You'd have thought that I would have given up on Boots' own-brand snack range by now. All of my finds so far have looked and sounded delicious, but have in fact tasted pretty rubbish. Remember their awful Cinnamon & Vanilla Popcorn, even worse Coconut & Pineapple Popcorn and disappointing Banoffee Flapjack? Well I hate giving up on anyone/anything, and seem to live in constant hope that they'll redeem themselves one day, so bought Boots' 'Delicious' Red Velvet Cake Slice (albeit with my fingers crossed).
The cake looked pretty with its creamy icing and red sprinkles. It wasn't the bright colour that I'd have liked it to be, but I felt I could forgive Boots as it's so much harder to get that vivid shade nowadays thanks to the stringent laws on the use of artificial colours.
The knife cut through the cake easily thanks to its fluffy texture and soft icing. The cake was moister than expected, with a good even crumb structure... But, that's where the positives stopped.
Once again, Boots clearly haven't given enough thought to the flavours. The cake had a faint cocoa flavour, but it was so bland that it tasted more like it might have absorbed any lingering fridge smells. It really was that bad.
The icing on top didn't improve matters either; surely a key characteristic of 'Red Velvet' is the tart cream cheese layer? Well, Boots forewent it altogether, instead opting for a 'white chocolate' buttercream. I'm a huge fan of white chocolate, so this shouldn't be a huge problem, but I couldn't remotely taste its inclusion... so I checked the packet and read that it only accounts for 1% of the ingredients! How pointless.
3/10
Now, despite a FOURTH bad Boots review, I'm still tempted by their 'Cookie Dough Brownie' and Carrot Cake (yes, I'm a mug).
Please get in touch if you've had any of Boots' cakes or snacks that actually taste as good as they sound!
Happy birthday for today!! I hope you didn't end up actually eating this today or it seems it would have been a very disappointing birthday cake boo hoo :(
ReplyDeleteThank you! Fortunately I had it on Monday, and got my smackers around a Krispy Kreme Biscoff instead today -much better! Thanks again for the well wishes :D xx
DeleteI get the Millionaire's Shortbread sometimes and it's quite good! Well, serviceable - can't go too wrong with caramel shortbread. Cookie Dough Brownie is uh...well...also not great. :( Sorry! TOO sweet, I think.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up Chelsea, I'll heed your advice and stay clear! ;)
DeleteI've tried this and it was my first (& last) taste of red velvet cake - like you say, totally bland, so it's put me off. I've given up on Boots snack food now as it promises so much and delivers so little. The last straw was their shapers hot chocolate nougat bar - don't bother!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Elizabeth for the feedback! Good red velvet cake is incomparable to the Boots rubbish, so please don't give up on it entirely. It seems to be impossible for companies to create and mass produce true red velvet, so if you spot it in a bakery somewhere it might be worth another try.
DeleteOh dear, I had seen the hot choc nougat bars... I think I'll stick to the chocolate bars in future! :)
Might be worth trying - you might like them. One thing that irritates me with the shapers bars is just how teeny they are. It was better than the red velvet cake and you're right, I'll have to give the concept another chance lol!
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