NEW! Eton Mess Muffins (ASDA)

A trio of new ASDA muffins: Black Forest, Toffee Fudge and Eton Mess. Oddly enough the Eton Mess was the first flavour to catch my eye back in April, and I'm not sure why I ended up trying them last. If you regularly read this blog you'll know that my experience of the new range has been completely contrasting thus far, so I really didn't want to be left feeling disappointed by ASDA's muffin-y take on the epitome of British summer desserts.

"Two clotted cream flavour muffins with a strawberry jam filling, topped with meringue pieces."

Unfortunately all of the boxes on the shelf had taken a bit of a battering, so I chose the least abused one I could find. Miniature meringue pieces flecked the top of the muffins, and the jammy centre was evident from the oozing pore at the summit of each. So far, so good.

Slicing the muffin in half revealed a generous puddle of strawberry jam. It also became clear that they were going to be moist, as they were gloriously soft and sticky to cut through.

I was sad (but unsurprised) to find that the meringue pieces offered little more than decoration to the muffin as they were completely lost against the cake. Luckily the flavour of said cake was superb. Somehow ASDA have managed to harness the flavours of afternoon tea -think fresh strawberry and cream scones- and transformed it into a muffin. I was expecting the cake to taste identical to the iconic Victoria sponge, but the flavour was far more delicate. The jammy centre was sweet and sticky, working in perfect symphony with the clotted cream flavoured cake -after all strawberries and cream are a match made in heaven.

If I was marketing these cakes for ASDA I would certainly get rid of the useless meringue and name them the Afternoon Tea Muffins. They're a delightful addition to the range, and I hope they're here to stay. The Toffee Fudge are still my favourite, but I will certainly continue to buy more of both flavours.

Who makes your favourite supermarket muffins and what's your favourite flavour? Have I tried the best Britain has to offer yet? Leave me a comment and let me know!

9/10

NEW! Afternoon Tea Delights (ASDA)

Do you remember my review of ASDA's new Honey Teaser pots a few weeks ago? Well as sods law would have it, a couple of days later the supermarket put their entire new dessert range on offer. I'll admit that I sulked a little, but I returned to my local ASDA yesterday hoping to buy their new Rhubarb Jumbles. But, alas! They'd sold out. Instead I spotted their Afternoon Tea Delights (currently £1.50 for two), which sounded delightfully British, and right up my fiance's street.

"My word! Clotted cream mousse, strawberry compote and scrummy scone pieces... all in a pot? Why ever not!"

As with the Honey Teasers, the Afternoon Tea Delights were contained in a clear pot which meant that you could see the three distinct layers.

The top layer was the clotted cream mousse, which it's fair to say ASDA nailed. It had the rich luxuriousness taste of clotted cream, but without the heaviness. I love the taste of clotted cream but hate the texture of it (I find it cloying) so this was the perfect solution for me.

The scone pieces in the middle of the dessert were sweet and fluffy. They had retained their texture well, and hadn't gone stale nor fallen apart. The textural juxtaposition worked exceedingly well, and the combination truly tasted like cream tea.

At the bottom was the strawberry layer. It was fairly runny -in true compote style- but had enough density to prevent it from dripping off the spoon. The compote was well balanced between sweet and tart, and was the perfect ending to a wonderful dessert.

My only qualm with the Afternoon Tea Delights is the ratio of the layers. Whilst the mousse makes up 58% of the dessert, the compote accounts for 30%, meaning that only 12% of the pot's contents comes from scone pieces. Surely the scone should be the star of the show? I think that the dessert would benefit from an even amount of all three layers, and it would be better still if there were six layers in total!

9/10