Mr Kipling launches retro Easter cake that everyone over 45 will love

MR KIPLING has launched a twist on a traditional Easter cake that it's hoping everyone over 45 will go mad for. The limited-edition Simnel Slices are inspired by the traditional fruit cake eaten at Easter, and feature a "fluffy" sponge studded with dried fruit, a marzipan flavour filling and a soft marzipan-flavoured icing. You can grab them for £2 for a pack of six at either Ocado or Iceland. They join a range of Easter cakes that are packing supermarket shelves now, including Cadbury Mini Eggs Nest Cakes, Cadbury Creme Egg Cake Bars, Mr Kipling Lemon & Raspberry Mini Batts and Mr Kipling Vanilla ‘Egg’ French Fancies.

"With this latest launch we hope to drive even more footfall into the aisle this Easter, engaging shoppers with seasonally relevant and fun flavour twists to enjoy across the season, helping retailers make the most of the opportunity on offer," said Premier Foods global marketing director for sweet treats Naomi Shooman. Mr Kipling said the Simnel Slices are a smaller and more convenient form of simnel cake, and the brand hopes they will appeal to shoppers aged 45 and over.

Simnel cake usually involves layers of almond paste or marzipan, typically one in the middle and one on top, and a set of eleven balls made of the same paste. It was originally made for the fourth Sunday in Lent, but in the UK it is now often associated with Mother's Day and Easter. Old-fashioned foods and sweets have started to grow in popularity in recent years, with some retailers specialising in sourcing some of our favourite oldies.

Several independent online retailers do this, but you can also look on Amazon too. Plus, popular discounter B&M is known for offering up snacks and sweets that have not been seen for a while. For example, the retailer had sweet-toothed shoppers rushing to get their hands on a bag of discontinued "Millions fusion bites". Other retro foods that have made a comeback in recent years include McVities white chocolate biscuits.

The tea-break favourite made a return in 2023 after almost 20 years off supermarket shelves, apart from a limited-edition run in 2005. The biscuit has a classic digestive base and is covered with a layer of white chocolate. You can get your hands on them for £1.72 from Asda, or £1.85 at Waitrose. The item was initially launched in Sainsbury's but is now available in other supermarkets including Morrisons and Ocado.

The Cadbury chocolate coins were also brought back more recently, after being discontinued in 2014. The iconic gold coins - always popular at Christmas - also made a return to shelves in 2023. At the time they were relaunched a 70g back of coins could be found in B&M for £1.50. Another favourite brought back recently is the Elkes Sports Shortcake biscuits, which disappeared from shelves in 2022 but are now back in Aldi for just 79p.

There's also the Quality Street coffee creme, which was not seen for more than two decades but was brought back for Christmas 2023. Shoppers did find there was a catch, though - the iconic flavour was not available in the usual Quality Street tubs, appearing only in the festive cracker and advent calendar. Fans of the beloved flavour were able to get it inside the calenders and crackers from John Lewis and Waitrose.

THERE are plenty of ways to save on your grocery shop. You can look out for yellow or red stickers on products, which show when they've been reduced. If the food is fresh, you'll have to eat it quickly or freeze it for another time. Making a list should also save you money, as you'll be less likely to make any rash purchases when you get to the supermarket. Going own brand can be one easy way to save hundreds of pounds a year on your food bills too.

This means ditching "finest" or "luxury" products and instead going for "own" or value" type of lines. Plenty of supermarkets run wonky veg and fruit schemes where you can get cheap prices if they're misshapen or imperfect. For example, Lidl runs its Waste Not scheme, offering boxes of 5kg of fruit and vegetables for just £1.50. If you're on a low income and a parent, you may be able to get up to £442 a year in Healthy Start vouchers to use at the supermarket too.