In fact, all but two of our cakes (the Biona Honey Cake and the Mrs Crimble’s apple cake, which were made from rye flour) were both gluten and wheat free but, sadly for nut allergics, many manufacturers made up the deficiency with nuts, usually ground almonds, which do give excellent texture and shelf life to a cake. We have, as usual, highlighted the nuts in bold in the ingredients lists.

The cakes came from all shapes and sizes of manufacturers in both the UK and across continental Europe and varied enormously in price from 43p for 100g of Mrs Crimble’s Apple cake to £2.85 for 100g of L’Amandier chocolate cake from Provence. However, we are happy to say that the overall quality was excellent - as you will see from the marks and comments in the table.

However, as our new sugar content column highlights, many of the cakes were very high in sugar - and we suspect that some of those who did not declare a sugar content may have been amongst the worst offenders. However, in view of the latest research on the effects of colourings and sweeteners we were delighted that the only colouring to appear was annatto (in the OK Almond cake) and the only sweetener was sorbitol (in the Novaldo Gateau St Honoré and the Marks & Spencer chocolate cake).

In terms of individual cakes, the Proceli sponge, although it did not get highly marked as a cake, would make an excellent base for a gateau or trifle - which is, in fact, its intended use.

The Novaldo Gateau St Honoré was really more of a dessert than a cake and would look spectacular if it arrived intact. Ours, unfortunately, had got a bit squashed on the way so it says a lot for it that it still scored one of the highest marks. However, it does prove that you can make excellent choux pastry from gluten-free flours.

L’Amandier chocolate cake surprised us by arriving in a small tin, which certainly did help its texture. It was tasty - but very expensive.
In fact, L’Amandier was one of several ‘baby’ cakes - two to four portion cakes which would be good for someone living on their own - or as a fun birthday present - the Babycakes Banana and coconut and the Droppa chocolate cake were the two others.

Finally, it was a shame that the Glutabye Walnut Cake was so dry - which it was - as its flavour was great, and many of the other products in the range are excellent.

Post script - re sugar
Siobhan Wylie of Raspberry Creek Foods took issue - with some
justification - with our comment, in last month’s cake tasting, that ‘many of the cakes were very high in sugar - and we suspect that some of those who did not declare the sugar content may have been the worst offenders’.
As she said: The reason that many of us do not declare sugar content is because of the cost of the nutritional analysis.
There are two formats one can use. We opt for the declaration of just carbohydrates without the breakdown. This is because to declare the sugar content, your product would need to be sent to a laboratory for testing which is expensive, and we feel unnecessary, for a small business.
So in our carrot cake (average weight 600g) we only actually use 75g brown sugar.
So we apologise to Raspberry Creek and other small manufacturers who do try to keep sugar content down. However, we fear that there remain others who choose not to declare their sugar content as they would rather that customers did not realise quite how high it is.

Manufacturers:
Babycakes www.babycakesdirect.co.uk
via Blue Lotus Products www.bluelotusproducts.com
Beiker Products Ltd www.beikerproducts.co.uk
via www.gffdirect.co.uk
Biona www.windmillorganics.com
Droppa & Droppa www.droppaanddroppa.com
G Free www.gfree.co.uk
Glutabye www.glutabye.com
via www.johnsonsprovisions.co.uk & www.gffdirect.co.uk
Glutafin www.glutafin.co.uk
Glutano Ltd www.glutenfree-foods.co.uk
Gluten Free Kitchen www.theglutenfreekitchen.co.uk
Honeybuns www.honeybuns.co.uk
L’Amandier www.johnsonsprovisions.co.uk
Livwell www.bakers-delight.co.uk
Marks & Spencer www.marksandspencer.com
Morrisons www.morrisons.co.uk
Mrs Crimbles www.mrscrimbles.com
Novaldo www.gffdirect.co.uk
OK Foods www.ok-foods.co.uk
Proceli www.proceli.co.uk via www.gffdirect.co.uk
Raspberry Creek Foods www.raspberrycreekfoods.co.uk
Roleys www.roleys.com/glutenfree
Sainsbury's Supermarkets www.sainsburys.co.uk
Sue’s Pantry www.suespantry.co.uk
Tesco www.tesco.com
Village Bakery www.village-bakery.com

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