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Product Number: 208-209

As much as I hate the deluge of festive adverts reminding me, there is no doubt that “Christmas is coming” and it will be here before we know it. So to make my life easier I’ve decided this year to blag as much of my festive activity as I can. Whether that be cakes, presents, trees, or festive cheer it’s time to let my inner Blagman lose on the most festive of holidays: Christmas.


First up then comes the food, and in this article I’ll take you through a couple of food items that have found their way in to my home in the last couple of weeks. As any good festive celebration must begin with a nice big roast I decided to first examine the Chicago Professional Metallic Roasting Tray. Coming in large enough to fit what ASDA describe as two “large” chickens/ turkeys or beefs, - or one and a ton of roast potatoes - the tray is more than big enough to fit your festive grub.

What’s more it’s non stick too so you can plop your chicken on to it without worrying about spending hours scraping it off again later. This makes washing down the pan simple as well and you’ll get the whole thing clean in a matter of moments. Even if you do miss a bit of grease it will show up as a white splodge the next morning, which can easily and quickly be washed off.


The roast I used in my test turned out perfectly and although the pan initially seemed a little heavy it was easy enough to put in and out of the oven even when piled to the brim with food. All in all then a good piece of kit, and best of all it’ll save a few minutes of washing up, giving you more time to enjoy the Christmas Doctor Who (or your own TV show of choice!). You can pick one up at Headcook.co.uk.

And for desert you could always try one of these not too festive options from Mrs Beeton’s Rediscovered Cakes range. Well I say Mrs Beeton’s range, but supposedly the advertisers are referring to the same Mrs Beeton who published the “Book of Household Management” in 1861 so I’m going to assume someone picked the cakes out on her behalf.


In any case we received both chocolate orange and carrot cake slices and being natural choc-aholics we first opted for the former. With a gooey orange center and just a dash of dark chocolate the cakes scored top marks in our taste test. As you’d expect from something so sickly the cakes are almost a meal in themselves so be sure to save room for them as a mid afternoon snack.

My only cripe comes from the packaging. Unlike other brands which package the slices in separate plastic tubs, the two slices were lumped together in one long cardboard rectangle with a bit of plastic on top. This means that any shaking around on your way back to the shop, may mush the cakes together. Naturally my cakes arrived by post, and although the cakes themselves were still held together (barely a crumb fell off) the icing suffered on the carrot cakes, and was almost completely to the walls of the box. Which is an absolute dissapointment given that the icing really is the best bit.


Never the less, if you have a steady hand, and a few tastebuds at the ready then you can pick up the Mrs Beeton cake range at Tesco and Sainsburys. There’s also an ice cream range too, although we haven’t quite figured out a way to blag free ice cream through the post without it turning in to ice cream soup. Now that would be a Christmas miracle...