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.