Christmas cake

Gail's
Gail's Christmas Cake
Small £19, large £35, gailsbread.co.uk
This is not very traditional but absolutely delicious and made with love. It's buttery, densely packed with fruit and the marzipan isn't too thick.
★★★★

Tesco
Finest Fully Iced Partridge Christmas Cake
1.5kg, £15, tesco.com
Very traditional and very good – moist, fruity and a great balance of icing to marzipan.
★★★★

Selfridges
Selfridges Christmas Cake
500g, £14.99, Selfridges stores
Terribly dry, and the icing and marzipan are rock hard. The addition of nuts is nice.
★★★

Waitrose
Royal Iced Christmas Cake with Gingerbread
£17, waitrose.com
Dry inside with an almost burnt aftertaste. Hardly any fruit.
★★

Panettone

Sainsbury's
Taste the Difference Drunken Panettone
750g, £10, sainsburys.co.uk
What I'd expect from a panettone – moist, light but with substance, and with quite a bit of fruit inside.
★★★★

Tesco
Finest Panettone
1kg, £10, tesco.com
The consistency is just right: moist and not too airy. But it could do with more fruit and stronger flavours.
★★★

Carluccio's
Panettone Tradizionale
1kg, £16.95, carluccios.com
Dry and really lacking in flavour and fruit. I'd be very disappointed if I'd bought this.
★★

Selfridges
San Patrignano Panettone
1kg, £24.99, Selfridges stores
Dry, with hardly any fruit inside. On top there is rock sugar and almonds but they've gone soggy.
★★

Stollen

Tesco
Finest Stollen
630g, £7.50, tesco.com
Very nice. Moist, and the marzipan is lovely and soft inside. Rich in fruit and with natural glacé cherries. Delicious.
★★★★★

Marks & Spencer
The Collection: Stollen Loaf
670g, £8, marksandspencer.com
Smells lovely and buttery. The marzipan is the real deal – beautifully soft and melted into the loaf. The fruit is good quality, too. I love the natural glacé cherries.
★★★★

Waitrose
Waitrose Stollen Loaf
£5.49, waitrose.com
The marzipan is hard in the middle, and the whole thing is too dense and sugary. The currants and sultanas need to be plumper to create the richness that stollen demands.
★★

Sainsbury's
Taste the Difference Fruit and Nut Topped Stollen
£6 for 540g, sainsburys.co.uk
Too sweet and too sticky. There's an overpowering taste of cheap ground spice. More like a sticky cake than a stollen.
★★

Trifles

Selfridges
Selfridges Orange and Passion Fruit Trifle
1.25kg, £20, selfridges.com
The custard in this is lovely, and the balance of passion fruit, orange zest and cream is delicious.
★★★★

Tesco
Finest Raspberry Compote and Sherry Trifle
780g, £7, tesco.com
Creamy, with lots of sponge. It's balanced, although the filling is a bit too sweet.
★★★

The Cooperative
The Cooperative Sherry Trifle
750g, £3, cooperative.coop
This is like a strawberry jelly with some sponge. The cream is too fluffy and the custard is too liquid.
★★

Sainsbury's
Taste the Difference Sherry Trifle
900g, £8, sainsburys.co.uk
This has a good kick of booze but it's too thin and watery. Unappetising.
★

Gingerbread

Marks & Spencer
Gingerbread Tree
1.175kg, £18, marksandspencer.com
Crispy, gingery but not overpoweringly so, and it tastes really fresh.
★★★★

Harvey Nichols
Harvey Nichols Gingerbread in Mrs Snowman
75g, £3.95, available at Harvey Nichols stores nationwide
Looks as a gingerbread biscuit should – cracked on top but it's chewy in the middle. The flavour is nice and spicy.
★★★

Sainsbury's
Decorate Your Own Gingerbread Stars
£2.99, 228g, sainsburys.co.uk
Good crunch and good flavour. Slightly too sugary for my taste .
★★★

Waitrose
Gingerbread Tree Decorations
Pack of 3, £2.49, waitrose.com
Struggling to taste any ginger – it is just very sweet. It has a soggy consistency.
★

Mince pies

Marks & Spencer
The Collection: Ultimate Mince Pies
210g, £2.99, marksandspencer.com
Lovely thick pastry, and it's buttery – which I like. The filling is spicy and fruity, although they are a little mean with it.
★★★★

Harrods
Harrods Limited Edition Orange and Cointreau Mince Pies
372g, £9.95, harrods.com
Nice pastry and a very good mincemeat. The orange peel comes through but it could do with a little more booze to jazz it up.
★★★

Riverford
Riverford Mince Pies
6 pies, £4.95, riverford.co.uk
The pastry sticks to your palate and the filling is too dense. The only strong flavour that's coming through is the fat on the pastry.
★★

Waitrose
Heston Shortcrust Mince Pies with Tangerine Sugar
Box of 4, £3.29, waitrose.com
These are awful and really weird to look at for a start! The pastry is soft and soggy, they are overspiced and taste artificial.
★