I purchased these a while back and have only just got around to reviewing them....


Packaging:

The cakes bars come in a tray which the packaging tells us in recyclable. The tray is indeed a film covering which is not recyclable.The front of the packaging is predominantly a pinky-purple colour with the usual Mr. Kipling logo, the product name and a picture of 2 cake bars. We're also told the RDA's for each cake bar. The back of the packaging has the usual ingredients, nutritional information, quality guarantee and the website address:- www.mrkipling.co.uk

and the product is described as:- "Moist golden sponge, baked with real milk chocolate chips (24%)"

Ingredients: Milk Chocolate Chips {Sugar, Whole Milk Powder, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Emulsifier (Soya Lechithin), Flavouring}, Wheat Flour, Vegetable Oil, Reconstituted Egg, Sugar, Humectant (Vegetable Glycerine), Glucose Syrup, Whey Powder, Flavouring, Salt, Raising Agents (Disodium Diphosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Emulsifiers (Mono-and-Diglycerides Of Fatty Acids. Polyglycerol Esters of Fatty Acids), Stabiliser (Xanthum Gum), Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Milk Protein


Nutritional Information per cake bar {per 100g in brackets}

Energy kJ: 631kJ {1972 kJ}
Calories: 151kcal {472kcal}
Protein: 1.7g {5.2g}
Carbohydrate: 17.2g {53.6g}
of which sugars: 10.6g {33.2g}
Fat: 8.4g {26.3g}
of which saturates: 2.7g {8.5g}
Fibre: 0.4g {1.2g}
Sodium: 0.09g {027g}
- equivalent as salt: 0.23g {0.68g}

Dietary & Allergy Information

Contains gluten (wheat), Egg, Milk and Soya
May contain nut traces

These slices are suitable for vegetarians. They contain no artificial colour or flavours and no hydrogenated fat.


The cake bar:
The cake bar come in individual wrappers which are laid out in the tray. The wrappers are have the same colours as the outer packaging and contain much of the same information


Price:
At the time of writing these cost £1.00 for two boxes of these in my local corner shop (meaning I got 10 cake bars for £1).


Taste and Opinion:

The cake bar measures 3cms in width by 7cms in length. The top is uneven but measure around 3cms in height at it's highest point. The bar itself is brown in colour although hardly the golden brown that it claims on the packaging. You can see some chocolate chips partially enclosed within the cake bar.

Biting into the cake bar I can tell that the interior is reasonably light and fluffy. It has a nice texture but it doesn't actually taste very much of anything. It's slightly sweet but that's about all you can say about it. The chocolate chips taste pretty much as you'd expect chocolate chips to taste and are no different to chocolate chips I've experienced in Maryland Cookies or other products on the market. In fact they are the only thing in the cake bar that actually has any sort of taste.

If you're a big fan of chocolate chip products then you may like these but the fact that the actual "cake" element of the cake bar was a bit bland and didn't actually taste of anything in particular sp that left me feeling a little disappointed. Perhaps if the sponge actually tasted of something that worked with the chocolate chips or made some sort of contrast with them the eating experience would be a bit more pleasurable? As it is I won't be buying these again.


The RDA's on the box tell us that each cake bar provides:

8% RDA Calories
12% RDA Sugars
12% RDA Fat
14% RDA Saturates
4% RDA Salt

On this basis I'd say that these are one to avoid. If I'm going to consume 12% of my RDA for sugar and 12% of my RDA for fat in one product then I'd rather have something else that doesn't just taste of chocolate chip.