New treats at Marks and Spencer - Spirit of Summer Cakes and Biscuits

Sadly Easter and all its chocolatiness goodness is over but the good news is that Marks and Spencer is now making way for lots of summery filled delights. I only popped into it today to get some nice dips and hummus but ended up salivating at all these new treats. I'm sure there will be lots of new Spirit of Summer products coming out over the coming months but there's already lots of new M&S biscuits and cakes to tantalise you.

New Marks and Spencer dark chocolate lemon and lime jaffa cakes. Lemon and lime jaffa cakes by McVities are pretty nice but dark chocolate is even better and I love the less dry sponge and more dainty feel of M&S jaffa cakes,

 New Marks and Spencer Spirit of Summer All Butter Cinnamon Sugar Palmiers - M&S tends to use all butter in their biscuits which always makes them extra crumbly and delicious and cinnamon is underused in biscuits,

 Also available as plain Marks and Spencer All Butter Palmiers

 I'm not normally a shortbread fan but I do love coconut so these Marks and Spencer coconut and raspberry homebake style shortbread fingers sound delicious.

 Everyone knows M&S do the best cookies so these M&S white chocolate and sicilian lemon cookies sound nice for the summer. I'm not a white chocolate fan but the lemon might help offset its sweetness.

 There are some delicious new cakes in too - this Marks and Spencer Spirit of Summer Apricot, honey and pine kernel cake sounds really nice,

 And the Marks and Spencer black cherry and almond cake sounds even nicer! I love cherries and almonds and the fact you can try this hot too makes this sound like a delicious pudding,

 This is M&S banana and blueberry loaf cake with spelt and quinoa flour is definitely something I want to try as I love healthier flours.

 And there's Marks and Spencer Chocolate and Date Brownie made with chesnut flour - again this can be served warm as a pudding.

 There's also a vanilla and blackcurrant cake which sounds nice as I love blackcurrant,

 And if you want normal naughty cake instead of these alternative flour ones, there's the new Marks and Spencer Spirit of summer passion fruit cake. Passion fruit might offer a lighter sweetness perfect for summer.

 I love tiramisu but for some reason I think I'd be disappointed by the Marks and Spencer Spirit of summer tiramisu cake - anything tiramisu flavoured always tends to let me down.,

There's also new Marks and Spencer Spirit of Summer tiramisu cupcakes and some M&S valencia orange and almond cupcakes for those who like their cakes under a heavy pile of icing!

So lots of interesting new cakes and biscuits for the summer in M&S - so much for healthier summer eating!

Marks and Spencer All Butter Easter Cookies

Another M&S Easter related review as we sadly get to the end of the Easter bank holiday weekend. Still a good M&S biscuit makes the thought of work tomorrow a little more bearable and it is only a four day week.

M&S cookies are always pretty good although seasonally themed biscuits can be a little disappointing. These are easter cookies in the sense they are spice flavoured with currants and dried cranberries and lemon peel and then dusted with sugar for that artisan feel. Opening the packet p they smell fruity and you get that little hint of spice. They're good size cookies with a firm, chunky texture and are the shortbread kind of hard cookie rather than the flapjack sort.

M&S don't skimp on quality of ingredients and the all butter feature really pays off. The cookie's texture is delightfully short with a lovely shortbread taste - really crumbly and the perfect bake. It's a fairly understated biscuit and I think M&S did well to just generically call them easter cookies with spice rather than label them as hot cross buns flavoured for example.

Although fairly simple and plain, there's a delicate hint of spice throughout and I got some lovely afternotes of almond. Coupled with plenty of currants and cranberries means yo get a good fruity burst in each mouthful which complements rather than dominates the gorgeous buttery base.

They're maybe not the most exciting or indulgent cookies M&S have ever made but they are tasty, very high quality and sometimes simple works well. With all that chocolate over Easter, sometimes a bit of simplicity is all you need.

Price: £2.00
Bought at: Marks and Spencer
Score: 7.5/10