Hands up who likes Sticky toffee pudding?
I was very fortunate a few weeks ago to receive an email asking if I would like to review some Cartmel puddings here on Cakes, Bakes and Cookies. They wanted me to be on their Pudding Panel. When you receive an email like that on a Friday afternoon (and you’re hungry!) it’s very hard to say no. I mean let’s face it who doesn’t like pudding.
The lovely PR told me all about the Cartmel brand, which started life in a small village shop back in 1988 (more to come on that in a future post). She told me she wanted to send some of their best known puddings for me to taste. Of course I jumped at the chance. That was when she told me about the sticky toffee pudding which they are best known for. Now, I don’t think I have mentioned on here before , but I don’t actually like toffee or fudge, or caramel! But I thought I would still try them out and get the kids and Tim involved. That way if it was a bit too ‘toffee’ for me I would still know how good they were.
The delivery
The box arrived on Friday and it contained the Sticky toffee pudding, sticky toffee apple crumble and their sticky toffee sauce. Crumble is one of my all time favorite puddings, so I was really looking forward to giving this a go.
The Cartmel sticky toffee pudding
Saturday lunch time I popped both puddings onto a baking tray and watched them bubble in the oven. Let me tell you the house smelt divine!
The Sticky toffee pudding was the first to come out. It was bubbling away with all that gooey toffee sauce on the top.
The Cartmel Sticky Toffee Apple Crumble
Then it was time for the apple crumble to come out of the oven. Having liked the toffee pudding I was expecting great things from the crumble. I was not disappointed! The crumble has a lovely light oaty texture to it and the toffee on the apples adds to the flavour. When I make crumble I add cinnamon to the apples to give it an extra warming feeling, and the toffee has exactly the same effect. I seriously couldn’t leave it alone. Tim walked in to the kitchen to taste his Sticky Toffee pudding (he looooves toffee!) and when he saw the crumble I selfishly said “ I don’t need you to test this one” He tucked into his pud, not even waiting to sit down to eat it and then it was gone!
The crumble on the other hand was kept to one side, he he he! The girls had finished theirs and had run off to play, Tim was in weekend DIY mode, so I had the crumble all to myself.
It’s at this point that I should mention that I had made the girls their lunch and was about to make mine when the oven timer went off. After a bowl of sticky toffee pudding and then a bowl of sticky toffee apple crumble – with ice cream, I realized that I had completely forgotten to have any lunch! Oh well never mind.
Breakfast
The next morning I had breakfast really early (Darcey wakes up at 6am EVERY day, so even Sundays are an early start for me). I always give my oven a deep clean on a Sunday morning. It’s not a nice chore to do so I thought I would reward myself with a second breakfast. Yep, you’ve guessed it. At 8am I was reheating a lovely big portion of apple crumble. All I can say is thank goodness I was at the gym a few hours later!
As to the sauce, I’ve not played with that yet. The girls want to put it on ice cream with sprinkles but I’ve got a few ideas up my sleeve. Watch this space!
What’s next?
My next Cartmel delivery is due in April. Who knows what it will contain. There has been mention of Lemon drizzle cake, Black Forrest pudding and Raspberry sponge. Whatever it is I am very, VERY excited. Cartmel really rocks the pudding world!
Cartmel handmade puddings are made with 100% natural ingredients which are sourced from local suppliers wherever possible. They are available in various sizes from 150g (why would you restrict yourself like that?) to 730 g packs (now that’s more like it)
Cartmel puddings are available from Waitrose, Booths and fine independent food retailers. Why not visit www.cartmelvillageshop.co.uk or call them on 015395 58300 to find your nearest stockist.
enjoy!
When can I move in?
I do think next time I should get the girls round to help me taste test the puddings. As I was writing this post I was desperate to finish off the last piece of apple crumble that was calling to me from the kitchen. That was when I realised that I had eaten the whole thing on my own!
[…] cake and what with the Cartmel Sticky toffee sauce (which is gluten free!) from a previous taste test still sitting in my cupboard waiting for a trial run, I decided to make banoffee muffins. They’re […]
[…] time I was asked to taste test some of Cartmel’s delicious puddings I suffered a serious backlash. “Why wasn’t […]