Marlenka Honey Cakes Review

Imagine a cake that you can buy and keep in your cupboard for a few months, that emergency pudding or cake for friends or family who pop over unannounced, well with Marlenka cakes you can do just that.

These cakes can keep for up to 90 days, I say can because as my son said to me 'we should have these more often' so I don't think they'd be in our cupboard long.

We were sent some of the honey cocoa nuggets, honey lemon nuggets, honey cake, honey cocoa cake and a couple of the snack bars, which are all great in their own way.

The nuggets were the perfect treat to have with a cup of tea, they were also ideal for me to pop into my Yumbox for work, in fact it was like they were made for the little pot I popped one in. I offered them to all my family that visited and they all thoroughly enjoyed them.

The nuggets themselves look a little like scotch eggs both on the outside and on the inside, they were the ideal bite sized treat and being made of all natural ingredients you are sure to be eating something that isn't too sweet.

The mini cakes are great for one hungry mouth or two not so hungry mouths, we split them into four pieces so we could each try a piece, they are really light though and so easy to eat and don't leave you feeling full. We enjoyed both but surprisingly, we all really liked the plain honey rather than the cocoa honey, no particular reason but considering we all like chocolate it was a bit of a shocker.

These cakes are really tasty, they contain NO Preservatives, Artificial or GM ingredients, Alcohol or Animal Fat, making them a wonderful treat for many people. You can buy them in some cafes around the country, if you fancy giving them a try in your own home then you can order them online. I have a special discount code for you, you can 10% off with code 'themummydiary'.

My only real issue with them is the cost, I think for most they will come in too expensive. If the price could come down a bit then I think these would be the perfect treat for people looking for a cake that isn't filled with preservatives, something a little bit different and more natural.

NB: I was sent these cakes to form a review, all opinions are my own.

Weleda Insight Day

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be invited to one of the Weleda Insight Days up at their UK head office in Ilkeston. Having worked just up the road for the last 9 years I felt terrible that I didn't know they were there.

Weleda is a brand that most of us will have come into contact with at some point in our lives, my memory is always of their Calendolon Ointment (now Calendula Skin Salve) that my mum called magic cream, it was her go-to antiseptic cream for bumps and scrapes.

On arrival at Weleda, we were taken into a lovely open space with tea, coffee and drinks whilst we chatted and waited for the day to start. An introduction to Weleda and how the business started was the first of many 'i never knew thats' from me. Rudolph Stiener, who I knew of from the Stiener schools, was the person that helped start Weleda.

Off to the gardens, again I never knew this is where they were, having driven past them several times.  We were greeted by Michael Bates who was a gardener at Weleda for 30 years before retiring, his wealth of knowledge on the plants, how they work and the whole Weleda philosophy knew no bounds.

I think we all stood in awe at the information being presented to us, I know I have much more of an appreciation for plants now than I had before. Have you ever taken the time to look at the leaves on a plant? How they change as you move from the roots to the flower, if you hold up a St Johns Wort leaf to the light it has tiny holes in it. Amazing stuff!

There were so many wonderful flowers in the garden, including the beautiful Chamomile flower, the properties of this useful flower know no bounds. I promptly had a cup of chamomile tea when we got back after hearing of its medicinal properties. On the flip side, we also saw poison ivy and a few other not so pleasant plants.

And finally onto the flower I know best, in relation to Weleda anyway, the beautiful calendula flower (part of the marigold family). The plot with them on was vibrant orange and beautifully swaying in the breeze.

Afterwards we got to see a demo with one of the other gardeners, she showed us how they take the plants and turn them into a tincture. I got to be one of the helpers and was pretty proud of my chopping.

After lunch, which was not only beautiful but from my the deli local to my work, it was divine and a lovely break in the day.

In the afternoon, we got to test lots of Weleda products, trying them out and learning about the lead plants (the one which is is the main ingredient). My favourite has to be the Sea Buckthorn. I am really excited to have found this, in fact I am hoping the Sea Buckthorn Juice might help with my Fibromyalgia and the tiredness.

All of the different smells were amazing, I am really looking forward to using the citrus hand and nail cream which we were lucky enough to get a sample of, a review will be up later of this great product and some others too.

Overall what I learned about this company and what they do has made me all the more determined to get me and my family using more if not all natural products.

NB. I was invited to the Weleda Insight Day and received a bag of goodies, however no payment has been received for this post and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

A Visit to the Natural History Museum

New Year was rather soggy, not really caring about staying up till midnight we used this as an excuse to get an early(ish) night and head to Natural History Museum in London on New Years Day.

There was no traffic on the way down so it didn't take very long, we parked up at Westfield in Shepheards Bush and our adventure started their.

My husband is always in London where as I have only been a few times and the children never, so the tube was a big adventure and one the kids loved.

The museum itself can get very busy but it wasn't at that time on New Years day so we didn't have to queue and got straight in. After dropping the coats off in the cloak room we got down to some exploring.

Oooh whats this? Honestly I can't remember.

Seeing how different size stones fall faster in water and looking at the different rock.

If you watched Alive with David Attenborough on New Years Day you will no doubt recognise this beauty, the lovely Dippy the Diplodocus.

The ceiling is unbelievably beautiful and awe inspiring, in fact there wasn't one bit of the building that wasn't amazing

We had gone specifically for the dinosaurs for my son, shame then that he was petrified of the anamatronic dinosaurs on top of a display cabinet and didn't then want to see the main event a giant T-Rex, but we still had a good time spotting the different dinos. It is amazing how many we now know, I guess that is what 4 years of reading dinosaur books does.

The shadow's were as impressive as the skeleton.

Possibly my favourite animal out of them all was this pink fairy armadillo! So cute!

Last year my son did the lifecycle of a caterpillar and butterfly so this was a great display to see, although this area wasn't for the faint hearted with spiders and scorpions!

Crabs! What do they all have in common?

Even the newer additions to the building look good, I loved this passageway, it was a bit of a rabbit warren and I had no idea where we were most of the time.

Looking back at the pictures I couldn't believe how life like this was.

I love the Dodo, it is sad they are extinct and it was us humans that did it!

The building really is a beautiful object itself and I just couldn't stop myself looking at the walls and friezes.

Best of all the Natural History Museum is free, and we were there all day. The queue on leaving was huge even with only an hour and a half left. With lots of food on offer in the cafe's and restaurant you don't really need to leave though so can stay the whole day. Lots of exploring and nature to look at all indoors, which when on a typical British bank holiday was great.

Linking up to County Kids over on the Coombe Mill blog.

Eco Friendly Cleaning Products

I am not sure why but something about pouring bleach down the toilet just seems wrong, especially when the eco friendly cleaning products I use are just as good.

The thought of more rubbish entering our drinking water has always been something that has bothered me, it's why the water we drink in our home is always filtered.

With a young family in the house I am also concerned that what I am spraying on surfaces or in the air could be ingested by them in some way or another, so wherever possibly I always try to use green cleaning products.

With so much going down the drain that can't be helped I feel that even small amounts of change can benefit the environment, the water we drink and the air we breath.

Next year I think my new years resolution will be to find even more eco friendly, green and natural solutions for my cleaning.

With four and a half years of using reusable nappies to help the environment, we may as well continue in the hope all will not be lost for our children and grandchildren.


*This is a sponsored post, all words and thoughts are my own.

Image courtesy of mack2happy / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of nixxphotography / FreeDigitalPhotos.net