Words by Samantha Harman
Hand up, who loves cake? That’s pretty much all of you right…
Situated in the vibrant shopping area of George Street in Hove there is a hidden gem. The Cake Box is a purple fronted gateway to cake heaven with a difference, all the products are egg free. The owners follow a strict lacto-free vegetarian diet, but wanted to create delicious tasting sponges for themselves and others who have the same dietary restrictions.
The company was established in 2008 with one small shop, they now boast in excess of 230 locations with more planned for this year. There’s clearly a market for egg free cakes!
The Discover team visited to taste some for ourselves and were spoilt for choice. There’s everything from cupcakes, to medium and large celebration cakes to choose from. We gazed at the tempting treats on display through the glass cabinet window, feeling rather like Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. There’s red velvet, chocolate, carrot, caramel and vanilla – all decorated beautifully with icing, fresh fruit and chocolate. It’s fair to say deciding what to try was challenging.
While we were there, a small girl was with her parents waiting patiently for the birthday cake that would mark her fourth spin around the sun. The owner appeared moments later with the aforementioned cake and a number four gold helium balloon that hovered in the air next to the big white box. It is rare to witness such a joyous moment, her adorable face beamed like sunshine before she skipped out of the shop holding hands with her mum. Making people happy is a side effect of baking great cakes and the owner had clearly formed a good bond with the family having had a lengthy meeting to decide what they wanted.
Anyway, back to us. We were presented with a chocolate cake, known as a ‘slice’ – which was huge and could easily have fed two people, furthermore we were obsessed with the slim rectangular shape, so much easier to share fairly. The top was decorated with white creamy icing swirls, white chocolate curls, chocolate sauce and ROLOS! Indeed an elite chocolate delicacy.
How did it taste? As good as it looked. The sponge was moist (sorry, no better word in our vocab) and light as a feather. We expected it to be denser, but no, every bite was angelic and not even slightly sickly. The sponge resembles gateau, according to Google this is the result of excluding eggs, a much lighter sponge.
We are going back for the red velvet cake as soon as possible and recommend you do the same. (There are also vegan options available so no one needs to be left out).
New Brighton store opens first week of July!
