Darling Sweet - The Toffee Blog

Handmade toys at The Toffee Gallery

Currently on view at The Toffee Gallery is an exhibition of handcrafted toys by Darling resident Jacqui van Staden. This is the perfect exhibition for the holiday season thanks to the playful wit of these beautifully crafted colourful creatures, all made by Jacqui herself. The incredibly talented maker of these creatures refers to them as…

DARLING SWEET WINS NATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY SA AWARD!

During the 39thNational Productivity Awards gala dinner, held last night at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, Darling Sweet was announced as national winner in the category Emerging Sector. We are incredibly proud of this award! Productivity SA promotes employment growth and productivity in South Africa, seeing as it is such an important driver…

Our soft caramels are here!

The best news of the month is that our much anticipated range of soft caramels are finally on the shelves! This is the first time we’ve added a new member to the Darling Sweet family, in time to celebrate our fourth birthday. Caramels are close relatives of toffees in the confectionery family. Both rely on…

Toffee & Bacon Flapjack Stack

Recipe makes 20-25 flapjacks INGREDIENTS 2 eggs 75ml sugar 250ml milk 60ml sunflower oil 500ml flour 20ml baking powder oil for cooking Any Darling Sweet Toffee Spread of your choice cream cooked streaky bacon METHOD In a medium bowl, beat eggs and sugar. Add half of the milk and oil and stir well.…

Toffee Shortbread Sandwiches

Recipe makes about 15 sandwiches INGREDIENTS 250g butter ½ cup icing sugar 5ml vanilla ¾ teaspoon salt 2 cups flour castor sugar for dusting Darling Sweet Bird’s Eye Chili Toffee Spread METHOD In the bowl of a standing mixer using the paddle attachment, beat sugar until fluffy (+- 5 minutes), occasionally scraping down…

Nutty Toffee Roll

INGREDIENTS 1 jar (200g) Darling Sweet Tannie Evita’s Classic Toffee Spread 1 ½ cup dried seeds/nuts of choice (We used a combination of raisins, muesli, dried cranberries, almonds, sunflower- and pumpkin seeds.) METHOD In a medium microwavable bowl, heat a jar of Darling Sweet Tannie Evita’s Classic Toffee Spread for 40 seconds. Add nuts/seeds. Combine…

Toffee Pear Pizza Pud

INGREDIENTS 1x ready-rolled puff pastry 1 egg 2 pears, (deseeded and destalked) thinly sliced 30g butter 2.5ml ground cinnamon 60ml brown sugar 15ml Darling Sweet Honey & Salt Toffee Spread 30ml plain yogurt 100g roughly chopped nuts of choice 15ml cream 45ml Darling Sweet Honey & Salt Toffee Spread METHOD Preheat oven to 200 ˚…

BOUNDLESS OBJECTS

The exhibition ‘Boundless Objects’, currently on at The Toffee Gallery, comprises artworks that are inspired by the book form, commonly referred to as ‘artists’ books’or ‘bookworks’. Stephen Bury defines the artist’s book as “a book or book-like object intended to be a work of art in itself, and over the appearance of which an…

Darling Sweet helps revive Evita’s Crafters

We at Darling Sweet are proud to be associated with the relaunching this month of The Darling Trust’s Evita’s Crafters women’s craft and skills development project. The project is in fact a reincarnation of the Trust’s Craft and Skills Development Centre that was launched in 2006. The centre trained unemployed women in various crafts such…

DARLING SWEET TURNS FOUR!

Darling Sweet, one of South Africa’s premier toffee manufacturers started in the Western Cape town of Darling only four years ago and has already become a household name and a firm favourite with local and international sweet-toothed fans. The company’s rise has been fairly meteoric and we sat down with founders and confectioners Hentie van…

WHAT DOES ‘CLEAN LABEL’ MEAN TO DARLING SWEET?

The term ‘clean label’ is increasingly being used in the world of consumer food products to identify products that are healthier for consumers. Currently there is however no legislation in place anywhere in the world as to the use of the term on food packaging, so it is up to manufacturers to explain their own…

WHEN SENZENI MET DOLLY

In 2016, the Johannesburg artist, Senzeni Marasela, began a series of works representing well-known singer and performer, Dolly Parton. Comprised of photocopies of iconic images of Parton that have been overlaid with images of Marasela herself, these works involve a second layer of performance: wearing a dress constituted from red isishweshwe fabric, the urban, single…

The Story of Chapelat-Humphries

Finding information on Chapelat-Humpries was not easy, as there is little information out in the public domain about this fascinating bit of confectionery manufacturing history. We finally managed to contact the family of both the firm’s founder, Frank Humphries, and its subsequent owner, Issy Blumberg, all of whom were very kind in sharing with us…

The Darling Trust Black Tie Dinner & Auction

The Darling Trust Black Tie Dinner & Auction, held at Evita se Perron on Friday 4 May, was the launch of a spanking new bi-annual fundraising initiative for The Darling Trust. The event, which is the brainchild of trustee and Darling Sweet co-owner Hentie van der Merwe, was a resounding success, raising a record R158,000…

Our two beautifully restored Forgrove 22B twist wrapping machines!

We at Darling Sweet are thrilled with the arrival this month of our two beautifully restored Forgrove 22B twist wrapping machines dating from 1955 and built by that factory in England. Both once stood in the Humphries confectionery factory in Cape Town, producers of the once famous Sunrise Toffees, so we are proud to have a part of South African toffee manufacturing history at…

A Blue Bird Toffee tin from our vintage toffee tin collection.

This month’s featured toffee tin from our vintage toffee tin collection was issued during the 1930’s by the Blue Bird toffee factory in England. The Blue Bird of Happiness – the play by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck – was the inspiration behind British confectioner Harry Vincent’s decision to change the name of his confectionery brand from “Harvino” to “Blue Bird.” This was at the time…

Eco-Kindness Culture at Darling Sweet

There’s nothing better than unwrapping a Darling Sweet toffee and popping the delectable tidbit into your mouth. Merely reading this will make you salivate! Once you have enjoyed the toffee, you are left with the clear wrapper to be discarded. These wrappers can easily escalate to a mound of plastic once you have worked your…

Edward Sharp and his Toffee Empire

In each of our upcoming monthly newsletters we will focus on one toffee tin from our vintage toffee tin collection that is on permanent display in our shop in Darling, and the history behind the tin. For our first edition we focus on a truly South African tin, issued by Edward Sharp, South Africa Pty.…

Between the folds – Keith Dietrich

Between the folds: Drifting among shadows Keith Dietrich at The Toffee Gallery To view the catalogue for Keith Dietrich’s exhibition, Between the folds: Drifting among shadows, click here. Currently on at The Toffee Gallery is an exhibition by Keith Dietrich; one of South Africa’s masters when it comes to art that is not only beautiful…

Dawn of the Antropocene – Peter Mammes Exhibition

DAWN OF THE ANTHROPOCENE Peter Mammes at The Toffee Gallery To view the catalogue for Peter Mammes’ exhibition, Dawn of the antropocene, click here. About twelve months ago, Darling Sweet launched the first in their series of gift boxes wherein the artwork adorning each gift box is done in collaboration with an artist or designer.…

Nicolaas Maritz at The Toffee Gallery

Nicolaas Maritz at The Toffee Gallery Interviewed by Hentie van der Merwe To view the catalogue for Nicolaas Maritz’s exhibition, Oeil de Perdrix, click here. HVDM: This will be the first time that you exhibit at The Toffee Gallery. What do you think about this new contemporary art space in Darling and having your work…

Malva Pudding With Tannie Evita’s Classic Toffee Spread

FOR THE PUDDING 125g castor sugar 1 egg 150ml milk 1t vanilla extract 50g butter 200g cake flour ½ tablespoon (7.5g) baking soda 1 tablespoon (15ml) vinegar (brown or white) ¼ t salt FOR THE SAUCE 100g Tannie Evita’s Classic Toffee Spread 250ml milk 125ml cream 100g sugar METHOD Heat the oven to 180°C…

Darling Sweet boasts contemporary art space

Darling Sweet has, over the last few years, firmly established itself as a South African brand of top quality handcrafted toffees and toffee spreads. Owners Hentie van der Merwe and Frits van Ryneveld started the brand in July 2014 in a small 24m2 kitchen in the Mantis Mall in Darling. As the demand for their…

Caramel-Glazed Poached Pear Bread and Butter Pudding

Recipe from Food & Home Entertaining, Sept 2016 Recipes & styling by Sarah Dall Photographs by Myburgh du Plessis Serves 6 EASY 1 Hour THE FLAVOUR COMBINATIONS POACHED PEARS 3 pears, peeled and cored 250ml (1 cup) rosé 250ml (1 cup) water 1 vanilla pod, split 100g castor sugar BREAD- AND BUTTER PUDDING 4 croissants 100ml…

Toffee-Glazed Gammon with Roasted Clemengolds

Recipe from Food & Home Entertaining, Sept 2016 Recipe & styling by Sarah Dall Photographs by Myburgh du Plessis Serves 8 EASY 3 hrs 20 mins THE FLAVOUR COMBINATIONS GAMMON 2kg gammon 1L (4 cups) ginger beer 1 bay leaf GLAZE 20 cloves 100ml Darling Sweet Honey and Salt Toffee Spread 6 ClemenGolds, halved 45ml…

Orange Cream and Toffee Mini Cakes

Recipe from Food & Home Entertaining, Sept 2016 Recipe & styling by Sarah Dall Photographs by Myburgh du Plessis Makes 3 mini cakes EASY 50 mins + 1 hr, to cool THE FLAVOUR COMBINATIONS CAKE BATTER 125g butter 80g castor sugar 2 extra large eggs 125g cake flour 2,5ml (½ tsp) baking powder pinch salt…

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