PERFECT CARROT CAKE

Folks Coffee Co, Holt, Norfolk Probably the newest cafe in Holt, let alone North Norfolk, Folks is developing a small scale Norfolk chain of cafes. One in Norwich, Blakeney and Heydon, now joined by this one here. Clean minimalist layout, light coloured tables with rather lovely bent wood pale rattan chairs, olive green table light, warm grey and white crockery. Folks Holt effortlessly nails the brief for a simply styled modern cafe.  It also produces a very fine Oat Latte. The cake range, though often limited, is always well made. So I could confidently order a Carrot Cake, which was really, as ever, the ubiquitous tray bake. But this being Holt, it wasn't considered acceptable to produce a passably fine tray bake, it had to do everything but put brass knobs on it.  So where shall I start in describing this tray bake? Well, what first attracts your eye is the huge amount of foof, the confected froth of stuff they put on top of it. Not just a Pecan nut, but also three small di...

Sheringham A good coffee on a Sunday morning has a distinct pleasure all its own, particularly when you are down on the front in Sheringham. It was the day after a thirty two degree heat. In the late afternoon we'd had to prematurely curtail a meeting herewith friends because it was just too unbearably hot, and the humidity had resulted in the hatching of whole flight squadrons of swottable flies. Which nonetheless swarmed around my medicinally blood thinned body looking for a convenient point of rest or entry.  But on this particular Sunday morning we had the benefit of it being both bright with a strong along shore coastal breeze. The cafe is a summer favourite, and hence most favoured for our morning coffee's before I dispatch Hubby to his work. The coffee ,the view, the general ambiance, is great, plus the guy who owns and runs it is gregarious, affable,and an all round friendly cove. I've never been called 'buddy' quite so often before. So I really want to be k...

  Stiffkey, Norfolk. There are days, believe it or not, when I'm quite inclined to be a little less stern, a little less didactic, a little less proscriptive. Here, for the record, is one of them.  You should all know by now what I generally think about tray bakes. Or have you really not been paying sufficient attention? In brief, its lazy baking, it's not really a cake, it frequently hides faults that would clearly be seen were it a proper full sized cake. But halt, hold my horses before they bolt off into the wild horizon of fulmination and froth. Maybe it is possible for there to be exceptions made. If so, what would these be, and why? Please enlighten us, Oh carrot cake guru. Proceed to unfold your hidden truths. Stiffkey Stores, unsurprisingly is in Stiffkey. Part Post Office, part general corner shop, part cafe and part a low key interiors store. A current iteration which appear as to have been much more successful than previous ones. Its become a destination. Because it...

   Jarrolds Cafe, Letheringsett, Norfolk My last Carrot Cake Review was way back in July 2022, so just short of three years ago. Going on a diet started the trend away from Carrot Cake Reviews. Also I sensed there was little left to say in this regard, that I had not already ranted and raved about several times over. So why then have I returned to it now? Well, heaven knows.........but here goes. In our early years of moving to Norfolk, once we'd owned a car, we enthusiastically toured North Norfolk's cafes to establish which were the best ones were. We came to Back To The Garden, a Delicatessen and Cafe on the outskirts of Holt. That first visit was truly bad. The customer service was indifferent. So our coffee and cake arrived after an interminable wait between taking our order and it arriving on our table.The coffee had been so badly burnt its bitterness could've seared your taste buds medium rare. I can't remember what I chose for a cake, but whatever that was appar...

  Cromer, Norfolk. I mean, look at it. This feeble cake in its ill fitting paper dish. Already half sagging just with the gentle pressure of resting in it. It makes your heart doubly sink, that such a thing was thought decent to be brought into this world.   Now, I like this place they try their best to act ethically and responsibly. They run a great little outfit, friendly, well organised and plugged in to their community. Going there is one of our favourite morning treats before work. I've written in rhapsodic detail in a previous cake review about their carrot cake, made by her Mum.  May she live long and prosper. It is the bees knees - made out of carrot. And then there was this! Well, I guess they just needed to do it. Get the whole vegan carrot bake idea, off their chest, out of their system, a tick on their to do list - done. What's not to like? Well quite a lot actually.  ' I'd be interested in what you think of it'  they said to me. Obviously had n...

   Sheringham Norfolk Cafés in our town are ten a penny, really good ones are a rare species. Most are not bad. Pleasant, but average you might say. Nothing to, scare the horses by producing a well rounded Flat White with great richness and depth. Buying a coffee here generally blurs the boundary between a cappuccino and a latte, whatever the coffee variety actually be being made. This, in my experience, is not unique to this town. Suddenly, post pandemic, cafes in North Norfolk seem to have woken up to the fact that they are competing for business. Standards of confectionery have noticeably risen. The coffee quality has yet to follow suit. I do like this particular cafe, its very pretty, always has a welcoming feel and good customer service. Their coffee? Well let's just say three things - One, their Latte's are good. Two, their Flat White's come in two sizes Regular and Large. Three, their Latte's are good. Its a universal truth that any shop has its set of Unique Sel...

 Norwich, Norfolk. Just when you think there is nothing new in the world of Carrot Cakes, either to be said or reported upon. Then you encounter something you truly hope is a one off, an anomaly, a catering glitch in life's kitchen. But perhaps this is a perverted new trend in contemporary cafés. And you, having been the first to discover it, must then alert the world to its manifestation in the real world. Its criminal and pernicious consequences pointed out. Consider this your early warning Hubby and I were in Norwich. We'd just walked miles from the garage on the outskirts where we'd left Barbara to be investigated for a coolant leak. Desperate for a Flat White and a cake, as a well earned reward for making it this far on foot. Now Norwich, even if you only half know it, is not short of a cafe or two. We chose this particular cafe in Exchange street, simply because it was there. We walked in, it was our choice.  All I can say in our defense is - it looked welcoming, vagu...

  North Sea Coffee, Cromer Promenade, Cromer. You are not going to believe this, you are just not. A third carrot cake since lockdown finished and a third thumbs up. Have I turned into a push over during the last year? Now, I know some of you take a perverse delight in the more vitrolic reviews. The more fulminating a condemnation the better. To be honest I miss that too, it can be such a relief, like releasing a long held fart. Its cathartic. But the ultimate aim of these reviews is to praise the perfect carrot cake. So when I do find one it produces a teenage giggle of delight, that penetrates and rattles through the world weary cynicism of my sixty four year old form. So what do I say as I begin my review? Don't lose your perspective. Don't get carried away. Don't be deceived by fusspot and foofy presentation. ( that may just be another Golden Rule right there ) In this case it was somewhat the opposite. Don't be mislead by the first appearance of your cake being ser...

 Two Magpies Bakery, 88. High Street, Southwold, Suffolk The Two Magpies is a petite fronted cafe on the main street of Southwold. They are currently on something of pincer movement across the lowly mounds of Norfolk, with new sites recently opened, or due to open, in Norwich, Blackney and Holt. Stumbling across them on a jolly to a favourite seaside town in Suffolk, was an opportunity to get a sneak preview. Like casually encountering a caravan park arranged on a Stalinist Gulag theme, its not to be overlooked. The Southwold establishment is this aspirational chains source cafe. It is very tiny with only a few tables at the back and to one side of the serving counter. So the emphasis is primarily on takeaway. The first thing to notice is the terrific range of confectionery. I was absolutely wetting myself with glee at the choice. But I was thinking of my duty and devotion to you, dear readers, when I settled on a slice of carrot cake with my standard Flat White chaser. So, lets ge...

 Holt Garden Centre, Holgate Hill, Kelling, Norfolk We were on a mission, to buy a container for a recently bequeathed gooseberry bush. We start off at Holt Garden Centre because its the closest  Venturing further afield should it disappoint, and in the past it has done so, frequently. During the lockdowns  Holt Garden Centre has undergone a massive makeover, setting them back two million pounds. But the outcome of it all is a Garden Centre that knocks spots off most of the local competition. If I were to describe their previous cafe I'd have to say it was amateurish. Always looking if it was run by a gaggle of semi retired volunteers drawn from the Kelling WI - Friends of Holt Garden Centre division. The new cafe is large open, airy and no longer looks as though it was set up in a converted milking shed. Its stylish and spacious. Having quickly made our decision on the pot, we rewarded our aesthetic deliberations with a coffee and cake. And....they had a Carrot Cake. It ...

 Holt, Norfolk I will be kind - I will be kind - I will be kind - I will be kind - I will be kind.  But.......sometimes a café does not make it easy to be kind. So what follows is my very best attempt to be kind. Hubby and I have during the lock down taken a few longer walks around a country park. This time, because the cafe was now open, we had a coffee and a carrot cake - en plein air. I had no great expectations for either. I was disappointed, nor driven to splutter expletives. But, however, there was something very very wrong about this carrot cake. Quite apart from the cake, which we will come too soon enough, it was the butter cream, it had the most odd flavour. Hubby had the same cake as me and he reliably informs me that the buttercream, rather than being made with butter which its name you would have thought made it obvious what the main ingredient should be, was substituted with baking margarine. Yes, I was shocked too, if not jaw droppingly appalled. Hubby is sure i...

 Sheringham, Norfolk.. It's one measure of the effects of the lock down on the supply of carrot cakes to review. I'm now reduced to reviewing a loaf!  So here goes. Can a carrot loaf be thought of as a cake anyway? Isn't it just a tray bake by another name? Because if it is I refer you to the Golden Rules, they are not a cake. So I'm struck with force of a mallet ie not that subtly - that this loaf off the Market is not one either. Plain and naked, without any decoration, no marzipan carrot facsimiles, thankfully. Its a loaf that is sliced vertically, so its certainly not a wedge. Cakes are cut in wedges. Therefore this loaf is not a cake. Move on. I'm going to proceed as if I've not just said that, and just take this review as an exercise in culinary largesse.  The texture of this 'loaf' was the correct colour - 'Burnt Sienna'  and certainly in the right ballpark texture wise - a soft rubble. The base had the appearance of being slightly under c...

  Waitrose - Carrot & Passion Fruit Cake I understand its difficult to make even a half satisfactory carrot cake in a factory. A true carrot cake is a highly unsuitable recipe for mass production. Its not a sponge cake, its generally heavier than most cakes and hence can be unpredictable in its outcome and cooking time. This is why factory produced carrot cakes invariably turn out to be just spiced sponge cakes, incurring my wrath and wither because, like a drug addict, they can't stop themselves from breaking Golden Rule No 3. Cake makers,  whether in a factory or in a cafe kitchen, can resort to smoke and mirrors, giving a carrot cake an exotic sounding name or ingredient and sticking marzipan carrots on it - they look like a carrot cake - but they're not even a short stroll away from being one. So this Carrrot & Passion Fruit Cake from Waitrose was low in my expectations before I even snapped my lock down eroded dentures around it. They've branded it so because i...

  Perhaps I've erroneously assumed you all knew what The Golden Rules of Carrot Cake are. So I've decided to publish them. Here they all are then,the twelve guideline rules. Those things to look out for and be avoided by those who make carrot cakes and those who eat them. Never have to consume a malformed, unpleasant carrot cake ever again. You can no longer make the excuse that you did not know! Learn them or have your taste buds abused. Golden Rule of Carrot Cake No 1 A spice cake is not a carrot cake. This is blindingly obvious, but I have stomached this sort of fart inducing cake far far too many times. Grating a solitary carrot into a basic sponge mix, then trying to disguise the paltry amount of an essential carrot cake ingredient, by throwing in a whole sack load of mixed spice. This should fool no one of anyone discernment. It's not as if carrots are a rare and expensive root vegetable, they are not bleeding saffron! A bald man wearing a mismatched toupee only attra...

  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 embra...

  Recipe from the  BBC Good Food website a Classic Carrot Cake by Micheal Caines As this was to be my birthday cake, made for me by Hubby ( TDCP - The Demon Cake Professional ) even he expressed a certain nervousness about permitting me to review it.  However, once it came out well, and what's more one of the best carrot cake recipes that I've tasted, he was much happier to let me loose on a recipe review.  There are carrot cake recipes and then there are carrot cake inspired recipes. The latter perhaps started out believing they were carrot cakes, but ended up a sponge cake with mere decorative pretensions. This recipe is not one of those. One glance down the ingredients list and your jaw drops through the floor at '525gms of grated carrot!' Carrot cake recipes frequently operate between 150 - 350 gms max of carrot, most baulking at anything over 250 gms. One can perfectly understand why, because the more carrot you use the overall moisture level in the mix increase...

  Wells next the Sea, North Norfolk. One family appear to run a large part of the shops in Wells. The bakery has been there for decades and is a very traditional bakery that knows its market. To my tastebuds their cakes and pastries tend to be seriously over iced and are prone to prioritise size over taste. So a sweet pastry will be absolutely huge, but with sugar drowning out the strengths of any other flavourings.  Bigger is rarely ever better. On a day in the middle of lockdown when no cafes are open and only one bakery that coincidentally also serves coffee, and this was it. I thought 'go on give their carrot cake a whirl', broaden your case portfolio. The coffee was just a coffee, straightforwardly generic, nothing fancy. Though it too tasted sweet, probably due to dropping one of those small catering condensed cream pods into it. We also bought and ate a very tasty savoury Spinach & Feta Pasty. The carrot cake came in a cellophane fronted paper bag that had adhered t...