Can a shop bought Mary Berry cake match one made at home?

WARM from the oven, there’s nothing quite like a homemade cake. As Mary Berry, the nation’s favourite baker, says in her Ultimate Cake Book: ‘You know exactly what has gone into them.’

But now, Mary (pictured) has launched her first commercial line, saying: ‘Each cake is a faithful representation of some of my favourite recipes.’

And I can’t help noticing that mass production has forced some changes. The lemon cake in her book has just seven ingredients, the one in the shop range almost double that.

So, can Mary’s supermarket cakes really be as tasty as a home-baked one? To find out, I asked Juliet Sear, author of Cakeology and The Cake Decorating Bible, to do a blindfold taste test, pitting Mary’s recipes from her books (baked by me) against her new, ready-made

range, and give her verdict . . .