Who can forget Kunzle Showboats?
Delicious chocolate shells filled with fondant cream, sponge and topped with more chocolate or small sweets. You could buy them individually in sweet shops and coffee shops. or your mother would buy a box of them for Sunday tea. Then all of a sudden, they disappeared from the shops. What happened? Well, I have been trying to find out for several years. The original Kunzle company became the property of Lyons in the late sixties. Lyons continued to produce Kunzle Showboats for a while after that. More takeovers and mergers followed over the years, and now the Lyons brand is owned by RHM Limited. You may never have heard from them but they are a giant food group who are also behind the “Mr Kipling” brand. Somewhere along the way, Kunzle Showboats got lost. Why do I care – why should you care? Kunzle Showboats were a unique (and delicious) confection. They were also a part of British child hood for a generation of people. There is nothing else remotely like them. When I talk to people, many also fondly remember the little chocolate cakes. They had so much chocolate, cream and decoration there was little room left for sponge – they were sheer indulgence. I have seen them discussed on the internet, and also discussed on radio phone-ins. I feel sure that if enough of us told RHM Limited how we felt – they would realise that reviving them would be good business for them. What can you do? Use the links opposite. Email me with your memories and support. Write to RHM. If you have a website – link to me (I can provide a return link if you wish*) I have had to remove the link to the excellent J Lyons and Co History website as they are currently suffering excess traffic. I wish them every future success and thank them for their support. If you have any pictures of Kunzle Showboats – that would also be really useful!
When fulfilling my National Service in the RAF, I was staioned near to Felisxtowe. A small group of us would go into Felixstowe on a Saturday afternoon and have tea and cakes at a small cafe on the sea front.
The waitress would bring a plate of Kunzle cakes and set them on the table. No matter how many she brought, and as she got to know us it would increase, they would all be gone before we left.
Just never forgot those cakes. They were distinctive in appearance and taste. I can see them, and taste them as I write this.
I went back recently to find that cafe. It had changed a little but was still there. Unfortunately, the cakes were not.
BRING THEM BACK! P L E A S E!
Comment by Ray Newton — September 9, 2007 @ 10:17 am
I remember kunzle showboats too. I could buy them individually at the little corner shop. I would get them as a special treat at Christmas and for my birthday. They were delicious, the best cakes ever. I wish they were still available. i particularly loved the orange one, I think it was the oval shaped one. The square one was pink, the round one chocolate and the hexagonal one was vanilla. Yumm, sorely missed.
Comment by Mandy Hill — October 9, 2007 @ 9:29 pm
I have very fond memories of the Kunzle cake. I wish that they would re introduce them because trying to describre the taste and the and the sheer indulgence of eating one is impossible. people would have to try them for themselves to appreciate them.
Comment by marlene kerr — October 17, 2007 @ 11:15 am
Yes please bring back Kunzle cake for my husband he’s 54 this year I am only a couple of years younger but for the life of me can’t remeber them.
So it would be nice and it would bring back one of his childhood memories.
BRING BACK KUNZLE CAKES instead of all the other rubbish out now!!!!!!
Comment by Janet Foyle — October 29, 2007 @ 1:13 pm
I am 49 and I remember Kunzel Cakes. As many posters before me have said we were talking about them at work this week. No one else had heard of them and I couldn’t remember what they were like. i just remember loving them. The picture even though it’s not a good one brings the memories flooding back. They were abs0lutely delicious back then. I wonder if they would taste the same now we are adult – love to try. BRING BACK THE KUNZEL CAKE.
Comment by Jayne Dawson — November 2, 2007 @ 12:38 pm
Sorry but in the change over to our new provider earlier this year the Kunzle page(along with a few others) did not get copied over.
I have only just realised tonight so I have just put this on now.
The URL is here
http://madeinbirmingham.org/kunzle.htm
Pictures to follow.
There will be a question on the forum about Kunzle Cakes so you are all welcome to join in
JP
Comment by Made in Birmingham — November 7, 2007 @ 1:20 am
Yeeeesssshhhh!!!! I remember kunzel showboats! Absolute heaven. I can still taste them now. I cannot understand why no-one has brought them back to civilisation. Strangely enough, I do not eat cakes or biscuits…….I now know why.
Comment by Annie Hutter — November 19, 2007 @ 11:52 am
For reasons I can’t explain, I suddenly recalled Kunzle cakes with great affection. A quick Google, and, lo and behold, there are many who think like me!!
Around 1970 I lived in the West Midlands and clearly recall the great delights of Kunzle cakes. However my wife, who comes from Liverpool, doesn’t know what I am talking about, so, was there a regional variation in their availability, or did she just suffer a deprived childhood?
Comment by Nick Looker — January 10, 2008 @ 11:01 pm
Uncanny. I have occasionally thought about Kunzle Showboats over the last few years- the different shapes, that solid chocolate shell, the pink and yellow and orange (and green?) cream so thick that the sponge in the bottom was minimal, the little “jelly tot” sweet on top and the chocolate striping across the surface- never was there a recipe of synthetic goo so designed to drive a seven-year-old child wild with greed in the mid 60s in rural Devon.! I think I remember eating them in London in the early 70s too, but the memories dim at around 1975. BRING THEM BACK PLEASE!!
Comment by Simon Barnes — January 21, 2008 @ 10:16 am
I have read most of these comments and can only repeat at the age of 77 no other cake has had such appeal and been so sorely missed BRING BACK THE KUNZLE i dont expect them to be cheap but all we ask for is a treat .
Comment by terry wilkinson — January 29, 2008 @ 2:34 pm
I too remember these wonderful cakes from my childhood.In the early eighties they were sold at waitrose for a short
time. Bring them back.
Comment by judy clarke — January 29, 2008 @ 5:54 pm
I am 57 and remember my Mum bringing Kunzle Showboats home from the Co-op in Erith, Kent, where she worked. I’m sure they are responsible for my lifelong sweet tooth. Did the original recipe come from Switzerland?
Comment by Linda Ireland — February 25, 2008 @ 12:33 am
I periodically look for Kunzel Cakes on the web and low and behold this morning there I find this site.
My sister and I were discussing these delicious cakes just recently remembered from our childhood (I am 67), and like others can also still taste them. They were so delicious and very sorely missed.
Would be great if someone could start producing them again and I am sure all age groups would be rushing to buy.
Comment by Lesley Wilson — March 23, 2008 @ 10:08 am
I am 42 years old and it’s amazing how many people of my age or similar age do not remember these amazing little cakes, when i try to explain to them what these cakes were like they look at me like i’m mad!!!
I remember them well though, and it’s great to read peoples comments on them too. I remember when sunday tea was a ritual back in the late 60’s to early 70’s in our house, mum would open a tin of salmon for sandwhiches, we would have a home-made birds trifle, and a bowl of salad and there were allways kunzels showboats, my sister didn’t have a sweet tooth so i allways got to eat hers!!! yipee!! they were happy memories of childhood, but sadly things change….
Comment by dawn — April 6, 2008 @ 2:50 pm
I remember Kunzle Showboats, they were delicious. Bring them back!!!
Comment by Maria Thomas — May 11, 2008 @ 5:28 pm
As a young girl in the 1960’s Kunzel cakes were a firm favourite, then they just seemed to vanish and we couldn’t get hold of them. I have told my own children how delicious they were and WE WOULD ALL LOVE TO SEE THEM produced again. They were unique and would be welcomed by a new generation of yummy cake lovers!
Comment by Geraldine Ribbons — May 18, 2008 @ 12:31 pm
my great grandmother is desperate to find out how to make these kunzel cakes or showbaots as everyone seemt o be calling them! if anyone can help me then it would be wonderful!
thankyou
Comment by melissa — May 23, 2008 @ 10:33 pm
i remember scooping the coffee and cream out with my finger then eating the thick chocolate triangle last. cofee, banana, strawberry and one other. I wish they would come back.I am e mailing mr kipling but wont hold my breath.Fond memories karen
Comment by karen robb — May 24, 2008 @ 12:14 pm
Kunzle Showboats really were the ’special’ part of the special teatime. The orange one was my favourite. Yes, I would certainly love to see them return but can’t help thinking that with EU directives, additives and so on, they just wouldn’t be produced quite the same as they were back then.
Comment by Kim Cavanagh — May 26, 2008 @ 3:11 pm
I loved those Kunzle cakes and can still taste them even now, I first job 1959 in the pits in South wales (Newlands) and a fitter men used to bring them in for me on a Monday. Boy did I enjoy going to work on Mondays, like everyone else would love to see them back on the shelf, wouldn’t be there long judging by the comments. If they can put a man on the moon surely they can bring back “Kunzle Showboats”
Comment by Peter Joyner — June 27, 2008 @ 6:40 pm
I too have been recalling these little gems aver the past couple of months. I have told me son about them and would dearly love toi find these back on the shelves again. It was wonderful when I stumbled on your website, I was begining to think that I had made it all up in my head. Bring them back I say!!!!
Comment by antonia leahy — August 19, 2008 @ 2:04 pm
I have just been discussing these at work and I would love them to come back. All childhood memories come flooding back when you talk about them.
Comment by Jane Brown — September 11, 2008 @ 3:53 pm
Bring back the yellow!! Who decided to stop making them anyway?? AND lets have a walnut inside the walnut whip once again!!
Comment by Julian Pruggmayer — October 12, 2008 @ 2:56 pm
We have been discussing these yummy cakes this afternoon at work and we say PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE bring them back! Come on you know you want too!
Comment by Corinne & Eileen — October 24, 2008 @ 3:58 pm
I worked in the small self service store my Dad used to Manage in Lordship Lane E Dulwich SE22 late afternoons after school and Saturdays between 1961-1965 it was slave labour and he only paid me ten Shillings.So to make up for it i used to nick the Kunzle Cakes i was addicted to them. My old man thought they were a great seller, little did he know
They were the yummiest cakes ever,yeah! i wish they would bring them back. These cakes never went stale whereas the Jaffa Cakes did ,as they were never sealed properley ,it took them years to correct this ,it’s a shame really because i would scoffed them up as well…..Rory Kenny
Comment by Rory Kenny — November 7, 2008 @ 12:49 am
Strange!…I woke up this morning and ‘Kunzle cake’ popped into my mind unbidden. In fact I had to think if this was real or a made up name from my dream. I immediatly went to Google and low and behold, I now remember these treats from my childhood at the Lyons Corner House in Ealing, where my Nan used to take me for ‘Coffee and a dash’( mostly hot milk with a dash of bottled coffee essence for flavor)I was around 5 years old.I am now 64 living in the States since 1978.And while I am at it, what was the name of the liquid coffee in a bottle, that we used to mix with hot water? We kids used to make this on a little stove while pretending to be camping in my friends back yard.
Comment by Dela — November 17, 2008 @ 5:05 pm
does anyone have a recipe with real ingredients (no synthetic stuff)
Comment by Dela — November 17, 2008 @ 5:11 pm
Reading these comments I wonder if there were two distinct products?
I remember Kunle cakes, but not Kunzel Showboats.
The Kunzel cake did not come in any variety but was a single type, which you bought in a box of 6 or 8 of them (possibly more), and I think they were marketed by Lyons. I also don’t think there would have been any coconut in them because I do not like coconut, but still crave the Kunzel cakes I used to scoff in my late teens.
Comment by Bernard Butler — November 29, 2008 @ 6:48 pm
Oh yes, I only ate one or two of them ever cos they were so expensive but they were sooo exotic and beautiful, like cakes from another world! Bring ‘em back!
Comment by chicchantal — January 25, 2009 @ 7:21 pm
Kunzle cakes have been discussed today on our website below.
The name is new to me but I do remember the description.
http://www.womensthoughts.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=37&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=20
Comment by Anne — February 12, 2009 @ 11:16 pm
I have sent a Request to Ted Robbins of BBC Lancashire to revive this campaign for the return of Kunzle cakes.
Comment by Brian and Joan MORECAMBE — February 13, 2009 @ 11:08 am
We have never found a cake to replace them!
How did they cook the sponge filling without melting the chocolate?
Comment by Ian — February 15, 2009 @ 12:51 pm
I remember Kunzel Cakes as a teenager when I worked at Fenchurch Street as an office junior. They were usually bought on someone’s birthday, as an treat. The first time I saw them a lady bought them in on her birthday, she came with the whole box an as she opend the lid I could see these little differently shaped, celophane wrapped chocolate cup cakes. This aways reminds me of my teenage years in the sixty.
Comment by Linda — March 2, 2009 @ 10:21 pm
My mum also used to buy kunzel cakes from carters in ebbw vale, I thought of them and was trying to explain them to my daughter they were fantastic and should be brought back.
I think the coffee Dela was talking about was called camp coffee.
Comment by louise — March 4, 2009 @ 1:53 am
I remember them too, I’d love to be able to get them again, my favourites were orange and the vanilla.
Comment by Helena — March 12, 2009 @ 4:08 pm
I worked at Kunzles for two years.Unfortunately as with most Kunle cakes the production requirements were very labour intensive and with modern day costing they no longer would be viable to produce,(fondant Fancies,city fingers all were excellent)
Comment by Jag — March 24, 2009 @ 12:14 am
Kunzel Cakes were the best thing on the market, one day they were there the next gone…….please please bring them back. Such a choice of them never knew which one to choose, all were fab.
Comment by Patricia Long — March 26, 2009 @ 2:22 pm
I have worked in the food industry for 30 years, and well remember Showboats as a child and youth…and thoroughly enjoyed them. I know from experience that this product would have a few barriers to its re-introduction: it would be a very expensive product to manufacture again, and may be prohibitively expensive for many consumers as a result (those chocolate casings alone would be very costly, and labour overheads would also be high); consequently the distribution (availability in supermarkets) would be restricted as they would also prove difficult to produce in volume, and the final retail price would make it an indulgent treat. Rates of sale as a result would also mean that Supermarket buyers would look askance at giving it shelf space unless it justified it’s presence with a very high % margin. However, having said all that, I for one would pay a premium for this indulgence. They really were a good product, and I endorse this site’s attempts to get them re-introduced. Set-up costs would be a final barrier, and I can’t see today’s manufacturers of mass volume taking the risk – maybe a small manufacturer could do so, but who now owns the brand rights? Premier Foods??
Comment by Paul Hale — April 3, 2009 @ 1:34 pm
Just watched the old film “Comfort and Joy” and Kunzle cakes were being eaten. Reminded me of my youth. I’d certainly buy them again. Mmmm.
Comment by Susan D'Arcy — April 12, 2009 @ 9:42 pm
I am 48 and remember kunzle cakes well, they were delicious, my husband who is 51 has never had one, he really is missing something special, please please someone bring them back
Comment by diane burgess — April 23, 2009 @ 6:51 pm
i can remember the strawberry triangle and the oval orange kunzel cakes,i think you could get 4 or 6 to a box this was around 1975 ish.please bring them back
Comment by darren hickman — May 12, 2009 @ 1:36 pm
The greatest cakes of a generation! Lets get lyons to bring them them back!
Comment by Ruth Randall — May 13, 2009 @ 5:25 pm
Hi all, sorry to put a damper on your hopes for the return of Kunzel Showboats, but the article on Google under J.Lyons from an engineer from the past,who moved the only machines to make Showboats at least twice explains why they disapeared.As I write this I can almost taist them,I bought them in a little sweet shop in Bexley Kent near the Black Prince pub.Sadly the shop is gone,and the pub is a hotel.
Comment by Edward Ginn — July 21, 2009 @ 9:18 am
Dela,
it was and still is called Camp coffee essence,liquid in a bottle Tedd.
Comment by Edward Ginn — July 29, 2009 @ 9:22 am
God, I thought I was the only one that remembered these! I wasn’t born till the late 60’s but clearly remember having them for tea in the 70’s. My mum used to buy a box every now and then as a treat – I liked the orange one and the vanilla one.
I particularly remember the thick layer of creamy-stuff and the fine-as-a-hair chocolate piping on top!
I am aghast to read the post further up this thread saying they are too labour intensive to make any more. Is that ‘progress’?? What a joke – we can have a bazillion different types of dry, tasteless, uninspiring muffins because they’re cost effective and easy to make, but god forbid someone should put any effort into making what the customer actually wants..
Comment by Rosie — August 29, 2009 @ 7:12 pm
I’m 52 and remember my grandmother buying these regularly in the 60’s. I often ate two at once, I was a chubby little chap back then. Thinking about these cakes invariably brings to mind the yellow and white marbled formica top of her dining table where I’d scoff them off a small plate in a manner akin to which a ravening wolf eats a careless rabbit. They were ace ! I miss my granny.
Comment by Michael Stride — September 2, 2009 @ 2:47 am
Hi this is great to find so many who remember these great cakes. I worked in a cafe in the ’50s and couldn’t keep these cakes from flying off the shelves. Maybe somebody (a good baker) could start a home venture, with ready made customers on this site…..
Comment by Sarah Trainer — September 4, 2009 @ 5:23 pm
kunzel cakes were the best cakes ever, i can still remember them distictly from my childhood, we always had them on a saturday as a teatime treat. would love to see them and taste them again.
Comment by liz meek — September 21, 2009 @ 5:17 pm
my sister Anna and I loved Kunzle showboats or snowboats as we believed they were called. She liked best the one with the chocolate button on top.My favourite was the pink one with a flower. we were scoffing them with joy in 1975 but haven’t seen them since
Comment by Jo Blyth — October 1, 2009 @ 1:43 pm
Kunzle Showboats were my highlight of the week. I used to have them up until 1967. When I looked for them in the shops later they had gone.
Cant see that they would be hard to make – its already possible to buy chocolate shells. Sponge and butter cream are simple to do. Stick a sweetie on the top. Done deal! They are no more complex to make than cherry bakewells.
Comment by Ann Leonard — October 15, 2009 @ 9:40 pm
Everyone has something that they dearly remember visits to their grandma’s for. My special little memory is the treat of being sent to the corner shop for four Kunzle cakes for the tea. It was the perfect recipe of a delicious crispy chocolate cup filled with a lovely light vanilla sponge and a scrumptious lightly whipped cream, which came in a few different flavours with a pattern of chocolate and miniature jellies or cherries on the top. I can’t think of any cake, even the cupcake that is as yummy as these. Please bring them back so that my children can share this experience.
Comment by Jenny Jones — October 25, 2009 @ 6:26 pm
Oh how I wish these little gems of a cake could be brought back they were out of this world we used to have them for Saturday tea in the late 50s and early 60s the coffee one was my favourite Sarah KennedyBBC Radio 2 gave them some airtime a couple of years back people writing in with there memories of them and had the people who made and sold them at Waitrose on her program
Comment by Jo Rich — November 9, 2009 @ 11:55 pm
The name Kunzle cakes.. came back to me in a thrice this morning when I was reminiscing about my childhood.
I lived in a small village in Berkshire where the local grocery store became the hub of the village. I had a Saturday job in the 1960’s in the sweet shop of this grocery store ‘Kirby’s’ a family owned enterprise, and one of my favourite treats were the chocolate Kunzle cakes.. individually wrapped, very gooey in the middle and even to this day I can remember the heavenly taste of that rich chocolate icing.
I can’t say I have ever really loved any chocolate cake as much as these little delicacies.. and I would love to see them return so my own child could share a taste of my golden childhood and this sweet memory.
Comment by Michele — November 27, 2009 @ 7:30 am
i was in bluewater yesterday and went into john lewis where they now have a waitrose in the basement and there right at the front of the food hall were some delicious little cakes that reminded me of kunzle cakes,please bring them back!
Comment by sue — November 27, 2009 @ 8:31 am
Oh my god, how I wish they would bring them back. They were the best cake ever and I would certainly buy them by the shipload along with many others. Come on whoever owns the company now, make them!!
Comment by Bonnie Hughes — January 13, 2010 @ 12:08 am