CARROT CAKE REVIEW 23 - Sponge Bob Not Pants

 Carrot Cake made by Sponge Cakes Ltd, Holt


















After the edible gloriousness of the last carrot cake recipe, did we now come crashing down to earth with a more prosaic version? Well, this slice of carrot cake was made by Sponge Cakes Ltd, situated on the delightfully named Sponge Rise in Holt. This is, wait for it, my first review of a mass produced gluten free carrot cake. Good, got that sentence out without implying a modicum of snooty disdain.

Hubby and I were taking our last day off before re-opening the shop after lockdown. We were doing a favourite circular walk down the promenade from Wells next the Sea along the pinewoods to Holkham Bay, down Queen Anne's Drive to the Hall and back through the estate to Wells. On the way stopping off at the beach cafe for a takeaway coffee and cake. They'd just re-opened so the choice of cakes was not extensive or that appealing. Now that I'm not averse to reviewing commercially produced confectionery, I feel a degree of glee at embracing the unknown and sampling a gluten free slice of carrot cake. Sealed neatly in its cellophane wrapper, it fitted the bill for that moment. It was a carrot cake, in a landscape at the time generally devoid of such things. 

Gluten free confectionery is rarely an unassailable triumphe in my world wearied experience. Most substitute gluten free flours are not ideal for cake making. So any bakers main focus will be on finding ways to overcome their very evident deficiencies. Which is why the texture and flavours of the cakes are often an overlooked feature of them. For god sake man after all the culinary ingenuity and effort put into them you want it to taste good too. Yup, I most certainly do, otherwise what really is the point that's trying to be proved here?

So what is there to say about this carrot cake? Visually it looked the part, a health tan colour, with a suggestion of carrot and sultanas across its very precisely cut rectangular slice. It was moist, probably to a fault, with irregular gaps across it, as if to prove this was never some homogenous gloop from start to finished cake. The Demon Cake Professional thought that in a blind test he wouldn't have identified it as gluten free. A certain powdery dry aftertaste being a frequent malady of such cakes, this was fortunate not to fall into that particular pitfall sur le palate.  

One look at the ingredients list shows how this was achieved. By using five different flours ( rice, potato, tapioca, maize and buckwheat ) they've covered most of the basic deficiencies which using only one gluten free flour would leave largely still vacant. Also its primed to the hilt with raising agents, plus eggs. Though carrot lies way down the list of ingredients, it didn't taste like it was suffering a carrot deficit. Even the topping and filling, a vanilla flavoured butter icing, was far from sickly with its coyly chopped walnut nestling in it. Quite firm in texture and flavour, but not attracting too much undeserved attention to itself. Though it definitely was a carrot cake you could tell it was factory made, there was just something about its even consistency that gave it all away.

But, for a gluten free carrot cake this was one of the better attempts I've tasted so far. Gosh, that wasn't that hard to say was it?


CARROT CAKE SCORE - 4/8     




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CARROT CAKE RECIPE No 1 ~ Neal's Yard Wholefood Cookbook

Image
Carrot Cake Recipe ~ from Neal's Yard Wholefood Cook Book, Rachel Haigh, Way back in April the impetus for making this cake was to celebrate Hubby's birthday. This isn't by any means my first cake, but it was my debut carrot cake recipe. I thought that I'd broaden my search for the perfect carrot cake, by trying out different recipes. When I worked in Central London, I used to buy this carrot cake from Neal's Yard Bakery, sadly no more, and remember it as being rather good. I picked their wholefood cookbook up some years later in a remainder outlet, and some of its recipes are well established favourites. This first attempt at the recipe was OK, but wasn't quite the archetypal carrot cake I remember it being. Rather than do a single cake, I split the mix into two sandwich tins. I had to adjust the baking time, but not by quite enough, so the cake got slightly over cooked, and hence a tad dry. The recipe has sultanas and walnuts in it, ...
Read more

CARROT CAKE REVIEW No 8 ~ A Nice Performance

Image
The Old Theatre Deli, Southwell, Nottinghamshire. I know this is not on the North Norfolk coast, but its been quite a while since we've found a new cafe we haven't already visited, let alone a carrot cake. Whilst in Nottinghamshire on a Pre-Christmas family visit we spent a delightful half a day in Southwell. We took in the Minister and found an excellent Deli/Cafe, with a rather passable carrot cake. The cake was looking good from its external features, a healthy orangey brown tan with a substantail amount of filling and topping. Once you took a bite into it, the cake had that distinctly carroty texture to it, flavoured strongly with carrot too, and a decent enough amount of walnuts to be noticible on the palate. I think it had just mixed spices as additional flavouring, I couldn't detect anything else, but what there was was sufficient to complement rather than drown. Both the filling and topping were a cream cheese, so glory halleluyah ! There was a...
Read more

CARROT CAKE REVIEW No 2 - Sponge Cake does not a Carrot Cake make

Image
Sheringham, Norfolk, The cake on the plate looked enormous, declaring itself a value for money slice of cake loud and clear. You could even see the gratings of carrot creating an orange speckled effect. The first taste of the cake was that it was rather fluffy and, I have to say, excessive in the lightness of its texture. I don't know about you, but for me, one of the characteristics of a really good carrot cake is that because of its primary ingredient, ie. the carrot, it  tends to be a dense and weightier cake than most other species. When you envisage a carrot cake, fluffy, never comes to mind. I came to the conclusion that this cake was, in its very essence, made from a sponge mix with some large gratings of carrot thrown in for local colour. So, it carries its carrot credentials a bit weakly. That said, it still had some carrot taste to it, plus a mild amount of mixed spice. The overall appearance and taste did teeter towards bland, which is a shame. Had ...
Read more