And the bells were ringing out for Christmas day

One of my favourite cafes in London is Bea's of Bloomsbury and as such I was very excited to see Bea's lovely creations for Christmas. Some of the most fabulous, and tastiest, cupcakes I've had in London have been from Bea's, and her Christmas creations look like they will live up to my expectations!

How adorable are these gingerbread man cupcakes?  And I can visualise Manny reading this and drooling over the screen at the lashings of chocolate/ganache that the little gingerbread fellow is resting on!

And the gingerbread man isn't alone - he's got a candy cane friend

And lots of other Christmas goodies!

They come in Chocolate Baileys, Double Fudge and Gingerbread - all fabulous flavours for Christmas! I'm planning a visit next week...hoping I can persuade Manny to pop in to the glamorous new One New Change venue for a quickie after work!

It's cupcake panda-monium

My lovely hubby pre-ordered me some gorgeous Chinese New Year cupcakes from Bea's of Bloomsbury and collected them today - aren't they just the cutest thing you've ever seen.

We didn't eat the fondant animals (how could I eat a panda!), but the cakes were amazing - light, moist and very flavoursome. What I love about Bea's is the cakes taste home made - which I mean as the highest compliment - they don't taste mass produced at all, but like a little bit of hand made love is in each and every cake!

If you look closely you can see my gorgeous little cupcake sugar shaker and my Twilight Conversation Hearts (the Edward edition - some of which shimmer just like him!!!). I think I'm going to use the Twilight hearts to decorate some cupcakes!

All in all, a wonderful valentines - I even got a cupcake valentines card :)

Bea-utiful cupcakes for your Valentine

Bea's of Bloomsbury always produce some of the prettiest, and tastiest, cupcakes and fortunately their selection for Valentines doesn't disappoint! I love them all, and I'm sure anyone would be happy to receive them as a Valentines gift.

Available in boxes of 6 for £13 or 12 for £25 or as part of their fabulous sounding Love Box with lots of other goodies, including chocolate brownie hearts, further details of which can be found on their site. I know someone that will love a brownie heart so I'll have to pop in pre-valentines to grab a couple.

As much as I like the look of the Valentines selection, I am personally hoping someone will pop in and get me one of their Chinese New Year selection featuring my favourite animal of all time - the panda!!! I don't think I've seen a prettier cupcake ever! MUST get one.

Finally, Bea's are currently running a Cupcakes against Malaria campaign - if you buy 6 cupcakes they send a malaria net to the survivors of the Haiti earthquake. You can read about it on Bea's website and at Againstmalaria.com.

Thanks to Bea's for use of the photographs

Covent Garden Night Market - 2nd try

We went along on Thursday and again the stalls are just too crammed together while some twonk on some trapeze like contraption shouts at tourists - He had the whole piazza cordoned off for his "act" (Sorry I despise the "acts" round there - human statues should be concreted over to see just how it feels!).

Anyways we decided to just buy a few bits and head off - I had to get the 'I heart cake' chocolate cake from Beas as soon as I saw it! I shared it with Manny and it was really lovely! You can just taste the quality of Beas baking! The chocolate on the cake was fantastic and the cake itself was melt in the mouth gorgeous.

We also popped by Lavender Bakery's stall and picked up a couple of cupcakes - one coconut and lemon for me and a chocolate cupcake covered with ganache for Manny, and two pieces of their shortbread - lavender for me, green tea for Manny. We ate the shortbread at the market and it was really tasty, and we paid the 20p for a box for the cupcakes and took them home for pudding and they were absolutely gorgeous. My coconut was fantastic - the frosting was yummy and there was just the right amount of lemon and coconut :) Manny loved his ganache covered cupcake - mind you I sometimes think he'd eat dust if covered in ganache or frosting ;)

I really like the idea of the night market in Covent Garden - the Xmas one seemed to work better as it was on the other side of the piazza, so didn't get disturbed so much by tourists. I think they need to decide whether to have the market or the "entertainment" - surely for a couple of nights a year we can live without the acts and have room to enjoy some food - they could even put some tables out so people can eat the lovely food on sale like they do at the much nicer slow food markets at the South Bank! The way this market is you just grab stuff and take it home rather than browsing and having hot food!

Bea's of Bloomsbury - extra posh cupcakes?

I first read about Bea's of Bloomsbury in Time Out last week so took a wander past it on Monday and thought it looked rather fab but it was just closing up so I had to content myself with peering through the window, so today I left work early and on my pre-planned walk up to Camden Wholefoods I popped in to Bea's. I was planning to have a coffee or perhaps one of their much touted Valrhona hot chocolates but when I went in I couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable as it was all rather too posh and a little unwelcoming. There was some ambient music playing that was a bit more 'birthing pool' than 'chill out' and there was a more than a little bit of an air of snottyness about it. Maybe I was just feeling under-dressed as I was wearing jeans and trainers but there was just a vibe to the place I couldn't put my finger on that made me just order take-away rather than sit there and savour my early exit from work!

I opted for a raspberry vanilla for myself and (no shock here) a double chocolate for Manny (and is it just me or does Manny's choc one look about double the size?!). The other cakes in the store looked fab I have to say, lots of variety and LOTS to tempt you! The cupcake itself was lovely but the frosting was bit oily for me I'm afraid - I still ate it all though and it was quite yummy, the frosting just wasn't quite right, maybe I expected more from such a hyped up cupcake - think next time I might go for one of their other cakes!