Nom! New review and a surprise lemon drizzle cake (well, they call it the Lemon Loaf) from Starbucks! I didn’t realise they did them, but last Friday when I skipped off to Brum to see an old and dear friend of mine, I spotted it when we stopped for a drink. Never one to turn down the opportunity for cake (hehee) I thought I’d better grab it. Thanks, Celine, for snapping this picture before I scoffed it:

So, as we all (should) know, Starbucks is a massive chain, popular both here and in the USA and known recently for skipping out on their taxes in this country. My opinion on that is neither here nor there (in fact, I don’t have one) but this cake certainly make me sit up.
 
 
Presentation
Nothing fancy here. Just a slab of cake, slapped on a plate. Still, it had a good colour and a nice layer of icing along the top that was not too thick and therefore didn’t distract from the cake itself. Though similar to Nero’s this cake is a slice from a loaf style slab, so there’s only so pretty it can look. Ho hum.
 
 
Taste
Mass produced nummy-ness. The ice had rind in it, an unusual touch that so far, I’ve not come across. Very pleasant as a result, however and added a little squidgyness to the icing. Powerful lemon flavour as well, though that died right out by the time you got to the sponge. It tasted a bit bland to be honest, not much to it at all and the only reason I knew it was lemon was because of the icing.
 
 
Texture
This surprised me. Considering how boring the taste of the sponge was, the cake itself was really pleasant in the mouth. Far more moist than I might have guessed (or originally wanted), but after a couple of bites I was quite into it. Couple that with the rind in the icing and it makes a range of textures and that I actually really enjoyed.
 
 
Cost
Ooops. I wish I had made a proper note of the price to give you the exact figure, unfortunately I didn’t. However, that day I had the cake, a bottled drink AND an iced drink and I only paid £5 so it can’t be that bad. I did get a little bit of a discount because I picked up on of their loyalty cards, but those iced drinks are a good £3ish. So the cake couldn’t have been more than £2ish. Which, is about right for a chain store. I just wish the slice had been a little thicker for that sort of price.

Overall Rating

Yep, about on par with the Cafe Nero specimen and nowhere near as gorge as the Crumbling Cookie. A middling three stars for a middling lemon cake.