With the kids due home from school any minute, a quick trip to the Coop was needed to get the little darlings (and me) something quick to go with a cup of tea or glass of milk before tea proper was ready. As always, everyone would be "starving". As a rule of thumb I try to get under the £1 barrier so headed for the clearance and bargain shelves where there is usually something to meet our needs. On this occasion I spotted the Mr Kipling Chocolate Chip Cake Bars reduced to a reasonable 80p for a box of six. I hadn't tried them before so was genuinely interested in finding out what they were like.

Looking at the dooyoo illustration it is clear that these cakes have been repackaged since that was made. The box is now in purple tones, there are six cake bars in the pack and not five and their shape has changed; they are now flat-topped rather than with the domed appearance shown. I suspect that they are also smaller; they really are very small. They remain individually wrapped; a bonus for keeping fresh once the box has been opened and more practical for use in lunchboxes too. For us it is ideal having six in a box (we are six altogether in our family). This avoids the dilemma posed by packs of four or five: do I buy two packs or take a chance that someone will be happy to share or won't like it anyway? This is a delicate path to tread!

Taking a bite of a cake bar I am impressed with the freshness of the sponge and its natural taste, nearly home-made. It is quite light and goes down easily. However, there are not too many chocolate chips but at least they are smooth in texture and chocolatey, not hard and sugary. The overall effect is quite bland and unexciting though. The opinion of my children is similar: nice if a bit ordinary and very small. They ask me to get something different next time.

The nutritional information provided is quite clearly marked on the front of the pack and no artificial flavours or colours are used. Even the eggs used are free range (though dried) and no hydrogenated fats are used either. So Mr Kipling is trying to make this product a little healthier for us too.

Nutrition (per bar).
~Kcal: 108
~Sugar: 10g
~Fat: 5g (of which 2g saturates)
~Salt 0.1g

Perhaps it's just as well they are small!