Question: how do you make porridge more awesome?

Answer: add cake of course!

See, GF can be fun too!

I  love Perk!er foods – products that are after my own heart – in that they are hearty, sweet and fabulously branded. Everyone at Free From fair seemed to agree, as I couldn’t get past the crowds to sample the cute little cake pops, so was pleased when I saw that Ann was offering online ordering for a limited time. Unfortunately it is a sweet irony that I actually eat more cake now than BC, so when the box of goodies I had ordered arrived on my desk, I was actually feeling a bit of cake fatigue. Luckily my colleagues were getting curious at the endless rounds of nom that come in the post to me these days, and were only to happy to help with the taste-testing (read: hoovering up) of these particular treats.

Nestling in some fabulous orange packaging were 2 pieces of biscuity Popping Tiffin – which proved to be a  mini riot of flavours and textures – fun fun fun. For me, they were perhaps a little on the sweet side, not so my colleagues who were literally ‘wowed’ when I told them these were gluten free.

Rocky Road, on the other hand hadn’t posted so well due to the fact that they were so damn rich and chocolatey. These were real indulgences – soft, melty, biscuity – sensory overload. These are the sort of food you would never make yourself because it would need 20 ingredients and several days. These (thankfully) didn’t break into quite such shareable pieces due to the sticky, clumpy, yummy marshmallows; but the little pieces I begrudgingly handed out also met exclaims of delight from my colleagues.

Tiffin. I dread to think how many cake crumbs are harboured in my keyboard.

No pictures of the breakfast products, because there’s simply no way to make porridge look appealing in a photography; but I can report that the gingerbread flavour is inspired – adding ginger or cinnamon is a great way to trick your brain into thinking it’s got something sweet without the sugar (and I normally have lashings of syrup with my porridge, so all to the good). Ginger is a winning combination with rhubarb so I’ve been eating mine with homemade compote – like pudding for breakfast! The porridge needed a little longer in the microwave than the instructions on the back, but as a bonus this is the first time it didn’t explode all over the place!

Overall a GFNomability score of 9/10 for the Perk!er products. Let’s hope they are more widely available in the future – for now get your online orders in while they are still available!