Ilkley Cake Boutique, 15 Wells Road, Ilkley Reviewed by Angela Cunningham IT’S cake I’m after today. I need to feed my sweet tooth, so we’re heading for Ilkley Cake Boutique after a ramble on Ilkley moor.

We feel at home immediately as we enter the lavender garlanded door. Stefania’s greeting is warm and welcoming and sunshine streams in through tall windows casting a glow on the bright white décor.

It’s a shame it’s way past lunch time as the savouries on offer sound very tempting. Business partners Stefania and Simone both learned their trade in their homeland, Italy, so the accent is on Italian fare, though there’s also a smattering of French and English cuisine on the menu. There’s a good selection of panini and focaccia and daily special soup and pasta dishes, plus a variety of brioche and omelettes. For the less adventurous palate they also offer several toasted sandwich options. And then, of course, the cakes.

I order a coffee, to help me make up my mind and Dizzy Goddaughter (DG) ponders over a warming hot chocolate.

My coffee is just as I like it – high on flavour with no bitterness. But the chocolate is a masterpiece! It’s so thick and creamy the spoon is almost standing up in it.

Choosing a cake from the variety on display is not easy. They all look irresistible with ample creamy fillings and frostings. I am intrigued, so choose the red velvet cake (chocolate and beetroot with a meringue topping). It’s light yet deliciously moist and oozing with a rich chocolate filling.

DG on the other hand finds the generous fluffy panini too good to resist and chooses her filling from the imaginative variety on offer. It’s soft and lightly cooked, just as she likes it and the mozzarella and sun dried tomato filling is moist and flavoursome.

Stefania delivers the pot of tea we order to drink alongside and I quiz her about the ladies who are leaving with boxes of tray bakes they’ve purchased over the counter. It seems they already enjoy a thriving trade in made-to-order cakes and bakes, and they even sell their baking to other cafés.

There’s no doubt Ilkley Cake Boutique may be the relatively new kid on the block here, but it’s certainly a force to be reckoned with.

DETAILS Ilkley Cake Boutique 15 Wells Road Ilkley LS29 9JB 01943 968120 OPENING TIMES 9am to 5pm MENU Coffee £1.50 Sandwich £4.50 Cake £2.50