CARROT CAKE REVIEW No 10 ~ The Confectionary Sins Of The Spice Trade

Whitby, Yorkshire.













Just because I'm on holiday doesn't mean I neglect my search for the perfect Carrot Cake, I have merely broadened the designated search area. Also, one should not assume that because I was in one of my favourite cafes in Whitby, whose range of superlative cakes I could go into raptures about, that they were a shoe-in for a high rating. Reader read on.

Well, it was a huge portion, on what was quite a small plate, perhaps they were trying to emphasise I was getting value for money. But you know me, I'm not easily swayed by appearances however beautifully confected, if it doesn't cut it once its placed inside my gob, then all that is for nought. Unfortunately once this cake hit my palette and the taste buds started to do their routine detective work, the first flavour hit was of ginger, no, spice, oh boy this is a mixed spice cake my dears. One might want to be charitable, and assume the baker had a bit of an over tipple with the spice jar. But I'm not feeling in even the vicinity of making charitable allowances, mainly because there is not even the lightest back taste of carrot. This isn't to say there wasn't any in the mix, but whatever....it was not enough.

The cake texture looked even but it tasted dense, a little claggy on the tongue. You started to get the uncomfortable feeling that this cake was slightly under cooked. Whatever the flavour spectrum it was not helped by the cream cheese topping. Yes, a cream cheese topping, they got that bit right. But then they ladled masses of icing sugar into the bowl and turned the cake into a sugar high from which its flavours weren't discernible on the way up or the way down from. Even for a spice cake this strangled the subtlety of tastes almost out of existence. What made it worse was that this topping wasn't just plastered on top but also between and over all the sides, which is really overdoing it, nothing could survive in that hostile sweet sense around environment. There were half walnut decorations on top, but hard to detect anything in the cake itself, no dried fruit either. Oh, my woes are getting so unbearable I think I'd better stop right now.
CARROT CAKE SCORE ~ 3/8


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