Tea time taken care of by Aunt Bessie

Known for her Yorkshire puds and frozen roasties, Aunt Bessie is back to lend a hand in the kitchen again - this time, with a range of tasty tea time treats and cakes that you could even pass off as your own. If you happen to be so cunning.

Show me someone who doesn't enjoy a slice of cake and a cuppa and that's someone who I just can't be friends with. I mean, who doesn't love cake?

Whilst I love to bake, I'm not particularly skilled and I just don't have the time, particularly of late.

That's why I relied on Aunt Bessie to serve up some treats on Father's Day. I did try passing them off as my own at first, the cake in particular... but it quickly became clear that I wouldn't have been able to make such a yummy cake myself.

Oh well! 

In the new range of traditional bakes, Aunt Bessie has tarts, cakes and loaf cakes. And I had a team of willing taste testers.

The loaf cakes - just what you need at 3pm on a Sunday with a mug of steaming tea. There's a carrot cake - which we tried, with a moist carrot sponge, real cream cheese frosting and a dusting of cinnamon - a moreish sticky ginger cake made with real stem ginger plus a jam and coconut cake which is a moist sponge, filled and topped with raspberry jam and coconut flakes. 

The carrot cake was rich so I found a slim slice to be enough and the sponge and icing were balanced nicely. Hubs isn't usually a fan of carrot cake but half the loaf had mysteriously disappeared before I got to have a taste, which is saying something.

The tarts - hand-finished almond Bakewell tarts, raspberry and coconut tarts and tempting jam bakes. We tried the Bakewell tarts and they were super sweet, great for those with a really sweet tooth, and a nice treat, perhaps for a lunchbox or to put out if someone pops over for a coffee and a gossip.

The cakes - great for when you're entertaining or have a few mouths to feed, this range includes round cakes in three flavours; carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and finished with nibbed walnuts, a moist, lightly fruited cake packed with juicy sultanas and a rich chocolate cake, made with milk chocolate. 

Now, if there's chocolate cake on the menu, it's got my name on. This was the centrepiece of our Father's Day afternoon treat and was particularly well received by everyone, including Ethan (surprise,surprise).

It was quite the chocolatey hit, so hubs could only try a small piece, and Ethan managed to spill crumbs everywhere ('Oh no, mess!') but it got a big thumbs up from the chocolate lovers amongst us.

Serving eight, we still have some left. For now.

The new Aunt Bessie range starts from around £1.25 for four tarts so they're not only as good as or better than what you could make yourself, depending on what level of Mary Berry-like baking skills you happen to have, they're also cheaper and more convenient too.

Definitely worth having in the cupboard for when guests call. Or just because every brew deserves something sweet on the side.

Now, who's going to put the kettle on?

* Thank you to Aunt Bessie for taking care of the baking. The cakes might not have been my own but my thoughts are!