26 July 2011

Welshcakes: Cranberry & White Chocolate / Milk Chocolate [Fabulous Welshcakes] [By @Cinabar]



I went on a recent trip to Cardiff and discovered an amazing little shop in the marina called Fabulous Welshcakes. Now Welshcakes are one of my favourite things about Wales, and I think any trip to Wales must consist of having Welshcakes at least once (per day). Welshcakes are a cake rather like a flat scone cooked on a griddle. Welsh people eat them with a sprinkling of sugar, English people inadvertently add butter, both sets of people think the other ones are doing it wrong. If you add jam on top while in Wales, everyone will know you are not Welsh... you may as well wear a St. Georges flag t-shirt and give up any pretence.
Anyway, when I saw the title of the shop Fabulous Welshcakes I obviously headed straight in. To my amazement I found flavoured Welshcakes, as I had only ever have the traditional raisin ones before I couldn’t resist picking up a couple of the flavoured boxes to take home. A closer inspection on the packet showed that these Welshcakes are made ethically, with free range eggs and even Welsh butter.

Milk Chocolate
These lovely Welshcakes have the usual soft base, but have fab milk chocolate drops instead of raisins within them. They are sprinkled with sugar, and come ready to eat. They have a creamy sweet taste, but there was also plenty of cinnamon and spice too. The chocolate was mild, but well balanced so that the traditional Welshcake flavour was present, and not overpowered. These are a nice variation on the usual Welshcakes and were a proper tasty treat.

Cranberry & White Chocolate
As per the Milk Chocolate ones, these Welshcakes are coated in sugar, but this time have white chocolate and cranberry pieces. I liked the mix in textures from the two different ingredients, the soft fruit and the slightly firm chocolate. The flavours were good the cranberry was sharp but fruity, and the white chocolate mellowed the taste adding a smoothness. Yet again the spiced Welshcake flavour shone through ensuring that this variety didn’t step too far away from the tradition recipe or taste. I loved the mix of flavours, and was greatly disappointed when the box was empty.

Both of these varieties are clever twists on the usual Welshcakes, but still maintain that traditional taste. If you are in Cardiff make sure you find the shop and give them a try as they are, like the name suggests, fabulous. It is a crying shame they aren’t available more widely.
By Cinabar

2 comments:

bob said...

These look lovely.
The troubling bit for me is what I call "Invasion of the Killer Cranberries".
Cranberries are nice, but it seems to pop up in almost everything these days, doesn't it.
When I was a kid, it only showed up in cans on the American import shelf.
Now they're in nearly EVERYTHING!
What's next? Andrex loo rolls with Cranberry?

cinabar said...

Cranberries are a Christmas thing - they'll be gone in a couple of weeks - lol