Review: Sainsbury's FreeFrom Chocolate Mint Crisps


Ever get the feeling you've had something before? These after dinner mint chocolates will be very familiar if you've eaten the Celtic Chocolates version... which we reviewed just last month. Companies like Celtic repackage their chocolates for supermarkets to sell as their own brand and we're sure that has happened here. Sainsbury's also sell a chocolate bar remarkably similar to a Celtic bar. If you missed our recent Celtic review, read on:

Review: Vantastic White Chocolate with Smarties


More from our recent trip to Vx. Vegan white Chocolate with dark chocolate 'smarties'. German company Vantastic make a large range of vegan foods and some of it is available in the UK through Vx and Vegan Store. We recently reviewed their vegan white chocolate spread which was a little disappointing... and didn't contain any cocoa. These white chocolate bars have cocoa butter as the principal ingredient so at least they're authentic... but are they any good?

Review: Nutritious Delicious Lime Truffles


Vegan truffles from Nutritious Delicious, working closely with Montezuma's. We chose the lime flavour, but they also produce orange, vanilla and almond flavours. These truffles have a selling point of being 'good for you', with no refined sugar and with ingredients including lucuma, maca and ginseng. You might believe the health claims, but do they still taste like great truffles?

Vegan Christmas: Redwood Chicken Style Pieces


It's too late to buy these for Christmas Day but if you're looking for the perfect Boxing Day sandwich filling, these faux chicken pieces are the answer. Redwood offer plain and tikka style chicken pieces and they can be eaten hot or cold. Read on for why we recommend you keep it cool...

Vegan Christmas: Montezuma's Chocolate Snowmen

Vegan Christmas: Montezuma's Chocolate Snowmen

Chunky Dark Chocolate Snowmen from Montezuma. These are clearly Christmas treats but we're not quite sure of their intended use... they're not wrapped or threaded...so they're not for hanging on the tree. They're too big for cake decorations too, so quite where they fit isn't clear. We thought we'd review them anyway to see if they should be on your last minute Christmas shopping list.

Kosher Haul: Vegan Goodies from Vx


A selection from our recent trip to Vegan Cross from kosher producer Paskesz. Trios sandwich cookies, Mint Creme cookies and chocolate covered Nutty Chews. The Trios are clearly Oreo inspired and the Mint Creme cookies are almost exactly like Viscount biscuits in the UK. The Nutty Chews are harder to define.... sort of chewy peanut brittle with a chocolate coating:

More Vegan Mince Pies: ASDA / Smart Price


Do we have a new champion of our vegan Mince Pie Taste Test? The choice of vegan mince pies at ASDA includes their regular deep-filled mince pies and their shallow-filled Smart Price offering. Top marks to ASDA for having a choice of animal-free pies... the only supermarket this year to do so. As usual, we tried the pies hot and cold, to see how they fared. 

Gluten-Free Vegan: OK Foods Mince Pies

gluten-free vegan mince pies

Gluten-Free mince pies from Sainsburys. If the vegan Christmas menu at your house also includes a gluten-free option, then these mince pies are ideal. Large deep-filled mince pies that look convincing as well as appetising. After yesterday's Mince Pie Taste Test, how well can a wheat-free option compare?

Vegan Taste Test: Best Supermarket Mince Pies


A selection of vegan mince pies from various supermarkets for our Christmas Taste Test. Many supermarkets now do both regular and posh mince pies, with the latter having butter pastry. That's fine with us vegans as it means the regular pies are likely to be clear of dairy fat. We took three lots of pies and compared them, hot and cold, to see if there is a clear favourite. UPDATE: includes two sorts of ASDA mince pies.

Review: Alpro 'Fruity & Creamy' Yoghurt


A new rich and creamy version of Alpro's market-leading soya yoghurts. Alpro now have the supermarkets' own brand soya yoghurts to compete with, and are looking for a niche in the premium yoghurt aisle. We chose the peach flavour twin-pack of their new 'Fruity & Creamy' line to see if Alpro have cracked the creamniness code for soya yoghurt.

Vegan Christmas: Lidl Chocolate Marzipan


Three types of plain chocolate marzipan in the Christmas range at Lidl. Whilst much of the Favorina brand confectionery isn't vegan this year, the good old staple of chocolate marzipan doesn't let us down. We were disappointed that the rum and raisin flavour was covered in milk chocolate, but we have pineapple and two sorts of plain marzipan to choose from.

Video: Ms Cupcake's Vegan Baking Tips

The video takes time to load for some reason. Try the YouTube link at the bottom of the post.


Ms Cupcake founder Melissa Morgan shares her vegan baking tips to a packed house at Animal Aid's Christmas Fayre 2012. We've managed to improve the audio and video quality from our original liveblog post.

Liveblog: Animal Aid Christmas Fayre



We're here at Kensington Town Hall for the annual Christmas without Cruelty event. The place is packed out and despite freezing temperatures outside it's certainly warm in here: