#Trending: We tried Molly Bakes Freakshakes
You've seen them on Buzzfeed, Metro and all over Instagram. So we decided to see what all the hype was about.
Molly Bakes is a well known Dalston based bakery which opened a cafe earlier on this year. Since then, their Australia-invented "Freakshakes" have brought them rapidly to internet fame, with the shakes being featured by the likes of Buzzfeed, Metro and even with Holly and Phil on This Morning. So, naturally, we had to go and give them a try.
The cafe itself is a tiny, cute building on Kingsland Road in Dalston. From the outside you wouldn't think it was particularly special, aside from the large queue of people crowding to get in. The cafe seats only around 20 people, hence the queues, and as soon as you walk through the door you are presented with a huge selection of cakes and cookies, as well as the sight of staff making the infamous Freakshakes.
The shakes come in a small variety of flavours: Chocolate, Caramel, Raspberry or Peanut Butter and cost £7 each. Expensive for just a milkshake, one might think, but these are not just milkshakes. The shakes are made with locally sourced ice cream and basically have an entire extra dessert stacked on top of them...
So I decided to try the raspberry shake, and Ruth tried the caramel. The raspberry shake is made with ice cream, fresh raspberries and milk, with Marshmallow Fluff smeared around the top of the glass. The shake is then topped with whipped cream, freeze dried raspberry pieces, raspberry jam, an entire chocolate brownie and a piece of homemade toasted marshmallow.
The caramel shake is made with ice cream and caramel sauce, with more caramel sauce lavishly smothering the top of the glass. It is then topped with cream, more caramel sauce, brownie and marshmallow the same as the raspberry shake.
Aesthetically, it's hard to dispute that the shakes look awesome. Complete with a red stripey straw, they are undeniably inviting to look at and certainly have the 'woah' factor. But how do they taste, you ask?
The raspberry shake: Well, kinda disappointing, actually. Sadly whilst the use of fresh raspberries gives the shake a more luxurious edge, they just don't harbour the same level of flavour as a jam or sauce would, thus making the consumer long for a stronger raspberry 'kick'. Indeed, it's clear that this is a very high quality ice-cream based shake, but unfortunately it lacked in flavour for me a little. However, I really loved the raspberry pieces around the edges and the extra texture provided by the little lumps of marshmallow fluff; and the home baked chocolate brownie was a celebration of chocolatey, gooey loveliness in my mouth.
My score: 7/10. Slightly flavour-deprived, but more than made up for in amazing aesthetics and toppings.
The caramel shake: Everything you'd expect from a caramel milkshake... thick, milky and far. too. sweet. So much so that even with a joint effort between the two of us, we literally couldn't finish the thing. The problem here is it's sugar, topped with cream, topped with chocolate, topped with more sugar. There's nothing to cut through the sweetness and to quote 'you can literally feel diabetes happening right now'. Again, the brownie and marshmallow make a nice addition, but the sickly-sweetness was too much for us, inducing stomach pains and sugar-crash headaches.
Ruth's score: 6/10. In all fairness, you have to expect a caramel milkshake to be pretty sweet. But this was a little too much. Again, aesthetics and the brownie picked this score back up.
Don't get us wrong, these Freakshakes are certainly an experience and well worth the money, given the sheer volume of shake and extra ingredients that go into making them look so special. But there is some room for improvement here, guys! Rumour has it that the team are developing some new flavours; we'll certainly be visiting to try them out.
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