Cake & Biscuits - Various small enterprises [By @NLi10]

As a grand finale to the Indie food reviews I thought I'd summarise all the good ones I've found over the past week.

Bake Me A Cake - Coconut Cake

I happened to be in town after work one day and noticed a bunch of craft stalls over by the Cathedral that I hadn't seen before. Amongst the jewellery and soft furnishing stalls was one selling cakes and biscuits! It turns out that this stall was run by a friend of mine I used to work with and that she was a pro-baker now, going by the name Bake Me A Cake. Eschewing the fancier options I opted for the coconut cake which turned out to be a good choice.

The slice was ample and really filling and while cake isn't the ideal outdoors December FoodStuffFind (it's a bit cold, and needed a hot drink accompaniment) it was a great bit of cake and full of flavour. Rachel uses eggs from her own hens so it's even closer to the independent food seller ideal than I'd originally imagined.




Biscuits from Centre Parc - Oval Alberts & Lemon Biscuits

While on holiday I spotted these in the on site supermarket and thought they made a nice end to it all. These are by two smaller companies but appear to be stocked beyond the range of normal farm-shop/cottage industry products (Capitalism Ho! indeed). This doesn't really matter though because both of these have the similar personal touch to the product that the previous offerings had, even though they lack the freshness of the other offerings. Biscuits are ideal for upscaled, small businesses as they tend to travel better and have decent shelf lives.

The Oval Alberts (made by Cottage Delight speciality foods) are a savoury biscuit that they suggest having with their pheasant pate. As all forms of pate (even vegetarian) make me feel a bit queazy after eating I stuck to having them just by themselves, although I did dip one in my tea to great effect. Their oatyness and crunch are quite welcome and while they snap quite easily are very pleasing to eat. I do like a good oatcake, a top winter biscuit.

The Lemon biscuits (made by traditional farmhouse biscuits Ltd) are harder than I expected and a lot more lemony but not in an artificial way. I'd say that these are a perfect size too as I've been eating them one at a time without feeling like I should have a 2nd. They'd make great tea party sides to plates and I got to wondering if they also did a vanilla variety. They have a great crunch to them like most 'home baked' biscuits do and the flavour of lemon shortbread was quite compulsive and loved by people at work when I took the remaining box in.

I'm glad that the Xbox Indie Game Uprising made me think of tenuously linked foods that came from similar humble beginnings. I've had a great time and some fantastic flavours and probably been more ecologically sustainable by eating locally. That said my next review was flown over from Australia and then I've really got to get on those Hot Chocolates before the weather realises that it's sent the snow to Britain instead of the rain...

By @NLi10

Chocolate Flava Shaka [By Spectre] (Westmoreland Service Station)

Cinabar looked at me like I’d gone mad when I picked up this chocolate milkshake in Westmoreland Service Station (on the M6 near Penrith) and said; “Is this new?” Apparently it was one of her favourite drinks when she was a child. We were on the way back from a few days away visiting Hadrian’s Wall before the snow set in. The service station is the only independent service station in the UK. It has a marvellous farm shop selling everything you could ever want that you couldn’t buy anywhere else, amongst everything else you would find in a usual supermarket. It was a veritable Aladdin’s Cave for Cinabar and it was almost impossible to tear her away. We ended up staying so long in the shop that we had dinner there also. I had a particularly good cottage pie and Cinabar enjoyed her fish and chips. The service station was so good that I’ve promised Cinabar that we’ll swing by that way on the way back from another holiday we have planned in Northumberland in April next year.

The Chocolate Flava Shaka is made from a mixture of sterilised skimmed milk and cocoa powder. The seaweed extract Carrageenan is used as a stabiliser. On first tasting I noticed the flavour of chocolate cake mix (before baking). There was also something else in the taste that I could only identify as Battenberg Cake. It’s a bizarre mixture, but it strangely works. Having said that, even after shaking well before opening there was quite a bit of chocolate sediment at the bottom of the bottle on finishing. I enjoyed the chocolate milkshake’s unique taste, but I wouldn’t rush 175 miles for another. However, Cinabar would have me rush back to the Westmoreland Service Station everyday!

By Spectre

Can I Have My Ball Back Please? Cadbury's Spots Vs Stripes - Catch! [By @NLi10]

http://www.spotsvstripes.com/catch/

Snack marketing doesn't get much better than this! Cadbury's, sponsors of the London 2012 Olympics are using their lovely Spots Vs Stripes bar to launch a series of activities and contests. This one is called 'Catch' and involves 100 large purple balls with GPS receivers being passed around the country. I happened to be lucky enough to work with one of the Twitterati that were given one to play with - @CaptainKindling - and so at the end of the working day I decided to have a look.


It's a rather big thing and clearly numbered up so that you know which one it is, and it's all done on GPS so that Cadbury's can follow you and see what you get up to. Essentially there are two games - furthest travelled and most people photographed with it. Tempting as it was to keep this unique item to myself I decided reluctantly to give it back. I'm the one in the stripy jumper, which should have given me the right to take this home. This counts as plus one to its photo count and earns a free sports kit for the Cadbury charity drive - check the website for more info.

http://www.groundwork.org.uk

I've always said that Cadbury's should sponsor a F1 team - metallic purple would be the perfect car livery and it may attract more female people to the sport, but the world’s largest game of catch has to be a pretty close 2nd. What will they think of next!

Good Luck Stripes 75!!

By NLi10

Marmite Truffles (Paul A Young)

It is no secret that I was both desperate to try Marmite chocolate and then hugely disappointed with the official bar. Everybody who had tried it told me that Paul A Young's version was ‘the’ Marmite chocolate to try. Sadly as the chocolate isn’t sold online, and is only available in the London shops, it has taken a while for me to locate. You wouldn’t believe how excited I am about trying this chocolate though.


The truffles are packed in a simple metallic box, decorated with purple ribbon. Inside the box each chocolate is given its own purple paper case to sit in, and the pretty chocolate shines temptingly within.
These truffles have a dark chocolate casing, with a smart glittery gold sheen on their surface. The aroma encapsulates rich dark tones of cocoa, but no Marmite on initial inspection. As I bit into the chocolate, there was a rich yeasty Marmite flavour that appeared, this developed as I chewed but was ingeniously taken over by the sumptuous tones of cocoa that blended the two tastes together perfectly.
The chocolate shell cracks easily when bitten despite having a decent thickness. The ganache like filling is soft and silky with a lovely smooth texture. The chocolate used is full of flavour, clearly of an excellent quality.
These truffles are very clever, they play with the Marmite flavour and allow it to develop and then just before it overpowers they carefully allow the cocoa to come back on board. It shouldn’t work, but there is no questioned that it does. It has been a long time since I last tried a chocolate that wowed me this much, the flavours work in union and make an amazing taste sensation. If you get the opportunity I can’t emphasise just how much you should try these, I just wish they were sold online.

Galaxy Mistletoe Kisses Cake Bars (Sainsbury’s)

As it is that time of year once again, the Galaxy Mistletoe Kisses chocolate bar has re-appeared on the shelves. As it hasn’t changed significantly over the last couple of Christmases I haven’t felt obliged to write about it again, but it is nice to let you all know about it. Also I’m please to say I have found a ‘new’ product, these lovely Mistletoe tie-in cake bars!
These individually wrapped cakes are made by McVities, but do have that creamy smooth Galaxy chocolate flavour in their coating. There is a chocolate sponge layer, and on top of that sits the chocolate cream mousse and caramel, as per the regular chocolate bar. Although the cake bars obviously can’t come with three triangular chunks, each cake is decorated with a chocolaty swirl to make it look pretty.
The base sponge is chocolaty and is rather light and fluffy, but you would expect nothing else from a McVities cake bar! The mousse layer feel likes a soft cool fondant and delivers a creamy chocolate taste. The caramel is quite sweet and rich, but I would prefer a more gooey appearance. It is the lovely chocolate coating that takes centre stage, adding that Galaxy magic to these bars.
If you are looking for a nice Christmas themed cake bar treat I don’t think you can go wrong with these sweet tasting Mistletoe bars.