Whether you’re a fan of carrot cake, love brownies, or favour a traditional Victoria sponge, Gloucestershire is home to plenty of delicious spots to indulge in a slice or two of your favourite bake.
With the brand new series of The Great British Bake Off set to hit screens, SoGlos has rounded up some of our favourite places to enjoy a cake without any soggy bottoms or sunken sponges in sight!
1. Well Walk Tea Room
Cake lovers are spoilt for choice at Cheltenham’s Well Walk Tea Room, with the selection of baked goods featuring a regularly changing selection of homemade cakes that can be enjoyed by the slice, all served on fine bone china.
The traditional family-run tea room bakes a mean scone that can be savoured with jam and clotted cream, while those really looking to indulge can tuck into Well Walk’s popular afternoon tea and sample a range of its delicious creations.
2. Lavender Bakehouse & Coffee Shop
Chalford-based Lavender Bakehouse & Coffee Shop uses traditional recipes along with new and creative ones to create its impressive selection of cakes, which are baked fresh on the premises daily.
Expect everything from classic coffee and walnut sponge smothered in buttercream icing; to chocolate and beetroot loaf with chocolate ganache topping, while there are also plenty of traybakes and gluten-free options to tempt.
3. The Cricklade Club
Whether you fancy indulging with cake for dessert or are craving an afternoon pick-me-up, quirky independent café, The Cricklade Club, serves a delicious selection of cakes alongside its savoury brunch and lunch menu.
With Snickers brownies; Portuguese custard tarts; and coffee and walnut sponge just a few of the goodies to have been lovingly created by The Cricklade’s star bakers, cake lovers can certainly expect a decadent choice of sweet treats.
4. Hubble Bubble Coffee House
Expect an indulgent choice of brownies, alongside all manner of homemade cakes at Hubble Bubble Coffee House, a family-run business located in the heart of Gloucester.
The ever-changing selection often includes the likes of sticky toffee sponge; flapjack; and chocolate orange cake, while there are also wickedly good freakshakes to enjoy.
5. Huffkins
Established in 1980, Cotswold bakery Huffkins counts five tea rooms in its stable of award-winning cafés, including Cheltenham, Burford, and Stow-on-the-Wold, and is renowned for baking everything by hand using Cotswold ingredients.
The tea room is famous for its lardy cakes, while there are also plenty of other sweet treats to tempt, including millionaire’s shortbread; lemon drizzle cake; handmade shortbread; seasonal flapjacks; gingerbread men and much more.
6. Central Cross Café
Central Cross Café is perfectly located for combining dog walks and family outings with a cake pit stop in Cheltenham’s Pittville Park, with the kiosk ideal for picking up on-the-go treats or enjoying a sugar refuel at its alfresco picnic tables.
The choice of homemade cakes changes on a regular basis, with past offerings including chocolate orange brownie; raspberry and white chocolate loaf; and caramel shortbread, giving a flavour of the deliciousness you can expect.
7. Hobbs House Bakery and Café
The Fabulous Baker Brothers are the famous duo behind the family-run Hobbs House Bakery, with its Nailsworth café perfect for enjoying its delicious baked goods alongside a steaming cup of coffee.
Cake lovers can expect to sample everything from jam doughnuts and scones, to fruit custard brioche buns and delicate strawberry friands, while you can also pick up takeaway cakes from its bakeries in Tetbury, Malmesbury and Chipping Sodbury.
8. Baker & Graze
Whether you’re tempted by blackberry and custard doughnuts; pistachio Chelsea buns; cherry and dark chocolate marshmallow teacakes; or custard tarts, Cheltenham’s Baker & Graze certainly delivers when it comes to top-notch baked goods.
The independent bakery is also known for its incredible cinnamon buns, which are truly delicious with a mid-morning coffee, while there also a range of pastries to try. And while you’re there, make sure you pick up a loaf of its sourdough bread.
9. Guru Coffee House
Nutritional café Guru Coffee House proves that it’s still possible to have your cake and eat it if you are following a healthy diet, with its selection of baked goods often including vegetable combinations such as beetroot and chocolate chip brownies.
Although the menu changes regularly, apple and sultana rock cakes; sweet potato brownies; and stem ginger and chocolate chip cookies give a flavour of what to expect at the Gloucester café.
10. The Canteen
Independent Nailsworth café, The Canteen, is a vibrant hub for enjoying homemade cakes, with the tempting choices including nutty granola bars; apple and blackberry fruit streusel; and salted caramel brownies.
Every Saturday, the café also stocks wickedly tempting cruffins from award-winning Stroud bakery Salt Bakehouse, with flavours such as blueberry and honeycomb; strawberries and cream; biscotti; chocolate; and peanut butter and jelly.
11. The Tea Set
Cotswold cake emporium, The Tea Set, is located in the charming market town of Chipping Norton and the village of Broadway, with the tea shops serving a variety of delicious cakes that are just perfect when enjoyed with a pot of freshly brewed tea.
From rich chocolate and Guinness cakes, to date and apple slices, there’s a cake to tempt everyone’s palates, while indecisive cake lovers can savour the café’s afternoon tea option.
12. Coach House Coffee
Located in the Cotswold market town of Stow-on-the-Wold, Coach House Coffee is a delightful place to stop for a mid-morning or post-lunch cake hit, with its baked goods including plenty of options for dairy and gluten-free diets.
The independent coffee shop serves vegan bakes from Gloucestershire’s Fair Square Brownies, alongside a scrumptious selection of cakes from The Cotswold Larder, an award-winning producer that whips up treats such as lemon and poppy seed loaf, and cherry Bakewell.
13. Brew & Bake
Located on Cheltenham’s bustling Bath Road, Brew & Bake is an independent café that not only serves tasty coffee but also a delicious array of cakes to enjoy with your hot drink.
Expect to tuck into a selection of mini cakes, with flavours such as toffee apple or Malteser, while there are also blondies, brownies, and flapjacks, along with slabs of the daily special cake and vegan or gluten-free options.
14. Bakery on the Water
Bakery on the Water is located in the Cotswold village of Bourton-on-the-Water and has been whipping up top quality baked goods since the family business was founded in 1978.
Sample the artisan bakery’s scones fresh from the oven, try the rich and buttery Eccles cakes, treat yourself to a Chelsea bun or start your day with an almond croissant, with the option to eat in or takeaway and enjoy a picnic next to the River Windrush.
15. Jaffé & Neale
Chipping Norton’s Jaffé & Neal is a match made in heaven for cake-loving bookworms, who can indulge in both of their passions at the Cotswold bookshop and café.
With bakes such as orange and pistachio cake; lemon polenta; Victoria sponge; salted caramel brownies; and scones, there’s plenty to tempt visitors seeking out literary and cake fixes.
16. The Edge Coffee Shop
Get your cake fix at The Edge Coffee Shop, a family-run business located in Wotton-under-Edge, which makes a tempting selection of baked goods on-site daily.
Expect to find the cake counter brimming with delights such as chocolate traybakes; classic Victoria sponge filled with jam and cream; apple and pecan loaf; lemon and orange poppy seed cake; gooey chocolate cookies, and scones.
17. Burford Garden Company
From morning coffee with a slab of cake to a pot of afternoon tea served with scones topped with jam and cream, the café at Burford Garden Company makes a delightful place to stop for a refuel during a visit to the Cotswold shopping emporium.
The tempting range of freshly baked homemade cakes and pastries includes the likes of cloud-like giant meringues; pear and chocolate cake; plum and frangipane tarts; and gooey brownies.
18. Gloucester Services
Whether you’re whizzing up or down the M5, cake lovers will want to make time to stop at Gloucester Services, where you can find all manner of tempting cakes for sale in its on-site farmshop.
The award-winning motorway service station, which has outposts both north and southbound, supports Gloucestershire and Cotswold artisan businesses such as Bath’s Bertinet Bakery and Beau’s Bakehouse, along with serving cakes baked by the in-house team.
19. Pippin Doughnuts
You’ll definitely want to make a special trip to the farmers’ markets in Stroud and Gloucester to try one of Pippin Doughnuts’ award-winning bakes, which are handmade on the morning.
Regular flavours including mixed berry jam; chocolate; vanilla custard; butterscotch and hazelnut; lemon curd; and cinnamon and brown sugar, while the season specials span lemon and pistachio glazed doughnuts and double fillings such as rhubarb and custard, and strawberries and cream.
20. Hetty’s Kitchen
Visitors to the farmers’ markets in Stroud, Cheltenham and Gloucester Quays will be familiar with the award-winning cakes that Hetty’s Kitchen whips up, with Hetty using the finest local and seasonal produce for her bakes.
With gooey cheesecake brownies; salted caramel tarts; butterscotch blondies; and lemon and orange drizzle cake just a few of the delights often on offer, you’ll definitely want to hunt Hetty down on your next farmers’ market visit or pick up some brownies from Hetty’s Hatch in Gloucester.
