Wendyl wants to know: It's hard to get all festive on Chrissy cake for one

Every time I look at this tiny piece of cake, which is slightly smaller than a Rubik's Cube, I feel utterly wretched.

These little single-serve Christmas cakes are obviously designed with the solo Christmas reveller in mind. Either that or the makers are thinking people might pop them in Christmas stockings, but I think most people would opt for lollies over chunks of fruit cake.

According to the 2013 Census, 23.5 per cent of New Zealanders live alone and it upsets me to think that some of them may also be alone on Christmas Day tucking into a tiny box of single-serve Christmas cake like this.

So I'm nominating this product as the inaugural member of my new "Sad Food" category.

It's not sad because it has lots of nasties in it, it's just sad because it exists in response to a perceived market.

Select Festive Iced Fruit Cake $2.24 for 110g
Mixed dried fruit (38%) (vine fruits, (sultanas, currants, raisins) citrus peels (contains orange peel, glucose (wheat), lemon peel, preservative 223))The preservative is sodium metabisulphite (223) which contains sulphur which some people are allergic to.

Glace cherries
(contains preservative (220)These are preserved cherries, the preservative is sulphur dioxide (220) which contains sulphur and some people can be allergic to it.

Glace ginger
This is preserved ginger.

Sugar
This is a high sugar product with 58.4g or nearly 14 teaspoons per 110g which means over half this of little cake is sugar.

Wheat flour

Egg pulp

Butter (cream, salt)

WaterHumectant (422)
This is glycerine (422) which is a natural carbohydrate alcohol.

Glucose
(from maize)
Almonds (1%)
Vegetable oils (contains soy, palm)

Natural colours (150a, 161b)
These are Caramel I (150a) and lutein (161b) which is a yellow/orange colour made from marigolds.

Golden syrup
Thickener (1442 from maize)This is acetylated distarch adipate (1442) which is a treated starch, in this case corn.

Rum
No need to panic about too much alcohol being in here. This far down the list means there is only a tiny amount, most likely in here for flavouring.

Salt

Spices

Vegetable emulsifiers (471,475)
These are mono and diglycerides of fatty acids (471) and polyglycerol esters of fatty acids (475). Both are natural products.

Raising agents
(500, 541)These are baking soda (500) and sodium aluminium phosphate (541).

Gelatine (from beef)
Preservatives (200, 202)These are sorbic acid (200) and potassium sorbate (202) both natural products.

Natural almond flavour
Good to see a natural flavour used here.

Stabilisers
(413, 466)These are tragacanth (413), a natural gum, and sodium carboxymethylcellulose (466), extracted from green plants and algae.

Acidity regulators
(260, 330, 570)These are acetic acid (260) which is vinegar, citric acid (330) and stearic acid (570) which is a naturally saturated fatty acid.

Vegetable emulsifiers
(322 from soy, 492)These are lecithin (322) and sorbitan tristearate (492) which is a surfactant.

Antioxidant
(307b from soy)This is a tocopherol (307b) otherwise known as Vitamin E.

My recommendations
Despite its exhausting 42 ingredients including many preservatives, emulsifiers and stabilisers, this little box of cake is okay. Of course it's never going to be good as homemade which requires few additives, but there are no artificial flavours or colours to worry about. And it is high in sugar but it's Christmas and it would be hard to make a cake like this without a lot of sugar.

If you are considering buying one of these maybe you should upscale to a full-size cake and ask some people around for a cup of tea.

And if you know of someone spending Christmas alone, don't buy them one of these, instead ask them over and give them some of your cake.

Highlights
• A sad food because it appears to be for people alone at Christmas.
• No artificial colours or flavours.
• Contains nearly 14 teaspoons of sugar

On the web Read Wendyl's columns on other food products at: http://tiny cc/01b9u