Chorley United Reformed Church

I was visiting Chorley United Reformed Church as part of my job on Saturday 22nd November 2014. I was delivering safeguarding training to some of the Junior Church/Youth work volunteers.

I was delighted to learn that the church was holding a coffee morning to raise funds for the church's work and, as it was church, I had high hopes that there would be coffee cake available.

I wasn't wrong.

The cake was very dark - clearly a lot of coffee had gone into its production - none of it decaffeinated, my legs are still jiggling!

Filling was superb. Icing was a bit thin - but nice and tasty. And, of course, being churchy, it was dead cheap ... another 50p offering :)

Price: £0.50 (yes, just 50p!)

Walnut garnish: Yes

Walnut in sponge: No
Sponge: 7.5/10
Icing: 7/10
Filling: 10/10

Molly's Tea Rooms - York

Not as well known as Betty's ... which was probably why we were able to get a seat on a busy Saturday, 15th November.

Betty's Tea Rooms are situated above (and are part of) the York Antiques Centre on Stonegate. An array of good food - and great homebaked cakes. Of which Coffee Cake was one offering....

and a lovely piece of cake it was, too. Nor perfect, of course ... the filling was wafer thin and the sponge was a bit dry for my taste but the icing was delicious. It was also a hefty £3.50....

Price: £3.50 

Walnut garnish: Yes

Walnut in sponge: No

Sponge: 7/10

Icing: 9/10

Filling: 5/10

Leyland United Reformed Church, Lancashire

I've not been out and about much recently - work seems to have taken control of my days off...

I guess it's a truism that 'home baked' is usually best, a point seemingly proved by the good folk of Leyland URC who, as part of their post-service refreshments, were offering for sale a variety of home-baked confectioneries including coffee cake. They were raising money to enable their young people to attend overseas events. It seemed churlish not to help out...

It was a beauty. There were only 3 pieces left and I was tempted to buy all three but there were still people in the queue so had to restrict myself to just the one piece. A beautifully moist sponge, lashings of icing and filling and just the correct amount of Walnut.

If I had a criticism it would be that the icing was a little too moist on the top. Fine for filling, but the top icing needs to be (in my opinion) just slightly denser.

Price: £0.50 (yes, you read that correctly)

Walnut garnish: Yes
Walnut in sponge: No
Sponge: 8/10
Icing: 8/10
Filling: 10/10

Chirk Castle, 24th August 2014

Chirk Castle, near Wrexham in North Wales, is a National Trust property. A fortress and a family home, it is well worth a visit (although if you're not a NT member, it's quite pricey to get in (£10.40 as I recall).

Now, many NT properties source the cakes for their cafes locally - and there have been some real highs for me.

Chirk Castle was, sadly, a low.

The sponge was nice and moist (if a bit claggy) but the icing? Well, what icing? There was virtually none at all. A thin smear at best - and the same could be said of the filling. More or less non-existent.

So, a great place to visit - but don't bother with the coffee cake!

Price: £2.45
Walnut garnish: Yes
Walnut in sponge: No
Sponge: 6/10
Icing: 1//10
Filling: 1/10

Why this blog?

I enjoy coffee cake. It's my favourite cake .. with, or without, walnuts.

It started, as so many of these things do, with my mum. She makes an excellent coffee cake - the cake against which all other coffee cakes must be judged.

Whenever I visit somewhere, and visit a cafe or coffee shop, if coffee cake is on offer it's what gets chosen.

But they do vary wildly in how well they match up to the original 'Pauline Roberts' cake so, having not a lot better to do, I thought I'd start this 'ere blog and share the highs, and lows, of coffee cake purchases....

Cakes will be measured (entirely subjectively) against my mum's coffee cake.

I will include price, whether or not there is a walnut garnish and whether or not there is walnut in the sponge.

The cake will then be rated (out of a maximum of 10 points) on 3 further factors:

Sponge, icing and filling.