Apr 13
Coffee No 1 do a nice Welshcake for 50p each. They are not unlike the Fabulous Welshcakes we've seen before, but they are a little bigger and have a heavier sugar coating. Still, they have a rich flavour and that slightly burned aftertaste that I like. They are also quite moist underneath their browned exterior. The coffee there is an excellent accompaniment too.
I don't know whether or not they buy them in or indeed where from, but I'll have to find out.
Mar 16
Fabulous Welshcakes is a local business with a shop in Cardiff Bay. From here they bake and sell a variety of different variations on the Welshcake theme, as well as provide Wedding favours and corporate gifts - truth be told they provided the wedding favours for my own wedding. They currently provide in-room gifts for the St David's Hotel & Spa as well as Welshcakes for Holland House Hotel, Principality Building Society and a number of public sector organisations.
I've got a couple of their traditional Welshcakes to test and without a doubt, they're the best I've featured on this blog so far. They are rather small at little over an inch and a half in diameter, but they're perfectly formed. They're lightly browned and have a light dusting of sugar. The taste is quite rich and full, with a hint of spice. I don't have a list of ingredients for these but their website boasts of free-range eggs, Welsh butter and a distinct lack of additives or preservatives. Sounds good to me.
What doesn't sound so good is the price - they're 45p each, but as any Apple fan will tell you, sometimes it pays to pay a little more. They are made in-house and in smaller quantities, making them more expensive to produce and more expensive to buy as a result. Don't let that put you off though, they're excellent.
Mar 12
Around here it is fair to say that if you are out shopping, you are either going to see Garth Bakery, Braces or Tan-y-Castell's Welshcakes on the shelf. They're pretty much everywhere these days and I managed to get these in the corner shop down the road from me.
Unlike the Garth Bakery, Narberth based
Tan-y-Castell pride themselves on their lack of added preservatives, colouring or salt. The list of ingredients is a testament to this - there are only two E-numbers to be found and these are down to the self-raising flower that they use. The other ingredients are sultanas, currants, sugar, non-hydrogenated vegetable fat, eggs and lemon juice.
Physically they are a lot thinner and have a larger diameter than the Garth ones. They've also been cooked to a far darker brown - not quite dark enough for my tastes but it's a step in the right direction. As far as flavour is concerned, you can really taste the lemon juice and considering the lack of surface sugar, they are surprisingly sweet and rich.
They're a little more expensive than the Garth ones. I paid £1.29 for these in the corner shop but you can get them closer to £1 for six at the supermarket. I do believe they are worth the extra outlay however, simply for the depth of flavour. I do recommend putting one in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds, as there are few things better than a warm Welshcake and these are far better hot.
Mar 8
Well, this is the first post for my new brainchild. I figured that nobody else was writing about Welshcakes in any detail, so I thought I'd combine my love of eating Welshcakes with my love of blogging and voicing my opinions.
First up is Garth Bakery's effort.
Garth Bakery has been in business for 26 years and are based in Abercynon, just a short trip up the A470 from Cardiff. They also supply Braces bread (I hadn't realised that Braces Bakery is another local success story,
hailing from the South Wales valleys). Whilst they are a local business, they do produce Welshcakes in frightening quantities, so the ingredients printed on the label contain a fistful of "E-numbers" - raising agents, emulsifier, preservatives, colour, flour treatments and thickener. It's a far cry from the traditional recipe but I guess it's an unfortunate side effect of mass production.
They do give a bit of an explanation of their methods on their website though.
It sounds fair enough to me, they're a business and they need to ensure their products have a good shelf-life. Still, I can't help but be a bit put off by those flavourings & preservatives.
As for the cakes themselves, they're quite middle-of-the-road. They're lightly coated in flour and have been browned to the colour of a cup of tea. They're cut quite thick, sacrificing diameter for depth, so this may explain why they can be quite dry in texture - they need to stay on the stone for longer. Their flavour is somewhat mild, lacking spice and almost verging on bland but yet I find them rather addictive. I've certainly had better, but these cost me 59p for 6 in Costco so I can hardly complain.
