Blake's Kitchen

Where the cinnamon buns started

The bakes are the reason to stop. This Clanfield site is the birthplace of Blake's cinnamon buns, and they are still sent from here to the other Blake's Kitchen locations, which makes it the production heart of the business rather than another branch of it.

Lardy cake is the other bake to build an order around. It pairs the bakery's older, richer, traditionally British side with the cinnamon bun's more contemporary appeal, and between the two you get a fair sense of what the ovens are for. In-house cakes fill the counter around them, with freshly brewed coffee as the standard companion rather than a separate specialty coffee programme.

A bakery, a food store and a working Post Office

Blake's Kitchen is a third-generation family business, and the café is the newest layer of it. The family post office was established in 1965; the café and bakery were added in 2016, alongside the food store. The Post Office did not get replaced by the café, it carries on next to it, which gives the place a civic role as well as a hospitality one.

That makes the visit multi-purpose in the most literal village sense. You can collect a parcel, stop for coffee, sit down for brunch or lunch, and leave with cake, all from the same family-run site. Clanfield sits in rural Oxfordshire on the edge of the Cotswolds, and there is indoor seating plus outdoor tables when the weather allows.

Start with the signatures, then eat by the hour

A Blake's cinnamon bun is the obvious first order, because it began here. If lardy cake is out, take that too, particularly if the traditional end of British baking is what interests you.

After that, let the time of day decide. Breakfast and brunch suit coffee with a bun or a slice of counter cake; lunch moves toward the savoury side, including a falafel and hummus ciabatta or a salad, with meat dishes on the menu as well. Vegan diners are not left with a token choice, with a chocolate chip brownie on the sweet side and named savoury options beside it. The fullest visit joins all of it up: the Post Office, the bakery, the food store, a café table, and the buns that made this village site the starting point for everything carrying the Blake's name.