Review- M&S NEW Red Velvet Valentine's Cupcakes

It's Valentine's Day on Sunday! Ooh, ahh, ee - Exciting times! I trust you have all gotten or at least will be getting something for your loved one - Nothing conveys ones affection quite like a nice bunch of flowers, a balloon and chocolates after all! Naturally, I always gravitate towards the latter of edible gifts so thought I would get into the lovey dovey spirit of it all by buying myself the NEW Red Velvet Valentine's Cupcakes from M&S.. Since no one else is going to. Clearly. 

The red and pink, love heart decorated box of 2 cost £2 with each cake weighing in at a rather dinky 75g. I ventured all the way to the bakery section to pick these up but I have been in several stores which have a Valentine's display at the front of the shop so they won't be hard to miss!

2 chocolate and vanilla sponge cupcakes filled with milk chocolate sauce, topped with cream cheese frosting. 

The entire time from first spotting these to when I got home, I was a unsure about how little frosting there was but I think there was some sort of optical illusion going on as it transpired that once out of the box, the proportion of the two was pretty much equal! 

Cutting the sponge in half, it wasn't the light texture I had hoped for with more of a madeira feel than a soft and fluffy cake.. Although it was not dry in the slightest. Taking a bite of the creamy smelling treat, I am sad to report that Red Velvet certainly didn't hit me. There was none of the signature taste you find in such a cake with the sponge tasting more like a generic semi sort of chocolate but at the same time, not really of much at all. The centre of sauce was fairly generous given the size overall but once again, the flavour didn't live up to my expectations - It felt very much cheap with 0 in the way of rich cocoa tones. As for the frosting, there was plenty of it with a good thick texture but it was extremely sweet and could easily have passed as a buttercream as the tang just wasn't there. Very disappointing! 

Overall, these NEW Red Velvet Valentine's Cupcakes aren't great - The trio of elements aren't repulsive by any means, they just don't taste of an awful lot and all in all, are a poor excuse for their delicious namesake! I say, skip these, your lover won't appreciate them and stick with the flowers, a decent box of chocolates and the balloon.. The balloon is key, trust me! It's a 2 out of 5 today.