Here’s something new I picked up in London that I’ll do a review of shortly: Cadbury Dairy Milk Pebbles.

If you tried to flatten out your Cadbury Mini Eggs, they’d be crushed. Somehow Cadbury has magically made them into little skipping stones.

There are always flavor trends. Tropical fruits, pumpkin pie spice, hot pepper ... much of it is a pendulum that swings from novelty to the familiar in unfamiliar settings. One of the new flavor trends that has been pointed out by food industry writers is cake.

Cake itself isn’t a flavor, it’s just an item you can make with some batter and an oven. There are a few different versions of the cake as candy flavors. The popular varieties are Red Velvet Cake, Birthday Cake and Carrot Cake. I gathered together a few that I’ve picked up in the past few weeks out of curiosity, then I thought maybe I should go through my archives and see how far back this goes and how successful this is as a flavor.

Red Velvet Cake has never been one of my favorites, so making a successful candy adaptation will probably always be lost on me.

Birthday Cake, White Cake or Party Cake is another subset of the flavor, it’s usually yellow cake with some sort of vanilla frosting.

Carrot Cake and Spice Cake are by far the most interesting of the lot, because they combine a series of flavors, both the lightly spiced cake with carrot added for texture and moistness then add in the tang of a cream cheese frosting. Mars has reissued their Carrot Cake M&Ms at Walmart again this year.

So this week I’ll review: Peeps Party Cake, Brach’s Carrot Cake Candy Corn, Russell Stover’s Carrot Cake, Wedding Cake and Birthday Cake Eggs. If there are others you’ve seen in stores, let me know so I can track them down Stay tuned.

Related Candies

1. R.M. Palmer Cake Batter Cup
2. Birthday Cake M&Ms
3. M&Ms Milk Chocolate Red Velvet
4. Russell Stover Red Velvet Santa
5. See’s Holiday Pie Truffles
6. Godiva Cake Truffles
7. Cupcake Bites

I’m traveling this week, picking up new colourful and flavourful things to review in the coming weeks.

Do you have a British favorite that I haven’t reviewed yet?

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone for your suggestions! I was able to find a lot of the items, plus a few more I’m looking forward to trying. I have to photograph everything, but they’ll be reviewed in the coming months.

What’s in your candy bowl this year?

Counting down the days to Valentine’s, I joined The Nosh Show Team (Marvo, Dubba, Ryan and Eric)

I should be back on the show to talk about Easter candy sometime later this spring.

If you’re on Tumblr, you might want to pop Candy Blog on your follow list. It’s just candy photos, posted a couple times a day. Think of it like a visual reminder of new reviews and a few revisits to the archive.

You can also browse the archives for some tasty views:

You can also find Candy Blog on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Google +. But I spend most of my time developing the content here. Thanks for reading!

I’ve been prowling the store shelves since October to see what’s back this year in seasonal favorites and what might be new.

I’ve been pretty excited so see so many old favorites returning plus a few new additions. The flavor combinations of pumpkin spice, peppermint bark and gingerbread continue strong showings with a few egg nog and chili pepper items out there, too.

This is by no means a definitive list, but I’ve tried to actually find the announced products in stores before adding them to my list.

• Twizzlers Tree Shaped Cherry Candy (new)
• Hershey’s Candy Cane Bar Mint Candy with Candy Bits (new - review)
• Hershey’s Candy Cane Kisses (old review when they were made with real white chocolate)
• Hershey’s Mint Truffle Kisses (review)
• Hershey’s Cherry Cordial Kisses (review)
• Hershey’s Mint Miniatures (white creme with nonpareils, Special Dark with mint and Milk Chocolate with mint - here’s an old review when the white chocolate was made with cocoa butter)
• Reese’s Trees (just like the Eggs)
• Reese’s Bells (foil wrapped bell shaped candies about the size of the regular miniatures)
• Reese’s Snow Board Santa (kind of like the big Reester Bunny around Easter)
• HersheyEts (review) - I’ve seen these at the Hershey’s store before in bags but also in those candy cane tubes at major retailers.
• Hershey’s Collection Almond Clusters & Chocolate Covered Pretzels (new) - packaged in cardboard gable box
• Giant Hershey Bars (1 Pound)
• World’s Largest Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (1 Pound - review)
• Hershey’s Kisses Santa Hat just a large kiss with red and white foil
• Hershey’s Giant Kisses

• Peeps Chocolate Covered Peppermint Trees (Milk & Dark Chocolate)
• Peeps White Snowmen (I like the snowmen because they’re one of the few varieties that doesn’t have artificial colors)
• Peeps Green Trees
• Peeps Peppermint Chocolate Dips
• Peeps Gingerbread Men
• Mike and Ike Merry Mix

• Wonka Gobstoppers Snowballs
• Wonka Frosty Nerds (watermelon, wild cherry & punch)
• Wonka Nerds Holiday Rope (photo)
• Wonka Holiday SweeTart Gummis (red & green and I think they’re shaped like Oompa Loompa faces - photo)
• Nestle Butterfinger Jingles (review)
• Nestle Crunch Jingles
• Butterfinger and Nestlé Crunch Medallions kind of like coins, about an ounce, but not wrapped in foil
• Wonka SweeTarts & Spree Candy Cane Tubes (new)
• Wonka Pixy Stix Powder-Filled Candy Canes (new) these are actual hard candies filled with sour powder. Definitely an innovative item.
• Wonka Candy Canes in Spree, SweeTart and Gobstopper flavors
• Wonka Nerds & Fun Dip Fantastical Fun Books like the classic Life Savers story books
• Wonka Giant Pixy Stix Giant Canes are just canes filled with the plastic Pixy Stix ... lots more plastic than candy
• Perugina Baci (review) in holiday packaging - they’re much easier to find during the run up to the holidays than usual

• Life Savers Tin - holds 7 rolls of three different varieties - comes in Butter Rum, Cherry or 5 Flavor package design
• Life Savers Sweet Story Candy Rolls and Gummies (the box that looks like a book and has a collection of Life Saver Rolls in it)
• Life Savers Hard Candy Holiday Mix (cherry, apple & candy cane)
• M&Ms Holiday Mint (revew)
• M&Ms Cherry Cordial
• M&Ms White Chocolate Peppermint (review)
• Dove Peppermint Bark (in foil wrapped Promises & boxed bark review)
• Dove Promises Snowflake Assortment (round pieces in milk, dark & caramel with snowflakes molded in them)
• Dove White Chocolate with Creamy Center - I don’t think these are the same as the Promises I tried last year
• Snickers Nutcrackers (review)
• Snickers Peanut Butter Santas (review)
• 3 Musketeers Hot Cocoa with Marshmallows in minis size
• Twix Santas like the Twix Eggs, they’re like a double wide Twix bar.
• Twix Gingerbread (review)
• Mars Heritage Tins - pencil box sized tins filled with miniatures - designed like classic candy bar wrappers - come in Snickers, M&Ms, Twix and Milky Way)
• Skittles Holiday Mix - features Strawberry, Wild Cherry, Lemon, Grape and Green Apple in red and green.

• Brach’s Christmas Nougats in Peppermint & Wintergreen and Cinnamon (review)
• Brach’s Gloria Mix (classic straw & filled candies)
• Brach’s Holiday Mix (classic filled candies)
• Brach’s Holiday Mints (pillow mints with a green minty jelly filling)
• Brach’s Spicettes (gumdrops in green & red)
• Ferrara Chocolate Oranges (review)

• Tootsie Roll Candy Cane Pop Drops (review)
• Tootsie Roll Candy Cane Pops (review)
• Tootsie Roll Banks (Tootsie & Midgees)
• Tootsie Roll Holiday Midgees (I have no idea what these are - the package doesn’t say)
• Christmas Dots (review)
• Andes Peppermint Crunch (white chocolate with crunchy peppermint candies)
• Andes Cherry Jubilee Thins
• Andes Toffee Creme Thins
• Junior Mints Peppermint Crunch (review)

• Ribbon Candy (I suspect this is just a repackage of Sevigny’s)
• Marshmallow Snow Man (large ones - come in regular milk chocolate covered and chocolate covered in milk chocolate)
• Peppermint Bark Snowman - made with real white chocolate
• Marshmallow Santas review
• Coconut Wreath review
• Strawberry Cream Santa- review
• Milk Chocolate Coconut Santa - review
• Maple Cream Santa in milk and dark chocolate now - review
• Peanut Butter Santa - review
• Gingerbread Santa (review)
• Peppermint Cream Santa (review)

• Swedish Fish (red & green) in bags or theater boxes
• Sour Patch Kids (red & green) in bags or theater boxes
• Cadbury Solid Milk Chocolate Balls (like the mini-eggs - sold by Hershey’s in the United States)

• Ghirardelli Hollow Chocolate Nutcracker
• Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark (review)
• Ghirardelli Squares Holiday Impressions milk chocolate squares with white chocolate “cameo” centers
• Ghirardelli Holiday Squares - egg nog & peppermint bark (review)

• Giant Toblerone Bars
• Toblerone Snow Top - a milk chocolate bar with white chocolate cap on the triangles
• Terry’s Chocolate Oranges (Milk with Orange, Dark with Orange and White with Orange)
• Maxfield’s Assorted Chocolates (I haven’t tried these boxed chocolates yet, they’re less expensive than Russell Stover and probably on par with Elmer’s)
• Fannie May Mint Meltaway & Pixies (individually wrapped - pixie review & meltaway review)
• Ritter Sport Peppermint (review)
• Florida Tropic Oranges in a variety of flavors - review
• Zachary Confections Egg Nog Candy Corn (I add these to my list every year, but I still haven’t seen them in stores)
• Zachary Confections Candy Cane Corn
• Nips Egg Nog (review)
• Dark Roca
• Dark Chocolate Peppermint Roca
• Mocha Roca
• TicTac Holiday Twist either red and white or green and red Tic Tac mixes
• Lindt Hollow Chocolate Santas, Snowmen & Bears
• J&Ds Sriracha Candy Canes (spotted at Cost Plus World Market)
• Au’Some 3-DEEs Santa Gummis

What are you looking forward to most? And what are you having trouble finding this year? What did I leave out?

It’s not a particularly new development to see giant versions of classic candies on shelves, but I have seen more than usual lately. Here’s a rundown of what’s available these days:

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (review)
Details: 1 pound total weight - each cup is one half pound, kind of like a peanut butter pot pie made of chocolate.
Price: $12.99 regularly
Where to Find: These are sold widely on the web and in stores. Check mass market retailers like Target, KMart and drug store chains.

Giant York Peppermint Patties (review)
Details: 1 pound total weight - like the Reese’s, each pattie is one half pound.
Price: $12.99 regularly
Where to Find: These are sold widely on the web and in stores. Check mass market retailers like Target, KMart and drug store chains.

Hershey’s 1 Pound Bar
Details: 1 pound total weight
Price: $12.99 regularly
Where to Find: These are sold widely on the web and in stores. Check mass market retailers like Target, KMart and drug store chains.

World’s Largest Hershey Bar
Details: 5 pounds total weight
Price: $34.99 regularly
Where to Find: These are sold on the web and some specialty stores, I also saw them at KMart.

Snickers Slice n Share (review)
Details: 1 pound total weight, all one bar.
Price: $12.99 regularly
Where to Find: These are sold widely on the web and in stores. Check mass market retailers like Target, KMart and drug store chains.

Toblerone 14 ounces
Details: 14 ounces (just shy of a full pound) in a long, triangular box. Some boxes are the standard creamy yellow, but there are other light blue winter-themed boxes available as well.
Price: $8.99
Where to Find: I spotted these both at Target and Cost Plus World Market. They’re a good value, compared to the other giant bars. 

Mike and Ike and Hot Tamales Giant Box
Details: 1.5 pounds in a large box containing 48 snack sized packets.
Price: $19.99 (spotted at KMart)
Where to Find: I’ve only seen them in stores at KMart, but the JustBorn.com webstore also sells them.

A better value when it comes to these is really the vending packages, which are 5 pounds, about the size of an airplane pillow and cost less, they’re usually available at places like Smart & Final or on the web. (Amazon link.)

Nestle Crunch 1 Pound Bar
Details: 1 pound total weight
Price: $12.99
Where to Find: I’ve spotted these at KMart and Target

Russell Stover 2 Giant Bars S’Mores (review of regular size)
Details: 1 pound total weight - two bars.
Price: $9.99
Where to Find: I’ve spotted these at KMart and Walgreen’s so far, but you can also get them directly from RussellStover.com

Russell Stover 2 Giant Bars Pecan Delight (review of regular size)
Details: 1 pound total weight - two bars.
Price: $9.99
Where to Find: I’ve spotted these at KMart and Walgreen’s so far, but you can also get them directly from RussellStover.com

RM Palmer Giant 1/4 Peanut Butter Cup (review)
Details: 4 ounce peanut butter cup
Price: $1.00
Where to Find: RiteAid and other drug stores

Giant Tootsie Pop
Details: 8 Tootsie Pops in a giant Tootsie Pop shaped dome on a stick
Price: $8.99
Where to Find: I’ve spotted these at Cost Plus World Market

Giant versions of standard candies are rarely better than the originals. They’re a novelty and play off the notion that more is better. But mostly more is fun, more is sharing and more is delightful. If someone doesn’t like the standard version, they’re unlikely to enjoy the giant, so choose carefully. But the good news is that these are rather inexpensive and make a fun item for a child to give to an adult in their life.

Have you seen any other giant versions of candies for the holidays?

Related Candies

1. Trader Joe’s Holiday Roundup 2012
2. Christmas Candy Spotting 2010
3. Jumbo Gum Ball Eggs
4. Big Tex Giant Jelly Beans
5. Giant Pixy Stix