Soreen Squidgy Cake Minis

I looove this time of year, there are so many new foods out at the moment - Valentines treats, Easter goodies, the beginnings of the spring lines and a few sneaky ice creams (just in time for it to get cold again!) Today's review comes courtesy of Soreen, famous for their Malt Loaf. 

I've found Soreen to be a bit hit and miss, I enjoy the original Malt Loaf, I love the Banana loaf and I was so disgusted by the Toffee Apple loaf that it remains one of the only things I've left uneaten to this day. 

 However today isn't a 'Loaf' - they're a pair of "Squidgy Cakes" I don't really know what the difference is considering the ingredients are near enough identical, just swap raisins in the original for toffee/chocolate but I suppose they have more dessert/treat like flavours. 

Anyway, they are both described as having 

"All the taste with 60% less fat and 50% less sugar compared to standard cake"

Hopefully that won't mean 50% less flavour! 

Toffee Squidgy Cake Minis

First up was the Toffee, as I said before it has the standard Malt Loaf ingredients but includes Butterscotch Sauce, Caramel Syrup, Caramel Flavouring and Toffee Flavouring in the loaf/cake itself and Toffee Pieces dotted throughout. 

Oh dear.. It looked identical to the Toffee Apple. Right down to the darker burnt looking bits that turn out to be the toffee pieces. It certainly looks like a Soreen loaf, nothing cake-y about it! 

The similarities stop there, thankfully. The Toffee Apple had 10% toffee pieces and although this isn't bursting at the seams at 12%, that extra 2% made a difference. I could smell both the toffee and the malt loaf but this time round the toffee was the stronger of the two - I couldn't smell it at all previously. 

I'm surprised, writing my review up, that the loaf is toffee flavoured too. I'd assumed until I actually read the ingredients, that all the toffee came from the pieces as they were the only place I could really taste them. The cake/loaf/thing itself tasted of an ordinary Soreen loaf but the pieces do have a lovely toffee flavour. 

Rating:

It was nice though, sweet and moist and the toffee went well with the already quite enjoyable malt loaf.

Not tastier than a toffee cake - it's not a cake - but it is an improvement on the Original Malt Loaf.

7/10

Chocolate Squidgy Cake 

Next up was the Chocolate Squidgy Cake. It had a lot to live up to, chocolate cake can be amazing but bad chocolate cake can be awful. I ate this after the toffee so I expected that it wouldn't be like a proper cake but I was interested to see how it'd work out. 

As before, its again a Malt Loaf just with added cocoa powder and chocolate chips. 

Well it looked a bit weird! It's supposed to have 14% chocolate chips as opposed to 12% in the toffee but I definitely didn't have as much chocolate as I'd had toffee. 

It smelt as strange as it looked, it had a not quite chocolate, not quite malt loaf scent. There were little hints of normal Soreen but mainly a strong cocoa-like-but-again-not-quite (!) smell. Weird, not like any chocolate cake I've smelt before anyway. 

The cake/loaf had a different texture to any other Soreen I've had too. it was a lot firmer and tougher and not as 'squidgy' as the toffee, original or any other for that matter. I've given enough benefits of the doubts lately so this isn't getting a pass - it's in date until the 10th of March and so it's got to be purely due to the addition of cocoa powder for some reason. It was still chewy though so it ended up with a strange rubbery burnt brownie ends like feel. 

I could taste the malt base before but I didn't at all in the chocolate flavour and it tasted as it smelt - something vaguely chocolatey about it but not quite right. The chocolate chips were lovely though, large and very chocolatey and they provided the chocolate hit I'd been looking for. 

Rating:

It's just a bit..weird. I would never choose this over chocolate cake, despite the less fat and sugar and I think I'd choose a normal Soreen Loaf over it too. It's a shame but if you want a chocolate cake, buy a chocolate cake. 

5/10

Soreen Toffee Apple Lunchbox Loaves

This review will be in two parts the first Toffee Apple mini loaf I tried last week and the one I had today. But there is a reason, I promise. 

'A spooktacular toffee apple loaf bursting with toffee pieces'

Soreen claims these are bursting with toffee pieces, bursting being 10% according to the ingredients. Considering the darker brown circles are the toffee pieces, I don't think my loaf managed to meet that 10% somehow. The mini loaf smelt like an ordinary Soreen loaf and apple, I couldn't smell any toffee at all. 

The filling is made with apple purée, it was very thick and didn't look very appealing once I'd cut it in half to be honest. My first bite was disgusting. All I could taste was apple, no toffee whatsoever then I was hit with the most awful aftertaste - the taste of nasty, rancid, gone off, mouldy apples. I took another couple of (very small) bites and while I could taste a hint of toffee there was always that lingering almost bitter aftertaste. I have to admit defeat and confess I didn't even finish this tiny loaf. 

I wanted to give Soreen the benefit of the doubt, I love their banana loaves and figured this might have been a bad one that found its way in. So after waiting a week (I had to forget that taste) I tried another. 

This one had a couple more toffee pieces but I'm still not sure it's 10%. The added few did make a slight difference as there was a very small hint of the toffee scent whereas before I could just smell Soreen and apple. 

Interestingly when I cut this one in half it looked completely different. The filling is a lot lighter and while the left side is similar to the first, the right could have been a different product. 

I tried the left first as it looked like last weeks, there was none of the nasty aftertaste but every bite seemed like it was bordering on it. You know how fruit tastes when it's just about to turn? It wasn't quite there but nearly. I then tried the right, completely different looking side. It had more toffee chips so straight away the flavour was improved as I could actually taste them! I think there's supposed to be toffee flavour in the loaf and filling too but the apple overwhelms it. In this side the apple was actually very pleasant! A nice, sweet fruity apple which went well with the normal Soreen loaf and the toffee. 

I'm seriously considering that the packaging must have been damaged in some way because I can't understand how the first and first half of the second loaf taste so nasty but the second half was pretty tasty?! They are in date until the 21st of October too..

I can't rate these but I need someone else to try them and let me know - for my sanity!