The Belgian Buns of Cornwall

Aldi, Truro.

14th September 2009.

Aldi have made a name for themselves selling discount groceries and source their produce from a number of manufacturers. At the time of my visit the Belgian Buns were produced by Draycott Bakery. They describe the buns as "lovingly prepared and finished by hand". As you can see, the cherry has been displaced during transport, but the icing shows a distinct mark as evidence that it was once more centrally located.
Two buns are packed into a cardboard tray, and then the whole lot is sealed into a clear plastic wrapper. The packaging is appealing, allows a good view of the buns and has protected them remarkably well. Substantial cherry displacement has occurred but the damage is cosmetic, the buns themselves are intact.

Inside the plastic packaging, the cardboard tray was intact. One of the cheeries was displaced from the top of the bun completely, and was trapped in the corner, the other had been moved to the edge of the bun.
The buns had an attractive rather succulent appearance with distinct coiling and exposed sultanas, the icing decorating the heights with tacky majesty. Unfortunately, appearances were rather deceptive. The buns themselves were hard and dry with a rather bland flavour and no sign of lemon curd within their structural coils.

Internally, the buns were uninteresting. All structure had been lost. The sultanas were enfolded within, but all sense of coiling had been lost during the baking process which is unfortunate, because from the outside the buns had looked architecturally interesting with a structure like a slug wrapped around a central ball of dough. The sultana count was 30 and they were decoratively arranged and soft but rather tasteless. The icing had a firm surface and was softer underneath but not really noteworthy. There were traces of additional glazing on top of the bun, which might have applied to give firm adhesion to the icing.
The cherry was soft with very little flavour, but leaving a slight cherry aftertaste. It was on the pinkish side of red as though the cherry itself had died of anaemia rather than by being boiled in syrup.

Durability testing.
This was a quite workmanlike bun in many ways, and so it was subjected to the standard 'builders yard' test of durability. It was tipped from the front of a dumper truck.
The bun was stable and withstood vibration well. When it did start to move under the effects of gravity, the movement was controlled and deliberate. There was no sense of panic involved.

The bun hit the ground hard, but was undamaged either in the initial impact, or as it rolled around.

The icing attracted a fair amount of dirt but the cherry remained in place.

Conclusions.
This was an atrractively packaged bun with a good external appearance, but it was rather dull to eat. It was more interesting to drive it around in a dumper truck. A builder might be tempted to try it in a break, but it would probably end up as cavity wall insulation. A disappointment.