My Balls...

When I found out I had been selected to be an official taster for Lulubelle's Cupcakes of Dorset, I wondered whether I was the right person for the job. I am much more of a savoury man myself and have little of a sweet tooth. My wife on the other hand could happily eat chocolate for the rest of her days and so I saw an opportunity, thought I best keep quiet regarding my suitability as the cupcakes would come in handy to distract the wife and keep her occupied for those times when I hole myself up in the kitchen. Through further reading I realised it wasn't necessarily cupcakes I was to be tasting but, 'new products'. This intrigued me greatly and had me trying to guess what it might be all weekend. When the little pink box turned up I was pretty sure this was it, but still had no idea what it contained. I had been supplied with Lulubelle's newest products and upon further inspection unveiled the new cake balls.

I had only meant to have the one, the white chocolate one, and underneath the crisp chocolate was a moist strawberry flavoured cake. It was gorgeous and lingered in my mouth afterwards. It was very, very good. Not too sweet and not too dense, just, you know, right. I wanted another straight away but fighting my inner addict I put the rest in the fridge and started to crack on with dinner.

Is it just me, or do you graze whilst cooking too? I usually keep a jar of pickled onions in the cupboard by the cooker hood and whilst I am stirring my sauces or checking on my stock, I eat a few. Visits to the fridge for vegetables and butter are all too often accompanied by chunks of cheese and slices of cured meats and in the same fashion I slowly worked my way through the cake ball flavours. When I dipped into the fridge for some butter, I had a milk chocolate one with dark chocolate drizzles over it that had yet again, a wonderful moist texture but this time orange. Then obviously when I returned the butter to the fridge I had to have another. I continued like this for around forty minutes and by the time I was dishing up the dinner, I had sampled one of each flavour. The one that really blew me away though was the little cake ball that had a dark chocolate coating with white chocolate drizzles with the most tingly mint flavoured cake centre. I was completely agog afterwards but decided to control myself and close the fridge door. Besides, dinner was ready.
Luckily though, Lulubelle has a sixth sense, had the foresight of my greed and included two of each flavour so I still have the weapons of bribery at my fingertips.

Louisa of Lulubelle's is the Willy Wonka, no the Willemina Wonka, of the South and crams an incredible amount of intense flavour into each and every cake ball. Lulubelles are available via mail order so visit her website and order some of these cake balls. A box of the dark chocolate and mint ones, they'd be great after dinner. Lulubelle's also do fantastic cupcakes, so next time you have someone to woo or apologise to, don't send flowers, send cakes.
http://www.lulubellescakes.com/