A romantic date...

Today Manny was bitten by the romance bug and decided to take me for an afternoon liaison at Bea's (perchance to shut me up whining that I wanted to go...or maybe he was just feeling romantic!!).

On my first visit I found the ambiance at Bea's a little overwhelming, verging on snotty but have since been back twice and I'm not ashamed to admit..I was wrong!!!! It is rather an upmarket place but there's nothing wrong with that at all - I'd rather eat my cupcake somewhere pretty and tastefully decorated, than something resembling a Morleys.

The staff are really friendly and the place is gorgeous in side - the cakes make you want to swoon and the decor is really swish. I love the giant sheep pic on the wall, it just makes it feel so homely somehow! It even has a piano on a raised area near the kitchen!

Anyways we went in today and it took Manny an eternity to decide what he wanted, but then I cannot blame him, there are a LOT of scrummy looking goodies to choose from in Bea's. He eventually settled on a German chocolate cake and I chose a praline chocolate cupcake. Now this date was quite unexpected so I didn't' have my camera with me (pshaw) however the pic above is of a chocolate cupcake I bought at Bea's a couple of weeks ago and the top pic is borrowed from Bea's website. They seem to have about 3 flavours of cupcakes available each day and I recommend a visit if you like a cupcake or any cake in fact! Their meringues look to die for, and come in a variety of flavours and I shall definitely be making an Eton Mess with some of them in the Summer!

Back to the cupcake..although I still stand by my opinion that the frosting is NOT frosting as we know it, I have come to like it and its rather moreish. I do still prefer the good old butter cream frosting I'm afraid, but Bea's comes a close second, and is deffo tastier than royal icing (ie the kind we have on fairy cakes here). My cupcake was really nice, with little chunks of nut on top and the batter base was soft and lovely. I had a nibble of Manny's cake and it was really chocolaty, the topping was like pure ganache so he was in chocolate heaven. So much so that he couldn't resist a Valrhona brownie when leaving for later!

Also Bea's has a fab philosophy, which the hippy in me (as Manny keeps insisting calling my love of recycling and being "green") adores ...

Bea's of Bloomsbury strives to make a difference in the world---we compost all of our food waste, recycle any possible paper, plastic and aluminum, and have designed our packaging to be as environmentally friendly as possible. In addition we run on 100% green energy, use energy efficient induction cooking methods and locally source as much of our food as possible, using only sea or road freight, never by air.
We also believe if we offer something, it's the best we can offer, which is why we provide the best organic fairtrade coffee you can find on the market and the best pastries and savouries our hands can make. Enjoy.

Oh and I think we met Bea - well I think it was her who came over as we were leaving and seemed v.happy when we said we really enjoyed the cakes and lovely coffee! I wish I'd asked her now so I could ask her the secret of her frosting...next time!

Oh and the staff were ULTRA nice - they thought we'd left a notebook on the table and came running down the street to return it to us.

Definately a destination for the cake lover visiting London! Or for romantic husbands trying to sweet talk their wives ;)