Sometimes all I want is coffee and cake. Luckily, I am spoiled for choice in my local area for coffee shops, so there are loads of options for me. I am slowly making my way through them, and I have finally been able to go to Bakers and Baristas. Annoyingly, they didn’t have any vegan options for quite a while (at least not at my local branch) so this has been a long time coming. Before I went vegan this had been my go-to meet up spot for my friends and I as their muffins were always so good, and very reasonably priced. Since going vegan though, I haven’t been able to visit for a while so was keen to try them out again once I saw they had a vegan muffin option.
Their lemon and raspberry muffin was exactly what you would expect from a chain cafe. One thing that initially put me off, is that the top of the muffin was very hard. I first worried that it was just very stale, as I did go here rather late in the day, but the rest of the muffin was soft and spongey, so I think the top may have just been a little bit burnt whilst being baked. Thankfully the flavours complimented each other well, with the lemon being just enough to give a nice sour tartness to sweet muffin base, whilst the raspberry’s own sweetness and tartness helped to counteract the sourness of the lemon. There were also small chunks of raspberry within the actual muffin, which gave a nice extra texture to the otherwise very light and fluffy muffin. That being said, I don’t think the flavours were overly powerful, in the sense that had I not known that it was raspberry and lemon, I am not sure I would have been able to fully pinpoint those flavours specifically.
The one downside is that this muffin cries out for a hot drink companion. The muffin is very light and fluffy, but it was also quite crumbly and a little dry – just enough so that you would really need a cup of tea or coffee (or whatever hot drink you prefer) to really compliment it. It isn’t a huge negative, as the actual taste of the muffin is very yummy, but just something to be aware of. But then that is the whole point of going to a café; to have coffee and cake.
Another warning I feel I need to add is that they are very generous with the icing sugar dusting on top of the muffin. Do not do what I did, where I clearly inhaled a bit too enthusiastically prior to my first bite, and ended up inhaling a lung-full of icing sugar and then had to spend the next five minutes coughing it all up again. Just keep that in mind too if you are as accident prone as I am!
From a price perspective, this muffin cost me £2.95. Which is quite reasonable as most baked goods in any chain store are around the £3 mark, give or take £1 depending on what the product is. But £3 for a coffee shop muffin is pretty reasonable. Now I much preface this with that fact that I don’t go out for coffee and cake all that often – life is pretty routine at the moment and so café visits are a ‘treat’ for me, as I often don’t have time time go on any sort of regular basis. With this in mind, I think £3 is reasonable as a once a month (probably even a once a fortnight) treat, especially if accompanied by a £4 coffee or a £5 sandwich, but this is not something that I would spend money on daily. Probably not even weekly. Not because it wasn’t nice, but it wasn’t so nice as to justify the cost on a regular basis.
Taylor Talks Vegan 
How beautiful!
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