Colin the Caterpillar

Overview

Colin the Caterpillar is a chocolate sponge roll with chocolate buttercream inside, coated in milk chocolate and dotted with sugar-coated milk chocolate beans. Its face and feet are white chocolate, and it comes in two sizes. Marks & Spencer says 38 people work on each cake, and 8.4 tonnes of sugar coating are used yearly for the spots. The cake’s early popularity is tied to Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar and a 1990 Jane Asher cookbook with a caterpillar birthday cake recipe. It is now a children’s party staple, also enjoyed by teens and adults. In 2020, M&S declared August 26 National Colin the Caterpillar Day for its 30th anniversary.

Variations

Marks & Spencer has produced several seasonal and limited edition variations. Connie the Caterpillar is a female version with a pink bow. Personalised giant versions of Colin and Connie, serving up to 40 people, are available through the "Food to Order" offering. A wedding cake range launched in 2017 includes "Colin the Groom" and "Connie the Bride", each weighing just over 2 kg, with the groom featuring a bow tie and top hat and the bride a lace veil, confetti and a flower posy.

The 25th anniversary in August 2015 brought a limited edition Colin with a party hat, multicoloured feet and extra candy spots. Count Colin the Caterpillar, for Halloween, has green face and feet and chocolate maggots on the body. A Christmas version wears a Santa hat and is decorated with candy canes, holly leaves and snowflakes. Coffee morning Colin, released in 2018 for Macmillan Cancer Support's World's Biggest Coffee Morning, had purple feet and green and purple sprinkles, with 10% of sales donated to the charity.

Count Colin gummies, packets of maggot gummies, were sold for Halloween. For the 30th anniversary in 2020, bags of Colin the Caterpillar faces were sold, featuring white chocolate faces and milk chocolate eyes. Mini Colin the Caterpillars are miniature milk chocolate-coated chocolate sponge rolls with chocolate buttercream, milk chocolate beans and a white chocolate face. Flower Power Connie, a redesigned Connie decorated with yellow and pink flowers and a floral headband, was released in 2021 for Mother's Day.

Other retailers

Similar caterpillar cakes are sold by rival retailers under names including Cecil the Caterpillar at Waitrose, Chris the Caterpillar at Poundland, Clive the Caterpillar at One Stop, Clyde the Caterpillar at Asda, Charlie's Chocolate cake at the Co-op (previously "Curious Caterpillar cake"), Slinky the Caterpillar at Tesco, Cuthbert the Caterpillar at Aldi, Morris the Caterpillar at Morrisons, Wiggles the Caterpillar at Sainsbury's, and Ciara the Caterpillar and subsequently Cooper the Caterpillar at Lidl.

Gluten and milk free versions include Carl the Caterpillar and Stripey the Caterpillar from Tesco, Frieda the Caterpillar from Asda, and Eric the Caterpillar from Sainsbury's. In April 2021, Marks & Spencer lodged an intellectual property claim against Aldi over Cuthbert the Caterpillar, alleging trademark infringement; the lawsuit was settled in February 2022 for an undisclosed amount. In reaction to the case, Papa's Fish and Chips in Cleethorpes sold deep-fried Mini Colin the Caterpillar cakes, and Emanuel's in East Kilbride sold a full-sized deep-fried Colin the Caterpillar cake, with profits from the former going to the Teenage Cancer Trust.