It might not be the obvious choice, but the lemon drizzle cake is up there with Britain's favourite desserts.
As the warmer months approach, it's definitely one we see more of as the lighter sponge and citrus flavour takes on a wider appeal.
But which one deserves the top spot on that dinner table? We decided to try the offerings from each of the supermarkets to find out.
Try as we might, we couldn't find one in stock at Aldi and have since been told theirs is a seasonal product for winter, which seems a tad bizarre. Nevertheless we had an ample selection, with cakes from Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco, M&S and Lidl.
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Here's what we thought...
Appearance
You can see from a quick glance inside the boxes that they all look very different.
Some have a fully iced top, mainly Asda and M&S, while on the others it's more like a sugar glaze. Judging by the photo on the box, the Morrisons' one is supposed to be covered in white too, but most of the icing had settled around the edge, leaving a mottled appearance over the top.
It also looks nothing like the picture of the cake on the supermarket's website, which appears to show pieces of lemon rind scattered across the top.
While not as obvious on all the cakes, most actually have a layer in the middle - of either buttercream, lemon curd, or both. It's only the ones from Morrisons and M&S that don't.
Size
As with our previous carrot cake and chocolate cake taste tests, you wouldn't notice any difference from looking at them. Each one says serve six and they do, but you're not getting a particularly big slice.
There is a slight weight difference, ranging from around 400g to little over 430g, but it's not really noticeable.
Texture and taste
It's easy to be overfaced when you've got six cakes on the go, but we had 11 tasters all sampling a small slice of each one.
Everyone's taste buds are different and it's rare to get everyone ranking them the same.
It soon became apparent amid the muffled mumbles of 'too sweet', 'too sugary', 'too thick' and what not, that we had a clear winner.
For nine out of 11 of us, it was the M&S given the thumbs up - preferring it for everything from the way it looks and how neatly it cuts, to the overall taste. While quite a thick sponge, it's not too heavy and the even layer of icing gives it just enough of the gooey stuff, without the overbearing filling we found with many of the others.
It was the other one without a layer of filling, from Morrisons, that was chosen for first place by the two remaining tasters and ranked second best by the others. Perhaps no coincidence that its iced top proved flavoursome enough.
The ones that had a layer were not only a bit too rich - Lidl's flavour in particular had a few people screwing their faces up - but they were also harder to eat, with the Sainsbury's one falling to pieces when it was cut into.
Nobody was a real fan of the frosted topped ones, nobody needs such a visual reminder of how much sugar they're consuming, and while Asda's had an iced top, the sponge itself was a bit too thick.
Price
There are regular offers on these kind of products but the usual prices are:
- Sainsbury's £3 (currently reduced to £2.25)
- Tesco £3 (currently £2.25 with Clubcard)
- Morrisons £2.99
- Asda £2.85 (was on offer for £2)
- Lidl £2.19
- M&S £3.50
Sadly our preferred cake, from M&S, is the most expensive, costing £3.50. But at 435g it's among the bigger ones.
Second best, from Morrisons, is also second most expensive, at £2.99, but that's only because of current offers running at Tesco and Sainsbury's.
If you want a drizzle cake that has everyone drooling, then it's well worth splashing out that little bit extra if you can.
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