I've been meaning to write a review for ages and now I've finally given myself the kick up the backside I needed! The Yarn Cake is brilliant and I really don't know how Antje manages to fi so much awesome into such a small package!
On your first visit you might be a bit taken aback to realise that this shop that sells epic cake has only 3 tables inside. By your 3rd visit you'll be an old hand and realise that when the place gets busy knitters, crocheters and other crafters are only too happy to share tables and chat about each other's projects as well as all sorts of other things. I've partaken in chats ranging from literature, science and the arts to Great British Bake Off, Simons Cat and Doctor Who! The shop can be particularly busy with the most interesting conversations during the Thursday Knit Night, although the banter at the Tuesday Knit Night is usually good too!
I don't drink most hot drinks myself, but my son loves the many tea varieties on offer here. What he loves even more though are the 'Hot Choc Onna Sticks'. Antje and her band of brilliant staff make these themselves, they are basically chocolate, spices and I'm not sure what else mixed together and turned into little blocks on wooden stirrers. You get one of these, a cup of hot milk and a small saucer of absolutely delicious mini marshmallows (not the flavourless supercook ones everywhere else uses that taste of nothing but the cornstarch coating...) and you stir until your hot chocolate is chocolatey enough. I'm not sure what the current flavours are but I've seen white chocolate and lemon, and either milk or dark with ginger whilst the other had cinnamon. If you go in at Christmas you might even manage to get some flavoured with lebkuchen spices! I do enjoy the fruit juices that are stocked and if you order pear or apple juice you'll be able to get it hot or cold! I really like the apple and ginger heated up, especially in cold weather.
The owner of the shop is German and decided when she opened that she would put traditional German baking at the heart of the store and I can honestly tell you that no matter which cakes have been baked on the day you visit you won't be disappointed! My personal favourite is when she bakes raspberry meringue, but it isn't necessarily what you'd picture when you think raspberry meringue. Instead of a drier raspberry pavlova style dessert it's a delicious sponge layer, topped with raspberries and finished with a soft, fluffy meringue that's so light and pretty much melts in your mouth. At Christmas she also bakes traditional German cookies and stollen!
As if all of that wasn't enough this place is also a yarn store that sells everything you could possibly need! All of the yarns that The Yarn Cake sells are good quality ones that the staff aren't just trying to sell to you, but are willing to buy and use themselves! And whilst some of the higher end yarns are rightly quite expensive, not all of the yarns in store are. Knowing that knitters come from the whole spectrum of society Antje is keen to ensure that she has yarns to fit every budget. One of the ranges stocked is a company called Drops who produce yarn as good as many of the more expensive high street brands but believe in keeping their prices low. As well as an entire T.A.R.D.I.S. Worth of yarn you can also buy all the tools you need to turn the yarn into any project you can imagine and a range of pattern books! There's even spindles, spinning wheels and fiber for sale if you fancy spinning your own yarn! read more