Out of all the things the Dutch are famous for - windmills, tulips, weed, red lights, delightful…read morefootballers - for some reason, I don't think of baking as one of them (unless it's one of those special cakes, anyway). I've heard of Dutch ovens before but the less said about that, the better. So imagine my shock/delight when I visited the lovely Dutch Bakery in Birkdale and found that not only do they do a fair bit of baking, but it's delicious too. This cosy little shop just outside of the immediate village area offers a great selection of freshly baked pastries and cakes at an excellent price. Using home grown and local ingredients, each delicacy available there will have any sweet-toothed individual overdosing on sugar with unnerving regularity. There is also a fine selection of savoury treats for those of you with less of a desire for sugar and these are of a similar great quality, meaning the Dutch Bakery is definitely one to visit if you're in the area.

No Gluten Baker is a Southport based Gluten-free baker who operates mainly at markets and similar…read moreevents around the North West or so of England, I managed to catch them for the first time at their stall at the Allergy and Free From Show Winter 2019 at Liverpool's Exhibition Centre. They did have an interesting selection of gluten-free items which are normally impossible to get in shops including corn beef hash style pasties (they were misleading as I thought it was a pie), and a cheese, onion and potato pie as well as a few others, the two stated were the ones I tried. The products came to two for £5.50, a little expensive for the size and quality but you are always going to have to pay more for gluten-free. My pie was okay, I did find it to be a little thin, small and just unimpressive, it was okay at best and wouldn't be something I'd have wanted seconds of, it was just really boring and slightly underseasoned. The man who was running the stall, I can presume was the "baker", seemed a little misleading: as the products were in boxes he had to sort out he basically had a laminated list on the table, and when I asked about the pies he listed one which ended up being a pasty - sadly I didn't realise until I opened the bag and got home (I also then realised he'd given me an old £1 coin in change which meant I couldn't use it anywhere else, so had an unnecessary trip to the bank to pay in currency which was no longer legal tender) Misleading products at high prices with multiple other issues made me feel really let down and disappointed. I also feel other food items could have been protected well as they were regularly being touched by other members of the public (sweet items, not the pies), which was really offputting as surely it wouldn't have cost much to get a cover or some plastic covering which would make them easier to transport anyway? 1*

From the owner: Noglutenbaker makes delicious cakes, pies, soups and casseroles for coeliacs and people intolerant…read moreto gluten or wheat