A food reviewer spent £130 trying the new M&S cake range and found a big issue (file) (Image: Getty)
A food reviewer spent a hefty £130 trying out the new Marks & Spencer cake range and found one big problem.
Billy, also known as Big Daddy B on social media, is a creator at Food Review Club – the UK’s top food reviewing platform. He recently sampled from a range of brands and supermarkets and he has now moved onto cakes.
The food reviewer taste tested the Neapolitan Ice Cream Style, Chocolate Mini Bite, Speculoos, Salted Caramel Latte, Chocolate & Caramel Millionaire’s, Ultimate Cookies & Cream and Raspberry Ripple cakes. He rated them one-by-one in a video posted on .
Billy said: “My least favourite was the Chocolate & Caramel Millionaire’s Cake. It looked great and I will say the cake was really moist but it was just a bit too sweet and overpowering for me.
“Not a great deal of flavour in there in comparison to the others either – five out of ten. Next was the Raspberry Ripple – lovely looking cake with the wow factor.
: [FOOD]
: [RECIPE] [HEALTH] [FOOD]
“Unfortunately, this didn’t deliver. I really liked the sharpness from the jam and the meringue pieces on top were good but again, really over-poweringly sweet which let it down – six out of ten.”
He then moved onto the Speculoos cake with the flavour of Lotus Biscoff. The description on the M&S website reads: “The biscuit flavour you know and love can now take centre stage at a celebration with our Speculoos Cake. Speculoos-flavoured sponge meets spiced salted caramel buttercream and rich salted caramel sauce, topped off with chocolate decorations.”
Billy admitted he thought this cake “would be better” but he “did still really enjoy it.” He found there was “very strong spiced flavour in the sponge and buttercream”.
The treat was “pretty well balanced and not too sweet” but he said that the sponge “could have been a little bit moister.” He rated it a seven out of ten.
Next was the Chocolate Mini Bite Cake, priced at £40, an “indulgent four layer chocolate cake” filled with “velvety chocolate ganache and generously covered in smooth chocolate buttercream”. It is decorated with a mixture of milk chocolate bars, double chocolate mini rolls, chocolate cornflake clusters, millionaires mini bites and chocolate covered cookie dough pieces.
Billy described it as a “decent chocolate cake but it is just a chocolate cake” so he gave it a seven out of ten. After this, he tried the Neapolitan Ice Cream Style Cake which he said was “very decadent” and he “loved the layers” which give it a “wow factor”.
The three flavours featured in this cake are chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. The food reviewer mentioned that the strawberry jam “cut through the sweetness” and the sponge was “pretty moist”.
He rated this cake a 7.5 out of 10. The Ultimate Cookies and Cream Cake, priced at £40, was “really good” and the layers “looked banging”, according to Billy.
The four-layer dessert features chocolate and chocolate chip sponge, filled with cookie crumb buttercream and covered in cookie flavour buttercream. Billy enjoyed this one more than the others as he ranked it an eight out of ten.
He concluded: “And my favourite was the Salted Caramel Latte. This was a banger – moist sponge, strong coffee and caramel flavours which worked perfectly, not too sweet.
“Chocolate balls on top to give it a bit of crunch – 8.5 out of 10.” Billy’s video has amassed an impressive 1.3 million views, 40,700 likes and more than 700 comments.
In the comment section, he revealed that “quite a few” of the cakes were dry as this is a remark that numerous users made. One person said: “Looks dry…why spend all that money for what??”
Billy replied: “Quite a few were dry. Did it For content.” Another user echoed: “I’ve never had a store bought cake that isn’t as dry as a bone.”
However, there were some positive comments, including “the carrot cake is delicious”, “if I had that much money I’d buy them all but have to say u need to try their chocolate birthday cake and their white chocolate and raspberry one ufffff sooo good in my opinion” and “Marks and Spencer do the best cakes.” Another user thanked Billy for sharing this video as they said: “Thank you for reviewing them, I have been dying to see what the inside looks like, so I appreciate you showing us before I buy one.”