Month: June 2017

Talerddig

 

Sidling back from a spot of twitching at Ynys Hir called into delightful market town of Machynlleth on a picturesque market day. Located cake shop, served by a winsome wench and then…

Location Machynlleth

Largest dimension                     111mm
Thickness                                      23mm
Weight of cake                            105gm
Colour of upper crust               Dark
Interest in crust                          Lots! Broken holes. Irregular outline
Thickness of base                      25mm in places!


Base colour                                  Pale Brown
Texture of base                           Very Thick Laminated but with dense layer


Weight of fruit                             28gm – some embedded in base!
Texture of filling                         Raisins and currant loose – not bound
Caramelisationn                        None

Huge disappointment. Looks good but challenging to eat.

Eccles Cake Awards 2017

The Awards this year will be announced in 2 phases.

The Regional Champions in Wales and England will be announced at the end of July

The National Champions and Victor Ludorum will be announced in mid August

There will be three categories

Craft Baker

Packaged Cake

Large Store

For details of categories and tests please see web site. www.TheFriendsoftheEcclesCake.co.uk

 

 

 

M&S Packaged (revisited)

Some months ago we tasted a package from M&S.  It was ghastly.

M&S are one of the best and most consistent suppliers of in-store baked Eccles Cakes.

We thought our earlier sample was untypical. We were wrong. The latest offering was barely edible.

The packaging in French and German implies export. God help our reputation.

 

Location                           Traford Park

Largest dimension        85mm

Thickness                         25mm

Weight of cake               81gm

Crust colour                    Pale and uninteresting

Interest in crust             None unless you find sugar crystals interesting

Thickness of base          15mm

Colour of base                Mid brown

Texture of base              Like 18th Century Naval hard-tack

Weight of fruit                42gm

Texture of filling            Well bound soft currants

Caramelising                   None

Over view

How can a firm with so much expertise get this so wrong?  Twice?