Little Bee Bakery

Little Bee Bakery very kindly delivered lots of lovely cakes for us to try, all carefully packaged. I was due to pick Helen up from the train station in Chichester that afternoon so it meant we would be able to sit down in the evening for a nice girly chat and review the cakes together.

Melissa O’Dwyer founded Little Bee Bakery in 2010 when she decided she needed more in her life than a demanding 9 to 5 job and her role of mother to a young child. It soon became a passionate hobby. At the end of 2012 it became Melissa’s full time occupation. She sources the best quality ingredients and seeks out local suppliers for her products, all from around the New Forest/Southampton area.

Chocolate & Orange Cupcake

The chocolate & orange cupcake looked lovely, just the right amount of icing and topped with two very orangey tasting chocolate buttons. You could smell the orange too. It felt quite a heavy cake at first and after biting into it quite dense. I’m not a huge fan of cupcakes, I find they vary enormously and prefer little ‘fairy’ cakes, they seem lighter. The orange wasn’t over-powering, but nice and subtle. The cake was fresh and and a nice rich dark chocolate.

Triple Chocolate Whoopie Pie

This was our favourite and also my son’s and his partner’s (the whole family tried some too as Helen and I couldn’t possibly eat all the cake Melissa had sent us). If you’re not familiar with whoopie pies, they are two soft cookies with a filling in-between sticking them together, originating from America. This whoopie pie had white chocolate chunks inside. The butter cream was not too sweet. On top was a little white melted chocolate. When you bit into it the flavours went well together – well, it is all chocolate! – and tasted divine. It was one of those ‘wow’ moments. At least I know what to get a certain someone for their birthday which is coming up!

Red Velvet

Melissa also sent us half a red velvet cake and Victoria sponge. The red velvet was a lovely colour of red throughout. The sponge was light and fresh and sandwiched together with some butter icing which was also on top of the cake.

The Victoria sponge was also one of our favourites. Again, a light and fluffy sponge but with jam in the middle which went well with the butter icing. The jam was really lovely and fruity.

Victoria Sponge

A lot of Little Bee Bakery’s cakes can be made dairy free/gluten free or suitable for vegans. There are birthday cakes, Christmas cakes, celebration cakes, cupcakes, scones and biscuits too. Some items need to have a minimum order ie., 4 Whoopie Pies priced at £1.80 each. All goodies are delivered for free if you are 5 miles or less from Southampton, up to 10 miles is £2.50 and other distances are on their website. They can also be delivered by Special Delivery post. All very reasonable prices I think. And what a Godsend for the people who can’t make cakes or just haven’t the time to do so.

We kept the remains of the cakes wrapped in silver foil and clingfilm inside a cake tin. That was a whole week ago and I’ve just had a slice a red velvet cake and it’s still as fresh and tasty as the day I received it! There is just one slice left….

Living life, loving cake

A x