kill 99.9% of bacteria really quickly.
5. The hand gel is the perfect size for a handbag, pocket or glovebox, and it's really tricky to squeeze loads out - preventing waste and spillage.
6. My kids don't waste them, because they know I've got boring smelling handwash in the cupboard, and if we run out of the sweet shop scents handwash before next big shopping day, I'll get out the boring one and won't exchange it until it's finished!
7. The hand gel lasts ages, and the hand washes are very often on offer at £1 each - making them very competitively priced!


I'm sure that the hand gel and helmet cam will go hand in hand this Summer - we're definitely going to get best footage outdoors!

FruitBowl make fruit snacks for children that are a bit different from your usual snack. My children would call them sweets, but they're sweets made from fruit.


We were sent a great selection to try out - Fruit Flakes, Fruit Peelers, Yogurt Raisins and Fruit Shapes.

We love Swizzels Matlow and I always think of them as locals as they're only about 20 miles from me and I practically drive past whenever I go back down to Derby. They haven't always been in New Mills though, they only moved during the war because  of the bombing. Our good fortune...


One of Swizzels Matlow's biggest sellers are LOVE HEARTS, and this year they celebrate their 60th birthday, so Swizzel's are celebrating in style!


Over the next few weeks Swizzels Matlow LOVE HEARTS are running a competition on their Facebook page. As with their Valentine's competition, you can win your own design printed onto LOVE HEARTS Sweets and an amazing VIP tour of the factory to watch your sweets being made. Entry is through the Facebook app. and all you need to do is decide exactly what message you want on your sweets.

There will be 10 winners and they will have their message inserted into rolls of LOVE Hearts for a limited time. The tour of the New Mills, Derbyshire factory will include travel expenses equal to standard class train fare, 1 night's accommodation nearby, travel from the hotel to the factory and £100 spending money.(Full terms and conditions can be found on the Facebook app.).

Valentine's Day is a perfect occasion for cooks and food producers to really go to town and create some lovely products. The heart is a very easy shape to make and can be used to make a whole range of foods romantic and special. You don't have to spend a fortune, a few simple tricks and treats and you can have special Valentine's goodies for pennies.


It's easy to make a heart if you don't have one. Take some strong card - thicker than a cereal box is best - and cut a strip about 3cm tall. The length will decide how big your heart is, so experiment until you're happy with it. Fold your card in half and then fasten the open end together with tape.
 

If you want it bigger then fasten 2 pieces of card together and tape both ends. Then push one end inwards to make a heart that you can draw around or cut around. If you use food safe card (from inside a bread roll bag for example) you can even press out heart shapes from bread, pastry, fresh lasagne sheets or a multitude of other things.



Duerr's have released a special Aphrodisiac Jam for Valentine's Day this year - Strawberries and Champagne with a hint of Horny Goatweed, it's gorgeous, and lovely on a shaped sandwich or toast....
 

.....or pancakes with whipped cream for a very sweet and special Valentine's breakfast, lunch or evening supper. I'm not going to comment on the potency, but I'll tell you that the taste is great....


Heart-shaped moulds can be picked up really cheaply, we got ours free with a magazine that was £2 and chocolate is a definite win for Valentine's Day. We made it extra soppy by adding heart-shaped cake decorations. I bought a bag of thousands from ebay for less than £2.


The effect is one my assistant and I are very pleased with....


You can't mention Love Hearts without thinking of Swizzels Matlow sweets and this year there are a range of special releases for Valentine's Day. The embossed tin full of mini Love Hearts is my favourite, and they also have a selection of gifts that can be personalised on their website if you're quick! It's a great way to say "I love you" without breaking the bank.



If your loved one is unable to eat foods containing wheat or dairy, then another treat for them are these gluten and dairy free Shortbread Hearts from Orgran. We tried them at our bloggers night in last year. They're also vegetarian and despite being made without butter, the taste is gorgeous. They're a little hard for me, so perfect for dunking in a nice cup of coffee while you relax and let someone else tidy up after dinner....


 I hope you have a Happy Valentine's....

Swizzels Matlow have long been known for their messages of love and romance. The Love Heart sweet is a classic, who among us hasn't ever given away their sweet and a smile to someone special?

This Valentine's Day those of us with a sweet tooth will be able to buy a selection of special Love Hearts including a tube of Mini Rolls and a special Limited Edition Tin full of mini Love Hearts. It's a real change from flowers and chocolates and is a great way to say 'I Love You' a bit differently.


This year is Love Hearts 60th Anniversary and to celebrate they have got a fantastic competition on their Facebook page where 10 winners really can win a prize money can't buy - a VIP tour of the Love Hearts factory where you will watch your own design being made into sweets! I know it's something I'd love to win for myself. To enter the Love Hearts 60th Anniversary Competition and go to their Facebook page.

If you aren't lucky enough to win the Facebook competition you can still be a winner because Swizzels Matlow have kindly offered the Love Hearts shown below as a prize for one of my readers.


This giveaway is now over.