Gu Raspberry and Strawberry Fruit Crème (Tesco) By @Cinabar

This is one of the new summer desserts from Gu, the Raspberry and Strawberry Fruit Crème. When I spotted it in Tesco, I thought it would make a lovely sweet treat for a warm summer's day. It is a little like their cheesecake range, but without the biscuit crumb.

The dessert has a layer of raspberry and strawberry fruit compote topped with a thick fruit crème. As usual, they come in packs of two and are sealed with a foil lid. I unwrapped mine and gave it a try.

The crème topping is sweet, fruity and wonderfully creamy, with the rich, thick texture that Gu desserts are known for. The fruit layer underneath is the real star though. It is packed with bright, zingy fruit flavour that cuts through the richness of the crème perfectly. The contrast between the tangy fruit and the smooth creamy topping means every spoonful is slightly different, making it a really enjoyable dessert to eat.

These are wonderfully fruity, refreshing and perfect for summer. I'll definitely be picking up another pack.

Gu Cake Pots! Victoria Sponge [@NLi10]

 Gu make loads of nice deserts - and they put them all in little glass pots so they can't escape and you can't tell just how small they are.  We forgive them though - they are really nice!

And now - at a reduced price of £2.50 there are cake pots.

I chose Victoria Sponge

The cut away here is nice and clean but I forgot to take a pic of when I ate mine.  There was a lot more topping than sponge, but the highlight was the raspberry beneath

Overall though at £1.25 per serving even at the sale price you could have a whole Victoria Sponge to yourself. I think that's a better option, although maybe not as calorie controlled.

Gu Victoria Sponge Cake Pots (Morrisons) By @cinabar

I’m always pleased to see new desserts from Gu. I really like the brand when I fancy a treat. They’re a little more expensive than some other options, but they always feel like a bit of luxury.

The new variety for summer is Gu Victoria Sponge Cake Pots. Inspired by the classic cake, they also feature Gu’s signature layer of mascarpone crème.

I opened the box, peeled back the wrapper, and the dessert looked lovely, topped with biscuit sprinkles. I gave it a try and was impressed by the flavour. I’d worried the sponge element might get lost, but it came through well: rich and creamy, like a slice of Victoria Sponge with plenty of extra filling.

The standout component is the zingy raspberry compote. It adds balance, a fruity freshness, and a sharp kick that cuts through the sweetness.

This is another delight from Gu, and definitely one I’ll be buying again.

Gu Cheesecake Black Forest (Sainsburys) By @Cinabar

My favourite cake is Black Forest Gateau, I think because of the nostalgia. The foods you like are based on nostalgia and memory, which is why many people’s favourite chocolate is the one they remember from childhood. I remember this cake from childhood, and I love the combination of chocolate, cherries, and cream. I know it is a bit retro, but I'm a big fan of everything 1980s-themed. When I saw there was a new Gu Cheesecake Black Forest, I knew it was something I had to pick up. 

 

Inside the box are the usual foil-topped glass ramekins. I pulled back the lid and found that the dessert looked quite dark. I scooped some onto a spoon and could see the layers more clearly. I gave it a try, and it was a proper blast of the comforting Black Forest Gateau flavours. The cherries were sweet and strong; there was plenty of chocolate; and the cheesecake element added the creamy balance that recreated the flavour. The texture is quite limited in that all the layers are soft, the base if a little former but there is no crunch and no juicy cherries, which is a shame but I still liked the taste so very much. The combination is a classic, and the different elements are well balanced. This Gu Cheesecake Black Forest is an absolute delight.

What is your favourite cake from childhood? 

Gu Brownies Salted Caramel (Sainsburys) By @Cinabar

I know that the Gu desserts are a little bit pricey and a bit of a luxury item, but we do get them as an occasional treat. Spectre’s favourite is the Key Lime Pie variety, which seems to be seasonal and disappears in winter. My favourite, though, is obviously anything with chocolate.

I spotted these in Sainsbury's, and though 'salted caramel’ still seems to be living its best life, these do at least look a bit different as they are a brownie dessert. The packet says that you can have these hot or cold, but as a traditionalist, I went to try them straight from the fridge. The packet also says the entire packaging is recyclable, which is great. The lids are made of foil, which goes into recycling here, unlike a flimsy yoghurt pot lid.

I gave them a try, and first things first, look at all that caramel! What a fantastic layer of caramel! The flavour is sweet and rich, and the salt is mild but well balanced. Underneath that is the thick, moist Brownie section, which is wonderfully indulgent. It would feel heavy if there was more than a pot full, but with caramel, it was moist, and the portion was just right. What an absolute delight! These were the perfect Monday treat after work, and I’ll have to keep an eye out for any Christmas flavours that might be coming too.

Gu - $ Zillionaire $ (and Wild Strawberry) [@NLi10]

 What could make Gu puddings better? GOLD!

These little, luxury puddings have taken the supermarkets by storm - and are probably the most accessible premium desert - and the reason most kitchens have a few little glass ramekin floating about.

We picked up a couple of them to take to Nanna's and she'd never had them before.  She had (both) of the strawberry ones so we didn't write those up (although she did declare them to be better than  supermarket trifles and replaced them on her weekly shopping order 😼)

The Zillionaire is 'just' a millionaire shortbread with gold coloured flakes added to the top to impress the influencers.

But with the many, many layers beneath it's easy to see this becoming a repeat buy (while they are still £2.75 for two at Tesco)

Not too sweet, not too salty, and with enough texture variety to make every bite special.  Another Gu classic and one to tempt the nannas into next time.

Gu Gold Limited Edition (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

I really like Gu desserts, but I only buy them occasionally as a treat or when there is a limited edition. This new one fits into the latter category. Yesterday I wrote about Caramilk ice lollies, and today, on a similar theme of caramel chocolate, I have these Gu Gold Limited Edition desserts.

There are two in the box, and they are in glass ramekins, which can be recycled or apparently topped with a Pringles lid so you can store stuff. 

The bottom of the cheesecake-style dessert has a lovely crumbly biscuit base, and then the next layers add all the golden caramel flavour. They are nice and sweet, with rich golden tones of caramel. There isn’t really a toffee tone; it is more of a sweeter caramel with this dessert, but it is an absolute delight. 

Gu Mixology Strawberry Daiquiri (Asda) By @Cinabar

We love Gu for their at home luxury desserts, and I think I may have found a new summer flavour. The weather has been quite nice today (excusing the occasional rain shower), there has been a fairly blue sky, and perhaps spring is on the way. Strawberries mean summer, right?

We decided to try out one of the new Gu Mixology desserts, which are based on cocktails. This one is Gu Mixology Strawberry Daiquiri, and is a cheesecake with strawberries, rum, and lime on a red biscuit base. The desserts may have been tilted at some point, as the strawberry layer on top did seem to have slid a little. Thankfully, it won’t affect the taste.

I gave it a try and could see all the lovely layers once the spoon dug in. The top layer is like a sweet strawberry jam, but there is a warming flavour of rum throughout. The cheesecake layer is creamy and tasty, and the cooking biscuit crumble was good but couldn’t have been a little crunchier. The taste does develop as you eat, and you can pick up on lime mixed in too. It does feel very summery as a pudding, but it is also absolutely yummy. I’ll enjoy the first days of spring with these and try out the other flavours too.

Gü Plant - Spanish Lemon - and Vegan?! (@NLi10)

 We like the Gu (or Gü as I’ll type once for the records) puddings in this house. We have all the ramekins, and they are great for teabags, sauces and you can use Pringle lids to seal them to pop stuff in the fridge!

When a new one appears it’s a guilt free way to generate some reviews by trying a different, yet familiar thing. But this one - this one’s a bit odd.

Billed as Gü (oh it autocorrected!) Plant - Spanish Lemon this is part of a new vegan range - but has cheesecakes written on the box too - but no cheese here! This is great because I dislike cheese.

So far so normal!

Now that looks a little odd - the smell is new and it’s more similar to a milk jelly texture than the traditional cheese cake ones.

This would not be possible with the real cheese Gü product - Luna gave this a sniff before trying to hit it, instead of attempting to eat it.  And why is this - it’s because it’s got coconut in with the citrus fruits.

This means it’s more of a coconut mousse than a cheesecake (not a problem), and then the base is odd too.  This doesn’t hold together like a normal cheesecake and is pretty much like a sugary crumble.  To this end I think they should flip this - call it a lemon crumble or similar and put the fluff on the bottom and the crunch on the top!

So - nice then (very nice) and gluten free AND vegan which is a pretty powerful trifecta.  Would buy this again, but not when I’m in the mood for a thick creamy heavy cheese cake, but a light summery desert.

Will have to try the rest of the range now too!

Gu Mango Mousse Fusions (Waitrose) By @Cinabar

I’m not sure if I have mentioned it on here, I probably have somewhere, but my favourite fruit is mango. I cheat and buy the pre-diced stuff, because despite several youtube clips of people “hedgehog” cutting them, I have failed. I got covered in juice, it was beyond my skillset.
Anyway there is a new dessert from Gu, and it contains mango, so yep, I bought them. The pack has two pots stacked together and wrapped in cardboard, for uber poshness. I had to pull a strip ton the back to rip it opened and release the two pots.

The pots are very inviting, and even have cute slogans written on the lids. There are two layers inside and the top one hadn’t travelled well. The fruity topping wasn’t evenly spread despite sitting in the fridge the right way up for a few days. I put this down to their journey in the back of the car not being kind to them.
The topping is predominantly passion fruit flavour and is quite a sharp and tangy taste. It was countered by a rather thick a luxurious mango mouse. The flavour was smooth and creamy, and the two tastes went perfectly well together. I loved these pots of tropical fruity goodness, and will be buying some more.

Gu Velvety Praline Tartlets (Sainsburys) [By @Cinabar]

Gu is one of my favourite makes for desserts, one I associate with luxury. I know their dessert range well, and when I saw a new variety it was inevitable I'd pick a pack up. As someone who is a big fan of nuts the word praline in the title was a complete bonus too.
There are two tartlets in the box and they look neatly designed with two thin lines of light icing for decoration. Packaging was minimal in that it was just card board, sealed in the middle. This is probably more environmentally friendly but it did feel a bit unsafe. Like if you put them in the fridge near the onions they might absorb the aroma. I didn't for the record, it was just a thought I'd had. Perhaps I've become too used to the over packaging we normally get these days.
I a cut a chunk out of the tartlet and gave it a taste test. I have to admit to finding it a bit dull. Perhaps the pastry was a little thick, and not well flavoured. There was a strange crunchy section in the middle too, that didn't taste of very much. The layers of filling weren't a strong taste either, just very mild nuts and I couldn't distinguish between them. It's the first Gu pudding I've become bored of, despite usually loving nutty flavours (literally and metaphorically). At 487 calories per tart I had been expecting something a bit more. I have to confess to giving up on it and wishing I'd picked up a box of their Key Lime Pies instead, well at least I know what I'm buying next time.

By Cinabar

Gu - Salted Caramel Melting Middles (Sainsburys) [By @Cinabar]

I always keep an eye on the chilled shelves in the supermarket for new Gu puddings, they are my go-to for quick easy luxurious desserts. I spotted these new Gu puddings and immediately picked them up, their new flavour is “salted caramel”. I’ll try not to go into a rant about the concept of new products sporting a caramel flavour or, the very adventurous ones of those being salted caramel… I’ll try not to mention just how “safe” it is for new product development flavour, but understandable as it does go down invariably well. Regular readers will know my love hate relationship with caramel type flavours, tasty but not exactly pushing the limits of flavour combinations.

Anyway there are two puddings in each box and you take them out and simply remove the paper cases they are in. this is a little tricky as the base paper is pretty stuck and needed carefully peeling so as not to take the sponge with it. There was a point where I thought perhaps I was supposed to leave the paper disc it was sitting on as it was so firmly placed, but the box stated to remove the paper, so I did. At this point you can either oven bake them or zap them in a microwave, I opted for the quicker option as we were after an add-break pudding.
After just 20 seconds of zapping the puddings they were nicely warmed through complete with melting middles that had turned gooey. When you cut in with a spoon the caramel centres oozes its way into the bowl. I have to confess I did really like these puddings. The caramel flavour was nice, rich and tasty. The centre was lovely too, and I’m pleased to say the dessert wasn’t over salted. The saltiness was very mild, it enhanced the caramel and wasn’t there just for the sake of it, and I throughly enjoyed it. It reminded me of a sticky toffee sponge, and I’m sure it could hold a dollop of custard on top rather well too. I found myself scraping the bowl at the end to get every last bit of caramel goodness from the bowl. Oh Gu, you do know how to please. There is also a white chocolate Melting Middle dessert new from Gu which I’m very much looking forward to trying.
By Cinabar

Gu After Dark Blueberry Cheesecakes (Waitrose) [By @Cinabar]

I though Gu and Fru were products from the same company. I thought the distinction was that Fru were the fruity desserts, and Gu were the chocolaty ones and this is what I have believed until today. This pudding is clearly more fruity i.e. Fru than chocolaty Gu, but it is still Gu branded... so perhaps they just toss a coin to chose a brand? To be fair their goodies are good with whichever packaging, so I’ll stop worrying about it! The box is neatly designed with a very tempting cover image.
The last cheesecake style dessert I had from Fru was the Key Lime Pie, which I thought was absolutely fantastic, so I was really pleased to see this blueberry version albeit from Gu. Inside the glass dish is a sweet biscuit base, made up of crushed and compacted crumbs. The next layer up was the creamy cheese. It had a gentle flavour, velvety but with a nice subtle hint of sweet to balance it. I have to say as much as I liked it, I did just prefer the lighter whipped version in the Key Lime Pie. The next section was the blueberry compote, which was a rich deep purple in colour. It had a nice mix of textures from the berries, and the flavour was sweet, fruity and very fragrant from the blueberries. It was a lovely layer and really made the dessert. There was some crumble decorating the top too, but it was mostly for visual effect but did add a nice edge to the texture.
All in all this is a lovely blueberry pudding, the layers all worked really well together bringing a clever balance between creamy and fruity. As always with Gu and Fru it’s another fabulous luxury dessert that is definitely worth checking out.

By Cinabar

Fru Fruity Puds: Key Lime Pie (Sainsbury’s)

Key Lime Pie isn’t something we really get here in the UK, but I do know of the dessert from watching American TV shows. There was even one particular episode of Dexter in which he was trying to find the ‘perfect’ Key Lime Pie, although his final result was a little different from what you might expect.
From that and a little research I’m not sure these puddings live up to the American dessert, firstly there is no pie crust and there is no meringue topping either. These desserts from Fru simply have a crushed biscuit base, a layer of lime and a topping similar to that of a cheese-cake. In fact, one could argue that these are in fact just lime cheese cakes, under the guise of being a traditional American pudding.
But if you accept these Fru puds for what they are, all the negative thoughts suddenly disappear, because they really do taste out of this world. The biscuit base, is wholesome sweet and has a lovely taste. The creamy topping has a fantastic light and delicate flavour that complements the layer of zingy lime that refreshes the taste buds. Just when you think the taste experience is ending there is final gentle warmth of ginger that crosses the palate. Each spoonful just makes you want another, these desserts are absolutely beautiful, and a complete pleasure to eat (even if they are a bit of a side step from the traditional Key Lime Pie).

Gű American Choc Banoffees [Chocolate Puds] (Sainsbury’s)

Although Gu have had a Banoffee dessert available for some time, it has recently had a make-over, according to the packet to become Americanised. It seems that this makeover means that it has had a layer of chocolate ganache added to the mix, which is never a bad thing!
The bottom layer of this pudding is a soft biscuit crumble, which reminds me of digestive biscuits, and makes a nice base. On top of this is the banana layer, which is sweet like caramel and has a gentle banana flavour, which isn’t at all overpowering. On top of this is a creamy layer of mascarpone, which is natural in flavour and lovely and fluffy. Finally the top layer is the chocolate layer, which is gorgeous, rich cocoa presented in a light and fluffy texture, and genuinely fantastic addition to the dessert. Together the layers complement each other perfectly.
One of the things that surprised me most was the overall mildness of the banana. You tend to find with Banoffee dessert that they are quite sickly strong with artificial banana, but this pudding is sweet but mild and proves that less is more.

Fru Carrot Cakes (Sainsbury’s)

After experiencing the rather lovely Gu Tiffin, I was very much looking forward to trying this Fru Carrot Cake (Gu and Fru being made by the same people). Carrot cake isn’t always my first choice for a cake, but it is something that I like.
Like the Gu Tiffin, there is a cardboard tub filled with individually wrapped squares of cake, to keep them fresh. The sponge in each cake is wonderfully moist and soft and in combination with the raisins I really liked the consistency. There are also walnut pieces in the icing which vary the texture nicely too. The taste is just right, the sweetness of the sponge, fruit and carrot is perfectly balanced by the warming spices and the creamy icing. I was very impressed by these cakes, and thoroughly recommend them.

Gű Choc Tiffins (Sainsbury’s)

Gu are famed for luscious desserts and have widened their product range to now include a selection of cakes. First for me to try is Chocolate Tiffin cakes, but to be honest it was hard to decide which to eat as I also purchased carrot cake and chocolate brownies.
This cake consists of a soft moist spongy base with lots of nuts and biscuits packed into it. On top of this is a thick layer of sticky caramel with a wonderful full flavour, and finally on top of that is a thin layer of dark chocolate that cracks when you bite it. There are so many flavours and textures in this cake that just work so well together it becomes a complete pleasure to eat. The cakes are individually wrapped, and are quite small which works really well as they are quite a rich treat!
Just for the record these cakes are found in the fridge section of the supermarket, in case you thought from the packaging that these might be located in the bakery section.

Gü Chocs – Liquid Caramel Chocs

Now I don’t want to get a reputation as someone who hangs out at chocolate websites, but I guess it is to be expected. Anyway I was looking at the Gü website, as you do, and I noticed a competition on the side of the website to win Gü chocs, I entered, I won. It is bizarre that someone with a website like mine should win so much chocolate, but it is a very pleasant coincidence! If my exceptional luck continues and I win the lottery, I will let you all know!!

I have never even seen these chocolates in the shops, I only know Gü (and Frü) for the desserts that they sell, so receiving this in the post was rather nice!

The packaging of these is rather smart, and even the inside of the box has a nice pattern on it. The chocs themselves are wonderful. The 70% cocoa shell on them breaks easily and bursts a buttery sweet caramel goo (for want of a better word)! The caramel is listed as having a salty flavour, and there is, but it is very gentle. The sweet caramel compliments the bitter chocolate coating and I thoroughly recommend them.