FOOD & DR INK
AFTER YEARS OF DISAPPOINTMENT, CHELSEA FEARNLEY TAKES ONE FOR THE TEAM AND TRIES OUT VEGAN CAKES ACROSS CAMBRIDGE
few weeks ago, I was sharing a Doppleganger cake shake with a friend when she said that she had never eaten a really good
vegan cake. She wasn’t talking about the cake shake – a miraculous mash-up of drink and dessert, this one made with salted caramel ice cream, topped with a fudgy brownie and lashings of chocolate sauce (available for delivery via the Doppleganger website) – she was talking about the kind of cakes your granny might have made, served on paper plates and messily wrapped in cling film for the village fete. While I’m usually the first to start screaming about why vegan food is just as good as its traditional counterpart, I had to agree. I’ve eaten vegan cakes that may look the part, but either collapse into a pile of crumbs or pull apart like stiff bread when bitten into. I’d almost given up on cakes entirely when my friend suggested seeking out some good ones for this column. The first few I tried were from Stir. An unfussy cafe with an on-site bakery, it’s based in Chesterton but makes deliveries via bicycle. After gobbling a chocolate chip cookie and a gooey fruit and nut flapjack, I was left with the star of the show; a chocolate cake that saw me emulating Bruce Bogtrotter by forgoing a fork and licking the plate for scraps. It was packed full of my favourite sweet ingredients – chocolate, dates, and ginger – and topped with a deliciously soft chocolate frosting and shavings of crisp, dark chocolate. Next, I tried another chocolate cake, this time from Tom’s Cakes on Mill Road. It was busy inside, so I ate mine on the go, with surprising ease, since this rich chocolate cake was enveloped in a firm chocolate ganache. It was dusted with tangy freeze-dried raspberries – which are, unequivocally, the best pairing for chocolate. Next, I ventured to Cambridge’s only plant-based eatery, Stem + Glory,
“It was packed full of my favourite sweet ingredients”
ordering this cake in future every time I go for my regular Vegatsu curry! The last cake I tried on my quest for the holy grail of cake was a spiced pumpkin and chocolate chip muffin from Linton Kitchen, a cake so special that every bite tasted like Christmas. It was almost fudgy, dotted with chunks of Belgian chocolate; the pumpkin made it moist, but its taste was not overpowering, and it was decorated with crunchy pumpkin seeds and a lovely physalis. This charming cafe also does a vegan lemon and blueberry muffin, as well as seasonal cakes and an incidentally gluten-free peanut butter and jam muffin. If Linton Kitchen is a bit out of your way, you’ll be pleased to learn that the team has plans to open a spot in Cambridge soon.
a contemporary restaurant with white walls, tables and chairs and a tiled bar. It’s the kind of place you usually go to order something healthy, but I opted for a humongous slab of lemon and poppy seed cake, crowned with a sharp lemon frosting, fresh summer fruits and flowers for fun. The sponge was a little on the heavy side, but it had been poked full of holes and filled with a lemon syrup to keep it moist. Next up on my pilgrimage of cake was a mango and matcha layer cake from Wagamama. A bit like a modern Victoria sponge, with a zingy and refreshing tang provided by the mango and passion fruit puree, it was soft and sweet with layers of matcha and yuzu cream and a melt-in- the-mouth vanilla sponge. I’ll definitely be
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