Starbucks Banana Nut Loaf Cake

The Starbucks Banana Nut Loaf Cake costs £3.85 and carries 368 calories with 2g of saturated fat and 22g of sugar. A banana sponge loaf with walnuts and pecans through it.

2g of saturated fat is the lowest figure in the Bakery case, well under the blueberry muffin at 2.1g and a twelfth of the lemon tart at 24g. Two things account for it: the loaf is made with oil rather than butter, and walnut and pecan fats are overwhelmingly unsaturated, so the nuts add fat without adding much of the kind that carries a daily limit.

22g of sugar is the second lowest in the case behind the pistachio scroll at 19g, and ripe banana is doing part of that job in place of sugar. At 368 calories it is also one of the lighter slices, below the doughnut and every cake cube.

One figure is missing from the nutrition panel above and the reason is worth stating. Starbucks publishes a total fat figure for this item that is impossible, listing the same number for fat in grams as for calories, so it is left out rather than repeated. Saturated fat, sugar, protein and the rest are published separately and are used as given.

Banana loaf occupies an odd position in a bakery case, sitting somewhere between cake and bread in most people's heads. The numbers put it closer to bread than the rest of this case: the least saturated fat, the second least sugar, and a slice that most people would eat at breakfast without thinking of it as a pudding.

Walnuts and pecans are declared as separate allergen lines, which matters because a tree nut allergy is rarely to all tree nuts. Anyone reacting to one and not the other needs both names, and this is one of only two items on the menu declaring pecan.

It carries a vegetarian label and declares egg, walnuts, wheat and pecan, with no milk. Prices reach £4.85 on delivery, which is the widest spread in the case. The chocolate swirl loaf is the other loaf at 439 calories.