Taste Test: We try Marks & Spencer's latest hybrid snack, the Biscake

They’re sweeter than syrup, but we can handle that.

Biscakes

What is it?

Marks & Spencers’ new Biscakes™, £2.50 for a pack of two. Available in the cheerily monikered flavours: Lemon Meringue-a-Tang, Choc Chip off the Old Block and Cherry Cakewell.

In order to follow up the success of their Yumnut, it’s safe to say that someone in the M&S product development department has gone bananas for Frankensteinian hybrids this spring.

The latest creation is this cross between a biscuit and a cupcake. However, this season, M&S is also releasing The Chicken Pie-ev (a pie and chicken Kiev blend) and Hot-Cross Yumnuts, which splice together doughnuts, yum-yums and hot cross buns.

If one of the Markies high heidyins is reading, we’d like you to create a mutation of fudge, tablet, and macaroon - the Fabaroon.

Or, you could cross Percy with Colin the Caterpillar to make the Pig-arpillar. You’re welcome.

Anyway, the new Biscakes are the cockapoos of the food world. Perfect for the indecisive (and extremely greedy).

Where can I buy one?

Only, in bigger branches of Marks & Spencer, see www.marksandspencer.com for your nearest. They’re harder to track down in the wee Simply Food shops. While restrictions apply, get yours when you shop for essentials, as I don’t think Biscakes are a strict necessity.

What does it taste like?

If you’re the sort of person who grumbles about things being “too sweet”, you won’t like these.

However, they’re perfect for those who would never utter those words. As one of them, I’m a big fan of the bionic sugary-ness, which is enough to make your teeth curl.

When I try one, it turns out that the two elements of the hybrid - cake and biscuit - aren’t exactly subtly blended together.

It’s basically a cupcake sat astride a cookie plinth, so you’re having both.

The chocolate version feels the naughtiest, as it has a couple of inches of icing, a biscuit undercarriage and one of M&S’s cookie dough bites on top. It’s a lot of lard, but slides down way too easily.

My favourite is the Cakewell number, since it has a heart of cherry jam and an almond sponge. That makes it feel a tad more grown-up.

I don’t want to like it, but I do. File this one under guilty pleasures.

8/10

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