I love baking don't get me wrong, but as a full-time university student and part-time bartender that also owns a horse along with a few other animals, spare time is a luxury. This is why I decided I would not only share baking recipes I have used myself (and love) on this blog, but also try to do a few reviews of some baking small businesses. This way I could support a few different small businesses whilst also getting to enjoy some different cakes and bakes that I most likely wouldn't attempt myself! As I have said before, I am a hobby baker. Not a professional by any means.
George's Bakery is a small business based in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, England. George’s bakery make both traditional and modern cakes from their finest local ingredients. It seems in the past couple of years they have made their claim to fame on tiktok. Since their first tiktok video in February of 2019 they have managed to get to 305k followers and 3.2 million likes. This is where I discovered George’s bakery and have followed them on tiktok for the past few months.
Unlike most bakeries, George’s Bakery don’t have an established place of business as such, their bakes and cakes are sold via selling at both St Ives Farmers Market and Ely Farmers Market. In addition, there is the way I managed to get my hands on some baked goods which was through the Postal Boxes that become available every Wednesday and Sunday at 8pm. But with a lot of bakeries that sell mainly online they generally sell out very quickly, so It’s important to be on the ball with getting an order in.
All orders include next day delivery, but as anyone reading from Northern Ireland will know that this usually doesn’t really apply. But I ordered my assorted box at noon and the next morning it arrived! I did not expect the box to be quite as big as it was or a heavy but once I opened it up it all made sense. The picture on the website which I will attach below, just doesn’t put into perspective how big these buns really are. You definitely get more for your money than you realise when you order! I thought the packaging was nice and I liked the fact everything was individually packaged too.
I ordered an Assorted Box of bakes which included…
-Salted Caramel Crevice
My Rating 7/10 – Not a major fan of caramel, but it was a massive bun and tasted pretty good.
My Friends Rating 6.5/10 – Thought it was a bit too caramelly and wasn’t that impressed.
-Kinder Flapjack
My Rating 7/10 – I couldn’t really taste any kinder flavour compared to a normal flapjack with chocolate on top, seemed like it was just a flapjack with a kinder hippo on top. Expected more kinder flavour. But it was a nice flapjack with a pretty swirl on top.
My Friends Rating 6/10 – “Didn’t really taste like kinder, needed more milk choc” “the crispie part had gone soft” – this latter comment may be down to the fact it took me a couple days to realise it said to refrigerate them.
The one downside to this type of blog post is that I usually can't offer any recipes for you to try at home! But in this case I managed to find a recipe for the Kinder Flapjack
-Toffee Crisp
My Rating 7.5/10 – I am not a major fan of toffee so this wasn’t really for me, but I liked it more than I thought I would, and it had a nice crunchy texture. Also enjoy the toffee bit at the bottom. Pleasantly surprised.
My Friends Rating 0/10 – Refused to try because she doesn’t like toffee (no commitment to her role as baked good taste tester)
-Crispie Brookie
My Rating 6.5/10 – I agreed with my friend, individually the brownie and cookie layers were really good. But when eating a mouthful of brownie, cookie and chocolate crispie bun together it was just a lot going on and didn’t taste great.
My Friends Rating 6/10 – “The components just don’t go together” “They taste better individually”
-Nutella Crispie Crevice
My Rating 8/10 – I am obsessed with Nutella so that pretty much explains this one, it had a nice texture and was very yummy. The chopped nuts on top were a nice addition.
My Friends Rating 4/10 - “don’t like the texture”
-Caramac Wagon Wheel
My Rating 9/10 – One of my absolute favourites which surprised me. All the components tasted really good together and it was very satisfying to cut into. The cookie was really good, and it was just really good.
My Friends Rating 10/10 - “oh that was yummy, no criticism”
-Strawberry Shortcake Crispie
My Rating 7/10 – Yummy, but I love chocolate so will only be giving it a 7.
My Friends Rating 10/10 - “gold star, the Gordon Ramsay of baking”
In the end I wouldn’t be quick to order a box of such similar buns again. It was a lot of food and unfortunately the week they arrived I was unwell and had lost my appetite so couldn’t really enjoy all the different treats as much as I usually would. But fortunately, friends and family were more than happy to help me out! I definitely think they are a great purchase if you’re planning on having people round or have a larger family as the buns are massive and can be cut up into many portions (most of mine ended up being 4-6 portions in one bun as they were very filling) and this means everyone gets to try all of them which was nice.
Money wise I do think they are reasonably priced for getting 7 large buns and next day delivery these cost me £31.00. Once you break that down the postage is liked to cost around £5.46 which is Royal Mail Tracked 24 for a small parcel. That means you’re paying around £25.54 for the baked goods themselves, divide that by 7 and it works out at £3.60 each. Which is a good price for the size of them and how much you get. Compared to other postal box bakeries I looked at they ended up pricing similarly but it’s also hard to know size wise from the pictures online whether the other bakeries would be as good value for the amount you get.
I did contact George’s Bakery on Instagram in the hopes of getting them to answer a few questions for this but unfortunately got no reply. If the end up getting back to me I will be sure to do an update blog post with some more information about the business!
Overall, I would rate George’s bakery 8/10. I think they have some really interesting baked goods that you don’t see elsewhere and have some good flavour combos going on, but some things look really good but don’t live up to expectations when you taste them. I do wish I’d got to try some of their impressive cakes though, Stay tuned for next week…
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