Advertisement
Australia markets closed
  • ALL ORDS

    8,153.70
    +80.10 (+0.99%)
     
  • ASX 200

    7,896.90
    +77.30 (+0.99%)
     
  • AUD/USD

    0.6519
    -0.0017 (-0.26%)
     
  • OIL

    82.64
    +1.29 (+1.59%)
     
  • GOLD

    2,236.10
    +23.40 (+1.06%)
     
  • Bitcoin AUD

    108,802.11
    +2,608.05 (+2.46%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • AUD/EUR

    0.6038
    +0.0007 (+0.12%)
     
  • AUD/NZD

    1.0902
    +0.0022 (+0.21%)
     
  • NZX 50

    12,105.29
    +94.63 (+0.79%)
     
  • NASDAQ

    18,258.69
    -22.15 (-0.12%)
     
  • FTSE

    7,966.46
    +34.48 (+0.43%)
     
  • Dow Jones

    39,782.98
    +22.90 (+0.06%)
     
  • DAX

    18,497.96
    +20.87 (+0.11%)
     
  • Hang Seng

    16,541.42
    +148.58 (+0.91%)
     
  • NIKKEI 225

    40,168.07
    -594.66 (-1.46%)
     

9 best letterbox cakes and biscuits: Sweet treats delivered direct to your door

Signed, sealed, delivered: these UK-wide treats are yours, and we even tested out vegan, nut-free, gluten-free and dairy-free options (iStock/The Independent)
Signed, sealed, delivered: these UK-wide treats are yours, and we even tested out vegan, nut-free, gluten-free and dairy-free options (iStock/The Independent)

Letterbox bakes are having a moment. From slices of cake and slabs of brownie to boxes of homemade cookies and biscuits, sending a sweet treat straight to a loved one’s doormat ticks all the boxes.

Postal bake takes care of itself, sailing through the letterbox with the daily stack of letters and bills – no signature required. Best of all, you can send your chosen cake as late as the day before a big occasion.

How we tested

In our bid to track down the yummiest letterbox-friendly treats, we tested across the range. From traditional fruit loaves to giant homemade cookies, we ensured there was something to suit every budget and taste.

ADVERTISEMENT

Gone are the days of a cookie cutter recipe for sponge cake or brownie – from vegan, nut-free, gluten-free and dairy-free options, bakeries and makers now offer an impressive platter of ingredient swaps for those with intolerances and allergies. We made sure there was a generous weighting of makers who are offering inclusivity for all cake lovers, whatever their dietary needs.

The following nine boxes are some of the best in show, all offering UK-wide delivery and delivered straight to your door. With every occasion catered for, anyone looking to enjoy a homemade bake delivered straight to their doormat can now do so at the click of a button.

Read more:

The best letterbox cakes and biscuits for 2021 are:

  • Best overall – Calon Lan Cakes Welsh ‘cwtch’ gift box: £13, Discoverdelicious.wales

  • Best for cakes that give back – Luminary Bakery mixed box letterbox brownies: £19, Luminarybakery.com

  • Best for twists on a classic – Flapjackery picnic flapjack box: £12, Flapjackery.co.uk

  • Best brownies – The Exploding Bakery letterbox brownies: £13.95, Explodingbakery.com

  • Best cookie – Bostin bakery supersized cookie: £10, Bostinbakery.co.uk

  • Best veggie-based treat – Blackberry Cottage letterbox tea and cake gift set: £7.49, Blackberrycottagefayre.co.uk

  • Best family favourites – Simply Cake Co favourites mix: £12.80, Simplycakeco.com

  • Best birthday cake – bakerdays letterbox birthday cakes: £14.99, Bakerdays.com

  • Best personalised letterbox cake – Biscuiteers personalised vegan gluten-free happy birthday letterbox biscuits: £25, Biscuiteers.com

Calon Lan Cakes Welsh ‘cwtch’ gift box

Best: Overall

Rating: 10/10

Fancy a scrumptious slice of Welsh fare delivered straight to your door? Cardiff-based Calon Lan Cakes is one of over 100 Welsh artisan producers linked up to Discover Delicious Wales: an online marketplace for Welsh food, drink and foodie experiences.

“Cwtch” means a special type of cuddle or hug in Welsh and the parcel felt exactly that. Wrapped in a pretty red ribbon, we tucked into two extra large, freshly-baked Welshcakes made with real Welsh butter and free-range eggs that tasted delicious washed down with a piping cup of Welsh tea, which is part of the package. A sachet of instant coffee and a generous slice of traditional Welsh fruit loaf, Bara Brith, also comes included. The Bara Brith, once popular with mining families as a teatime treat was perfectly moist and even more delicious slathered in butter.

With an option to add a personalised note to your favourite cake lover or even a mini wooden love spoon, this is traditional Welsh baking at its best and a perfect option for gifting across the miles.

Buy now £13.00, Discoverdelicious.wales

Luminary bakery mixed box letterbox brownies

Best: For cakes that give back

Rating: 9/10

Established in 2014, London-based Luminary is a social enterprise bakery that helps bridge the gap for women from disadvantaged backgrounds by offering them training, employment and support to access new careers – many within Luminary Bakery’s two bricks and mortar sites in Camden and Stoke Newington.

The beauty of Luminary’s letterbox brownies is that every purchase, along with the showstopper, handmade cakes in-house, goes toward helping women achieve their potential. It feels like a radical way to treat yourself or a friend in need of a sweet pick-me-up while donating to a good cause.

We sampled a mixed box of the best-selling flavours starring vegan coconut and cherry brownie, gluten-free salted caramel and chocolate brownie and the classic gluten-free chocolate brownie. All were moist, flavourful, fudgy and decadent. After a week in the fridge, they still retained their freshness and a tiny slice went a long way with an afternoon cuppa.

While kids might find the brownies a little rich, these are a stellar choice for a grown-up treat with a sustainable purpose. Other letterbox treats from Luminary feature a seasonal mix and a gluten-free white chocolate and raspberry brownie – all delivered UK-wide.

Buy now £19.00, Luminarybakery.com

Flapjackery picnic flapjack box

Best: For twists on a classic

Rating: 8/10

Garlanded with foodie awards for its fresh, innovative takes on the humble flapjack, artisan makers Flapjackery, founded by friends Carol Myott and Sally Jenkin, has taken the southwest by storm since launching from a west Devon kitchen more than six years ago. Happily, their goodies now wing their way across the UK and beyond as postal and subscription boxes packed full of homemade, oaty treats.

Our “picnic box”, delivered by courier but letterbox-friendly, contained three giant slabs of flapjack, each sliced into two individually wrapped pieces that kept the flapjacks super fresh and easy to freeze (though, we didn’t have the restraint to keep these for a rainy day). The signature flapjack base for every chunky slice is made from gluten-free oats, west country butter, British brown sugar and golden syrup. Plus, it can then be topped with a variety of yummy toppings including clotted cream fudge, raspberry and white chocolate and salted caramel brownie.

The flapjacks are a taste sensation: buttery and melt-in-the-mouth crumbly, each married well to the delicious, sweet toppings. For flapjack purists, slabs of traditional flapjack are part of an extensive pick n’ mix menu of flavours including burnt caramel and sea salt, honeycomb, banoffee and cherry bakewell. If you’re gifting a box to a friend, you can include a free, personalised note in every box along with gift wrapping options for a small extra fee.

Buy now £12.00, Flapjackery.co.uk

The Exploding Bakery letterbox brownies

Best: Brownies

Rating: 9/10

The Exploding Bakery has cemented its reputation for top-notch cakes and coffee from its Exeter-based cafe since launching in 2011, all served up with a commitment to ethical practices across the production line. Its latest nationwide letterbox brownie gifting and subscription service also happens to be one of the coolest on the block.

Wrapped in bold, joyful recyclable packaging, brownie slabs are whisked across the UK in an easy-to-access tray (also recyclable), designed to be sliced up at home. We sampled the salted caramel; a deliciously dense and fudgy choice rippled with sweet and salty French caramel that kept us coming back for more (kept in the fridge, the last slice still packed a punch two weeks on).

With flavours including fruit and nut, salted rye and peanut butter, along with options to add on candles, biodegradable balloons and even a bag of Round Hill single-estate coffee at the virtual checkout, these are a solid choice for brownie aficionados everywhere looking for the next best bite. A free, personalised gift card is the cherry on top.

Buy now £13.95, Explodingbakery.com

Bostin bakery supersized cookie

Best: Cookie

Rating: 8/10

Imagine getting home on a grey afternoon and there, on your doorstep, lies a giant, squidgy, freshly-baked cookie waiting to be devoured. This is the joy of Bostin Bakery. For those not in the know, Bostin translates to smashing or great in the Black Country, and this little store sprang to life in lockdown when founder Liz, a musician, had too much time on her hands – and stacks of cake.

Our Kinder Bueno flavour cookie is one of 12 different flavours – including Twix, coconut, pretzel caramel and vegan cookies – that is announced as a weekly special every Sunday evening. Perfectly sealed for freshness, our letterbox-friendly cookie was as super-sized as it sounds. Freshly baked with Bostin’s signature cookie dough, Kinder chocolate pieces and a gooey white chocolate hazelnut filling, it made for a delicious pudding for a family of six, best warmed in the oven for 10 minutes and served up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Buy now £10.00, Bostinbakery.co.uk

Blackberry Cottage letterbox tea and cake gift set

Best: Veggie-based treat

Rating: 8/10

From beetroot cake and courgette flapjack, to brownies packed with nutritious sweet potato, food writer and artisan baker Kate Saunders has held a long-term passion for making veggies the star of her repertoire of cakes, bakes and sweet treats. Alongside talks, demos and cake courses, Kate’s company, Blackberry Cottage, offers a heaving counter of homemade cakes available to order online that use home-grown vegetables and eggs, where possible, from Kate’s hens in residence.

Our letterbox tea and gift set included a bag of Fairtrade clipper tea and a generous slice of homemade apricot, almond and carrot cake which was gently spiced, bursting with flavour and packed with plump, juicy fruit. Made with gram flour and no added refined sugars or fats, it makes for a sweet and thoughtful gift when only tea and a slice of homemade cake will do.

Buy now £7.49, Blackberrycottagefayre.co.uk

Simply Cake Co favourites mix

Best: Family favourites

Rating: 9/10

Brownies! Cookies! Monthly specials! Cake in a mug! When it comes to letterbox-friendly delivery, Norfolk-based artisan bakery Simply Cake Co have it nailed – and best of all, it’s completely delicious. Our samples dropped to the doormat freshly baked, wrapped and perfectly intact, delivered in long, rectangular eco-friendly packaging.

The favourites mix (£12.80, Simplycakeco.com) included six generously sized bars. Inside was the signature salted caramel brownie and the chocolate chunk brownie. There was also a slab of rocky road, millionaire’s shortbread, raspberry blondie and the ever-popular chocolate orange brownie.

Simply Cake Co founder Susie Lemon is proud to run her business from a fully gluten-free facility. She has also launched a range of postable vegan brownie options including a vegan brownie tray (£14.50, Simplycakeco.com) – can be personalised in piped icing. And there’s even mix a mug DIY brownie kits (£6 for two, Simplycakeco.com) that make the perfect stocking fillers for budding little bakers.

Her website offers a comprehensive rundown of allergens which offer assurance before you order. Tasty and affordable, we also love the brownies for good box (£6, Simplycakeco.com) – a mix of all the sweet brownie offcuts that didn’t quite make the grade with £4 of sales going straight to local food banks.

Buy now £12.80, Simplycakeco.com

bakerdays letterbox birthday cakes

Best: Birthday cake

Rating: 8/10

Bringing a dose of cheer to soggy doormats across the UK, Nottingham-based bakerdays is a one-stop-shop for personalised birthday cakes which can be ordered for next-day delivery.

With a kid’s birthday looming, we uploaded a photo of our birthday boy onto a rocket background and received a cute birthday cake (serving 2-4) made with traditional buttercream sponge and topped with icing. It arrived through our door in a beautiful keepsake tin wrapped in recyclable packaging. Cake lovers can choose from a dizzying list of 2,000 different designs along with a varied list of cake options including vegan sponge, chocolate chip, lemon drizzle, gluten-free sponges, and ones without wheat and dairy.

The range of squidgy, personalised brownies (£19.99, Bakerdays.com) also went down a storm with a gaggle of partying six-year-olds: a special way to celebrate without having to trawl the high street or, indeed, bake your own.

Buy now £14.99, Bakerdays.com

Biscuiteers personalised vegan gluten-free happy birthday letterbox biscuits

Best: Personalised letterbox cake

Rating: 9/10

One of the original purveyors of showstopping letterbox-friendly bakes, Biscuiteers continue to leave no biscuit unturned in their quest to create exquisite, hand-iced biscuits to suit every occasion and dietary need. We sampled its vegan, gluten-free “happy birthday box” which can be customised at the checkout adding a unique, personal touch for the recipient.

Based on a recipe for twice baked English biscuits, the Biscuiteers describe this line of bakes as “somewhere between the snap of a gingerbread and the crumble of a shortbread” which feels just right. If you’re feeling swish, you can team the biscuits with a letterbox tea or martini at checkout with options for next-day delivery if ordered by 1pm the day before.

Buy now £25.00, Biscuiteers.com

The verdict: Letterbox cakes and biscuits

While we’d order every single one of these cakes to our letterbox again in a flash, we have to give a special mention to Calon Lan Cakes. One of the smaller cake parcels but oh-so-perfectly formed, the bakes were of an exceptionally high standard, beautifully wrapped and managed to transport us to a tea-room in deepest Wales on a rainy afternoon.

Hot on its heels: Simply Cake Co for an outstanding selection of letterbox-friendly treats and Luminary Bakery for moreish, decadent brownies that make a big difference for those in need.

Voucher codes

For the latest offers on food and drink, try the links below:

With our round-up of the best recipe boxes and food deliveries sent right to your door, you can have your cake and eat it too