Josephine Baker

Rating: 4 out of /5

Josephine Baker produce both a small and a large regular semla. I tested the large which was 205g, 9.5cm wide and 9cm tall. It had to be 9cm tall that's the height of the box. It had no choice but to be 9!

The lid is an isosceles triangle shape rather than the usual equilateral with half a dusting of icing sugar - the other half is very much on the whipped cream. Initially I thought the cream was over whipped, but it was actually the icing sugar!

The bun feels soft and gentle to the touch and an even golden brown color. A few slithers of almond are peeking put from under the cream.

It's just as soft to eat. An excellently baked bun, with visible crushed cardamom kernels.

The cream is not at all over whipped, and holds its shape perfectly. The layer of icing sugar that missed the lid brings a sweetness to it, but I think it spoils the appearance of the deep contours of the cream slightly.

The paste is one of the smoothest pastes I can ever remember having. It really is a paste, and has quite a distinct mouth-feel. There's nothing else I can notice in the paste, just a layer of roasted almonds slithers on top.

There's a lot of paste, filling a deep well cut out of the bun. It's so deep, it leaves less than a centimeter of bun beneath it. While I'm writing this, the almond paste is slowly oozing out of the bun - like smooth almond lava.

I'd would have liked slightly little less filling, and even slightly less cream, and slightly more cardamom. As the cardamom is only in the bun, and there is so much filling, in some mouthfuls it gets a little lost. I didn't try one, but I suspect the small semlor will have an even better balance of proportions and could be a 4.5.

As it is, the large is an enjoyable semla. 4/5.