The Original Cake Company

Are you nuts about fruitcakes?

We are the best little Cake Company you’ve never heard of.... AKA The Original Cake Company, baking cakes in and around Lincoln for 40 odd years. Now newly installed in our purpose built Bakery in North Hykeham, all oven’ed up and raring to bake.

Started in 1972 supplying local customers with great cakes, the business has now outgrown three sites in thirty years! We recently acquired Special Little Cakes of Ollerton and moved the Special Team and their range of fab mini gift cakes into our new site Christmas 2011. Now employing more than 25 staff, the company is looking forward to a bright, cake filled future.

i guess we are

What do WE DO ?

Well, how do we put this? It’s kind of anything and everything FRUITCAKE based… Hand Decorated Fruit Loaves, Cut Fruit Cake Slabs, Dundee Cakes, Ginger Cakes, Mixed Nut Cakes, Iced Cakes, Christmas Cakes, Easter Simnel Cakes, Mini Gift Cakes, Brandy and Whisky Cakes, (Yum!), Wedding Cake Bases, Celebration Cakes. Big Ones, Small Ones, Square Ones, Round Ones, Oval Ones, Long Ones, Short Ones, Mini Ones, some in Tins, some in Wrap, some in Boxes… …

Phew..

It’s because we mix, weigh out and bake by hand, if we have the tin, we can pretty much make any size.

A short history of fruit cakes.

Where to begin?

Are you sitting comfortably?

The ancient Egyptians were the first to make fruit cake for the departed to carry into the afterlife with exotic fruits and nuts being indications of the family’s wealth. Later, returning Crusaders brought back undiscovered fruits and nuts from the Middle East to Northern Europe, solving the issue of their perishability by drying or candying the fruit for travel. When the fruit reached home, it was shared by mixing it in breads and finally cakes. Bored Yet? The Victorians who really invented our current Christmas traditions originally wrapped the cakes in cheesecloth soaked in brandy. Days before Christmas, the cakes were coated with almond paste, before icing. Like the Egyptians, these Christmas Cakes were demonstrations of the maker’s prosperity and ever since fruit cakes have sealed their place in our family traditions and culture.

simon

HEAD BAKER

history LESSON OVER

Soap Box away… Now where were we…? We also do the UK’s best Flapjacks.. .Try them if you don’t believe us and Chocolate Cakes and sometimes if we are feeling particularly naughty… Handcut Biscuits too.

the bakers

Meet our Head Baker–Simon, rarely without a smile, always busy, joined us in 2009 from a lifetime in the baking industry. Sometime Salesman, Sometime Baker, but always sampling our delicious cakes... Any problems, any questions, big or small or even just for a chat… contact Simon at simon@originalcake.co.uk or call him on 01522 69 44 11

delicious.

our products

NOW, LET’S TRY AND GET A BIT OF ORDER INTO THIS SHALL WE? WE’LL START WITH THE BEST SELLERS AND GO ON FROM THERE.

plain top fruit slab cakes Very tempted to say ‘ Does exactly what it says on the tin’ but I won’t…

Big gran and little

Dark Genoa Cherry & Walnut Rich Sultana Ginger Spice Rum & Butter Big Gran’s Brandy Fruit

gran

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT? WELL AS A KID THERE WERE TWO GRANDADS, TWO GRANS AND TWO GREAT-GRANS. TOUGH TO GET YOUR SEVEN YEAR OLD MIND AROUND AT TIMES BUT BRILLIANT FOR CHRISTMAS PRESENTS AND SNEAKY SWEETS. LUCKILY THE GRANS AND GREAT GRANS WERE OF DIFFERENT STATURES, SO BIG GRAN AND LITTLE GRAN BECAME THE NAMES THAT STUCK. BOTH GRANS WERE FANTASTIC AND FANATICAL CAKE BAKERS… LITTLE GRAN’S DATE AND WALNUT WAS UNBEATABLE AND STILL IS. BIG GRAN’S FARMHOUSE FRUIT CAKES WERE DEMONSTRATIONS OF INTENSE FRUIT, VANILLA AND BUTTER FLAVOURS AND AN EXAMPLE OF ROBUST 50’S GENUINE FARMHOUSE COOKING ... AGAIN, STILL TO BE BEATEN. NO GRANS WERE HARMED OR OFFENDED IN THIS STORY.

slab cakes.

Decorated or Plain-Top These are whole 2.5kg cake logs, carefully baked, which we then cut into thick slices or slabs... hence the name. Romantic or What?

Our main sizes are 350g and the ever popular 400g. (Working in old money? That’s 12.5 oz, 14 oz). These are then hand wrapped and labeled in minimum batches of 24, boxed in 6’s with a shelf life of around 8 months.

Mixed Fruit & Nut Cherry & Almond Sticky Pecan & Apricot Ginger Spice with Stem Ginger Traditional Dundee Little Gran’s Date & Walnut

decorated top fruit slab cakes

Our slab cakes are hand mixed and carefully hand decorated by our bakers before cutting into individual slabs.

hand TIN

decorated CAKES.

The difference here is that the cakes are made whole in seasoned tins... and not cut after baking.

Mixed, panned, baked & packed in 6s with up to 12 months shelf life. decorated by hand.

limited

edition CAKES

Spiced Whisky & Honey Fruit Cake (aka Hot Toddy) Rich Fruit with Lincolnshire Ale Fig, Apricot and Devon Cider English Breakfast Tea Fruit Cake

traditional

MALT

loaves

These are really Special. It is rumoured that our Limited Edition cakes are made in total secrecy under a full moon and that only Simon, and Product Guru Jane know the full recipes‌ Made in tiny batches in a 1lb tin (460g for anyone under 30) entirely by hand, the Limited Editions are perfect gifting ideas and ideal for export customers.

Just as you remember them, only better, made with traditional ingredients and delicious spread with butter, even better lightly toasted or eaten cold as a snack.

Farmhouse Malt Loaf with Cranberry & Orange Farmhouse Malt Loaf with Spiced Fruit

cakes shapes

&

sizes

Ok, this is where it gets really complicated because our cakes are made by hand we can pretty much make any size or shape if we have the right shape tins. Even we don’t know how many types and sizes and varieties we can do!

Iced and Drizzled Cakes Iced Slab Rich Fruit Christmas Cake Iced Top Round Christmas Cake Iced All Over Round & Square Cake Cherry & Almond Drizzle Fruit Cake

Our Christmas cakes are made with prime Turkish Sultanas, slowly baked, iced and decorated before hand wrapping. These cakes are available in many sizes, weights and shapes from the iced slab cake to the impressive Iced-All-Over 7” square cake. Please ask for further details.

Hand Decorated Fruit Topped Christmas Cakes These cakes are available in a variety of sizes and shapes from 3” round to the magnificent 7” square at 900g all topped by hand with delicious candied and dried fruits. Please ask for more details.

Rich Fruit Cake (Plain Cake for Home Decorating) Brandy, Fig & Honey Loaf Whisky, Fig, Apricot Cranberry & Yellow Cherry Rich Fruit and Mixed Nut Whisky & Orange

christmas Traditionally the busiest time of year for the Fruitcake Family, ours are made with gifting and sharing in mind, in sizes and shapes to suit all markets. From the humble but delicious iced slab cake to the iced-all-over and hand decorated King of Christmas cakes via mini iced rounds and much more… All our cakes are still made in small batches with the same attention to detail with proper ingredients, by hand and with a Christmas Carol in our hearts.

CAKES Mixed Fruits Mixed Fruit & Nuts

Jewel Cakes

RICH ROUND 6” FRUIT & NUT CAKES TOPPED WITH COPIOUS GLAZED FRUITS AND FINISHED WITH A KIRSCH DRIZZLE. (DON’T YOU HATE THE WORD DRIZZLE WHEN USED WITH FOOD? PERHAPS WE SHOULD JUST ‘NESTLE THE SUGAR CURED FRUITS ON A BED OF RICH FRUIT CAKE, GLAZED WITH A PAN FRIED COULIS OF KIRSCH JUS? NO? THOUGHT NOT.)

Aged & Matured

We are not just talking about Simon, but our range of fantastic Aged & Matured Christmas Cakes. We make these in very limited runs of one hundred cakes, 12 months in advance and every month or so we treat these to a fresh big glug of the appropriate alcohol to keep them moist and extremely tasty before re-wrapping and locking in our large safe-store. Just before dispatch to the very lucky few, we hand layer these with rich marzipan and our hand rolled icing or hand-top with glacé fruits as required. Expensive, delicious, serious and for the real Fruitcake Aficionado.

Available in 6” round 900g size only in Brandy and Whisky options.

easter CAKES The traditional Simnel Cake rules supreme here. Sticking firmly to tradition, we hand make ours with eleven (not twelve) hand rolled delicious marzipan balls in several sizes and shapes including slabs, loaves, rounds and mini loafs. Please ask us for more information!

AVAILABLE IN ANY SIZE TIN to suit specific requirements, our current stock lines include Iced Spring Slab Cake- Hand Iced & decorated rich fruit cake Simnel Slab Cake – lightly toasted marzipan topped fruit cake Mini Square / Rectangle Iced Top fruit cake with cute Bunny, Flower or Chick motif 3” Iced round fruit cake with cute Bunny, Egg, Flower or Chick Motif 4” & 5.5” Simnel cake, hand decorated with marzipan

You will already know the familiar story here… great, traditional home baked products, taken into mass production and given whacky branding make-overs by the big boys (you know who you are), then cheapened and ruined over time to become cardboardy, dry, and flavourless. Remember the flapjacks from your youth? Sticky, chewy, slightly caramelized, real oats and honey flavours? Cut by hand into slices and squares.

where were we? ah yes......

PROPER flapjacks.

So, guess what, we took the product back to basics, fiddled with it in our Test Kitchen and came up with a short range of the best flapjacks ever. Buttery, chewy and easy to cut... just fab. Available in four interesting varieties these are again hand made, use our clever non-stick carton skillet for easy cutting and storage and have a 4 month ambient shelf life. UNBELIEVABLE BUT TRUE!

anyway. long story short. that’s why we are proud to call them

‘PROPER’.

Rich Butter Flapjack A rich, chewy butter flapjack made with jumbo oats, cane sugar and not much else Date, Honey and Almond Sweet and Chewy, yet Elegant and Interesting.

Belgian Chocolate Belgian Chocolate chunks, premium oats. Moreish.

Granola Gold Taste Award winner, deliciously different with seeds, cranberries & nuts.

It’s incredibly difficult to make mini iced cakes well. It’s even more difficult to make them tasty, and decorate them with variety and panache (big word) and with a long enough shelf life to remove any wastage risk. Trust us – it is. Special Little Cakes was formed to do just that and has been successfully supplying the gift and card market with fantastic and delicious mini gift cakes with hundreds of designs for 20 years.

,

With Designs for

Mini GIFT cakes . Original the plot here to ne ck ba , Cakes in Ju Any way Special Little ed ir e qu th ac d e Cak d merge sed yet?)an the 2011 (confu factory during ln co in L e th in es business utdown.

Christmas sh Since taking over we have revised and updated the decorations and styles of the fruit cakes and introduced our new range of chocolate mini cakes, called Chocolate Wishes. These cakes look great and taste great.. just like their sister fruit cakes but made with Belgian chocolate to create a fudgey filling then iced with royal icing and decorated with fun and style. Yummy. Just enough for two… just!

USING VERY CLEVER ICING WIZARDRY AND WITH GREAT SKILL THESE HAND MADE MINI CAKES ARE A BRILLIANT AND PROFITABLE GIFT IDEA FOR ANY RETAILER LOOKING FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT AND UNUSUAL. THEY ALSO WORK INCREDIBLY WELL FOR CORPORATE PROMOTIONS AND EVEN AS WEDDING FAVOURS… ONE CUSTOMER EVEN BOUGHT 200 CAKES ICED WITH HIS ‘N’ HER INITIALS AND MADE A FOUR TIER CAKE TOWER FOR HER WEDDING.

leisure

CELEBRATIONS,

GARDEN CENTRES,

FARMSHOPS,

kids, seasons, Valentines,

MOTHERS DAY

AND MANY MORE, our mini fruit cakes come with flexible display units AND EITHER A 9 MONTH

ORLIFE5 FOR MONTHS SHELF FRUIT AND CHOCOLATE

cakes respectively.

For more information please go to www.speciallittlecakes.co.uk

Contact Us We would be delighted to hear from you. Why not follow us on Facebook or Twitter?

Email: help@originalcake.co.uk • Tel: +44 01522 69 44 11 • Web address: www.originalcake.co.uk Postal Address: The Bakery, Pioneer Way, Lincoln LN6 3DH

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Watch out for our on-line shop – coming soon.

(Please note that no Nuts have been harmed in the making of this brochure)