Breaking News: Carrot Cake M&Ms!

I just got a text from the Baroness. She found white chocolate carrot cake m&ms at her local WalMart. She is a carrot cake expert and said the m&ms taste just like the real thing. You can try to find them by typing in your zip code at this page: http://see.walmart.com/mms-easter. Sadly, it appears they're no where near me.

Giveaway Time! Merci chocolates

It's that time of year again ... time to put on a Snuggie, pour the champagne and watch the glitterati make their way down the red carpet.  (I don't know why they bother commenting on the men's tuxedos; they all look the same to me.)

To celebrate, Merci chocolates is offering one lucky Yumster a chance to win a "Joy of Thank You Red Carpet Kit," which includes

• A box of Merci chocolates to share
• Four elegant Champagne flutes
• A festive popcorn container 
• A list of tips to help you share meaningful thank yous and toasts

I love these fancy little chocolates. Each box has an assortment of flavors (milk chocolate, coffee and cream, hazelnut-almond, hazelnut-creme, dark cream, dark mousse and praline-creme). The chocolate batons are the perfect size for an after-dinner treat; just big enough to satisfy your sweet tooth. 

So what do you have to do to be nominated for this great prize? Leave me a message here telling me who you'd thank if you won a big award. 

(If I won an award, say for being the World's Greatest Candy Fan, I'd start by thanking my mom, who taught me to always have candy stashed in your nightstand.)

Here's the fine print: open to U.S. residents only. Giveaway ends on midnight on Feb. 28, 2013. One winner will be chosen at random.

Happy Hallo--- oh wait, I mean, Valentine's Day!

As I've written in the past, Valentine's Day is the new Halloween. The Sugar Baby came home from school loaded down with with all sorts of sweets from his friends. Note the tube of Skittles arranged like a rainbow. I wouldn't have the patience to make one of those, let alone 20. 

Random sweet thoughts

'Tis a snowy day here in New England. The snow is so deep my mailbox is completely covered. I'm just thankful that I don't have a dog that's whimpering to go out. It's going to take a while to shovel out of this mess. The good thing is, I finally have time to catch up on all the miscellaneous candy posts I've been wanting to share.

I finally tried an Unreal candy bar. You may have seen these around at CVS or Target or other places. The packaging is attractive and funky, and their tagline is "Candy Unjunked." Basically what they've done is recreated candy favorites, like Snickers, Milky Way, M&Ms and Reese's without artificial ingredients, corn syrup or GMOs. Sounds great, right? I tried the Unreal 8, which is the Snicker's doppelganger. I really, really wanted to love it, but I thought it was just okay. Admittedly, I expected it to taste just like a Snickers when I bit into it, but it lacked that sort of zesty tang in the nougat. (Yes, probably from all the artificial crap, I know.) I just found the bar to be bland. If I was super vigilant about eating healthy, I'd definitely be excited about these, but when it comes to candy, all my ethics go out the window. Just keeping it real.

It's been a while since I posted about the Sugar Baby, who alas, is no longer a baby. Here's a picture of him at the library with his Piggy cupcake that he made. 

And speaking of libraries, here's a shot of a-- get this-- bacon, marshmallow, caramel bar that our librarian Kara made for the Super Bowl. How decadent is that?!