Now more than ever caterpillar cakes are the must-have centrepiece for children’s birthday parties, BBQs, picnics and literally any other excuse to eat cake - housewarmings, engagements, Thursdays, you name it.
There’s been much talk about supermarket caterpillar cakes over the last few years after a lawsuit was filed against Aldi’s Cuthbert the Caterpillar by M&S, who said it was too similar to their popular, 30-year-old design of Colin.
The brands have since called a truce and Cuthbert recently reemerged on supermarket shelves with an ever-so-slightly different design, with Aldi very much making light of the rivalry online.
READ MORE: I rushed to buy Aldi Cuthbert the Caterpillar as cake hits shelves for first time in 15 months
But as you know, Aldi and M&S aren’t the only supermarkets to have their own notorious novelty desserts, with Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and even Home Bargains having their own incarnation of a caterpillar cake, too.
This week I decided to head out and buy one of every caterpillar cake I could find to pit the oversized chocolate rolls against one another to find the true birthday cake champion - and I found a rather unlikely winner.
I headed out to each of the supermarkets in search of Colin, Cuthbert, Curly, Clyde, Wiggles, Morris and Claude the caterpillars, and was able to get each one in the first store I came to - besides Colin, who was out of stock in the first M&S I visited, however, there were plenty in the second.
Sitting side by side in my fridge, the caterpillar army looked rather menacing rather than screaming ‘birthday party fun’, each glaring out of their little plastic window out into the kitchen.
The following day, I rated the caterpillar cakes on their serving size, design, price, taste and how much of a mess they left in my kitchen, and some scored much higher than others. Here are all the cakes I tested:
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Asda - Clyde the Caterpillar
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Sainsbury’s - Wiggles the Caterpillar
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Aldi - Cuthbert the Caterpillar
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M&S - Colin the Caterpillar
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Tesco - Curly the Caterpillar
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Home Bargains - Claude the Caterpillar
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Morrisons - Morris the Caterpillar
Box design
Arguably the least important element of this review, or so one might think, is the box design. Each of the boxes have a green theme, except Asda’s whose is more yellow. Some brands like M&S and Home Bargains have gone for a leafy design, while Morrisons, Aldi and Asda’s were much more colourful.
I did find that M&S’s box, and Home Bargains’ boxes were the best for carrying as the plastic windows didn’t collapse in on themselves nearly crushing the cake, as they had a bit more structure to them, however, M&S’s cake doesn’t show a caterpillar face on the end of the box, and so he looks like he’s in some sort of solitary confinement when placed in a line up,
Price and serving size
Marks and Spencer had the most expensive caterpillar cake, weighing in at £8, followed by Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco who are all at the lower price of £6.50. Morrisons has undercut the other mid-range supermarkets at £5.99, while Aldi is cheaper still at £4.99. However, it was Home Bargains that was the lowest cost, coming in at just £3.99.
Each of the cakes weigh roughly the same, around 625g, though Sainsbury’s cake is denser at 627g, though the estimated serving suggestions do vary, meaning the size of your slice will too.
Colin the Caterpillar, from M&S, is said to serve 10, while every other cake is said to serve 12 with the exception of Sainsbury’s who claim Wiggles can serve 14 - though for the extra 2g of chocolate, I feel their portions would be significantly smaller.
Face
Lining up the caterpillar cakes was really rather frightening - have you ever looked a Colin the Caterpillar in the eyes? He’s really quite menacing, actually.
Most of the caterpillar cakes opted for a white chocolate face like the OG Colin, with the exception of Asda and Tesco. Asda’s Clyde the Caterpillar actually looks more like Shrek with his green face and red nose, I’m not sure why they thought it was a good idea, but it does make him look as though he’s just come off Oblivion at Alton Towers.
Meanwhile, Curly has a face only a mother could love and is truly the stuff of nightmares. If I was given a Curly the Caterpillar cake for my birthday at the age of seven, I can almost guarantee that 20 years later I’d be on a This Morning phone telling the Speakmans I have a caterpillar phobia.
Most similar to Colin’s face isn’t Cuthbert, but actually Wiggles, both with milk chocolate eyes and sticking their tongue out. Home Bargains’ Claude is the only chocolate face to be printed on, and while there’s nothing wrong with Morris the Caterpillar’s face, it’s definitely Aldi who has mastered the balance between fun, cute and smartly dressed, with the new addition of Cuthbert’s bow tie.
Decoration
Taking a bird’s eye view of the cakes, some look much more fun than others. Asda’s Clyde features a smooth surface with hundreds and thousands and chocolate balls in a multitude of colours, plus orange fondant feet, while Sainsburys caterpillar cake opts for sprinkles and red, green and yellow Smarties style confectionery and four white chocolate trainers that make him look like he’s missing two feet at the back.
Cuthbert has a more ridge-like design, with six white chocolate feet and colourful sprinkles, and his rival Colin also has six white chocolate feet and only yellow and green chocolate pieces.
Curly, while having a smooth chocolate finish, has been drizzled with white chocolate and sprinkled with vibrant chocolate pieces in blues, pinks, greens and oranges. Meanwhile Home Bargains’ smooth cake has hundreds and thousands and a rainbow of chocolate pieces, and is the only cake to not have feet. Morris has gone for orange, yellow and green chocolate, with sprinkles in a more muted colour palette.
Best for cutting
Cutting into a caterpillar cake is no mean feat and frankly requires a skill I don’t possess. I cut the back slice off each of the caterpillar cakes for a taste test, and while some left crumbling chocolate all over my dining table, others provided a much cleaner, mess-free cut.
Cuthbert and Colin were both the hardest to slice due to the ridges in their chocolate shell, but the easiest ones to divide up were Tesco’s Curly and Home Bargains’ Claude.
Each of the cakes come on their own board which avoids most of the mess being in the kitchen, except for Home Bargains’, whose cake is boardless. You may want to place Claude on a chopping board if serving him up for guests.
Taste test
The most important part, right? Three cake aficionados - that’s me and my parents - each tasted all of the different supermarket caterpillar cakes, and it was two against one for the best.
We all found Cuthbert to be on the dry side, while M&S’s Colin was clearly the richest - though it must be said that whoever gets the back slice of a Colin the Caterpillar really pulled the short straw as his tail tapers off.
Tesco and Morrisons’ cakes were both moist and tasted very chocolatey, while Asda’s was more sugary and not rich enough. Sainsbury’s cake ranked highly for it’s light and fluffy sponge texture, but it was Home Bargains once again that surprised us with having vanilla filling rather than chocolate, and offered a light and tasty sponge.
Verdict
If I were having a birthday party, Clyde and Curly definitely would not be invited because frankly, I find them a little bit scary. That said, none of the actual cakes themselves were bad - though I can’t say I’ve ever had a bad chocolate cake.
Cuthbert and Colin were both fab party pieces, and I have it on good authority that, warmed up with a bit of double cream, Cuth’s dry sponge isn’t all that bad, while Morris and Wiggles were also pretty good contenders for a cheap birthday cake.
But scoring highly for box sturdiness, ease of division, design, flavour and being the cheapest of the whole bunch, Claude the Caterpillar from Home Bargains was my unlikely favourite, and would 100 per cent be head of the table at my next shindig. It was the vanilla cream that really set him apart.
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