Yahoo News The best Cadbury Flake alternatives to crown your ice cream cone
Are our iconic Mr Whippy Flake 99s in danger of disappearing if the celebrated chocolate bar is no longer able to hold its own? Reports suggest general discontent after Cadbury owner Mondelēz International shifted production to Egypt in 2020, but it’s only more recently that complaints about quality have been raised by aggrieved ice cream vendors. The issue, it appears, is that Flakes have become too crumbly to be pushed into light-as-air, soft-serve ice cream, with accounts that many of the sticks are already broken, even in a freshly opened box.
As a child, my family ran an ice cream business with a fleet of vans, and I spent many a summer serving up our traditional recipe from a park kiosk in my hometown of Derby. For me, a softly whipped ice cream in a wafer cone absolutely needs a Flake. I accept that the drizzle of strawberry sauce and sprinkle of chopped nuts are a thing of the past, but a cone without a Flake? I shudder to think of it – and that’s not down to the ice cream chill.
The reason it works so well is, of course, all down to the way the chocolate crumbles into the ice cream in soft, delicate fragments, like an Italian stracciatella gelato, while still holding firm enough to take a bite.
I have no memory of the mini Flakes letting me and my family down in the 1980s, but are they still the same today? For the purposes of research, I popped along to my corner shop to buy some full-sized Cadbury Flakes (and a few alternatives). All four of my Flakes (packaged for consumers rather than caterers) were in perfect condition, with the rippled chocolate layers intact and crumbling only when bitten.
Indeed, when asked for a comment, a spokesperson for Cadbury replied: “We are aware that, recently, some customers have received product that does not meet our usual high standards. This has been addressed following improvements to our production processes, although some prior stock may remain in circulation. This relates to the specific Cadbury Flake 99 product. Other Cadbury Flake products are not impacted.”
Which accounts for why the newsagent chocolate is still great. On this evidence, it would have to be a superior stick to drag me away from my favourite.
Six alternatives to stick in your ice cream
Try a length of a Cadbury Twirl or a Galaxy Ripple (both around £1.65 for four); these have the desired flaky texture but are encased in chocolate, so are strong enough to stand up to firm ice cream without breaking.
Cadbury Chocolate Fingers are easy to get your hands on and they’ll just about do the job, but the solid shortbread in the centre is an effort to chomp through, especially on a warm day when the ice cream’s getting drippy. Likewise a Twix finger.
For a luxurious, solid chocolate stick, try one of the many varieties of baton from Hotel Chocolat including my favourite, Caramel Chocolate Batons (£7.50 for 120g) or the similarly packaged Belgian Milk Chocolate Batons (£6 for 130g) from Sainsbury’s. Make sure you don’t keep them in the fridge though, or they’ll be too hard to bite through.
Cigarette wafers are usually reserved for knickerbocker glories, but a crisp Hazelnut & Cocoa Wafer Roll by Chloe’s adds enough flavour and creamy bite to almost make up for the lack of flake. A lidded drum, by my count, contains over 40 wafers, so offers good value at £2.48.
An even better option than the cigarette curls is the humble KitKat (approximately £2 for 9 x 2 fingers) – sturdy and yet easy to bite through, with the perfect balance of chocolate to wafer. Separate into fingers and pop them straight in.
Finally, Quality Street Cool Mint Matchmakers (around £2 for 120g). Though you may need to plunge in more than one to get your chocolate hit, the mint offers a refreshing twist. Looks chic, too.
