Café Cou Cou (CB10 1EW)

17 George St, Saffron Walden CB10 1EW 

http://www.cafecoucou.co.uk/ 

Café Cou Cou is located in the heart of the pretty market town of Saffron Walden. 

They make an assortment of tasty treats on site: cakes, brownies, biscuits, shortbreads as well as a range of bread and scones. The café footprint is tiny, with a small downstairs eating area and another little space upstairs. It’s very sweet and cosy.

The most disappointing aspect of our visit? Seeing the Starbucks up the road crammed full of customers. What is wrong with people that they’d rather choose to dine at a generic bland American chain that serves up cr@p to the masses rather than support a local business that serves homemade products baked on the premises?! Starbucks be damned.

Saffron Walden's market square

But back to Cou Cou.

I am generally not a fan of chocolate cake, as it can be too dry and sometimes a bit bland. But I was talked into having a slice of Cou Cou’s enormous chocolate cake our waitress, who said it was their most popular cake. 

I can understand why, given that it was not so much chocolate cake as a double-layered concoction of chocolate mousse, cream and chocolate icing with some thin slices of sponge in between. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing… it was incredibly rich and delicious.

But I think the saying “a minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips” was coined by the person who ate this cake, because it probably requires no less than two lifetimes to burn off. It was, in fact, so rich that I couldn’t finish it all and had to offload some to Ben (who willingly obliged).

I give you... cakeosaurus

Ben ordered a more modest slice of apple cake which he declared was very good. His coffee was fine (ie: not bad, not amazing).

There’s an empty Blockbuster premises across the road for lease, and I hope Café Cou Cou seriously consider expanding, because the UK certainly doesn’t need another Starbucks. 

CakeMyDayLondon Rating