Will They Sell Like Hot Cakes ? (McVitie's Cake Heat To Treat Chocolate)

Member Name: RichPrice

Product:	McVitie's Cake Heat To Treat Chocolate
Date:	23/03/07 (258 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice Warm

Disadvantages: Expensive

Cakes and Chocolate have got to be good was my immediate reaction as I saw a box of McVities Heat to Treat Double Chocolate cakes in Morrisons’. Suddenly and without warning a box hurled itself into my trolley, followed swiftly by a box of Heat to Treat zesty Lemon, Heat to Treat Jamaica Ginger and, Lyles Golden Syrup and Custard (the whole range). I didn’t have the heart to put them back on the shelves, clearly they wanted to come home with me.

The Heat to Treat Range is a new range of four types of cake, made by McVities (United Biscuits). They come in boxes of two and can be eaten hot or cold (microwave only). In the interests of Research (I know – I am a martyr – the things I have to do for my readers - I do it so you don't have to...)I have now sampled the whole range and have eaten them both hot and cold. I have to say that my favourite was, perhaps unsurprisingly as I’m an addict, the Chocolate (which is the one I’m reviewing), followed by the Lemon (the cake had a nice gentle lemon taste with a lemon hit in the centre), the Golden syrup (which was pretty nice – a bit too sweet tho’)and finally the ginger which I won’t be buying again (a very strong ginger taste but an almost medicinal aftertaste – yuk). The whole range contains a lot of sugar and is very sweet as a result and only, in my opinion, for those with a sweet tooth.

Currently they are on Special at Morrisons’ for 99p a box, the price will go up to £1.29 (which I think is expensive). Once you open the box there are two little cardboard cases containing the cakes (they’re small muffin sized – the cakes weigh 90g each – I know cos I’ve checked) – they can be eaten hot or cold. The general consistency of all of them is the same. A very sticky, moist and chewy mouthful. After trying the whole range hot and cold I prefer them hot. They all have slightly different calorific values which range from 339 to 349. The individual cakes are wrapped little plastic bags which have to be removed before microwaving (they all take 20 seconds in any size microwave). There is the usual advice to allow to stand for one minute and to be careful as the contents may be hot.

So the “Double chocolate cakes with a rich chocolate sauce filling”, are 344 kcals per cake, have a very nice chocolatey smell (which helps), they have 3.4g of protein, 51.4g of carbohydrate, 27.4g of sugar (lots of sugar reflected in the taste and ingredients), 13.9g of fat (not the healthiest snack on the planet), 1.3g of fibre and 0.2g of sodium. How do they taste:-

Cold: there are instructions on the box to tell you how to get it out whole by unfolding the box. The cake inside has a light chocolatey, almond flavour which I really like. As you bite into it you hit the runny sauce which has a much more intense plain chocolate flavour. It is fairly sweet tasting, one I could happily eat, two at a push but three would be too sickly

Warm: you heat them the cardboard wrapper they come in, warming them up lightens the texture of the cake, the chocolate sauce does get quite hot. It works much better warm/hot than cold. It would probably be even nicer still with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on the top. The chocolate sauce has just the right after taste of sweet chocolate, something you don’t get when its’ cold. It is still sweet with that very nice chocolatey almond flavour.

For the food techies amongst you – the boring stuff – what’s in it
Chocolate Sauce (28%) – Glucose Syrup, Sugar, water, Dextrose, Humectant [Glycerine], Chocolate (5% in sauce), Cocoa Mass, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder, Emulsifier [soya lecithin], Modified Starch, Cocoa Powder, Pectin, Citric Acid, Potasium Sorbate, Wheat Flour, Water, Sugar, Glycerine, vegetable oil, Chocolate (6% in cake), dried skim Milk, Dried Whole Egg, Wheat starch, Pottasium Diphosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Salt, Emulsifiers [E471 E481], Quanthum Gum.

The whole range is produced on a line handling peanuts in a factory handling nuts.

Are they worth the money. No I don’t think so. Will I buy them again – Yes if they’re on special…

On my rather arbitrary taste testing scale
Cold 7.5 out of 10
Hot 8 out of 10

Summary: Something Different