CARROT CAKE REVIEW No 13 ~ In A Blind Taste Test I'd Be Stumped

Holkam, Norfolk.
















We became fond over the Summer last year of the walk from Wells next the Sea across the Holkham Estate to the Hall. So on a bright breezy Sunday morning in February we set off.  Now there is also an additional incentive, a revamped Courtyard with a spacious,well designed cafe and larger gift shop. Holkham Hall Estate does seems at present to be outrunning the National Trust with the stylish improvements to its facilities. Though a bit more attention to the quality of their cakes is called for.

Hubby separate from me chose an Apple Spice Cake and I picked a Carrot Cake from off their confectionery table. Only when we sat down at a table was it clearly apparent how very very similar they looked.  The only thing to externally distinguish one from t'other was the sugar dusted frosting on the Apple Spiced Cake, and the walnut pieces on the Carrot Cake. I tried a fork full of Hubby's cake, he had a fork full of mine, and guess what? they tasted exactly the same too!

As you can see from the photo of the cake it looks a little on the anemic side. Any sultanas having become a mere suggestion as they've been cooked down to the state of a moist stain. The cake's texture was quite blandly uniform. In a blind taste test I'd be stumped to say what it was, carrot cake would never have come to mind. If a few strands of grated carrot did happen to slip into the mixing bowl it doesn't show either visibly or when it hits your taste buds.  So say after me ~ 'A spice cake is not a carrot cake' ~ repeat loudly three times, bang your forhead with clear resolve on the table, before you scream and scream out your despair, then walk away the cathartic moment having passed. Until the next time.

My opinion didn't improve once it did reach my mouth, for it was clearly also gluten free. Though to be honest for a gluten free spiced cake it was considerably better than some horrors I could, and probably have, already mentioned. It still had more than a hint of that dry floury after taste though. Here accompanied by it forming into a kind of slurry along the bottom of my mouth. Actually I have no objection to a cafe providing gluten free or dairy options, as long as they make the traditional version too. These days, however, its common to find gluten or dairy free cakes mostly on offer. These are presented as though if they're indistinguishable from the traditional version, when they clearly are not. I want the real deal not a neutered facsimile. Let the sugar filled, dairy fat filled, busting with eggs, fruit, nuts, carrot cake lovers have a choice too, please !

Finally, just one more thing, the butter cream filling and frosting was NVN ~  not very nice.


CARROT CAKE SCORE~  2/8

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