ngredients:

* 8 ounces miniature marshmallows (4 cups not packed, or half of a 16-ounce bag)
* 1 pound powdered sugar (4 cups), plus extra for dusting
* 2 tbsp water
* Food coloring or flavored extracts, optional

Preparation:

1. Dust your counter or a large cutting board with powdered sugar. Place the marshmallows and the water in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 1 minute, until the marshmallows are puffy and expanded.

2. Stir the marshmallows with a rubber spatula until they are melted and smooth. If some unmelted marshmallow pieces remain, return to the microwave for 30-45 seconds, until the marshmallow mixture is entirely smooth and free of lumps. If you want colored or flavored fondant, you can add several drops of food coloring or extracts at this point and stir until incorporated. If you want to create multiple colors or flavors from one batch of fondant, do not add the colors or flavors now. Instead, refer to step 6 below for instructions.

3. Add the powdered sugar and begin to stir with the spatula. Stir until the sugar begins to incorporate and it becomes impossible to stir anymore.

4. Scrape the marshmallow-sugar mixture out onto the prepared work surface. It will be sticky and lumpy, with lots of sugar that has not been incorporated yet–this is normal. Dust your hands with powdered sugar, and begin to knead the fondant mixture like bread dough, working the sugar into the marshmallow with your hands.

5. Continue to knead the fondant until it smoothes out and loses its stickiness. Add more sugar if necessary, but stop adding sugar once it is smooth–too much sugar will make it stiff and difficult to work with. Once the fondant is a smooth ball, it is ready to be used. You can now roll it out, shape it, or wrap it in cling wrap to use later. Well-wrapped fondant can be stored in a cool room or in the refrigerator, and needs to be kneaded until supple before later use.

6. If you want to add coloring or flavoring to your fondant, flatten it into a round disc. You might want to wear gloves to avoid getting food coloring on your hands during this step. Add your desired amount of coloring or flavoring to the center of the disc, and fold the disc over on itself so that the color or flavor is enclosed in the center of the fondant ball.

7. Begin to knead the ball of fondant just like you did before. As you work it, you will begin to see streaks of color coming through from the center. Continue to knead until the streaks are gone and the fondant is a uniform color. Your fondant is now ready to be used or stored as outlined above.

We love a few weird and wacky sweets, and these Hot Chilli Pepper Jelly Sweets are certainly no exception!

The Hot Chilli Pepper Jellies are much like any other sweet jelly, except they’re flavoured with real chillies. According to the manufacturer, these sweets are roughly the heat of a medium to hot curry, so they’re hot, but not too hot.

These are a relatively new sweet on the scene, and likely to be the subject of many Christmas gifts this year. You could even play some pranks with these sweets, by concealing them in a bag of normal sweets!

Here’s an unusual product from the good ol’ US of A, namely a spreadable fluffy marshmallow treat that’s idea for spreading on bread and toast!

You really couldn’t make this stuff up, but like me, I’m sure you’re curious to try it? This fluffy goo has a similar consistency and flavour to melted marshmallow. If the original flavour appeals to you, then you’ll also want to consider the Strawberry and Raspberry flavours too.

If you’re buying this Marshmallow fluff for someone else, make sure they leave some for you too!

Donna Pedlow Competition Winner

The draw has now closed, and the winner is Donna Pedlow, from Bedfordshire. Donna and her Daughter have received the £25 gift voucher and have already purchased some fantastic sweets.

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Donna’s 5-year old daughter opted for the huge chest of retro sweets, and who could blame her? Included in the box are black jacks, fizzy cola bottles, refreshers chews, rhubarb and custard, wham bars, and so much more. The gobstoppers were a completely new experience for Donna’s daughter too!

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Will there be another competition? Yep! We’ll be running a new competition very shortly, so keep your eyes peeled!

Aniseed sweets are another one of those treats that you either love or hate! The aniseed flavouring is extracted from the Anise flower, which tends to grow in the Mediterranean region and South West Asia.


It’s also funny how tastes change too. When I was younger, I used to enjoy aniseed balls. However, now that I’ve got older, I really don’t enjoy them! There’s a common theme with Aniseed sweets, in that they tend to be boiled or solid.

Do you know of any soft and chewy aniseed sweets?

It’s not that long before Halloween now, and some of you will be getting ready by buying in supplies for your Halloween party or for trick or treaters. For those of you who like top-notch chocolate, Chocolate Trading Company has a great range of Halloween chocolates for you. These treats are perfect for kids of all ages (including us big kids!).

A fun little gift cube of milk chocolates. The Halloween-themed cube contains a range of novelty chocolates, including witches, pumpkins, ghosts and spiders (all available individually below). The gift cube is finished off with a “Happy Halloween” gift tag and tied off with a black gift ribbon.

A gift bag of approximately 50 marble-sized Halloween-themed chocolates. The milk chocolates feature pumpkins, eyeballs and skulls. Ideal for Halloween parties in a bowl along with your party food.

A pack of foil-wrapped milk chocolates in either a pack of 20 witches, 20 spiders, or 20 ghosts. Ideal for trick-or-treaters, parties, as well as for October-based promotions and advertising too!

It’s not that long until Halloween! It’s only 3 weeks away! Are you having a Halloween party, or perhaps you’re expecting a few neighbouring children to knock on the door for Trick or Treat? We’ve got some stunning Treasure Boxes full of Halloween-themed sweets for you, which would be perfect for October 31st. And the best bit is, you don’t need to wait until Halloween to enjoy them!

An incredible hamper from Cadbury packed with two Halloween themed bags from The Natural Confectionary Company, a Trick or Treatsize Tub of approximately 50 bars of Curly Wurly, Fudge, Crunchie and Chomp. And two packs of 80g Cadbury Dead Heads. I tried some Cadbury Dead Heads at the weekend, they are lovely! They are much like a Cadburys Caramel filled mini egg, with blood red caramel and a scary face on the egg itself!
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Another great pack from Cadbury which features the Trick or Treatsize Tub of approximately 50 bars of Curly Wurly, Fudge, Crunchie and Chomp. And this time, you get 4 packs of the Cadbury Dead Heads 80g bars. This pack is ideal if you just want chocolate, and nothing else!
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The Halloween Treasure Box has a lot more pure chocolate compared to the Trick or Treatsize tubs above where you get 22 Cadbury Pure Chocolate Bars, namely Cadbury Dairy Milk, Flake, Cadbury Buttons and Twirl. You also get a pack of The Natural Confectionary Company’s Sour Cauldron Mix and 2 packs of Cadbury Dead Heads.
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What sweets do you like in for Halloween and Bonfire night?

Parma Violets are sweets made by British company Swizzels Matlow, and they’ve been around a long time too. Delicately flavoured with the violet flower (yes, really!), they remain a firm favourite of many. Although, that said, Parma Violets are just like Marmite, you either love them or you hate them!

These are the traditional variation of the perfumed sweets that come in a little packet, about a third of the length of a pen.

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If you like your Parma Violets a little larger and longer lasting, then the Giant Parma Violets are for you. The mini versions are about 7mm in diameter, whereas the giant sweets are about 22mm in diameter. Make sure you suck them too, then they’ll last even longer!

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The lucky winner will be sent a £25 gift voucher to redeem at the old fashioned sweet shop A Quarter Of. The £25 voucher can be redeemed against a single order or multiple orders of sweets from A Quarter Of. So you don’t have to spend it all at once if you don’t want to!

Competition Winner

The competition has now closed, and you can read about the winner on the October 2010 Prize Draw Winner page.

The competition was Listed On

• Loquax Competitions
• ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions.
• UK Competitions at CrazyCompers.co.uk
• Competitions Today

I’ve never heard of Chelsea Whoppers before, but they seem to be a chocolate flavoured fondant, very similar to a fudge, but softer. They are then dusted in a chocolate powder, very much like cocoa powder. Having just learnt of them, I am very tempted to give them a try!

Chelsea Whoppers are an old-fashioned classic, and these ones are made by hand in Scotland. With this variety, you get 5 bars roughly 50g in weight, which is roughly the weight of a standard chocolate bar.

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Rather than the slabs of Chelsea Whoppers, these are chunks of Chelsea Whoppers in bite-sized pieces. Cubes of chocolate-flavoured fudge, dusted in chocolate powder.

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Have you any stories of Chelsea Whoppers from your childhood? We’d love to hear them!