Scottish family bakery McGhee’s Bakery has launched a new Chocolate Old School Cake, giving a cult school dinner favourite a richer, more indulgent twist.
An Old School Cake is one of the UK’s most recognisable traybakes: a soft sponge topped with thick icing and a hearty helping of sprinkles, forever linked to school dinners and childhood treats. Simple by design and nostalgic by nature, it has become shorthand for a generation of memories, from lunch halls to teatime at home.
In recent years, the humble bake has enjoyed a resurgence. Online forums and Reddit threads have seen people swap memories and debate the best versions, while a broader appetite for retro comfort food has pushed classic British cakes back into the spotlight.
The revival was further fuelled when Prue Leith shared her own School Cake recipe on The Great British Bake Off, reintroducing the traybake to a new generation of home bakers.
That renewed interest is being reflected in sales. McGhee’s total production of Old School Cake is up 75% year on year, driven by new supermarket listings including Tesco, which took on the product in June last year, alongside Lidl.
At Tesco alone, weekly sales have steadily climbed since launch, reaching peaks of double initial launch levels in the run-up to Christmas, cementing Old School Cake as one of McGhee’s clear bestsellers. Customers regularly tell the bakery it reminds them of their own school days, a sense of familiarity the new chocolate version builds on, keeping the recognisable look and feel while introducing a soft, fluffy chocolate sponge for a more indulgent take on the classic.
Russell McGhee, fourth-generation baker at McGhee’s, said: “Old School Cake is one of those bakes that instantly takes people back. We’ve always had customers telling us they remember it from school dinners, or that it was the treat they hoped would be on the menu.
“That connection is really important to us. We’ve been a family bakery for nearly 90 years, and a lot of what we do is about continuity, baking things people recognise and trust.
“With the chocolate version, we wanted to keep everything people love about the original, that soft sponge and thick icing, but make it feel a bit more indulgent. It’s familiar, comforting and still very much an Old School Cake.”
Barry O’Donnell, Local Sourcing Buying Manager at Tesco said: “We’re delighted to be working with McGhee’s to launch another product in Tesco and continue to build on our strong partnership.
“Old School Cake has proved popular with customers, and the new chocolate variant adds an extra sense of indulgence.”
Founded in 1936 and based in Port Dundas, Glasgow, McGhee’s remains in the hands of the fourth generation as it embarks on its 90th year in 2026. While the bakery continues to innovate, many of its most popular products are rooted in tradition, reflecting the flavours and formats customers have grown up with.
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McGhee’s Chocolate Old School Cake is now available in selected Tesco stores across Scotland.
