'I spent over £20 on Christmas treats from an award-winning bakery and my favourite product shocked me'

With locations across the city of Cambridge and two new cafés opening soon, Stir Bakery is slowly taking over with its popular brunches and award-winning bread. Now the brand is getting festive with its Christmas range of homemade baked goods.

Before you rush out to spend your hard earned cash on these Christmas treats, I decided I had to bear the burden of taste testing all of the cakes and biscuits on offer and ranking them. Having impressed me before with its Millionaires shortbread, I was sure Stir Bakery would deliver with its festive items.

Even though I'm a huge fan of baking and cakes, Christmas desserts are not usually my thing. Why is everything filled with fruit when it could easily be covered in chocolate?

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There was a crisp chill in the air, as I made my way down to the Chesterton branch. The Stir café next door to the bakery was packed with students on laptops and friends catching up over hot coffees.

I was incredibly jealous of everyone that had found solace in the cosy café when I was stuck outside in the freezing cold but I had a mission to fulfil. I strode into the bakery and asked for one of every Christmas product it had and surprisingly, it only added up to £21.80.

The range includes a Yule log, mince pie, Christmas cake, panforte, and two different shaped gingerbread biscuits. Armed with a bag as big as my head, I made my journey back home and mentally prepared myself for the amount of cake, biscuits, and pastry I was about to consume.

Something had to come in last place for this taste test and sadly, it is the panforte, a product that was newly introduced to the bakery for this year and cost £4.95. The Italian delicacy was filled with dried fruit and nuts but it just didn't wow me as much as the other items.

However, it was beautifully spiced and the flavours blended well together. For people who aren't huge fans of really spongey cakes, opting for a panforte might be ideal.

Next up is the Christmas cake that cost £4.95, which I enjoyed a lot more than I expected to. The cake was so light and springy with the dried fruit adding a lovely texture to it.

The icing was just thick enough to add a hint of sweetness to the spiced sponge and wasn't overwhelming at all. The addition of a cute snowman figure on top of the cake gave it some extra points for looks.

Coming in third place was the gingerbread biscuits, which cost £2.50 per biscuit. The simple yet stylish snowflake and bauble design on the biscuits made them almost impossible to eat. I say almost because as soon as I took a bite, I wanted to finish the whole thing.

The biscuit was wonderfully soft and crumbly with the icing decoration giving it a nice crunch. The ginger flavour was subtle but aromatic and avoided tasting artificial like many of the gingerbread biscuits you can buy in a supermarket.

Shockingly, in second place was the Yule log, which cost £3.95, despite my love of all things covered in a ridiculous amount of chocolate. The icing around the cake had a nice orange tang to it, a classic Christmas flavour.

The cream swirled inside the Yule log was airy and delightfully chocolatey but the cake's sponge was slightly on the denser side. However, if you are able to get a mouthful of the icing, cream, and sponge together, the cake's dryness is offset by the other ingredients.

In first place is the mince pie. Usually I'm the one reaching for the Christmas chocolate selection box over a mince pie but I was truly impressed by Stir Bakery's take on this Christmas staple.

For only £2.95, you can get a hefty sized mince pie with beautifully buttery pastry. The filling had a jam-like texture and was syrupy with small chunks to fruit dotted throughout.

The generous size of the mince pie means you might struggle to finish it in one sitting. Although, with a cup of tea, I can see how a whole one could get gobbled up in less than five minutes.

I was feeling satisfyingly stuffed and extra festive after my taste test. If you are looking for somewhere to nurse a cup of coffee or tea with a Christmas treat on the side, one of the Stir cafés might be the ideal place for it.

Rather than picking up a box of mince pies from your local supermarket, the mince pies sold at the bakery are more than worth going out of your way to buy and that's coming from someone who isn't normally a fan of them! With each visit, I understand why Stir Bakery continues to be so successful and loved by the city.