Candy Review: Michel Cluizel “Les Champignons”

Michel Cluizel Les Champignons box

French chocolatier Michel Cluizel cranks out an amazing selection of fine chocolates, from single-origin bars to hot chocolate. The family-run business even processes its own cocoa beans, so you know quality is the name of the game.

Michel Cluizel Les Champignons

I have been lucky enough to try a small selection of Cluizel chocolates. I’ve had some of the single-origin dark chocolate bars, the dark milk chocolate bar, the little coffee cups, and les champignons, otherwise known as “super tasty little chocolate mushrooms.” These mushrooms are flat-out incredible. The combination of flavors and textures is genius, pure genius! The mushroom cap is filled with a crunchy almond nougatine (it’s like toffee) and the stem with a rich caramel. You pretty much have to pop the whole thing in your mouth at once to get the full effect. It’s a mouthful, to be sure, but it’s worth it–the chewy, buttery caramel will mix with the sweet, crunchy almond nougatine and the chocolate shell to produce a shock of chocolatey paradise. Yum.

Michel Cluizel Les Champignons inside

These little guys aren’t cheap (a box of four will run you anywhere from $8 to $10), but I think they are worth it. One mushroom may not look that huge, but it satisfies, and you probably won’t want to eat more than one per sitting. Geez, I’m kind of salivating just thinking about them!

Buy Michel Cluizel chocolates online:

candy, sweets, chocolate, caramel, almond, nougat, Michel Cluizel, Cluizel

Candy Recipe: Leftover Easter Candy Cake

Leftover Easter Candy Cake

It has taken me a couple years to muster up the courage to make this recipe for Leftover Easter Candy Cake. It intrigued me from the minute I stumbled upon it at Cooks.com, but cake with candy in it? It sounded too sweet (if there can be such a thing) and maybe a little gross. For the sake of Candy Addict readers, though, I decided to wield my spatula with confidence and bake the cake! I am really glad I did, because this is actually a very delicious cake and a definite crowd pleaser (at least it pleased the crowd I fed it to).

Chopped Easter candy for Leftover Easter Candy Cake

This cake is more like a coffeecake than a regular cake. You bake it in a bundt or tube pan, and it doesn’t really call for any frosting. The recipe has two sticks of butter in it (yes, two), so it is pretty rich! You need two cups of chopped leftover candy. To ensure that the cake wouldn’t be too terribly disgusting, I tried to use tasty Easter candies, such as mini Reese’s peanut butter cups, Nestle’s crunch eggs, and Hershey’s candy-coated eggs, as well as some Dove dark chocolate hearts left over from Valentine’s. For good measure I also included some marshmallow Peeps and cocoa Peeps.

Leftover Easter Candy Cake slice

See the candy chunks swirled in the batter? Yum. This cake is best served within an hour or two after baking, because at that point the chocolate will still be slightly melted and will ooze inside your mouth. The cake is still good the following day, though–I tested it out just to make sure.

candy, sweets, cake, recipe, recipes, Easter, chocolate

Easter Candy Review: New Peeps Products

Just Born, the makers of Peeps, the holy grail of Easter candy, are on the fast track to cornering all the holidays. Peeps are now available in various colors and shapes to accommodate a variety of holidays. Did you ever think you’d be able to buy Peeps in every season? Well, Easter is the ultimate holiday for Peeps, and to celebrate this Easter, Just Born introduced several new items.

Marshmallow Peeps in green

Let’s start with the classic Peep, but hello, here they are in a lovely grass green! A few years ago Peeps started coming out in brighter hues. I remember being thrilled and yet a little frightened when I first spied the turquoise and bright lavender Peeps. I think this new green shade is very spring-like and festive.

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Candy Review: Hershey’s Limited Edition Orange Creme Kisses

Hershey's Orange Creme Kisses

Again with the limited edition Hershey’s Kisses! Will they ever end? Let’s hope not, because all the special flavors give us an ongoing excuse to purchase them. Anyway, the other day I was leafing through piles of Sunday newspaper advertisements when something in the Target circular caught my eye–Hershey’s Limited Edition Kisses in orange creme flavor! The circular claimed this flavor was a Target exclusive! How does Target do it? I mean, you know that Target has the exclusive red marshmallow Peeps, right? Red! How cool is that! But I digress. I scampered off to Target in search of the orange creme Kisses and was promptly rewarded.

Hershey's Orange Creme Kisses individual

Aren’t they lovely? They taste quite lovely as well. They reminded me a bit of the limited edition Dreamsicle (or was it Creamsicle?) flavor of Frangos. The orange creme Kiss is white chocolate with stripes of orange-flavored white chocolate. It has a pleasant orange flavor that blends nicely with the white chocolate. I detected a hint of vanilla, too. Though they are tasty, they are also quite sweet, so you can’t eat too many of them without getting sugar overload. Now I am kind of craving orange creme soda, Creamsicles, and those little orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream cups. I think these orange creme Kisses may have started something …

Buy Hershey’s Kisses online:

candy, sweets, chocolate, orange, Hershey, Hersheys, Kisses, Kiss, limited edition

Candy By Any Other Name

Candy!
(photo from flickr)

What would you do if you were forced to travel across the globe but could not bring a stash of candy with you? If you’re a bona fide candy lover, you’d want to sample candies from every region, anyway. You probably wouldn’t have an incredibly difficult time identifying candy in various countries, but a little help couldn’t hurt, right?

Here’s how to say “candy” in various languages and countries. If I’ve missed any or messed any up, feel free to leave a comment! The most interesting ones are two English speaking countries – England and Australia – neither one use the word candy. In the U.K. they says “sweets” or “sweeties” and in Australia they call candy “lollies”!

  • United Kingdom: sweets or sweeties
  • Australia: lollies
  • Japanese: okashi (actually means “snacks” but can be used for sweets. You can also just say “candy”)
  • French: bonbons
  • Spanish: dulces or caramelos
  • Greek: carameles
  • Italian: caramelle
  • Tagalog: minatamis or kendi
  • Portuguese: doces
  • German: bonbons or suessigkeiten (yeah, I think I’ll stick to bonbons)
  • Czech: bonbóny
  • Dutch: suikergoed or snoep(jes)
  • Hebrew: sucariah (singular) or sucariot (plural)
  • Russian: konfety
  • Chinese: tang
  • Norwegian: sukkertøy
  • Finnish: karkkia
  • Turkish: istiyorum
  • Latvian: konfektes
  • Gaelic: candaidh
  • Hindi: chahiye
  • Danish: slik

Learn how to say “I want candy” in various languages at wordreference.com

candy, sweets, language