Is the Woolies mud cake truly the best? We blind taste-tested supermarket mud cakes to find out

The Better Homes and Gardens team, led by senior food editor Sarah Murphy, set out to uncover the ultimate mud cake, tasting the big four: Coles, Aldi, IGA and, of course, the iconic Woolworths. Our taste test had four white squiggle-decorated cakes eaten up by our panel and expert, and the results say: Woolies does NOT have the best mud cake.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The overall winner of our supermarket mud cake taste test was Aldi’s The Cake Stall Chocolate Mud Cake. It is the cheapest option on the list, at $1.15 per 100g, compared to $1.18 for other supermarkets.
• Our expert scores were the same for all the mud cakes at 7.5/10, because they were all extremely consistent in taste, texture and enjoyment.

For our expert taste tester Sarah Murphy, all the supermarket mud cakes were consistent enough to have the same score. Comparing icing, texture, and overall flavour, she found small discrepancies with each but, overall, enjoyed them the same. For our panel, results were extremely close, ranging from 6.91/10 to 7.31/10. In the end, Aldi was the winner, with a firmer icing and rich chocolate taste.

All supermarket mud cakes

“You wouldn’t have a bad afternoon tea with any of them.”

Aldi The Cake Stall Chocolate Mud Cake

Firmer icing, dense texture and rich chocolate taste.

Panel score: 7.31

Aldi The Cake Stall Chocolate Mud Cake came out on top by the smallest point difference. With a hard, firm icing and moist chocolate cake, it received plenty of love from our panel. This sample was considered to have the most airy, fluffy texture while still maintaining that moist quality that you want from a mud cake.

Our expert Sarah Murphy loved the firmer icing texture but said the fudgy quality you usually find with mud cakes was slightly lacking. While not dry, definitely not the most ‘mud’ mud cake option.

Best for Harder, firmer icing Rich chocolate flavour and fluffy texture Cheapest option at $1.15 per 100g.

Panel score: 7.14

In second place came IGA with their Community Co Chocolate Mudcake. The icing was the defining element on this mud cake, with a soft, ‘frosting-like’ quality. Closer to a homemade cake than a store-bought supermarket cake, our panel applauded this sample for its authenticity.

The drawback? The cake itself was a bit dry and slightly flavourless. Sarah’s answer was similar, saying the cake ‘couldn’t stand on its own, but with the icing was good enough.’

Best for ‘Frosting-like’ icing Denser cake texture.

Panel score: 6.98

And in third came the famed, the iconic, Woolies Mud Cake. Unfortunately for the OG, this cake couldn’t beat out the icing from IGA and the rich chocolate taste from Aldi. From our panel, this sample had the most steady ranking, with a smaller range of scores. Comments ranged from ‘nice’ and ‘tastes good’ to ‘it’s quite bland, and super thick in my mouth!’

Sarah said overall, there were no standout qualities from this sample. Instead, all the elements of this cake worked well together and was enjoyable enough to keep snacking on.

Best for A good balance between cake and icing Thicker mud cake texture.

Panel score: 6.91

And in last place, by a fraction of a point, is Coles Chocolate Mud Cake. While many taste-testers mistook this sample for their ‘favourite’ Woolies mud cake, the dislike of this cake overshadowed that. A dense, plasticky texture was the standout, with ‘stodgy’ commented several times. In the positives, one panellist did name this as their ‘future wedding cake.’

Sarah agreed that there was something slightly off about this cake sample, but still thought it was extremely enjoyable.

Best for Moist cake texture Standard quality.

How we tested the supermarket mud cakes

We blind taste-tested 4 different supermarket mud cakes from Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA. All samples were placed on identical trays, sliced in square pieces and tasted without any accompaniments.

Samples were numbered from 1 to 4 to avoid bias. Taste-testers shared their responses via an anonymous online form, ranking each mud cake sample out of ten for three criteria: taste, texture and overall satisfaction. Taste-testers were also encouraged to leave constructive comments on what they liked and disliked about each sample.

How we selected which supermarket mud cakes to test

To be included in our mud cake taste test, products had to be widely available in supermarkets nationally. This meant choosing the most common brands available in a wide range of stores and the largest size possible to cater for our taste test panel size. All the mud cakes chosen were in stock at the time of purchase. The Woolworths Free From Gluten Chocolate Mud Cake was initially included in this taste test, but it was sold out at the time of purchase due to supply issues.

Which is better, the mud cake from Woolies or Coles?

In our blind taste test of supermarket mud cakes, Woolies mud cake ranked higher than Coles. However, IGA and Aldi both scored higher than Woolworths, and are considered to be a better mud cake option.