Delightful Divvies
I have been wanting to review Divvies cupcakes ever since sampling their molasses ginger cookies at the 2008 Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Walk in Boston. Trying them out at LadyBug’s birthday had a couple of benefits. First of all, it meant I didn’t need to bake Bug-safe cupcakes from scratch (thereby freeing me up to attend the local Boston BlogHer meetup the day before). It also meant that I got to test them out on people who don’t care if I got the cupcakes for free and aren’t all that excited about allergen free food. They just want it to taste good.
Our families are familiar with our food precautions for Bug. He’s allergic to peanuts, tree nuts and eggs and we are always checking labels, questioning ingredients and bringing our own everything. We have some wonderful recipes for allergen-free baked goods, but there have also been some less-than-stellar experiments. People were either skeptical or curious about the Divvies options.
Divvies Goodies
The Divvies cupcakes are shipped unfrosted in a cute Divvies box. Each half dozen cupcakes is sealed in a separate container, which is nice for smaller occasions. The cupcakes come with a large tub of frosting and a cute little container of sprinkles. You can frost your cupcakes in advance or allow your guests the pleasure of a diy experience. As an added bonus, the Divvies cupcake containers flip over to serve as a spill-proof carrying case for frosted cupcakes. Genius. Our chocolate cupcakes were moist and fudgy and the frosting was fantastically chocolatey. My only complaint (and it’s small) is that the frosting cover seems to be designed to come off and not go back on. We wrapped it in plastic wrap, but with so much thought into other design aspects, that was disappointing.
We also shared our sugar cookies with our guests. This particular package came with two dozen sugar cookies wrapped in pairs. Sugar cookies aren’t my favorite, but my husband (who is a huge fan) really likes these. They were just the right amount of chewy and sprinkled with decorative sugar. We experimented with some chocolate frosting on these as well and that was a huge crowd pleaser.
Divvies sent us a 6 oz. bag of their caramel corn. We didn’t share that with party guests because it was better suited in quantity for our family movie night. The small bags would probably be best shared with maybe 2 or 3 people, but they sell larger quanities (including chocolate and kettle varieties) on their site. I was concerned because bagged popcorn can sometimes be stale and chewy, but the caramel corn was incredibly fresh. Honestly, I missed the peanuts, but that has nothing to do with the quality of the product! If your family has had to remove peanuts due to allergies, this is going to be a real treat for Cracker Jack fans.
The last little treat in our Divvies box was a BingGo! Divine Chocolate Bar. It came wrapped in it’s own bag with an ice pack to keep it fresh. When you buy chocolate without dairy, you’re going to expect a dark chocolate since creamier versions require milk. This bar was definitely a dark flavor, but also sweet and without any of the bitterness that you might expect. Obviously the Divvies people had true chocolate lovers in mind when creating these bars. Each bar is marked off in two parts. There is a big portion that is roughly 2/3 of the bar, and a smaller portion. The larger side is labeled “Mine” and the smaller side “Yours.” Very, clever! We aren’t dealing with dairy allergies in our house, and I generally prefer a milk chocolate, but I think these bars would be a nice stocking stuffer or thank you gift for anyone who can’t have dairy.
BingGo! Divine Chocolate Bar
Divvies says on their website that their products are free from soy other than soy lecithin and soybean oil, so they would be safe for more people with a soy allergy. They also say that their products are vegan friendly. If you’re hosting a houseful of people for the holidays or a birthday party, Divvies are a really safe bet to keep around. You can even sign up for monthly cookie orders to keep your house stocked with allergy safe treats. Great for people who just don’t have time to constantly bake cookies and cakes from scratch.
I pride myself in writing balanced reviews when testing products and I honestly have nothing bad to say about the Divvies samples (other than the frosting container cover!). They were fresh, well-packed and delicious. My guests agreed and so did Bug and LadyBug who have been enjoying the extra cupcakes and cookies!
If I’ve set your mouth watering with this review, you can have a chance to win a dozen Divvies cupcakes to share with your favorite people.
*Update: Susan from Divvies emailed to let me know that the frosting container lid should be able to go back on. Looks like user error! That said, it broke pretty easily, so be careful.
*Disclosure – Yes, Divvies sent us treats so that we could actually write an accurate review. Although they were delicious, we were in no way obligated or swayed to write a biased review as a result of the free food. This is an honest and balanced opinion of the product in question.
I learned how to decorate cupcakes with the Divvies jelly beans, by slicing the beans….Thanks very much…
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