There is never a bad excuse to treat yourself to a cake. Whether marking a birthday, raising a glass to an anniversary, or simply welcoming the weekend with open arms, any occasion is a perfectly valid reason to indulge.
However, baking your own cake from scratch can be a very time-consuming task, which is why most supermarkets stock a wide array of ready-made options you can take home straight away, making for a great time-saving solution. But with such an overwhelming selection on offer, how on earth do you know which one tastes the best? This was precisely the question one food enthusiast set out to answer, with him spending £130 on cakes from M&S to review and crown an ultimate winner.
Better known online as 'Big Daddy B', Billy D'Souza regularly shares his food reviews across various social media platforms, amassing over 400,000 followers across TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. In a recent clip, he put an impressive selection of M&S cakes through their paces in a thorough taste test.
"I spent £130 on the M&S cakes range, and this is how I rated them. Let's go," Billy declared at the beginning of the video, which featured him cutting a generous slice from each of the cakes on offer.
Chocolate and Caramel Millionaire's Cake
He proceeded to share his thoughts on each of the cakes, beginning with his least favourite – the Chocolate and Caramel Millionaire's cake. According to the M&S website, this creation features chocolate and caramel sponge layers, sandwiched with salted caramel and chocolate buttercream. It's then adorned with fudge pieces, milk chocolate shavings and white chocolate-coated shortcake balls.
After sampling a mouthful, Billy said: "It looks great, and I will say the cake was really moist. But it's just a bit too sweet and overpowering for me." He subsequently gave it a five out of ten, suggesting it lacked depth of flavour compared to some of the other offerings.
Raspberry Ripple Cake
Next in line was the Raspberry Ripple cake, which boasts golden Madeira sponge layered with zingy raspberry jam and sweet vanilla and raspberry buttercream. It's crowned with additional buttercream and garnished with crispy raspberry meringues, a scattering of white chocolate curls, and freeze-dried raspberry pieces.
"Lovely looking cake with the wow factor," Billy declared. He then continued: "Unfortunately, this didn't deliver." While he appreciated the tartness of the jam and the meringues on top, he maintained it was 'really overpoweringly sweet', ultimately awarding it a six out of ten.
Speculoos Cake
While Biscoff and caramelised biscuit flavours have dominated taste trends in recent years, M&S has introduced this Speculoos cake to their selection, featuring spiced sponges complemented by a similarly spiced buttercream. "I thought this would be better, but I did still really enjoy it," Billy said. "Strong spiced flavour in the sponge and buttercream, pretty well balanced, and not too sweet. Sponge could have been a little bit moister though." As a result, the cake received a solid seven out of ten.
Chocolate Minibite Cake
Moving on, Billy sampled the Chocolate Minibite cake, a four-layer chocolate creation filled with rich chocolate ganache and lavishly coated in silky chocolate buttercream. The cake is adorned with an assortment of M&S's most beloved minibite treats, including milk chocolate bars, double chocolate mini rolls, chocolate cornflake clusters, millionaires mini bites and chocolate covered cookie dough pieces. After tasting it, Billy described it as 'just a chocolate cake', awarding it a seven out of ten.
Neapolitan Ice Cream Style Cake
Drawing inspiration from the classic trio of ice cream flavours, the Neapolitan Ice Cream style cake features chocolate, vanilla and pink sponge alongside buttercream and strawberry jam. It's then finished off with decorations that give the appearance of melting ice cream on top. "Very decadent, love the layers," Billy said. "It has that wow factor. I love the different flavours." Declaring it a 'pretty good all rounder', he awarded it seven and a half out of ten.
Ultimate Cookies and Cream Cake
The following cake features four layers comprising chocolate and chocolate chip sponge, sandwiched with cookie crumb buttercream and enrobed in cookie-flavoured buttercream. It's completed with a dark drizzle and cookie-shaped chocolates adorning the top. "This was really good, again. And the layers looked banging," Billy said. "This was legit. Eight out of ten."
Salted Caramel Latte Cake
"And my favourite was the salted caramel latte," he announced as he showed off the camera for viewers to see. M&S describes this creation as having coffee and caramel-flavoured sponges, stacked with luxurious coffee buttercream and indulgent salted caramel sauce. "This was a banging and moist sponge, strong coffee and caramel flavours, which worked perfectly," Billy praised, adding that it wasn't too sweet either. This ultimately earned an impressive eight and a half out of ten, crowning it the winner of this taste test.
