If you've read some of my recent reviews then you'll know that last summer I moved into my new flat. As a house warming present my sister bought me a toaster and kettle. She knew that I'd had my eye on the Morphy Richards Accents range as I really liked the traditional, yet contemporary looking kettle, and so I was chuffed to receive the kettle and matching toaster. I have previously reviewed the kettle and will now turn my thoughts to the toaster. This retails at around the £35.00 mark, although may be found cheaper online.

The products in the Accents range are available in several different colours. I'm glad that my sister was paying attention when I was admiring the kettle as I'd really taken to the dark red one with a metallic finish and so I was delighted to see that this was the one she'd purchased.

As I live by myself the toaster my sister bought me was one for two slices, although there is a similar model for four slices. The main body of the toaster is red and it has a stainless silver panel on the front, on which the heating knob and cancel button are located. The edges of the toaster are smooth and rounded, making it look quite sleek and a bit retro in my opinion. The stainless steel panel at the front makes the toaster look very stylish, although in practice this does tend to get a bit grimy. It tends to pick up water marks and finger prints quite easily so needs to be wiped regularly with a damp cloth to keep it from looking shabby. It is only now that I am writing this review that I noticed that the body of the toaster is made of plastic and doesn't have the metallic sheen that the kettle that accompanies this has. At first glance though the kettle and toaster appear to match and look great together.

My kitchen is quite small so size of appliance is a serious consideration and the fact that this toaster is quite compact, measuring 19 cm in width and 30cm in height. The cord is of a decent length meaning that you don't have to place this directly next to a plug socket. There is also room for cord storage at the base of the toaster, although I don't tend to use this as the toaster is used almost everyday in my kitchen.

As stated above, this is a two-slice toaster. The slots are quite wide and can comfortable accommodate slices of different thicknesses. However as I live by myself I tend to opt for smaller loaves of bread, where the slices are smaller. For this purpose I have found that the slots are a little deep and although the entire slice is toasted it is a little difficult to get the slices of toast out once done, regardless of whether they are placed in lengthways or widthways. I also like to have more specialist breads like olive bread, which tend to have much smaller slices and to get these out once toasted without the aid of a fork or knife (plastic and once the toaster is switched off at the socket!) is impossible. This is a little annoying, especially as the toaster boasts a 'hi lift facility' to remove irritating items that get stuck in the toaster, which in my opinion is not high enough!

The toaster comes with variable browning control and has 9 different settings which allows you to control the temperature depending on how brown you like your toast. It took me several months to get the hang of this though! The settings seem quite sensitive - if it is too low the bread doesn't cook yet if you increase this slightly the bread burns! I seem to have mastered this now and no longer have to put my bread through the toaster twice to get a medium brown piece of toast. There is also a cancel button should you need to get your toast out in a hurry and this function was well used whilst I was getting to grips with the settings! In use I have found this toaster to be a little slow when it comes to toasting and I am often left tapping the worktop waiting for this to finish whist other aspects of my meal are ready to eat.

Alongside the cancel button there is a reheat button, which can be used to heat up toast that has previously been toasted without burning it. I have used this on occasion and find that this does work quite well. There is also a button, which allows you to defrost bread from frozen, although I cannot comment on how well this works as I have not used this feature.

The toaster also comes with a removable crumb tray which I have really come to appreciate. One of my old toasters did not have this facility and meant that I had to shake it upside down over the kitchen sink, which as you can imagine did get a little messy!

Although I do have some niggles with this toaster, overall I am quite pleased with it. It is a little slow to toast and getting smaller slices out is a bit difficult however it is compact, looks great and toasts bread well and that's all I really need from a toaster. Recommended.