Mr Kipling's Winter Whirls

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Well if we are honest it’s actually been looking like that since late September really. Let’s face it further, the minute the twelfth minute the twelve bell tolls on the 25^th you know stores will be stocking Cadbury Cream eggs. (Ironically just before typing this I was at my local Premier and they already had some by the till. Though knowing them they are probably left over from this year).

               

  Before that though lets rejoice for we are now officially in advent time territory. Which means I get to open my advent calendar, YAAAAAAAYYY! Twenty-five days of tiny cheap chocolate. In celebration of that I’m going to do two things in today’s post, firstly I’m going to announce my December challenge! From now until the glorious festive day itself I will be only reviewing Christmas themed products. I know this isn’t much of a challenge right now but remember theres a lot of tat out for the season too.

              

Festive fun begins

  Secondly and less exciting is that I will be reviewing a product of some kind. Shock, horror I know. I’m starting with a nice branded product to settle me in to this challenge. I’m sure many of you will be hoping that I will find more Murder Motel type dubious items which may kill me. At the very least they could have me reaching for the Brandy butter, and the sherry and Santa’s share too.

                

Todays review should be of my advent calendar really. However tradition for me dictates I open it before I go to bed. Too late for this post then. Have no fear I’ll bring it forth before you tomorrow and anyway I have an item ready anyway.

                

They do look impressive

I bring you a Mr. Kipling Winter Whirls; these are a slight variation on the classic Vienesse whirl. The items not quite a biscuit nor is it quite a cake either. One of those items that find themselves in a teatime limbo, like a Jaffa cake. Anyway he festive difference is that alongside the usual buttercream filling is some mincemeat for good effect. Sounds nice, although I’m not a big fan of usual whirls bit too plain.

I try a bite and the same problem occurs again. The biscuit/cake top and bottom are just too large. This wouldn’t matter except I don’t find them that pleasant. They are very soft and very crumbly with a little bit of a buttery flavour. The outside is dusted with sugar which does its best to add some sweetness. The texture is also quite flaky and has an almost pastry like feel about it.

Separation not so bad here, Yes I pulled a few apart.

The next problem is the amount of filling and as per regular filling tradition it’s rather lacking. Worse still when I opened one up I discovered why there’s little blend of flavour. Partly it’s because the mincemeat rather overpowers the buttercream. But mostly as they appear to have separate sides of the biscuit. I tried some buttercream on its own and found it to be a bit too sweet. It’s odd then that the flavour is so lost.

Overall they aren’t a bad start to this advent challenge, after all at least there edible. Plus these things always impress with guests so I can offload the rest of the pack there.

Score

5 out of 11

Found

Tesco's

Final Thoughts

There are some cool products I've been saving for this challenge!