Consumer Expert Shares Hacks For Making 80p McDonalds & Starbucks Dupes
- Summer menu food items can be pricey if you want to keep buying them
- Consumer Expert Tom Church reveals hacks for making bargain-friendly dupes at home
- Reveals how to make McDonald’s burgers for just £1.50
- Plus Caffe Nero cheesecake and Starbucks loaf cake for under 90p per serving
- Uses the Supermarket Comparison Tool to find the cheapest ingredient prices
Now that summer is here, high-street chains galore have begun rolling out their limited menus. McDonald's has just released a Taste of Spain and Cyprus menu, and Caffe Nero has delicious chouxnuts on offer. Plus, Starbucks has a new range of sandwiches and cakes which are making our mouths water.
Tom Church, Co-Founder of money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘These summer menu items are exciting to try - I loved the pistachio and raspberry loaf cake from Starbucks so much I made my own at home! I then realized there may be ways to recreate your summer menu favourites and save some money in the process. After some experimenting in the kitchen, here’s what I discovered.’
Recreate McDonald's Spicy Spanish Stack For £1.50
McDonald’s has just released its Taste of Spain and Cyprus summer menu, and one of the burgers is the Spicy Spanish Stack. It features two beef patties, chilli cheddar, red onion, spicy tomato sauce and lettuce within a paprika-flavoured bun. It costs £5.59 - a decent price for a one-off, but if you get into it you’ll easily be racking up the bills.
I’ve come up with a delicious DIY recipe for this burger. It’ll give you enough similar tastes to keep those cravings at bay. First off, pick up 500g beef mince from Aldi - the best price I found was just £1.69, and you can make 4 patties out of this pack. You can mix paprika and pepper into the patties as you form them to help create that Spanish spice.
To make a spicy tomato sauce, pick up 38p chopped tomatoes from Aldi and mix in some herbs and spices. You can really get creative here! Then, instead of forking out for sliced spicy cheddar, why not get 400g mature cheddar from Aldi for 2.29 and slice it up? Head into ASDA for 55p iceberg lettuce, followed by their brioche burger buns - 65p for four! Finally, head to Sainsbury's for 1kg of red onions priced at 75p and you’re ready to create your homemade burger stack.
You can easily make four burgers for the grand total of £6.31 - that’s under £1 more than the original version. Per serving, it’s just £1.50, which is great value!
Recreate McDonald's Chicken Fiesta For £3.65
Another brand-new McDonald’s summer burger is the Chicken Fiesta, which comprises a crispy chicken fillet, chorizo, chilli cheddar, spicy tomato sauce, red onion and lettuce within a toasted chilli and paprika topped bun. You can try it right now for £5.59 at your local branch, and if you’re craving more you can rustle up some DIY versions in the kitchen.
First off, you’ll want to pick up a pack of two Birds Eye Crispy Chicken Grills from Sainsbury's for £1.50 - they’re reduced from £1.60 right now. You can also get your red onions from here, or you may have some leftovers if you’ve already made a version of the Spicy Spanish Stack at home. Likewise, you’ll be able to get the cheese, burger buns, lettuce and chopped tomatoes as above with the other McDonald’s burger. An additional item you’ll need is chorizo - using the Supermarket Comparison Tool I found the best price was in Aldi, where their Deli Chorizo Slices were available for 89p.
All in all, you’ll be paying £7.31 for 2 homemade burgers, which is £3.65 per burger. You could skip the chorizo and use plain chicken breast instead, which will cut the costs even further.
Recreate Caffe Nero Sicilian Lemon Meringue Cheesecake For 84p
Caffe Nero has a number of delicious desserts available for the summer, including the Passionfruit ‘Martini’ Chouxnut and Salted Caramel and Pistachio Chouxnut, but a sweet treat that caught my eye is the Sicilian Lemon Meringue Cheesecake. At £3.50 a slice, it features a digestive crumb base, baked lemon cheesecake, lemon curd swirls, baked meringue pieces and white chocolate shavings.
This dessert is quite moreish, so if you’re craving more at home you can whip up an entire cheesecake which will serve 14. The recipes online typically ask for a pack of digestive biscuits - you can get a 400g pack from ASDA for just 50p, and that’s your base sorted. You’ll also want caster sugar - available for £1.20 from the Co-Op - and a £1.70 tub of 250g butter while you’re there. Next, pick up some plain flour for 40p from Morrisons and £1.40 vanilla extract from Tesco. In Sainsburys, you’ll find 300ml of soured cream for 99p, and 411g of lemon curd for 65p - you may want 2 packs for £1.30. Finally, in Aldi, you’ll get a 4 pack of lemons for 50p and 12 large eggs for just £2.09.
All in all, the recipe will cost you £10.08, which equates to 84p per serving. It won’t taste identical to the Caffe Nero one, so if you’re headed out into town to meet a friend you’ll likely enjoy having a slice there. However, to recreate some of the summer magic at home you can make your own version for a fraction of the price!
Recreate Starbucks Chicken Caesar Wrap For 88p
There are plenty of new sandwiches available at Starbucks this summer, with one of them being a chicken Caesar wrap for £3.95. You get chicken breast and smoked bacon paired with ranch-style Caesar dressing and lettuce in a tortilla wrap - tasty if you want lunch on the go while you’re out, but you may well have the ingredients to make your own at home.
Iceland offers 600g of chicken breast fillets for £3.50 - this would make 8-10 wraps! Plus, at Tesco you can pick up 95p Caesar dressing and an 8-pack of plain tortilla wraps for £1. Aldi is the best bet for smoked bacon, as you can pick up a 10-pack for £1.55. In other words, you can make 8 wraps for £7 - or 88p per serving.
Recreate Starbucks Pistachio & Raspberry Loaf Cake For 62p Less
One of Starbucks’ biggest hits this summer is their Pistachio & Raspberry Loaf Cake, which is £2.75 a slice. However, there’s an easy way to make your own version at home and serve 6-8 people - or yourself over a few days!
You’ll want 90p Greek yogurt from Tesco, plus their 250g bag of pistachios (they’re in their shells, so you’ll need to remove these yourself) for £3.50. Head into the Co-Op for their £1.20 bag of caster sugar, plus their 250g stick of butter for £1.70. In Morrisons, you’ll find 500g self-raising flour for 40p, plus 300g frozen raspberries for £1.99 - much cheaper than the fresh version. Your last two stops are ASDA for £1 icing sugar and Aldi for 12 large eggs, priced at £2.09.
It’s a grand total of £12.78 for these ingredients or just £2.13 per serving. If you bought six slices in Starbucks you’d pay £16.50, so why not save a couple of quid and go for the homemade version?
Tom’s Pistachio & Raspberry Cake
- 75g shelled pistachios
- 180g caster sugar
- 125g butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 180g self-raising flour
- 36g Greek yogurt
- A little milk, if needed
- 75g raspberries
- 150g icing sugar
- Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line a cake tin
- Blitz the pistachios and half of the sugar in a food processor until the nuts are finely chopped
- Tip into a bowl
- Add the remaining sugar and butter and beat with an electric whisk until creamy
- Add the eggs
- Beat in flour and yogurt until smooth
- Add a little milk, if the mixture is too thick
- Spoon the mix into the tin and level
- Bake for 35 minutes and test with a skewer inserted in the middle that it comes out clean (leave for 5 minutes more if not, and test again)
- Leave to cool in the tin
- Then take the cake out of the tin and put it onto a plate
- Put raspberries into a pan with 1tbsp of water and cook briefly
- Push through a sieve and discard the pips
- Whisk in the icing sugar until it’s smooth and pink
- Pour the icing over the cooled cake
- Pop it in the fridge for 10 minutes to set before eating