Biscuiteers
www.biscuiteers.com
Famed for its tins of delicious, picture perfect iced biscuits, Biscuiteers specialises in handmade and lovingly decorated biscuits suitable for all manner of occasions and even lets you personalise biscuits for an extra special gift. In addition to its range of biscuits, Biscuiteers now offers a range of decorated cakes, chocs and sweets – and, let us assure you, they taste as good as they look.
Simply Delicious Cakes
www.simplydeliciouscakes.co.uk
The Simply Delicious Fruit Cake Company specialises in delicious looking (and tasting) fruit cakes that can be delivered by post to all your friends and family. There are eleven types of fruit cake with seasonal offerings at Christmas and Easter. We’re dying to try the Chocolate, Prune and Armagnac cake. Meanwhile, the Square Hand Made Rich Dark Fruit Christmas Cake, iced on top and infused with whisky is pretty high on our festive wish list too.
Gower Cottage Brownies
www.gowercottagebrownies.co.uk
Without too much pomp and fanfare, Gower Cottage Brownies have crept into our consciousness via the best means possible: word of mouth. Though we haven’t yet had the pleasure of tasting a Gower Cottage Brownie, well-placed sources - including broadcaster, Emma Forbes - tell us that they are among the finest they’ve ever tried – and they come beautifully packaged too.
Meg Rivers
www.megrivers.co.uk
What Meg Rivers doesn’t know about cake baking probably isn’t worth knowing. Made with no artificial colouring, flavouring or preservatives and the finest possible ingredients, Meg Rivers cakes have the advantage of being freezable and are also available in wheat-free options. Needless to say, the Christmas cakes, biscuits and puddings look delicious, as do the tray bakes (Bakewell, brownies and flapjacks) and shortbread and gingerbread.
Honeybuns
www.honeybuns.co.uk
Honeybuns is run by a highly skilled team making cakes, flapjacks, shortbreads, tray bakes and cookies. It uses local ingredients where it can and the results are truly scrumptious. For those with special dietary requirements such as nut, dairy or wheat allergies, Honeybuns has the answer and is particularly strong on gluten-free cakes and biscuits, for which it has won prizes.
The Hummingbird Bakery
hummingbirdbakery.com
The Hummingbird Bakery has a legendary status when it comes to cupcakes, with fluffy buttercream icing, gooey cakes and real deal American pies. It first appeared on the scene in 2004 on Portobello Road and now there are four branches in London. Some Hummingbird Bakery firsts: it introduced the Red Velvet cake to the UK with Nigella quickly following suit with her own recipes; it was the first bakery to sell Whoopie Pies in the summer of 2009 and if that's not enough, its cookbook has sold over 555000 copies worldwide.
Emily Jenkinson
Updated December 2018