The Many Phases of the Moon Pie

For some reason, all things remotely festive have been consumed around my birthday.  This post started with the Moon Pies with sprinkles .  For some reason, sprinkles just say "party!" to me.

I've never been a big Moon Pie person, but when I saw this in Cracker Barrel, I thought I'd just check it out.  I am such a sucker for nostalgia!

It looks like the current Moon Pie, but flatter:

And you know what?  I like it A LOT better!  The "cookie" part is much less dry - it's almost like cookie dough.  I thought it was like 10,000 times better!  It's made by the same people (Chattanooga Bakery) who make the standard Moon Pie.  I'm so bummed this recipe was replaced with the new one.  Not that I've given it one iota of thought before now.

I wanted to try these solely because of the sprinkles:

As usual, nothing lives up to the image on the box.  And now I'm ruined now by the Scooter Pie.  This seems way too dry and flavorless to me.  Even sprinkles can't save it.

These sprinkles seem to say "hangover" more than "party!".

I've reviewed these before and they really are nothing like a Moon Pie.  No marshmallow, no weird cakey/cookie slab:

This is a chocolate cookie with peanut butter filling dipped in chocolate:

These are okay.  Not enough peanut butter in my book.  (Is there EVER enough peanut butter?)

These are like the peanut butter ones, but with mint:

This has more in common with Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies than a Moon Pie:

If you like those Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies, you will adore these!!  I think they did a better job with the mint than the peanut butter.  Mint and chocolate lovers - get thee to Cracker Barrel and stock up! 

These are just like the regular Moon Pies to me:

Dry and crappy.  Sorry Little Debbie.  The original Scooter Pie kicked butt.

These are like the other Little Debbie marshmallow treats I've reviewed.  And what makes them so addictively good is the base.  It's a brownie - a thin base of brownie that works great with the marshmallow.  These are way better than the standard Moon Pie!

And they look really good too!  Aren't they pretty?

All they need are some sprinkles!!!  Party!!!!

Let ME Eat Cake!

World Market has a pretty good rewards program (you all know what a sucker I am for those!). You get a $10 credit for your birthday and $10 for every $100 you make in food purchases. I had $20 in credit burning a hole in my pocket, so I tried some stuff I've been eyeing. I like to try the seemingly improbable.   Cake on a shelf for some indeterminate amount of time seems improbable. 

The picture on the top is the outer package, inside are six individually wrapped cakes:

Now this doesn't look a dang thing like the cake in the picture:

I didn't see any chocolate filling.  Maybe the cake absorbed it - they were pretty moist, I have to admit.  But not that chocolately.  These (cherry) were actually better!

Again, nothing like the picture, but moist and tastey!  These would be great for a lunch box - YUM!  Made in Italy - I should have known they would be pretty good.  The Italians know their food.

I was certain this would be terrible.  I mean - these cakes are just sitting on the shelf!  How can they be any good at all?  This is decorated sponge cake with strawberry jam and custard filling:

Looks kind of scary, right?

I can't believe it, but it was pretty good!  The jam and custard made it.  This one is made in Portugal.  Wow - cakes from around the world!  How cosmopolitan is my birthday celebration?  Looks crummy, but tatses light and sweet - pretty good!

I got this one from A Southern Season - a peanut butter torte - holy smokes!!!!  But it's in a box, so I had my doubts:

But look at this - it looks great, right?

But when you cut it - holy God!  Is that radioactive?  The orange really is that shocking!

WOW!  It might look weird, but it's pretty damn good!!  And pretty damn dangerous - OMG!!!  I can't stop eating this thing!  Thank God my birthday only comesd once a year!  Made by Sweet Treasures, distributed by Green County Foods out of Monroe, WI.  Screw Portugal.

And you can't have a party without cookies!  These are new by Oreo:

I was surprised when I opened the box and there were so few inside - Oreos are usually packed!

These are Oreos without their tops, covered in fudge and they are damn good.  No kidding!  Pretty rich with all that fudge, but this is a mighty fine cookie.  It doesn't look like much, but it brings it, I promise!

These are a new limited edition flavor - Oreo Blizzard:

Zzzzzzzzzzz.  You gotta be kidding.  These did nothing for me.  Taste like regular Oreos.  Not even DoubleStuff.  Don't waste your money.

Sprinkles seems so festive and springy to me!!  Whee!!  So let's look at some nonpareils with colored sprinkles. These are by Choclatique:

And these are by a German company - Horst Schluckwerder:

And while I like the cute flower shape of the German chocolates, those by Choclatique are WAY better.  They have more chocolate and thus fewer sprinkles.  Way, way better.  But nonpareils are not my fav - those round balls always taste a little stale to me.  Great for decoration, not so great for flavor.  But that's just my opinion - my best friend, Missy LOVES these things.

Yay!!  Cake, cookies and chocolate!  And a lot of it was free!  Happy Birthday to me!!!  The only thing that could have been better was to have you all here to share it with!

The Coolest Candy Store EVAH!!

I've been off the grid, gang - so sorry!  It's all good, though, lots of work!  Yay!  This week started off in Myrtle Beach where I found the most amazing candy store in the free world - IT'SUGAR:

This amazing thing has different flavors of "pucker powder" and you can fill the plastic tubes with it.  Remember Pixie Sticks?  Well, this takes the whole sugar thing to a whole new level.  And I like it!

They had loads of cool candy gifts too:

And how about this - the sweetest sandcastle ever made with 254,093 Jelly Belly jelly beans.  Let me tell you, it was ginormous!

Journals, notepads, candy jars:

My new favorite luggage tag which will be so accompanying me to Candy Expo!

The newest addition to my living room:

They didn't have too much non-standard chocolate (tons of M and M's in different colors), but I loved this Chocoscopes Bloomsberry and Co. wrapper:

My b-day is tomorrow (or today depending on when you read this) and I am a Taurus, and this was pretty right on!  You know how I love that creative packaging!  Any of these fit you?

Bloomsbury Chocolate is pretty good - along the lines of Cadbury, but what they're really selling are their super creative wrappers.

There were also tons of bins where you could bag your own candy.  I'm only in it for the chocolate, but I did snag some huge (and delicious) Jordan Almonds:

I love their stylized S logo.  And the back of the bag has three levels you can fill to - the lowest is sugar fix, next is sugar rush, the highest is sugar high.  Love it!!  Oh - and they have tons of t-shirts and hats and all kinds of candy themed stuff.  The music playing is even all candy songs!!  I'm telling you, this place is FAB!!!

There were the only new chocolate bars I found:

These are by Joyva Corp based in Brooklyn and they were God awful.  The chocolate is terrible and the fillings no better.  Ewwww!

This is the logo on their shopping bags: 

It is a really, really great place and it's at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach, SC.  It is so much fun!!!!

And would you believe I saw this on the way home:

I tried to hijack him, but my car was too small to force him off the road and I was unarmed.  Damn it.  Where's a good jihadist when you need one?