Crosstown The Bride doughnut

I finally decided to brave the cold winter weather (we have had rain for 47 days in a row so far!) and decided to finally visit Oxford. I have always heard great things about this city, and now that I live relatively close by, I thought there was no better reason to visit than now. Not to sound like a cliché, but Oxford is a very pretty city, but I have to admit there doesn’t seem to be a lot there aside from the university – which was very impressive and did feel quite regal, but I am slowly realising that if you’ve been to one UK city, you’ve likely been to them all. Granted I was only there for the day, but my first impressions are that this city is a very historic but very quiet city. Make of that what you will, as I have no doubt that this sort of city appeals to lots of people, but for me, I guess I just expected it all to be…bigger? Maybe I just need to go back and explore it a bit more…

Don’t get me wrong, I still had a very lovely visit, and looking at all of the very old buildings was quite cool. But I am not a big reader of history so I imagine a lot of the grandeur of the city is lost on someone like me who has no clue what the history of the city is, aside from the fact that there is the University of Oxford. But I still had a lot of fun wandering the streets and soaking in the atmosphere of the place.

Which was actually very hungry work! Luckily for me, Oxford has a Crosstown so I definitely had to get a little walking doughnut to enjoy whilst I did all of my walking and exploring. I decided to try their limited edition doughnut, which was made to promote the new ‘The Bride’ movie, which I believe is about to hit cinemas. I think it is a new take on the Bride of Frankenstein, but I mainly went for the doughnut because it was new and it looked super cool.

As always, the doughnut itself was a sourdough and it was lovely. It was meant to be chocolate flavoured, but this was a very subtle flavour that I don’t think I would have been able to identify had it not be told to me. Either way, still very tasty, still very fluffy, and very subtle in the sweetness. The doughnut was filled with a blackcurrant jam which was very tasty – very tart, yet still sweet, in the way that blackcurrants always are. It was sweet, but not in an artificial way so it never tasted overpowering or sickly. It also complimented the sourdough very nicely, with the tartness of the blackcurrant really coming through that savoury base.

Unfortunately the thing that let the doughnut down a tiny bit (and I mean a tiny bit) was that it is a very messy doughnut. The blackcurrant filling was very tasty, but this doughnut was packed so there was jam everywhere. the good news is that the makers are clearly very generous with their jam servings, but you will need a plate or a napkin under you to ensure you don’t end up with deep purple jam all over yourself! The black icing I also found got all over my fingers, and it will leave a very subtle black tint you your lips. Perhaps that is the point of it, to give you that ever-so-slight gothic look, but if that is not your vibe you will need a lot of napkins.

As with all Crosstown doughnuts, they are expensive, and this was a specialist one so it cost even more. £5.95 for this one doughnut, which whilst I admit is a lot for one doughnut, I do still believe that Crosstown doughnuts are absolutely worth the money because they are consistently top quality when it comes to doughnuts. I also do not buy these doughnuts on a regular basis so these are absolutely a once-in-a-while treat for me, and I can therefore easily justify the costs.

Overall: 8/10. Very tasty, but very messy!

T xxx