Okay, so hands up - when it comes to birthdays, not all of us are born a Mary Berry, so who loves the idea of a ready made birthday cake??
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| Add your candles... and hey presto - you're all good to go! |
Well, maybe not everyone, but I find I do a bit of both - I need one for the party and one for home and oh yes, another for school! No wonder I get very little blogging done when birthday season comes 'round!
Sometimes I go all out like this:
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| This cake *may* just have caused me a few nightmares! |
But sometimes, my fave Marry Berry Swiss Roll recipe (see here) just has to suffice - very quick, very easy and can be dressed a number of different ways!
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| My absolute fave cake recipe! |
Birthdays being the normal manic thing that they are, for at least one of these I love to cheat - to take the pressure off. Fortunately, as my kiddo is only dairy free it's a bit easier than I thought to find a dairy free cake... and from the supermarket too!
Asda, Tesco, Morrsion's and Sainsbury's all sell a fairly big range of celebration cakes and the good news is that quite a number of them are dairy free. Even Waitrose is now getting in on the act!
Well, I say 'dairy free' - they are by no means marketed as 'Free From', but no milk or dairy products are listed in the ingredients of those that we've tried, and no 'may contains' either. And, maybe we've been lucky, but Kiddo has been quite sensitive to traces of milk and no unpleasant reactions have followed.
We've been 'lucky' so far - in that our Kiddo has been able to get the cake of her choice for each of her birthdays! She has already had this Lightening Mc Queen (Disney Cars) which we bought from Asda:
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| This is the bigger one! |
This Disney Frozen cake (bought from Tesco, but also at Sainsbury's):
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| Not quite as big when it's out of the box! |
Which costs £10. Ingredients list here.
And also this Despicable Me Minion cake:
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| Not that big when out of the box either! |
Serves 20 - just! But cost just £10.00. Ingredients here.
However, I've not been able to eat a single one of these cakes, as none of them are gluten free. Unless it's soya lecithin, I'm also soya free - which causes The Hub a fair bit of trouble when it comes to my birthday!
This year, as so much was going on, there was NO cake for my birthday - cue sad face (that said we were about to go on holiday and The Hub was stressed to the eyeballs with stuff going on at work)!
And THIS despite the fact that it's now become relatively easy to find a Free From cake - in fact all the major players now sell something gluten free (apart from Waitrose, of course) although Tesco's... well they now sell a nice looking little selection in their Free From department, but none of these are dairy free - cue another sad face!
As of yet, despite the big Free From battle that is going on between the supermarkets, none of the cakes in any of the supermarkets are egg free. I am somewhat bewildered why it has not yet occurred to them that this section of the market remains untapped - especially as it would also appeal to Vegans. So if you are egg free, I'm afraid you will either need to contact a free from or Vegan baker like Hannah Banana (her cakes DO look amazing), or make your own, in which case, check out Lucy's Friendly Foods - she has some amazing dairy, egg and soya free recipes, including meringues!!
However, on the plus side, Sainsbury's selection is definitely nut free too!
So lets have a little look at some of the options we've tried!
Asda
This cute little Madeira cake, priced £8.00, is just that - 'little' (678g). However it was enough just for us. Kiddo and I enjoyed it. The Hub not so much. It's free from all of the top allergens as far as I can see from the ingredients list, except for egg. However it is only described as 'Gluten Free' and 'Dairy free'. You can also get it in chocolate. However, the chocolate version (ingredients here) is made with soya beans, so is a 'no-go' for me.
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| Quite dinky! |
Asda also make some lovely looking party cup cakes (£3.50 for 9), but sadly these are not dairy free (see here).
Morrisons
Morrisons have a nice looking Madeira Cake, which costs £8.00. It is free from the top fourteen allergens except egg, although it may also contain soya.
They also have a Vanilla tray bake, which is free of all the top fourteen allergens, except egg, although it may contain soya. It costs £3.60 and says it can serve 9 people.
There is also a chocolate traybake, which is made with egg and soya protein but is otherwise fourteen allergen free. As before, costing £3.60, it says it can serve 9 people.
But, by far and away the winners in the ready made birthday cake stakes, are, for me at the moment are...
(cue drum roll)
Sainsbury's!!
Purely because although not all are suitable for us, they now have a range of FOUR cakes that are ALL dairy, gluten, and nut free!
We only have tried out the Madeira one (which was as pictured at the top of this post, but the design has now changed), because it is also soya free. It's priced £8.00 for 663g of cakiness, and would appeal to the more girly types among us - Kiddo loved it for sure - both the look and the flavour!
The only one of the top allergens listed is again... you've guessed it, I'm sure... egg!
This one, priced at £9.00, is perhaps more suitable for little ones (755g). It is also a madeira cake and really quite attractively decorated.
There is quite a nice size more adult-looking chocolate cake (743g), but it is made with soya protein, as well as the dreaded-for-some egg. It is priced at £8.00.
There is also a tray bake (726g) priced £7.00, which is a nice idea, for sharing -maybe with a class or toddler group, but which sadly contains the dreaded soya again (boo hiss). So I'm afraid those too are off my list!!
Sainsbury's, like Asda, now have some Free From cupcakes (6 for £3.50). They are plain and ready to decorate, but are not dairy free (sigh).
Tesco
Most of Tesco's ready made Free From cakes are only wheat/gluten free, but they recently produced this vanilla tray bake priced £4.00, it says it serves eight people. There is also this 'Carl the Caterpillar' cake priced £6.00.
| One to appeal to the children! |
So there you have it!
Hope you've not been left too hungry after looking at all those cake pics and that this post has given you the information you need.
Let us ALL eat cake!!!
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Please note:
This post is not an advert. I have not been paid to write this post. I am not sponsored in any way, even by advertising. I do not receive products free to review, although I have often been offered them. This is to try and maintain an unbiased approach. All views expressed are my own (unless I've asked for The Hub's or Kiddo's).
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| All I'm saying is... NEVER again!! |
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