After having a little browse of the Cybercandy website, I was luckily able to find lots of inspiration to paint what turned out to be a wheel of quite varied colours, textures and patterns. To complete the wheel I used a mixture of tools and techniques – and around 30 different nail polishes! My favourite design is probably the first Aether Cola steampunk design, due to the mixed textures and matte finish, or the detailed Cybercandy rocket. Although the project took a lot of time I’m glad I accepted the challenge, and I hope it will inspire others to create some bold and unusual art of their own.

#1 Sioux City Prickly Pear - I was drawn to the bright colours of the packaging, and the bold logo design with this real bottled soda! It is the first design of four inspired by drinks.

#2 Aether Cola- Next is the first of two designs inspired by the steampunk theme of the Aether Cola can. I used a matte finish polish for the background, the cogs in a copper shade to create a great pattern and then I added in a bit of a 3D element as well with some small bronze gems.

#3 Pink Butterflies - Butterfly nails are something I’ve done before and really liked so the Pink Butterflies candy from TakeOut Candy US was the perfect choice for some nail inspiration. For the base I used a sponge to dab on the colours so they would blend together and create a gradient effect similar to the way I would for Ombre nails.

#4 Conversation Hearts - These are one of the things that can be found in the US version of the Takeout Candy boxes so I chose to paint the XOXO design inside a pastel heart.

#5 Cybercandy - I couldn’t fill a nail wheel with designs inspired by Cybercandy without including one representing the awesome rocket logo! It was the most detailed design to paint but I’m fairly pleased with how it turned out.

#6 Pop Tarts - With so many Pop Tart flavours on offer I couldn’t resist a text-based nail featuring part of their logo.

#7 Mello Yello -  Another drink based design, this time inspired by Mello Yello from the rare sodas collection. The eye-catching can was perfect for creating a bold and tropical inspired design .

#8 Pink Hearts - This little dotted heart was inspired by a British Pick n Mix staple and is one of the most simple to paint. I used a small nail dotting tool to create the heart shape and just two colours.

#9 Ather Cola - This is the second design inspired by Aether Cola, again using metallics and gems to represent the unique steampunk packaging. I added in some detail with a gold nail art pen and gold gems.

#10 Saku Saku Panda - The little panda idea comes from the Saku Saku Panda biscuits. I’ve seen a lot of panda nail art designs before though so I decided to switch it up and paint the face to be viewed horizontally rather than vertically.

#11 Hammonds Lollipops - Spiral designs are always fun to create so I had to include something from the range of lollipops

#12 Fruit Loops - My only cereal inspired design on the wheel is full of tiny hoops that represent Fruit Loops. Again I used dotting tools only this time I painted on larger dots first in the fruit loop colours and then went in with a smaller dotting tool and a red polish to turn them into loops.

#13 US Pick n Mix - This design combines two of the candies found in the US Takeout Candy boxes, Black Taffy & Root Beer Puffs. I used a striper brush to paint on the black and pink sections, then a dotting tool for the Root Beer Puffs.

#14 Gummy Bears Grape - Similarly this design is inspired by Grape Gummy Bears which can also be found in the Takeout boxes. This was a freehand design using a normal paintbrush.

#15 Jelly Belly Tutti Fruitti - The most colourful of the Jelly Belly flavours has to be Tutti-Frutti with its’ primary coloured paint splatter pattern that is super easy to recreate by just layering on the different colours with a small brush. The best part is that you don’t have to be neat at all!

#16 Real Insect Candy- Although a bug might not be something you want to put on your nails, when I saw the Real Insect candy section I loved how the black insect looked against the bright coloured lollies and decided to include one. For this design I actually used a black acrylic paint instead of a black polish as it is much easier to work with for an unusual shape like this.

#17 Milka & Tuc 100g Bar- The Tuc crackers added in to a Milka chocolate bar make a great repetitive pattern and interesting shape

#18 Good & Plenty - Last up is a simple pattern inspired by Good & Plenty Liquorice Candy – this one in particular would also be great for actually painting on the nails

This is the finished wheel – which is your favourite Cybercandy-inspired nail art?

Adapted from the basic Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook vanilla cupcake recipe, once I finished baking them, I couldn’t help but eat three of them.  They’re absolutely delicious, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Ingredients:
140g caster sugar
120g plain flour
20g unsalted butter (take it out of the fridge an hour before baking to let it soften – it will be much easier to work with!)
20g smooth peanut butter
120ml milk
1 egg
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
4 Reeses trees, or 6 and a half Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (4x 2packs)
6 Reeses trees for decoration

Equipment:
Mixing bowl
Hand mixer (if not, a wooden spoon will do!)
Muffin tin
Cupcake liners

Instructions:
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, add the caster sugar, unsalted butter (I recommend cutting the butter up into small pieces), peanut butter and baking powder.

Mix in the egg, milk and vanilla.

Cut up 4 Reeses trees into small pieces (although it might hurt you to destroy their beautiful shape!) – alternatively, 6 and a half Reeses Cups.

Mix the tree/cup pieces into the batter (do your best to resist eating them!)  Distribute them throughout the batter evenly.

Heat the oven to 170C.  While the oven is preheating, scoop the batter into cupcake liners on your muffin tray.  This should make about 6 to 7 cupcakes.  Bake the cupcakes for about 15 to 20 minutes (until you can stick a fork into a cupcake and it comes out without any batter attached to it.)

When the cupcakes come out, let them cool for several hours before making the icing.  If the cake is not completely cool, the frosting will slide right out.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting Recipe

Ingredients:
150g icing sugar
25g unsalted butter (softened)
25g smooth peanut butter
40g cocoa powder
40ml milk

Instructions:

Mix together the unsalted butter, peanut butter and milk (this is definitely much easier with a mixer!).

Slowly sift in the icing sugar and cocoa powder.  Mix well.  Either pipe on with a piping bag or spread on smoothly with a knife.

Finally, place a Reeses tree on top.  And enjoy!  Maybe sharing with others…. (or maybe not.)

Thanks to Cybercandy for providing these delicious Reeses trees!  What Cybercandy ingredients do you like to bake with?

By Nick Beard @ Baking Beardy

I was delighted when Cybercandy sent me some new items test in order to fuel my gaming habit and guest blog on this site.  I’ve been a fan of Cybercandy for quite some time and love their mystery parcels and Japanese candy but, as an avid gamer, it’s their sodas which caught my eye.

Any gaming soda worth its salt should have a fair amount of caffeine or sugar to keep you gaming longer. Mountain Dew is the usual staple of many a late night session, but that might all change now I’ve tasted the Miami-made BAWLS.  Not only does BAWLS Guarana fit that bill perfectly, but it looks like something Master Chief might be seen with if he ever took that helmet off long enough to drink from a bottle. It also contains Fructose Corn Syrup, which Mountain Dew fans will recognise as the ingredient which gives the US drink its unique flavour over the UK’s energy version.

With the sugar out of the way, how about something salty? Or perhaps some chocolate?  If you can’t decide, then M&Ms might just have the answer. M&Ms suit my gaming snack needs because they’re small and easy to chuck into my mouth without the need to pause the action. 

With M&M Pretzel, they’ve now managed to combine one of my favourite chocolate snacks with something a bit more savoury and the fusion results in something pretty special.  Just the thing for having by your side while shooting soldiers in Assassin’s Creed III (you can read our review of the game right here) or trying to catch those annoying Pigtroopers in the new Angry Birds Star Wars without having to put your iPhone or Android down.

The M&Ms Pretzel packs are sharing size too, so if you’re playing with friends on Co-Op Halo 4 or just letting them show off their driving skills in Forza Horizon, they’re perfect for multiplayer.

You can check out more gaming news on both TheJoypads.co.uk and the iOS and Android site AppGamer.net.

Written by Paul Byron

Cybercandy gave me an excellent selection of sweets to give out and my personal favourite to film were the Skittles Riddles, which mask what flavour they are and force those who are trying them to guess! This lead to a lot of thoughtful, pondering looks from those who tried them and some pretty random guesses! Twinkies were also exceptionally well received and I learnt how good I am at withstanding super sour sweets compared with the average person! This includes Superman himself (okay, not superman himself but certainly a young man cosplaying as him!).

Cybercandy’s own stall at MCM was also insanely popular and it was great seeing so many geeky people getting excited about Marshmallow fluff and pop tarts. I made my own purchases as well, including Flipz, chocolate coated pretzels which sadly did not live long enough for me to do a review. Next time I’m sure I’ll be able to hold back (perhaps). Cybercandy also brought along the Overlord to make an appearance and socialise with all the other weird and wonderful people at the event, he looked very at home but I wonder how they got him to leave when it was clear he was having such a good time!

It was great fun being the official vlogger for Cybercandy at MCM Expo and I hope I get the chance to do it again as I met a lot of interesting people who totally used me for access to the sweet treats but I forgive them for it! If you want to challenge yourself to try some of the sweets that I gave out then I’d totally recommend them, especially if you think you can handle the Warhead sour sweets!

Written by Kayleigh Herbertson, check out her awesome blog Articulate and Intricate

’til next week, keep being sweet!

What you may not know, is right in the heart of Camden’s beautiful insanity is Cybercandy. Turn left after the canal and we are on the right at the end of the first yard, past the Hemp shop, next to Chaboba. How Camden!

The coolest thing of all about our little shop of delicious candy treasures from around the world, is our brand new sign.

Designed, and hand-painted (yes, you read that right) by artist Sarah Harvey who runs a micro-business in the backwoods of Devon. Sarah paints traditional old-world gypsy wagons and shop signs, under her business name Quirky Quercus – one of the coolest names for a business in the history of all business names, in my humble opinion.

Of course when we heard of Sarah and her amazing work, we simply had to commission her to design the new sign for our Camden store. She captured the vision immediately, and here it is, officially unveiled in all it’s quirkily strange and beautiful glory!

Don’t forget to follow Quirky Quercus and Cybercandy Camden on Facebook. Next time you’re in Camden, come down and admire it for yourself – you’ll be glad you did. Really.

That’s all for now candy lovers, ’til next week, keep being sweet!

Guess what? Cybercandy and our good friends Truffle Shuffle have an awesome competition for you! Just because it’s Halloween week (and also because we can), we’ve joined forces to offer one lucky winner this awesomely cool Halloween prize pack:

Worth over £60, the main prize includes a Cybercandy Halloween Gift Box, a Truffle Shuffle plush Slimer toy, a Ghostbusters t-shirt (of your choice) and a Gremlins coffee mug!

What’s more (heck yes, there’s more), 5 runners up will win a 500g bag of premium American candy (unwrapped) including candy corn,. marshmallow peanuts, spice gums, good n plenty, wonka runts and many others.

All you have to do is complete the Raffle Copter form below and follow the instructions. You’ll earn one entry for each thing you do! Really, it’s that simple.

When the competition ends, we’ll choose one winner and five runners up completely at random and annouce the winners via Facebook and Twitter.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

These three gorgeous Halloween treats could be yours. Yes, all yours!  Mwhahaha. Competition closes on Sunday 21st October. The winner will be notified within 48hours.

Do it, go on, do it now…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

With only two weeks to Halloween – one of our favourite times of the year – we’ve been filling our shelves with some ghoulish goodies and organising a couple of truly superb competitions. Watch our Facebook page later this week for a chance to win a gorgeous vampire teeth necklace from Me & Zena, and at the end of the month we’re partnering with our friends over at Truffle Shuffle for a competition prize pack that will blow your mind! (Quite literally, so make sure you have a sponge handy).

For now though, as you may know, Cybercandy love weird stuff. At the end of last week I came across some of the coolest and weirdest food art that is just perfect for Halloween. Check this out, here are my top five picks (those of a nervous disposition may want to look away…….now!)

Halloween Meat Head via That’s Nerdalicious made with a plastic skull, a ‘red jello surprise’ in the middle and lots of cooked ham or cold cuts. Who’s for a spooky Halloween table centerpiece? We are!

Hand-carved by the gruesomely talented artists at Villafane Studios  this handsome chap is just one of many Halloween pumpkins in their gallery. Unfortunately, these are only available to purchase in the US, however they do have a non-US webstore full of pumpkin carving kits, tutorial DVDs and other stuff of much coolness for the spooky season.

Fancy a spider on your pancake first thing in the morning? We found this awesome recipe in the Not Martha archives for fluffy pumpkin pancakes with extra orange and extra spider, just for good measure.

Eating chocolate pudding has never been more ghoulish! We found these on Pinterest and unfortunately don’t have a link back to the original creator, but we’d like to him or her major Cybercandy kudos for such a fantastic idea! Why not try creating your own and send us a link so we can feature your creations on our Facebook page.

If you’re going to make sausage rolls for your Halloween bash, then these little guys are an awesome party idea. Mummy sausages wrapped in pastry – another delicious Pinterest find. Although, I’m not sure I could actually eat them….

Leave a comment below and let us know your favourite creepy Halloween treats. Don’t forget to check out our superb Halloween candy range too!

’til next week, keep being sweet!

My first stop after an hour of queuing (at which point breakfast was a distant memory) was actually to quell my hunger pangs. Cybercandy offered up a range of new and interesting treats, and so I managed to keep myself going until lunchtime fuelled by Pretzel M&M’s (salty and sweet and addictive), Skittles Riddles (in which the colours don’t match the flavours, and while the right combination is typical Skittles yum, the wrong one tasted – to me – like soap), and a Harry Potter Chocolate Frog (with a Hagrid card!).

And then to the games. I started with Dishonored, which – as a particular fan of dystopian themes – I’ve been keeping a close eye on. The demo placed me in some back alley, complete with dilapidated buildings and swarms of rats. The developers have done a good job here; it certainly does feel a lot like London. The core of the mission consisted of finding a scientist in a more opulent building than those crumbling around me at the start, and kidnapping him for reasons presumably made clear in the full game.

The situation was a useful one for a demo, with a big old building to explore, plenty of guards to kill or otherwise avoid, and a wide range of available methods through which to do just that. A quick look at the menu screens showed that this supernatural assassin’s powers are upgradable, each with two levels of functionality, which will necessitate decision-making. That in turn will lead to numerous styles of play, which the developers have made quite clear is the main selling point of the game. For example, while I possessed a guard and walked him through a restrictive electrical barrier before de-possessing him and executing him before he could figure out what had happened, the guy playing next to me simply jumped over an alternative adjoining wall.

It’s difficult to judge what Dishonored will be like as a whole based on a few minutes’ play, but in general it seems to strike a balance between complex enough to maintain the player’s interest but not so much as to put people off in the first few missions. Exploration is strictly optional, and often objects of interest will be made fairly obvious – there doesn’t appear to be the extensive library found in games like Oblivion, for example – so those who want to just power through each mission in turn are free to do so. And while there are a multitude of upgradable powers and weapons, these will presumably be introduced gradually throughout the game, and players may wish to just rely on one or two. Dishonored is the game you make it, and that should please all kinds of players.

Also high on my list, yet with a much longer wait before I can actually play it, Tomb Raider was my next stop. This demo was a directed, linear experience, as these things tend to be when there is still a while until launch, beginning with Lara gazing out to sea from a cliff, wet from the rain, in pain – you know, vulnerable. After some convincing ledge shimmying (she ran her hand against the cliff face beside her, just skimming its surface no matter how far or close she was – it’s details like this that contribute to a sense of realism!), she stumbled across some abandoned gear, pulled herself together enough to build a fire in a sheltered spot, and on receiving a message from a friend on her newly acquired walkie-talkie promptly broke down.

I think I’m bound to view each of Lara’s moments of vulnerability (of which I predict there will be many!) through a more sceptical eye since the whole ‘rape’ confusion, so I’ll let you make your own decisions about that particular bit of acting when you get to it. For my part, I felt a little disbelief and maybe even scorn when she begged the guy on the other end to please come and rescue her, but whether that’s the fault of Camilla Luddington or my own cold heart we may never know. Anyway, if the amount of gasping and sobbing in this extract carry over to the rest of the game, I may have to play with the sound turned off.

At least I’ll still be able to see all the cleavage shots.

Towards the end of the demo, I did get to actually make Lara do something productive, nudging her along the tree branch that would get her close enough to steal a hanging dead man’s bow and arrow. And I got to shoot that deer and experience Lara’s moment of animal empathy for myself. But there was no combat (human to human, at least), and no action more complicated than climbing up a few ledges/parts of a crashed aircraft. I’m sure I’ll love this game – it’s Lara, how could I not? – but I’ll need a little more time with it before I can judge what it’s going to be like to play.

So, my friends and I didn’t realise there were two Assassin’s Creed 3 demoes going on and ended up sitting through one of the naval warfare missions because we thought it was all there was on offer. Without any context (I’m not complaining – no spoilers please!) I found myself guiding Connor through a ship to ship battle, though if the word battle is evoking images of excitement for you, think again. In fact, even the representative telling me how to select the right ammo, pull up alongside the enemy’s ship, and shoot admitted that the whole thing was rather slow. Well, I didn’t even know that kind of naval warfare played a part in the American Revolution, so I guess I learned something at least.

Just round the corner, we saw the other demo. This one was far more reminiscent of Assassin’s Creed 2, though it did also demonstrate some of the new features. I was given a mission and some optional objectives (standard Assassin’s Creed 2 kind of fare, carrying out three ledge assassinations and that sort of thing), and sent on my way. With a little guided help. One of the reps was kind enough to show me a few of Connor’s new tricks: leaning around corners, whistling to lure guards towards him, and hanging them from the rafters with the help of his rope dart. While I struggled a little with the PS3 controls – I’ve played all the previous titles on Xbox 360 – the game felt familiar, but slightly better. I can only hope I won’t have to spend too much time steering ships.

I was less guided in my try of Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation, and so spent a lot of time wandering Aveline aimlessly around the streets of New Orleans, getting used to the controls. Though if anything, my clumsiness with the Vita’s shoulder buttons was indicative of Liberation’s success at feeling like a “real” Assassin’s Creed game, as it felt so familiar that – like with my Assassin’s Creed 3 PS3 experience – I expected the controls to be the same as I was used to, and struggled when they were not. Unfortunately, I was never instructed either by a rep or the game to use the touch screen, so I have no idea whether that suits the game well or not.

What I did experience was some very satisfying combat, once I had figured out who my assassination target was. The mission itself turned out to be so easy it was over in less than three seconds, but when I then decided to provoke some guards, Aveline was able to show her true colours. The girl does not disappoint. This looks and feels like an Assassin’s Creed game ought, and I hope that the story is involved enough to entice people to try out this small-screen version.

Rayman Legends is currently a Wii U exclusive, and Ubisoft has gone to great lengths to make the Gamepad seem relevant. For the demo, I was paired with a complete stranger who had quite a bit of trouble playing the game with the normal controls, which meant that through our many repeated attempts at the level I did get a lot of experience with the touch screen controls. And while I could never say that this sequel to a game that worked fine without one strictly needs a Gamepad, the asymmetric multiplayer does seem like it could be fun with the right friends.

The problem is that this asymmetric, cooperative play requires communication. There are some points where the player with the Gamepad will be occupied only with tapping yellow lums to turn them into presumably more valuable purple ones, but other moments – involving things like cutting ropes to lower platforms for the other player – will require some group planning. Of course, when you’re playing with people you actually like, the necessary conversation will be a welcome change from the strange feeling of isolation that can come from staring at two separate screens.

New Super Mario Bros. U provides the same sense of separation between those playing with the Wii remote and the person on the Gamepad, or so it seemed from a demo in which the latter could do no more than place platforms for the others to jump on. Aside from that, my four friends and I saw nothing new in the level we were allowed to play. New Super Mario Bros. U is just as manic as New Super Mario Bros., especially with so many players. The speed at which people are inclined to play a game like this may also make the need for communication between the asymmetric players a bit of an issue.

by Jordan Webber @ Godiva Gamers

Me & Zena were pretty excited when Cybercandy approached us to be a guest blogger – we’ll admit, this is our first time.

We discovered Cybercandy the same way many people do, wondering aimlessly around Covent Garden. This Aladdin’s Cave of confectionery soon became a firm favourite – introducing us to sweet treats we’d never dreamt of. Me & Zena love to work with equally fun, creative companies, which is why on one particularly successful brainstorming session we decided to approach Cybercandy with an idea for a competition…two years and lots of taffy later we’re still firm friends.We haven’t formally introduced ourselves. We’re Me & Zena – a London based jewellery brand created by designer Zena Mckeown. Beginning life in 2006 when the streets of London still seemed to glitter with imitation crystals and a micron of gold plate, Zena’s love affair with costume jewellery was born. With the inspiration of the big city paving her way, she created her first piece of jewellery and never looked back.

Today we’re a dynamic team of three with our own web shop and over 50 stockists worldwide. Our most recent project has been with the renowned Saatchi Gallery, celebrating the building blocks of art and design. One of our favourite pieces has to be the spilling Paint Can Ring where the cascading colours pour cleverly around the finger.

We have recently launched our Autumn/Winter ’12 Collection’ – think gothic fairy tale meets The Craft. Me & Zena have always been curious by the dark and mysterious which is why quite a few of our designs are perfect for Halloween. From perusing the Cybercandy website we realised lots of our spooky pieces would match up perfectly…

Bewitching…

Me & Zena Pentagram Necklace

Cybercandy Halloween Pez Dispensers

Sink your teeth into these…

Me & Zena Love Bites Necklace

Cybercandy True Blood - Blood Orange Soda

Zombie Style…

Me & Zena Revenge of the Eye Ball Ring

Cybercandy Zombie Survival Energy Drink

Gothical…

Me & Zena 'I Surrender' Choker

Cybercandy Death Mints

If you haven’t already, you can follow Me & Zena on Facebook and Twitter

’til next week, keep being sweet!