Hinting for cupcakes pays off :)

You may recall a couple of days ago I posted that I must try the Crumbs and Doilies flavour of the month before the end of Nov as its on of my favourites, Red Velvet - my lovely hubby took note of my hint and popped along to the Covent Garden Food Market* in his lunch-hour and picked up a box of absolutely gorgeous cupcakes. Luckily my afternoon trip to the dentist sorted out my toothache and I was able to scoff mine :)

I had a red velvet and a vanilla - both moist, full of flavour and with absolutely yummy frosting. Manny had a green tea and a chocolate (of course) which he was very happy with - he was particularly chuffed that the chocolate one was very thickly frosted - he was also gifted a mini red velvet which he scoffed for his lunch by the lovely girl at C&D.

The Covent Garden Christmas Food Market is on Thursdays and Friday till Christmas (not sure of the last market date pre-Christmas - check here). Also - there is a mulled wine hut nearby until the 23rd of December - cupcakes and wine what more do you need!

I ♥ Cupcake

On our trip to Berlin last week for the Nuclear War Now Festival we managed to squeeze in a trip to one of my favourite cupcake cafes, Cupcake. The cupcakes were just as I remembered, moist, flavoursome, moreish and HUGE. The cafe is ultra cute, and as well as cupcakes does brownies, cheesecakes and has vegan options on cupcakes as well. Oh and they do savoury food too, including beans on toast..hurrah!

We had planned to visit again on the Sunday and pick up some cupcakes for the long wait at the airport (we were flying Easyjet so there's always a looooong wait) but after what was meant to be a quick after-show drink at the Halford bar, that turned into a very late night and us paying for an extra few hours sleep in the hotel, I wasn't even in a fit state to walk the 10mins from our hotel to Cupcake -which is a shame as I really wanted to try another flavour or two! However I am hoping we're going back to Berlin in May - and if the hotel will have us back we'll be staying within walking distance again, and this time no tequilla!

If you're in Berlin, or the surrounding area I highly recommend a visit to Cupcake, the cakes are great and Dawn and everyone in the cafe is really friendly and welcoming. Also the area is really nice (reminds me of the Lower East Side in New York) with great bars and really good food nearby and some nice stores as well. Sorry about my pics - as I said I was planning to go back and I didn't really get any good ones on my visit - we'd not slept in about 28 hours and I was shaking after having 2 large coffees in about 10mins!

Hummingbird Cupcakes new store details

I've just found out that the new Wardour Street branch of the fabulous Hummingbird Bakery is Lee Stafford's old Salon so I will be easily able to find it (used to get my hair cut there till they moved and upped their prices loads).

It's quite a little space - it did have a downstairs section as a salon, but I suppose they may use that as a kitchen? I can't wait to see what they've done to it - I know from their Twitter that their theme for the store is cupcake pop art! According to my sources it opens on the 9th December - I have a gig that night in Brixton but I'm hoping that my lovely hubby might leave work a bit early with me for a pre-gig cupcake :) Or maybe I should just take the day off and camp outside for the opening?

In other Hummingbird news Tarek will be at Heals in the Kings Road signing copies of the Hummingbird cookbook this Saturday from 1.30-3.30, and some cupcake demo's and a baking Q&A are promised. There are several cupcake outlets within walking distance of Heals if you want to make a cupcake day of it including Crumbs and Doilies, Love Bakery and Hummingbird - Buttercup is also less than 30mins walk away but after the last time I'd give it a miss. Oh and if you walk to Harrods you can have a Lola's cupcake or if you're all cupcake'd out a Laduree macaroon.

On a non-cupcake note - Paul A Young and Hope and Greenwood will also be signing their books at Heals on Saturday

Lola's Christmas Cupcakes

Are available to pre-order online now - I've mailed them to ask when they'll be available in store and will post dates as soon as I know. You can choose from the Ho, Ho, Ho box, the Snowflake box or the Giant cupcake.

Also available for November only is their rather yummy sounding Toblerone cupcake;

a limited edition delicious toblerone chocolate cupcake bursting with chewy honey-almond nougat pieces. It is finished with a heavenly white chocolate ganache and a generous chunk of toblerone.

Must get to Selfridges cupcake bar before the end of November!

Cupcake Calendars

For 2010 I think I shall get the Hello Cupcake calendar from Amazon as it would seem the page a day one is exactly the same as last years. I think the Cupcakes one, which you can also get in Paperchase, is the same brand I got last year (yes I had two cupcakes calendars) so will check in Paperchase before deciding - decisions decisions.

Cupcakes make people happy

And I'm sure this lovely calendar from ModCloth would do the same. Also from the same site is this really rather cute scarf - perfect for the long winter nights ahead as would these long cupcake socks - keep checking back will be blogging as many Christmas cupcake ideas as I can find!

Christmas is coming

and so are the Crumbs and Doilies Christmas cupcake boxes

Each box comes beautifully wrapped and features a mix of flavours, including our very special Christmas Flavour of the Month.

you can now pre-order your Christmas cupcakes for collection, or delivery by clicking here.

Oh and I MUST pop over to Covent Garden on Friday to get one of their flavour of the month - red velvet - or perhaps someone could pick me up one on Thursday as a after-dentist treat (hint hint!)

Thanks to Crumbs and Doilies for the use of their pics! The bottom pic is their red velvet - yum