Sunday Times Food Awards

Where to buy SA's best lamingtons

Our panel of taste testers has spoken: here's which supermarket to head to when you have a cake craving

10 September 2017 - 00:00 By Hilary Biller

HOW WE CONDUCTED OUR TASTE TEST

It's free and fair!

Taste is a subjective thing, we know, but if you gather a group of people - as we did with 40 Sunday Times readers - and ask them to blind-taste baked goods from leading supermarkets, you will come to an agreement on the winners and the losers.

The panel of tasters were presented with each of the products "naked" without any branding or packaging. They were asked to judge them according to their appearance, taste and texture and to say whether they would buy them or not.

To be sure of fairness, auditor Jade Craig oversaw the event and tallied the scores.

THE RESULTS

FIRST PLACE: SPAR Freshline Chocolate lamingtons

Price: R28.99 for 12

Fatima: Perfect cake — texture and size good.
Sharien: Perfect lamington.
Zaheda: Very good appearance, perfect size. Coating tasted good.
Koketso: Looks good, nice moist texture and not too sweet.

SECOND PLACE: Checkers Lamingtons

Price: R19.99 for 4

Shivani: It has a really moist texture and average sweetness.
Laurel: Mushy and icing too runny.
Lisa: Too big and soft and difficult to handle.
Tracy: Juicy and moist.
Nelly: There is not enough chocolate flavour.
Cassandra: Too wet and not enough chocolate.

THIRD PLACE: Woolworths Lamingtons

Price: R36.99 for 5

Thirusha: Delicious and light in texture but too big.
Zahraa: Texture too gritty.
Aadila: Quite dry and needs more syrup.
Wendy: Generally all three samples were quite satisfactory.