Cadbury Dairy Milk Mixed Buttons Tester Review Thread NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

This thread is for the 200 Cadbury panel members who have been trying brand new Cadbury Dairy Milk Mixed Buttons and refining their sweet treat baking & decorating skills.

Here's what the team at Cadbury says about the product: "New Cadbury Dairy Milk Mixed Buttons are a combination of milk and white chocolate buttons. They’re perfect for sharing and having fun with your family on a night in. We’re really happy to give the Cadbury panel a chance to try Mixed Buttons – we can’t wait to read your recipes and see your creations”

Please upload your recipes and photos of your unusual and imaginative baked creations to this thread.

The three most fun and creative recipes (as judged by Cadbury) will each win a £100 John Lewis voucher and a family visit (4 tickets; consisting of at least one adult) to KidZania London.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

Please note: Terms and Conditions apply

Ds and I decided to make triple chocolate brownies

120g dark chocolate
120g unsalted butter
100g light muscovado sugar
100g light brown soft sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
60g Doves Farm gluten free plain flour
1 packet mixed buttons

1. melt dark choc and butter together gently
2. Mix dry ingredients together
3. Mix eggs, vanilla and melted choc in
4. Add half the buttons
5. Pour into a 6x8" tin
6. Bake at 180/160 fan for 22 min, after 10 mins scatter the remaining buttons on top

Sorry, and the picture

My three boys (aged 5, 3 and 1) and I just LOVED our Cadbury Dairy Milk Mixed Buttons and after sampling a few each purely for professional reasons (we take our role as Cadbury panel testers VERY seriously) used the rest to make Buttons the Hedgehog!

I'm not the world's finest baker so used a very basic chocolate sponge recipe to make Buttons's body: I mixed butter and caster sugar in a bowl before throwing in self raising flour, cocoa powder and 3 eggs. I then added some milk chocolate buttons before pouring the mixture into two small round tins, and popping in the oven at 200 degrees for fifteen minutes.

While it was baking I made some white chocolate butter cream icing by mixing together butter and icing sugar until smooth, and then adding some melted white chocolate buttons and a dash of vanilla essence.

Once the cakes were out of the oven and cooled, I placed one on top of the other and then cut the sides off and cut away at the front to create a little pointy face. I spread a little butter cream on top and then put the sides I had cut off on top of the body, to make a hedgehog shape (kind of!) I had some ready-to-roll chocolate fondant icing in the cupboard which I used to cover Button's head and used buttons to make his little face!

Once I had smothered Buttons' body with butter cream I then handed him over to the capable hands of my in-house master bakers, who used Cadbury Dairy Milk Mixed Buttons to cover his body in prickles!

As you can see, Buttons has a rustic charm about him but my little ones had so much fun decorating him, and were sad when the buttons run out! We're very much looking forward to eating him over the weekend :)

Thank you Cadbury for a fun challenge and a very delicious product which got ten out of ten from my boys! x

Ever since the buttons arrived DS has been asking to make Baked Button Alaska. So tonight we gave it a go.

For the sponge base:
80g soft butter
80g caster sugar
80g sr flour
1egg
Handful mixed buttons

Cream butter & sugar til fluffy, add egg & beat again.
Fold in flour
Fold in buttons
Bake at 200 for 20 mins
Cool on wire rack

For the meringue:
3 egg whites
175g caster sugar

Beat egg whites at full speed til stiff
Add sugar little by little beating well.

Put scoops on vanilla ice cream on the sponge base.
Add lots of mixed buttons in between the scoops
Cover the ice cream with meringue
Bake in pre heated oven at 200 for 8 mins til golden brown.

This worked really well. The white buttons held their shape and gave texture whilst the brown buttons added colour and a good chocolaty taste. I'd make this again & invite the neighbours round next time!

We've enjoyed our chocolate button challenge, thank you!

We had fun with this! Here is how you can make Hootie the Cadbury Owl:

Ingredients for the sponge cake:

170g of unsalted butter ( soft not melted)
170g of golden caster sugar
115g of self raising flour
3 eggs
55g of cocoa powder
pinch of salt

You will need to double the recipe above, as you will need 2 cakes and will also need a rectangular baking tin along with a circle baking tin.

Ingredients to decorate:

1 package of Mixed chocolate and white buttons
1 package of Chocolate finger
3 bars of Flake
Nutella
Some yellow marzipan

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c. Grease and line the 2 sandwich tins

1. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and mix until creamy

1. Add the cocoa, flour and salt and add in the eggs one at a time.

1. Place equal amounts of batter in each tin and bake for 25 minute until it is springy in touch.

Let the cakes cool and then to decorate:

Cover the circular cake with nutella.
Add chocolate buttons for the owl's feathers.
Use White and chocolate buttons for the owls eyes
Use the Yellow marzipan to shape the owls claws and beak

For the Owls Arms:

Cut out 2 side pieces of the sponge, cover with nutella and use ' Flake' to decorate.

For the Tree that the owl sits on:

Cut out some sponge in a rectangular formation
Cover with nutella
Arrange the chocolate fingers
Place the owls Marzipan feet over the chocolate fingers ( which are the 'branches'.)

xx

Pictures up from phone. I'll update the thread with a recipe in the morning.

Cupcake and cake ball surprise!! (Part one:making/baking!)

First, I just want to say thank you so much to Cadbury and mumsnet for selecting us to test the new button selection.

Obviously, we already know what Cadbury buttons taste like - it was the first chocolate my children tasted when they were weaned and will be the first again as soon as ds2 is old enough! However, having a selection/mixture was quite fun and gave the children the opportunity to count amounts of different colours and split the buttons into their separate colours. (Then we all had to taste each colour, just to check them!) In fact, in the future once dd gets better at sorting, we may have a race to see who can sort their pile the fastest! (To keep them quiet while I get everything else ready!)

Anyway, we made cupcakes and cake balls with a surprise. The cake balls are made using a cake pop mould. This is enough to make 6 large cupcakes and 12 cake balls/pops.

125g caster sugar
125g self raising flour
125g butter, slightly melted
2 eggs
Selection of Cadbury buttons (at least 18) - depending on how many you want to put in each one:

More Cadbury buttons for decoration- on separate post so I can show photos!

Grease top and bottom of the cake pop moulds with butter and put cupcake cases into the tray. (Dc always love this job!)

Sift together the flour and sugar, tip in the eggs and butter and mix well (we used an electric mixer!)

Put the cake mixture into the cupcake cases and bottom half of the cake pop mould.

Prepare the surprise: put the Cadbury buttons in the middle of the cakes!! We tried just 1 button- which just made a slight crunch, although if the 1 is white you can't find it easily! So we experimented with more, up to 6 in a stack in the cupcakes! We stacked buttons in alternate colours and then pushed the buttons into the individual mixtures then smoothed the mixture over the top to hide them! We started by putting half mixture in, then buttons then rest of mixture but dc preferred to push the buttons in! They had clean hands!! Let's face it, they're going to touch the cakes anyway!

For the cake balls, we didn't put as many buttons in, and filled the bottom mould almost completely. Then put the top mould on top, fastening properly.

Bake cake pops for 10 mins, cupcakes for approx 14 mins, both at 180 degrees fan.

Take off top mould from cake pops while still warm and when slightly cooled, lift cake balls out of bottom mould to cool properly.

More to follow...

Cupcake and cake ball surprise!! (Didn't want to call them chocolate coated ball surprise!) (Part two: decorating!)

When cakes and cake balls are cool, melt some more buttons- we melted white choc and milk chocolate separately but then dd chucked her pile of white "decorating" buttons into the melted milk choc bowl so this just made the milk choc a lighter colour. (Not a vital step but just happened in our recipe!)

Dip the cake balls into the melted chocolate bowls, depending on which colour you prefer. We used proper cake dipping prong stick things, (technical term!) but as long as you keep hold, you could do this with fingers! (I suppose you could let go if you want them fully covered in chocolate but I didn't offer dc this option!)

For the cupcakes, we spooned a bit of the melted chocolate onto the top of the cakes and used some more buttons to make faces: two for eyes then split one in half to make a mouth! Eat other half. If I'd thought about it we could have put hair on too!

You may notice that the final picture has only 4 cupcakes and 8 cake balls - that's all that made it to the decorating stage!

Surprise: when eating, you'll find the buttons or button stack hidden in the centre. Most people just eat them like normal cakes but ds1 nibbled until he found the button then pulled it out like buried treasure, saved it while he ate the rest of the cake then ate the button anyway!! How will you eat yours?!

Thanks again Cadbury- had loads of fun!

(Ps-thought I'd best mention - before decorating, dd was using a cake ball to knock down her stacks of decorating buttons. No idea why!)

We had lots of fun doing this. Thank you Cadbury.

We made a vanilla cheese cake topped with chocolate buttons and a chocolate basket filled with marshmallows. We also made some small cup cakes that the children decorated.
The Cheesecake base was made with a pack of digestives crushed and mixed with 100g of melted butter. Then we mixed 2 tubs of soft cheese with 225g caster sugar and 2 eggs. We added lots of vanilla essence and mixed throughly before putting it in the fridge for 15 mins. We then poured over the base and cooked for 30 mins at 180. Once cooked, it was left in the oven to cool.
Whilst waiting for it to cool we made a chocolate basket by putting some grease proof paper over a upside down plastic beaker (hoped to use a balloon but couldn't find any at home!) we then melted some white buttons and brown buttons separately and drizzled melted chocolate over the grease proof paper and put it in the fridge to cool.
Once the cheese cake was completely cold we put the buttons on the top in a ying yang pattern and put the chocolate basket (filled with marshmallows) in the middle.

We also made some small cupcakes using a basic cupcake recipe. The children decorated them using buttons, chocolate fingers, marshmallows and some chocolate frosting that we had in the fridge.

We made some hedgehog cupcakes with ours we crushed some in to the batter mix with a bit of lemon so it's chocolate and lemon yum!

Ingredients for the cakes
110g (4oz) butter or margarine
110g (4oz) caster sugar
2 medium size eggs
110g (4oz) self-raising flour - sieved
2 tsp of lemon flavouring

Icing sugar
Butter
Mixed buttons
Cherries

Preheat the oven at gas mark 4. Mix the butter, sugar and lemon flavouring until fluffy. Add the two eggs and add the flour bit by bit until its a smooth batter. We added some crushed up mixed buttons to the batter.

Add mixture in to cake cakes and cook for 12-15 minutes.

Once cool add the butter and icing sugar together until you have a paste, add melted milk chordate buttons . Add the icing to the cakes and decorate with mixed buttons, paw feet and cherries for a nose.

I asked Jack (almost 5) what he would like to make with the mixed buttons we received and he said he wanted too make some cupcakes. I found this cute idea for owls cakes using chocolate buttons so we decided to give it a try.

Recipe for the chocolate sponges

150g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
40g ground almonds
40g cocoa
125g self raising flour/gluten free self raising flour
4 tbsp yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate icing:
150g butter, softened
250g icing sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2-3 tbsp milk

I asked Jack (almost 5) what he would like to make with the mixed buttons we received and he said he wanted too make some cupcakes. I found this cute idea for owls cakes using chocolate buttons so we decided to give it a try.

Recipe for the chocolate sponges

150g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
40g ground almonds
40g cocoa
125g self raising flour/gluten free self raising flour
4 tbsp yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate icing:
150g butter, softened
250g icing sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2-3 tbsp milk

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan).
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy.
3. Mix in the eggs, vanilla and ground almonds. Then add the yoghurt and sift in the flour and cocoa. Stir through until you have a smooth chocolately batter.
4. Divide between 12 cupcake cases and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Once cooled spread a thin layer of chocolate buttercream over the top of each cake and then decorate. We cut the buttons in half (put them in the fridge first to make sure they cut easily) and layered them up to create the feathers alternating the white and milk chocolate buttons. We then used a white chocolate button for each eye and a little choc drop for the pupil. Then a piece of fudge cut into triangles for the ears and beaks.

They look super cute and were really easy to make. Jack really enjoyed decorating them although I think he might have snaffled away quite a few buttons while he was doing it! He said they cakes were "very yummy" so I think they passed the taste test!

We still have lots of buttons left over so I'm going to find something else to make with them - Jacks birthday is coming up in two weeks so I might use them for his birthday cake :)

I had grand plans of making some adorable, frolicking woodland creatures in cake form, but my DC (6 and 10) wanted to do it with no input help from me. So they did.

They did the basic 4/4/4/2 cake mixture and then put it into bun cases, and pushed a button or two into the middle of the bun. Then put in the oven.

For the icing, they made a butter cream using butter, icing sugar, and melted brown buttons. And ate the white buttons that they'd picked out. Then, iced the buns when cool, and put some ore buttons on the top.

They had a whale of a time and felt very grown up at devising their 'own recipe'. And they did all the clearing up too, and the cakes were delicious, so thank you Cadbury's and MN.

Thanks for picking us we had lots of fun making some cupcakes and decorating them with the buttons this morning! Dd(6) helped and ds (10months) ate loads of buttons:)
The recipe we used was a Mary berry one I found online & it was really quick and easy!

www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/430522/Mary-Berry-s-iced-fairy-cakes

Here's the link

I'm inspired seeing all these recipes & we're gonna make the banana & choc cake I saw upthread & will hopefully have some buttons left for pancakes on Tuesday :)

We made a chocolate pizza with ours. Obviously if it had been me decorating it it would have been a work of art however I let the dc decorate one side each (aged 3 and 5).

We used a pre bought pizza base which I cooked and allowed to cool.
Chocolate spread for the base.
Chocolate buttons.
Strawberries and banana.
Pink glitter.

It was actually delicious and the dc really enjoyed doing it, although dd hasn't eaten any yet as just decorating it wiped her out and she's currently asleep on the sofa (chest infection).

A couple more...

Thanks for choosing us, we had great fun baking with the Mixed Buttons.
We made some cookies by beating together 225g butter and 140g caster sugar in a bowl. We then added 1 egg yolk and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. We sieved 225g plain flour and 55g cocoa powder into the bowl and then added the bag of Mixed Buttons. We stirred it until everything was combined.
We divided the mixture into about 15 balls and rolled each out into a cookie shape before putting on a baking tray. We saved a few of the buttons and put them on the top of the cookies to decorate.
They took about 10 minutes to bake and it was difficult to persuade them to wait for them to cool before eating them - a big hit with them and their friends!
Thanks again for letting us take part.

I see a few users have commented about the Cadburys Panel.

I think that was just a marketing ploy to get us interested / excited about Cadburys. I was selected too, months and months ago but haven't ever received any chocolate to test. I did apply for both this one and the Christmas bauble one but didn't get in, I think the product tests are totally different to being on the panel which as far as I can determine means nothing at all.

Would be nice to have more details from MNHQ as to why they chose a panel for absolutely nothing!

We had lots of fun baking and decorating this morning. DS (4) decorated the dinosaur cupcake and DD (5.5) decorated the rest of the cupcakes.

Recipe ingredients (for Butterfly cakes from Nigella Express)
125g soft butter
125g sugar
2 eggs
125g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Buttercream - 50g butter, 100g icing sugar, 30g cream cheese

Cadbury's Mixed Button Cake

I used my go-to madeira cake recipe for this as it's easy to carve for shaped cakes.

250g butter, softened
250g caster sugar
4 eggs
125g plain flour
250g self-raising flour
1tbsp milk
2tbsp cocoa powder

1. Preheat oven to 190°C, then grease and line the bakeware.
2. Sift the flours together in a bowl. Put the softened butter and caster sugar in a large bowl and beat until the mixture is fluffy.
3. Add the eggs to the mixture, one at a time with a spoonful of the flour, beating well after each addition.
4. Mix the cocoa powder with the milk and add to the mixture.
5. Using a large spoon, fold the remaining flour into the mixture. Spoon the mixture into the bakeware, then make a dip in the top of the mixture with the back of the spoon.
6. Bake in the centre of the oven for about an hour until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
7. Leave the cake to stand for about 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

To decorate

Buttercream

125g softened butter
1tbsp milk
2tbsp cocoa powder
375g icing sugar

1. Put the softened butter into a mixing bowl. Add the cocoa powder to the milk, then add to the butter.
2. Sift the icing sugar into the bowl, a little at a time, and beat well after each addition until all the sugar has been incorporated and the buttercream has a light, creamy texture.

I used the Lakeland Anti-Gravity kit to create the pouring bag with buttons.

Assemble the cake on the stand and cover with buttercream. Use more buttercream to fix the bag and buttons to the support and scatter more buttons on top of the cake.

Wow your friends/family, then eat!

I used my second bag to make nutella cookies

300g nutella
170g gluten free flour
1 large egg
50g buttons + extra to decorate

mix nutella/flour/egg together, then stir in buttons
plonk icecream scoops onto a silicone mat/baking parchment and flatten slightly
put buttons on
Bake at 180'C for 6-8 minutes

Nigella's Day and Night cupcakes with cream cheese icing and a button topper! Must try something brownie like as well with buttons instead of chocolate chips.

Ok I'll be honest. This is NOT my finest bake. It all went wrong. But I'm sure it will turn out better for you!

My son was determined that we make two hedgehogs. I don't know why, we don't have any in the garden, but hedgehogs we had to have!

We used Mary Berrys recipe.

	50g/2oz <a class="break-all" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/cocoa" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">cocoa powder</a>
	6 tbsp boiling water
	3 free-range <a class="break-all" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/egg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">eggs</a>
	4 tbsp <a class="break-all" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/milk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">milk</a>
	175g/6oz self-raising <a class="break-all" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/flour" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">flour</a>
	1 rounded tsp <a class="break-all" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/baking_powder" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">baking powder</a>
	100g/4oz baking spread or soft <a class="break-all" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/butter" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">butter</a>
	300g/10oz natural <a class="break-all" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/caster_sugar" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">caster sugar</a>

She says to use this icing.

150g/5oz dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
150ml/5fl oz double cream
3 tbsp apricot jam
icing sugar, to dust

But in retrospect I think buttercream would have been better.

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and grease and line two 20cm/8in sandwich tins with baking parchment.
**
2. Put the cocoa powder and boiling water into a large bowl and mix well to make a paste. Add the remaining ingredients and beat again until combined. This can also be done in a food processor, but take care not to over whisk. Divide the cake mixture between the prepared tins. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until well risen and shrinking away from the sides of the tin.


So at this point if you want to replicate our bake you need to put it in to two metal bowls and wait until shrinking as mentioned. The bowls need to be well greased and lined.

**
3. Meanwhile, for the icing and filling, measure the chocolate and cream together in a bowl and stand the bowl over a pan of simmering water for about 10 minutes, or until melted. Stir from time to time. Set aside and leave until cool and almost set.
**
4. Once baked, remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool completely.

Turn them out (helps to have parchment lining the bowls)

Then cut off any bits from the bottom to allow it to lie flat. These left over bits make the face. We cut triangles from the left over bits to make the pointy face and arranged them together to make the shape.

Spread the tops of each cake with apricot jam.

Cover the cakes with icing and "rough" the surface for texture.

Decorate as shown! We used marshmallow for the noses.

We had a lovely time making them. 
**

I've had a poorly ds2 so not baked yet as I will end up eating them! I'm "hoping" we can bake tomorrow as the buttons are calling me from the cuboard!! Lots of inspiration on here to look through :) well done fellow tasters!