Charlotte Grace Cakeshop

Charlotte Grace Cakeshop

Another new cake shop by local baker entrepreneurs is the Charlotte Grace Cakeshop.

Double Chocolate Cupcake

Salted Caramel Cookies

Charlotte Grace’s Double Chocolate Cupcake belongs to the mainstream, typical and orthodox line of cupcakes. The cake itself was rather dry and crumbly. The rich fudge-like chocolate topping was the main star of the cupcake, though the rainbow rice seemed rather out of place. Compared to 51 Fiveone Degrees, this cupcake seemed to pale in comparison.

We tried 2 different kinds of cookies – Salted Caramel and Cranberry with Oats (not shown here). The Salted Caramel cookies were pretty decent, exuding a right balance between crunchy and soft. However, rather than tasting of salted caramel, the cookies resembled more of butterscotch.

The Cranberry with Oats cookies were a big disappointment. There wasn’t any taste or fragrance of oats, nor were the cookies decorated with sufficient cranberries. The cookies were more crispy/flaky than crunchy or soft, which was a queer texture.

Charlotte Grace Cakeshop
85C Toa Payoh Lorong 4

Galmopan Dulcissimo Cookies

Galmopan Dulcissimo Cookies

These cookies were very crunchy and hard, similar in texture to the those from Famous Amos, whereby one could feel the element of heatiness and the inevitable arrival of  a sore throat with excessive consumption. However, they did not give off the same buttery fragrance as Famous Amos’. We felt that the overly tiny peanuts failed to make their presence shine. They failed to add more crunchiness to the already crunchy cookie nor did they provide the cookie with more fragrance. The saltiness from the typical peanuts were also barely present. Overally, these cookies did not taste that bad but were the average hard crunchy chocolate cookies. A sizeable pack came relatively cheap at $2.50.

AmericanSoft

AmericanSoft Chocolat Classique

The cookies were indeed soft as indicated, but it was lacking in the chewiness to give the biscuit a delicious finish. In fact, it had the texture of  half baked cookie dough which are slightly moist and soft. There was dense fudge mixed evenly within the cookie, and a couple of macadamia nuts and small chocolate chunks stubbed onto the cookie surface. Given such standards, these cookies should be satisfying, but yet somehow our taste buds weren’t exactly impressed. At $8.50 for a packet of 8 puny biscuits, we felt shortchanged and we would better off with freshly baked ones from Subway.

Nougatelli Cookie

Nougatelli Cookie

Our second attempt of Merba‘s cookie ($4.50) did not disappoint. The packaging gave an honest depiction of what to expect within. We were delighted to find a thick layer of hazelnut spread centered within the crumbly, crepe-like cookies. There were also chunks of chocolate chips studded within the cookies. A very addictive snack, we will definitely be watching out for more of Merba‘s products.

Merba Patisserie Edition

Merba's Dark Chocolate and Hazelnut Cookies

We have seen Merba’s Dark Chocolate and Hazelnut Cookies a few times at the Watson’s stores, but our previous experiences with awful cookies left us with skepticism towards these less well-known brands. Well, Merba might be a popular brand overseas but locally, you can hardly find it in common supermarkets. But after seeing it time after time, we decided to give it a try.

Merba's Dark Chocolate and Hazelnut Cookies

The opening of the packaging revealed a strong hazelnut fragrance. The cookies weren’t too hard and stiff, but were towards the crumbly texture. In fact, the texture reminded us of a crispy crepe-like biscuit, which shatters into pieces upon biting into it. The cookie was decorated with big chunks of milk chocolate chips and chopped hazelnuts. The chocolate chips were soft and melts in our mouths. In contrast, the chopped hazelnuts were crunchy and tasted pretty fresh. We’re glad we bought Merba‘s after all.

Voortman Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies

Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies

Voortman chocolate chip cookies sounded like a healthy snack with the promise of containing zero trans fats and being sugar free. However, the opening of the packaging revealed a strong stench of modelling clay (aka playdoh). Strangely, this smell diminishes as they were consumed. The number of chocolate chips were also miserable unlike what was depicted on the packaging. Texture wise, it was a bit soft and bread-like. Overall, we would avoid this brand of chocolate cookies as we found the smell a turn off.

Delhaize Cookies

Delhaize Cookies Noisettes

Delhaize Cookies Noisettes

As we tore apart the plastic packaging, we were immediately welcomed with a strong Nutella fragrance. Our first impression was that these cookies must be very rich in hazelnuts. True enough, these crunchy and crumbly cookies were strong in hazelnut flavour and aroma, accompanied by the sweetness of the generous amount of milk chocolate bits. There was hardly any butter taste; the entire cookie was literally basking nutella!

Marks and Spencer Teatime Delights

Snacktime Assortment - Milk Chocolate Teacakes; Chocolate Cream Caramel Wafers; Fully Coated Milk Chocolate Digestives

Toffee Viennese

Milk chocolate teacakes – These little teacakes were akin to chocolate coated marshmallows. For lovers of marshmallows, this would be an ideal treat as the bulk of the teacake was essentially marshmallows. In fact, even though you could see a biscuit-like layer forming the base of the teacake, you could barely detect its crunchiness. The marshmallows were simply too fluffy and thick. On the whole, the combination of milk chocolates and marshmallows made the entire teacake pretty sweet.

Chocolate cream caramel wafers – Alternating layers of chocolate cream caramel and wafers. The caramel was pretty starchy and stuck to our teeth. The wafer was also not crispy.

Fully coated milk chocolate digestives – This was our favourite within the assortment box. The digestive biscuits were crunchy, not too sweet, and exuded a wheat-like fragrance. Coupled with the milk chocolate, it was a delectable afternoon treat.

Viennese toffee – This was our favourite as well! It was made up of a layer of Scottish shortbread, which is buttery with a tinge of saltiness. Atop this crunchy layer was a layer of very soft caramel. The entire biscuit was then encased in milk chocolate. On the whole, the Viennese toffee was rather sweet and for those without a sweet tooth, this sweet treat might be a little too overwhelming.

365 Cookies

365 Chocolate Cookies

Just recently, we tried a new brand of cookies – 365 Chocolate Cookies. The cookies were airy, crumbly and porous. There was also a generous serving of dark chocolate chips in each cookie. The cookie itself can be imagined as an ant hive, with the soft dark chocolate pieces being stuffed in the holes. A very satisfying treat – once you start, you can’t stop!

Quaker Oats

Quaker Oats - Oatmeal Cookie, Honey Nuts

Quaker Oats - Oatmeal Cookie, Honey Nuts

New product from Quaker Oats! Quaker Oatmeal Cookies! Stumbled upon it in NTUC Fairprice and decided to give it a try. The cookie was on the hard and crunchy side, unlike the soft-baked kinds we prefer. The oat taste and fragrance weren’t particularly strong. There was also an absence of any nutty taste. The cookie was basically sweet, nothing really too fantastic about it.

Pepperidge Farm Soft Baked Sausalito

Soft Baked Sausalito Milk Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

Soft Baked Sausalito Milk Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

Pepperidge Farm’s Soft Baked Sausalito Milk Chocolate Macadamia Cookies were soft and bread-like, as suggested by its name. Typically, we prefer our cookies to be soft and chewy, and less of the crunchy versions. Pepperidge’s version was a far cry from Subway cookies. Perhaps because they aren’t baked fresh and sold immediately, the macadamia nuts were very soft and not crunchy. The milk chocolate bits were a tad too big; it would be better if they were smaller and uniformly dispersed in the cookie. The cookie was bland and not chewy enough. Somehow they could not quell our craving for cookies. At almost the same price, we would opt for the freshly baked subway cookies