Monday, 5 November 2012

Moshi Monsters Magic Choc review


We recently received a box of Moshi Monsters Magic Choc to review, which reminded that we already had a box of normal Magic Choc to review that had been lurking in the back of the cupboard for ages too. Inspired by playing with the Moshi Monsters Augmented Reality book (don't miss our giveaway to win a copy !), we decided to get busy in the kitchen yesterday and see what we could come up with.


Pierre opened up the regular Magic Choc.


And Juliette commandeered the Moshi Monsters pack ! Apart from the little booklets with two models for inspiration, the contents are basically identical anyway - three bags containing dark, milk and white chocolate and an anti-bacterial handwipe. (Closer investigation reveals that the normal Magic Choc has 60g milk chocolate, 40g white and 20g dark and is aimed to make 4/5 models, whereas the Moshi Monsters pack has 50g, 35g and 15 respectively, supposedly enough to make 4 models. Sneaky !)


While the Madhouse Mini-testers (who asked to wear their personalised aprons and chefs hats from Bisto Stock Melts again !) got their hands cleaned, I wiped down the table too.


The chocolate comes in hard discs that look like regular chocolate. (Well, it is made with 100% Belgian chocolate so I guess it is regular chocolate really. Not sure what they've done to it to make it flexible.) The box says : "Magical flexible chocolate - Squish it - Shape it - Eat it ! Ready to use and eat ! No heating required !" So that is what we set out to do. If you squish a load of normal chocolate in your hand, you get a melted, molten mess. I was expecting the texture of sugar dough but it is actually really hard, doesn't melt at all and eventually goes slightly squishy while remaining crumbly, so it is quite hard to work with.


I had a go at making the white rabbit Moshi Monster on the box and managed to squish it enough to get a head, two ears and a body. The problem is though, it doesn't stick together so I ended up squishing the whole thing back into one blob and making it out of one piece. Even then, it was impossible to get the little brown blobs for eyes to stick on so I gave up with trying to get the other tiny milk chocolate details on there. When I tried to squish the ears into the perfect shape, the whole thing crumbled to pieces - aaaggghhh ! Back to the drawing board !


The box promises "Chocolatey fun without the mess - Doesn't melt in your hands !" which is certainly true, but it does leave your hands with a greasy coating, as if you've smothered them in cocoa butter. It's not unpleasant and actually leaves your skin feeling quite moisturised !


Pierre wasn't getting anywhere fast and was spending so much time eating all the bits that crumbled that I thought we'd have none left.


I hastily helped him make a car and a koala - it was quicker using broken off pieces of disc for ears and noses and digging them into the squished chocolate than trying to do it properly !


With Pierre out of the picture, I decided to help Juliette make at least one semi_reasonable Moshi Monster. We decided that for best results, whatever the instructions said to the contrary, we needed to make models using one main piece of chocolate squished into the shape rather than trying to join several pieces together. I was very impressed with the star one that I managed to make - don't you think it looks just like the model on the bottom-left corner of the box ?!


Sorry for the flash - Juliette took this picture because I had greasy fingers ! This one came out quite well too. The one-blob method definitely seems to give the best results.


Juliette wanted to have another go with the rabbit but this was the best we could do, using our one blob method. 


So here they are - the fruits of our labours. A quick reminder that this is using two boxes of Magic Choc so we should have got 8 or 9 models, but ours were very large. Taste-wise, they were lovely and the kids were very pleased with the finished designs but I have to say, it was a lot harder work than I was expecting. It's very crumbly, hard to squish in the beginning and doesn't stick together, so if you're thinking of using this to make complicated edible cake decorations, you'd be better off with sugar dough, to be honest.

star rating : 3.5/5

RRP : £5.49 for Moshi Monsters Magic Choc, £4.99 for normal Magic Choc


Disclosure : I received two packs of Magic Choc (separately) in order to write an honest review.

Other reviews you may be interested in :



9 comments:

  1. Really interesting to read your review as we also reviewed this last year. Hope it's OK to leave a link, though you might get a laugh at what we made: http://joannemallon.typepad.com/joanne_the_coach/2011/10/magic-choc-review.html

    I wonder if they have changed the chocolate recipe since we reviewed as the pack we had didn't taste good at all. Didn't stop the kids from eating it though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's hilarious - I was going to leave you a comment but the comments are closed. At one point, Juliette did say "oh look, it looks like a poo" too ! LOL

      Delete
  2. Cherise (@CherryTweep)5 November 2012 at 20:49

    Might get this for my toddler, he loves Moshi Monsters and chocolate. Might actually give it him as a stocking filler to make christmas afternoon while the older kids are chilling in front of the films!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ohh looks like fun....Might be an idea for my 2 girls for christmas they love Moshi monsters & chocolate...hehehe

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nom nom, those choc monsters look tasty~

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hahaha that really is magic.. but not sure, uhm, I like the idea of eating it after the kids have had their hands on it?!?! Fun though!

    Thank you for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!

    Maggy

    ReplyDelete
  6. This idea sounds great and my niece would love it Moshi Monsters and chocolate in one present, shame it failed to deliver.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sounds a good idea but shame it didnt work that well! Your star is great though!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great to read your review of this. I saw it while browsing the shops yesterday and as my little man is still, well a bit little, I think I might leave this one for next year when he might find it a bit easier to use. Thanks for your honest review as always

    ReplyDelete