Tunis cake update - so I bought a small one from the Cornish Food Box Company, this one:
https://www.thecornishfoodboxcompany.co.uk/tunis-cake-small.html
(they also do a large).
Just tried it and, well, I'm not at all impressed! But here's a 'review':
Let's work from the top down:
The marzipan fruits are okay - they taste of marzipan after all, can't really go wrong with that, but they're not as firm as they should be.
The icing is extremely sweet, not only that but it's very soft - the icing on the original McVitie's Tunis Cake was of such a consistency that it was possible to break it off in pieces yet it wasn't hard.
The chocolate ....... completely wrong as far as the taste goes and it's a bit too hard. The amount spread on the top is also rather thin.
The madeira cake itself is in fact the best part, in the sense that it tastes very nice with a good crumbly texture. HOWEVER despite this it's nothing like the madeira that made up the original cake; that madeira was in fact quite firm and bland in taste and was easily the least palatable part of the original (but it was of course edible).
So there you go. My score? 5/10 (and that's mostly for the madeira cake).
Some will say that my memory of the original has changed over the years but I would strongly dispute that - there are some things that, for me at least, are unchanged and one part of those are my memories of certain tastes and smells. Remember that smell and taste are linked and are excellent memory triggers.
Others will say that my overall taste has changed - not so, I've always had a sweet tooth for example and I still have.
Ultimately of course people's tastes differ, some may try this cake and find it wonderful. I hope so but as can be seen from my review it's mostly not for me.
I hope this is useful.
BTW, if anyone has any experience of a modern Tunis Cake, either shop bought or home made, please let us know.