Kicking off 2012 with a healthy(ish) cupcake..and some not so healthy

When I first saw that Lola's were introducing four healthier cupcakes this month made with all natural fruit I was slightly dubious as we've not done well with previous healthier cupcakes. Yes Petit Pois I'm looking at you and your crapcakes from hell.

However I found myself in Selfridges last week and thought I'd give them a try. And I'm glad I did. I opted for the passion fruit and it was incredibly nice. Really soft sponge with a passion fruit custard and topped with really tasty frosting. 

As well as passion fruit they have raspberry, blueberry and banana. I think they're only available till the end of January so be quick if you want to try them!

Also scoffed recently was this lovely cupcake from Lily Vanilli's new(ish) cafe just off Columbia Road. We visited on a Wednesday night before Christmas, but usually the cafe is only open on Sundays -it's worth travelling for. 

My gingerbread cupcake was fabulous - with a brandy buttercream frosting. I had a LV cupcake from Harrod's over a year ago and was not impressed, really dry and flavourless but this was totally removed from that - very fresh and bursting with flavour. In the background you can see perhaps the best sausage roll I've ever eaten - well I can't really say eaten - the tubby one whose sausage roll it was didn't share - I had a bite, but it was a good bite. Then again, can anything that comes surrounded in a duvet of lardon filled puff pastry be bad? I think not. 

As well as a sausage roll, Manny managed to scoff a brownie - and it was a slab of a brownie. Again I got a bite - melt in the mouth delicious. I would definitely go back just for the brownie. And maybe a sausage roll. And a cupcake. This is why I'm fat. 

The cafe looks pretty cool too - covered in a zombie style mural at the back to go with the theme of Lily's book. 

Also eaten recently, although not a cupcake I HAD to include this amazing Guinness cake I had from Bea's of Bloomsbury's Kings Road branch last week. I had popped to Jane Asher to stock up on edible glitter amid rumours that it's due to be taken from our shelves soon due to stupid people not understanding that you need to use EDIBLE glitter on cakes not just any random glitter (I call that Darwin's law - weeding out the stupid people) and needed coffee and a sit down and Bea's isn't too far away. 

The Guinness cake was very moist and the frosting was divine. Just sitting in the cafe was enough to tempt you to buy lots of cake - there was so much on offer, including cupcakes.

I enjoyed it so much I actually made this very cake from Bea's book last Saturday as a welcome home for Manny after he'd been to Germany to play a gig. The cake itself came out really well, but I followed the recipe for the frosting and it was a gloopy mess - it didn't seem to have enough icing sugar listed in the recipe. Luckily, I managed to save it and really liked the inclusion of golden syrup in the frosting although it meant it was very sweet. And I must learn, stop licking the syrup spoon, I was on a sugar high for hours. 

Sorry the pictures crap - it was about midnight when I finished making it - I find it hard to sleep when Manny's away. 

Finally, my final cupcake ever from Love Bakery. Just before Christmas I received a DM on Twitter from the lovely Rebecca to ask me had I heard that Love Bakery was closing down - I hadn't heard but checked out Sam's blog and discovered they were closing the very next day, 23rd December. Obviously I had to go one last time.

Sorry about the festiveness of the pics, I was meant to blog this ages ago. I've been a bit lax at blogging lately due to some issues with photo theft etc but aim to blog more in 2012.

Anyways, the cakes were really good, especially my rhubarb cheesecake one, and Love Bakery will definitely be missed from the London cupcake scene.

So there you go - I've eaten a few cupcakes lately and not a crap cake amongst them - a good end to 2011/beginning to 2012! 

Recent cupcake round up

I've put off doing this post as I find it incredibly depressing to write about awful cupcakes but alas these lot have been inedible and I feel it's only fair you share my pain - if not the cost of all these cakes we don't eat!! I really don't know what is going on with the cupcake world, but it would seem that lots of people out there are selling some truly awful, and in some cases inedible cupcakes. Who keeps buying these cakes?

First up from our trip to the Ideal Home Show on Wednesday is Katy's Cupcakes

The cakes looked really pretty, with some nice decorative touches. We opted to buy two (Manny wanted a box of four for a fiver - thank god we didn't!)

We opted for a Jack Daniels and a Baileys Chocolate. The Baileys one was edible but the cake part was dry and there wasn't much flavour of baileys. The Jack Daniels one however had a very unpleasant taste. The frosting and cake were drier than a popcorn fart. The 'chocolate' swirl on top I gave to Manny and the look of disgust that he had when he tried it is something that I wont' forget - he said it had a completely unpleasant after-taste and wasn't like chocolate at all.

All in all, not recommended.

Next up is another Ideal Homes purchase from Babycakes. We didn't really get off to a good start with Babycakes - I asked could I take some pics of her stall and she snipply replied "I should charge for it as everyone wants a picture of my cakes". She could stop people asking for photos by offering samples of her cakes - that'd put anyone off.

I bought a Cherry Bakewell and a chocolate for Manny. The cherry bakewell looked pretty but tasted of nothing at all. The frosting and sponge were rock hard. The bit of frosting I broke off tasted of nothing but off butter. Manny's chocolate was the same - inedible.

Some of the remains of the cake.

Next up is an old favourite, which in recent times has not been good, Primrose Bakery.

Manny had a chocolate which didn't taste all that chocolatey but was fresh enough to eat. My peanut butter one had a really dry base and an unpleasant after-taste and, you guessed it, ended up in the bin.

We also got an Afghan Biscuit from there as I really liked it last time I had one (about 2 years ago) but this was hard and pretty impossible to eat.

I'm not sure what's happened to the quality in Primrose but I've made their peanut butter cupcakes at home and they were lush. Maybe they should give me a job?

Last month we finally got round to checking out The Cupcake Company in Kensington. I should've gone to Hummingbird as at least the cakes would've been good.

Firstly sorry about the photos, the cakes got a little squished, and also my frosting actually came off whole in the box so I had to replace it. I knew from this that the frosting or cake wasn't going to be fresh. Oh and my poor elephant was decapitated on the journey!

I had a vanilla which tasted of absolutely nothing. Is it really that difficult to make a good vanilla cupcake? I keep getting vanilla cupcakes that have not a hint of vanilla in them. Why is it so difficult? A baker I wrote about on here said her customers like them to be not to vanilla'y, but surely a hint of it would be good? The frosting tasted of nothing but whipped butter.

Manny's chocolate cupcake wasn't incredibly flavoursome either. However, the malted cookie we bought was delicious, and I'd actually go back for their cookies.

Keep going, we're nearly there.

The last two are cupcakes from Bea's of Bloomsbury's new outlet at One New Change. I've enjoyed some cupcakes by Bea before and we decided to pop to the new place at the end of December, during the snowy times to grab a couple of festive cupcakes and enjoy a Baileys Hot chocolate. The new cafe is gorgeous and so were the cupcakes - to look at.

We opted for a baileys chocolate cupcake and a gingerbread one. To this day I'm still not sure the right person ate the right cake as the flavours were so subtle they weren't noticeable. The cakes themselves were fresh but just tasted of absolutely nothing, as did the frosting, which was rather disappointing.

Finally, lets end on something a little more positive. At the Ideal Home Show on Wednesday Mich Turner from Little Venice Cake Company was doing a session in the theatre so of course we went along to watch. She was making this divine looking Helter Skelter Chocolate Cake and showing you how to decorate it with chocolate and chocolate roses.

Isn't it stunning? I had to stop Manny running at the stage and trying to dive in for a bite!

While Mich was presenting her piece she suddenly stopped and said "oh hello" while starting directly at me. She then proceeded to mention my blog a couple of times and say how I'd written a wonderful piece about the decorating class of hers I went to. My blog got a further mention when she started making the roses and she said I'd made them in December! I was so chuffed, and a little embarrassed at everyone starting at me but I was so touched that she actually remembered my blog name!

A pretty place to rest your cupcakes

I've been meaning to blog about this rather fabulous Russian Doll cake stand since first spotting it a few weeks ago and it totally slipped my mind.

Then, last week, cake stands suddenly entered my consciousness again when I was reading a blog about someone's* visit to Bea's of Bloomsbury and I spotted the most gorgeous cake stand ever. Immediately via the wonder that is Twitter I contacted Bea and she sent me a link - it is designed by Tina Tsang and just so lovely and totally perfect for showing off your cupcakes!

Finally, if the rabbit cake stand is a little out of your price range, what about this pretty bird cake stand I spotted and had to share.

*Sorry I can't remember whose blog I was reading when I spotted the post about Bea's! Thank you though :)

Bea's Halloween Spooktacular

I shall definitely be popping by to get a couple of the Halloween cupcakes and to see the fab window - was hoping to get there this weekend but have been too busy cleaning the kitchen and keeping warm sitting on the computer by the heater (I have the sniffles). From what I've seen so far Bea's have made the most effort with their Halloween window.

It's Halloween time!! What do you think of the display? We have cupcakes available for halloween available for pre-order by the dozen or half dozen. You can also stop by the shop and pick some up for Friday and Saturday. We have Ghosts, Jack o'Lanterns, Vampires, Eyeballs, and Creepy Crawly Spiders! We're also doing a special Red Velvet Cake with Red Icing---sure to please!

Check out their website for ordering info.

The above pics are from Bea's flickr - thanks Bea!

Cookie Monster Cupcake Party

You may recall I had a gorgeous cookie monster cupcake some time ago from Bea's so I thought I'd share this from one of my favourite blogs The Hostess with the Mostess. Now you can have your very own cookie monster themed cupcake party!! Could be perfect for a party - perhaps for Halloween!

Ultra cute!

Simply bea-utiful cupcakes

There's a certain time of the month when every lady craves cupcakes...or maybe it's just me but anyways...I'm lucky enough to have a lovely husband who pops to the local bakery at lunchtime and gets me my "fix". And it's just fabulous that the bakery local to his office is Bea's :) 

We had a passion fruit, a raspberry, a chocolate Baileys and a chocolate caramel. The two chocolates were Manny's but he let me have a taste of the divine chocolate Baileys - next time I'm having one of those for sure! My passion fruit one (with the cherry on top) was gorgeous - soft and flavoursome base and the frosting was to die for - fruity yet moreish. And the cherry on top was lovely too :) Again the raspberry base was nice and soft (and fresh!!)  and the frosting had a nice sharpness to it that you expect from raspberries! Simply divine!

When I first tried Bea's cupcakes I really didn't get them - I didn't like the frosting as I was used to the more sugar-filled American style ones but now I really, REALLY like them - it was just a case of something different being a shock at first I think! I also love the freshness of the ingredients used - you can tell everything is super-fresh and I adore the passion of everyone who works there! 

Sorry for the quality of the pics - I was taking them with my new phone which I've not gotten used to yet - they really don't do the cakes justice! 

I really recommend keeping an eye on Bea's website (and twitter) for the flavours and popping along to try the many lovely combos they come up with! I'll be back for the chocolate Baileys soon! 

Bea's cupcake order form

Bea's of Bloomsbury put up their cupcake order form online last month and I totally forgot to blog it (sorry!). 

Flavours include the scrummy sounding passionfruit vanilla, strawberries and cream (which I tried last week...very nice!), praline chocolate, chocolate grand marnier and my favourite sounding one...lamingtons cupcake: rich coconut glazed in rich fudge icing and then covered in coconut...yum! 

There is also the option to 'build your own cupcake', which includes the option for baileys base or baileys frosting...or both..swoon!  Ther are options for gluten free and vegan cupcakes as well. 

Sorry about the pic above - just got my new mobile phone and it took a day or so to get used to it! The chocolate cake has kumquat on :)

Cupcake Throwdown winner announced...

it was Fair Cake! You can read all about the cupcakes, and the eating (and rather too much wastage of cupcakes for my liking by the looks of some of the photos), here. My faves, taking part, didn't even make any of the top 3 listings except for Bea's and Crumbs and Doilies (no Outsider Tart or Buttercup...pah) making me have a horrific moment where I thought that maybe I don't know my cupcakes very well at all! But that moment passed, thankfully, and I realised that maybe I have different taste when it comes to cupcakes- there seemed to have been a lot of complaints about "too much frosting" which kinda makes a cupcake a cupcake in my opinion...if you don't like frosting maybe try a bun instead?

You can read about when we tried Fair Cake's cupcakes (on snow day) here

Thanks to Londonist for the pic of the winner.

London cupcake throwdown

Londonist have invited London cupcake bakers to take part in a Cupcake Throwdown

Cupcakes. In just a few years, Londoners went from having scarce few bakeries from which to purchase these little treats to hardly being able to walk down the street without catching a glimpse at all manner of food porn baked goods in the window of some tawdry storefront.

Well, we've decided to see which of London’s cupcake peddlers can hold their own in a Cupcake Throwdown! The competition is to happen on the 29th of May, when a crack team of judges will let their oh so sophisticated palettes determine which cupcakes are the most moistest … most delicate … most delicious and satisfying in London.

So far these confident and generous bakeries have committed to submitting their cupcakes:

- Bea’s of Bloomsbury
- Buttercup Cake Shop
- Faircake
- Outsider Tart

Do you frequent, work at or own a London bakery that makes awesome cupcakes? Get in touch (Londonist@gmail.com) by May 23rd a let us know if you’d like to enter the competition.

I can't wait to see which cupcakes the Londonist team prefer!

Me want cookie, me eat cookie!

So yesterday we FINALLY got our hands on some of Bea's ultra cute cookie monster cupcakes and they were worth the wait!!!

They were utterly adorable, possible the cutest cupcakes I've ever seen and they tasted just as good! I'm not usually a fan of chocolate cupcakes but these were really tasty and the frosting was out of this world - it was chocolate fudge frosting and there was loads of it - it was frosting heaven!

You can order them (no minimum) and I implore you if you like cupcakes to try them!

The hunt for the Cookie Monster

On Friday my lovely hubby read my blog about the new Bea's Cookie Monster cupcakes and immediately wandered up there to get me one! Unfortunately they were sold out, but being the fabtastic husband that he is he bought me some of their other cupcakes.

They tasted as good as they looked - the base of the cakes were really soft and fresh! And each cupcake was covered in lashings of yummy frosting (now I've gotten used to the non-buttercream icing I really like it!). I think the best one was Manny's chocolate ganache topped one! And to top it all Manny pre-ordered two of the Cookie Monster cupcakes to collect! I really am spoilt :)

Cookie Monster cupcakes

Bea from Beas of Bloomsbury sent me a link to her Flickr and her most recent cupcakes - aren't they FAB!

I plan to pop there tomorrow on the way to work to see if they have any in stock!

Covent Garden Night Market

As mentioned below we went to Covent Garden Night Market today and ate some rather scrummy cupcakes.

The Market is on every Thursday and Friday in August (Thurs - 4-10 and Fri 12-9) and there are two cupcake sellers there; Violet and Beas of Bloomsbury. The top pic above is of Beas stall! (the others are of the cupcakes we bought from Violet). There is also another bakery called Cinnamon Tree Bakery which had some rather yummy looking giant cookies and some cute owl shaped shortbread which I shall be trying next time!

The Markets also have some celeb chefs and I shall be popping along to see Willie Harcourt Cooze (the modern day Willie Wonka) on the 22nd and on Friday 29th I'm dragging Manny along to see Fergus Henderson of St John fame and see what he's cooking as on one of the press releases about the market they said you could eat squirrel there but thankfully I didn't see that...poor cute squirls!

Apart from cupcakes and famous chefs there's loads of fancy food to try so brave the crowds and pop along!

Bea-utiful cupcakes

I walked past Bea's of Bloomsbury and couldn't resist getting cupcakes - Manny had chocolate with ganache frosting (the frosting was absolutely lovely, I tried a little bit!) and I had a vanilla caramel one which was quite nice but I'm not so fond of the frosting still. I've read that Bea's use a different, healthier style of frosting and I'm not sure I like it. Its nice but nothing that makes you go YUM! I have to say I prefer the good old sugar laden variety - its not like you eat them all the time ;)

While I was there I just couldn't resist having one of their individual lemon meringue cakes and oh.my.god it was one of the scrummiest things I've tasted I have to say!! I was hoping that Manny wouldn't like it so I could snuffle it all myself but he loved it too! It may look a bit squished in the pics - when I took it out to take pics it fell apart - still tasted gorge though :)