Tesco Chocolate Happy Birthday Cake

...that struck him about the Tesco cake, but up untill I tried it, I was totally oblivious to what it actually was!

COST;
The cake is quite large in size, and is said to serve ten people! Now birthday cakes these days are never cheap, and this was no exception. The cake cost £5.29. Compared to some cakes although, this is a cheaper price, much to my mum's satisfaction!

APPEREANCE;
When I first saw the Tesco ...
...look of the box! The tesco logo is written in the top left hand corner, and underneath, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHOCOLATE CAKE is written in white writing with a pink outline! In the centre of the box, there is a slightly unusal shaped "window" allowing you to peer through and see the delicious chocolate cake sitting inside! By the time we got the cake home some of the chocolate topping had transferred onto the plastic window, but only a tiny little ... more

What makes a birthday? Is is the presents? The family gathering? The party? No, well, for some a birthday is all about the cake!
It's my brother's birthday today, and lucky for him (and me!?), he had a family party last night, and today he's having a party with his friends. Two parties can only mean one thing...Two cakes!!

I myself am not a huge fan of cakes, and if I do tuck into a slice I'd much prefer it was a plain sponge cake with a jam and cream filling! Sadly, my brothers have different tastes to me, and the first cake that was going to be indulged in last night was "Tesco Chocolate Happy Birthday Cake".

We set out two days before the family party in search of a cake to suit everybody. (Apart from me, may I add!?) After much deliberation, and input from me, which sadly went unnoticed, my brother decided on the creamy looking chocolate cake! Surprisngly he didn't go for the more luxury looking cadburys chocolate cake, or even the Nestle smarties chocolate cake. Nor did he go for a football themed cake with the plastic looking white icing on it. There must have been something that struck him about the Tesco cake, but up untill I tried it, I was totally oblivious to what it actually was!

COST;
The cake is quite large in size, and is said to serve ten people! Now birthday cakes these days are never cheap, and this was no exception. The cake cost £5.29. Compared to some cakes although, this is a cheaper price, much to my mum's satisfaction!

APPEREANCE;
When I first saw the Tesco cake sitting nestled on the shelf, my immediate thought was that it was made by Cadburys! This is due to the fact the cardboard box the cake comes in is a deep purple colour. Though on closer inspection I realise it is sadly not! The background, being mainly purple is covered in streamer looking things, much adding to the "celebratery" look of the box! The tesco logo is written in the top left hand corner, and underneath, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHOCOLATE CAKE is written in white writing with a pink outline! In the centre of the box, there is a slightly unusal shaped "window" allowing you to peer through and see the delicious chocolate cake sitting inside! By the time we got the cake home some of the chocolate topping had transferred onto the plastic window, but only a tiny little bit. The bottom of the front of the box also states the cake should serve 10 people, and gives list of the ingrediants!

APPEALING?;
Last night, when it was time for the cake I offered to help in the kitchen! It was my job to do the cake! I peered through the little window to see if the cake was still in perfect condition, and it was - almost. On the box the cake is described as; Chocolate sponge cake covered with milk chocolate ganache (35%). Decorated with milk and white chocolate curls and white and plain chocolate stars. My mouth watered at the thought of this and I was getting excited while unpacking the cake. I plopped the cake on a large plate, and was extremely impressed with the appearence. The cake was very thick, and looked quite dense to be honest. However covered in a chocolate butter-cream type icing, and the word Happy Birthday scribbled on in white icing, it looked delicious and it was only a matter of time before my cravings would take over!

AROMA?;
Once the cake had been sitting for about 2 minutes, and the candles had been inserted in, the smell of chocolate was adorable! It was very sweet, and almost smelt of chocolate spread! However once the candels had been lit and happy birthday had been sung, the chocolate smell had dissapeared and only the slight hint of cake-like smell could be detected!

THE REAL TEST;
After happy birthday had been sung -which felt like 24 hours- and the wish had been made while blowing out the candles it was time to cut the cake! My brother was to busy playing with his new Wii game to bother about cutting the cake, so I took advantage of this! Now the box states that the cake should serve 10 people, however there were only 8 of us so I cut the cake into 8 slices. To be honest the slices weren't overly big! They were by no means tiny but neither enourmous! The cake was easy to cut and the knife sank in smoothly, preventing crumbs!
I handed everybody a bowl with there cake in, some people had opted to have custard or cream with theres too, but I decided to just have mine plain!
First of all I sampled a bit of the chocolate "granache" on top. I had to idea what to expect but when I placed the delightful topping onto my tongue I was very impressed. The taste was very creamy, but also rather sweet. It tasted exactly like milk chocolate, and again I thought the taste was very like chocolate spread! Next I tried a bit of the chocolate sponge. I was a bit weary of the sponge because I dont normally like chocolate cake! However the cake was very moist and absolutly delicious. It was not overly chocolate which was much to my delight! I managed to get 3 letters of the Happy Birthday writing on top on my slice, the "a,p,p" and I was pleasently surprised (Again!?) with the taste. It was definitly white chocolate, but it was more creamy than sweet which was very good as it made the taste not so sickly! Overall I really really enjoyed the taste of the chocolate cake and although it wouldn't be my first choice of cake,I'd definitly reccomend it!

THE DAMAGE;
I say damage, because you can't really call it Nutrion can you? 1 tenth of the cake provides one with 285 calories, 16g of fat, 7.9g of saturated fat (the bad stuff!!) and a whopping 22.5 of sugar! This is definitly a cake for a special occasion and if you're watching your weight I'd recomend having only a tiny little slither of the cake!!
There are loads of ingredients in the cake, so I am obviously not going to list them all. However, the cake may contain traces of nuts, and is not suitable for anybody allergic to milk, eggs or wheat!

5 Sense summary

• Sound- n/a
• Sight- Smooth and delicious milk chocolate granach, chocolate sponge cake and happy birthday scribbled in white icing
• Texture- smooth and creamy butter-icing, moist sponge
• Smell- Chocolate before candles are lit
• Taste- Delicious milk chocolate granache, smooth and creamy, moist mild chocolate sponge, slight white chocolate on happy birthday writing.

***

Overall I'd definitly reccomend this cake. It is suitable for the whole family, and everybody is going to enjoy it (unless they dont like chocolate). You can get quite a few servings out of the cake, though I wouldnt serve up large servings as it can you make you feel quite sick and the granche is very sickly and there is a large quantity!!! 

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