| Product: |
Cookworks Chocolate Fountain |
| Date: |
29.04.08 (125 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: A cheap chocolate fountain that works as well as the more expensive ones, a lovely treat
Disadvantages: It loses a star for how horrible it is to clean
It is my grandaughters birthday today and she eats too much chocolate for her own good but she enjoys it so I brought a Cookworks Chocolate Fountain as a special treat for her birthday tea. It was only £15 from Argos and I was relieved about that because my daughter had been frightening me with stories of how her friends had paid £40 and £50 for their fountains. I could justify £15 but not more than that for an unnecessary gadget that will only be used once or twice a year.
It was easy for my son in law to set up, I could have done it myself because I watched him and it was honestly just a case of slotting the fountain layers in the right order - I had played the helpless granny card though so couldn't very well interfere when he got it wrong because I would have looked like a fraud. It looks very nice when it is put together and I am going to leave it on display on one of my shelves because the colour of the base matches my walls perfectly.
When everyone was ready I broke my chocolate into the base and switched on the heating element while I chopped up bananas and strawberries and prepared dishes of chopped nuts. It was slow and the apple chunks had started to go brown by the time the chocolate was fully melted so I had to chop some more up. You need quite a lot of chocolate and I was a little bit caught out with my 6 bars of Dairy Milk so I had to go to the shop and buy half a dozen massive bars of Dairy Milk that cost nearly as much as my fountain!
Once the chocolate is melted though my lounge was impregnated with the smell of melted chocolate and I was starting to feel like Willy Wonka. I flicked the switch to get the fountain going and it was lovely to watch the chocolate start to roll down the layers of the fountain, it put me in mind of Dawn French when chocolate fountains had only just come out in restaurants and Thorntons. As it fell the chocolate released an even richer aroma and looked sleek and velvety.
I was the first person to dip, yes I pushed aside 9 and 10 year old little girls to get the first dip with a marshmallow. It is lovely and rich and I felt very naughty dipping into flowing melted chocolate like that. It is a good way I think to get children to eat more fruit because as long as they are a healthy weight a coating of chocolate on a chunk of pear won't do them any harm. My grandaughters ate at least 2 portions of their 5 daily fruit and veg just because of the fountain and I noticed all of the children were eating little pieces of fruit without chocolate when it got too rich for them. That is a good thing. I think the high quality of Cadburys chocolate made this such a success but my daughter said her friend used Lindt one evening and it was apparently divine. Personally I think her friend must have more money than sense with the price of Lindt chocolate.
Cleaning the chocolate fountain is not nice because I left the chocolate to set and it was very hard to remove then. I eventually used Fairy Power spray but it still took a lot of elbow grease and rinsing because I was frightened of letting the spray dry on the metal in case it discoloured it. I think it would have been much easier if I had cleaned it as soon as we turned it off while the chocolate was still melted but who wants to wash up after eating such a delicious treat. Not me that's for sure, I'd rather enjoy my chocolate and then struggle later.
The base of the fountain is a little bit heavy to carry around so decide where you are going to set it up before hand as silly as it might seem the weight of the melted chocolate makes a difference if you have to move it. Not to mention the chance of slopping melted chocolate all over my new carpet which would not have been good.
I am going to use the chocolate fountain again tomorrow when my grandaughters come to stay and because I am looking after my baby grandaughter again we are going to use white chocolate and I have brought some baby biscuits for her to dip. Her sisters can clean her up afterwards before her mom sees her.
Summary: For a smooth, delicious chocolate treat - and get some fruit into the children at the same time
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