Crowds witness the giant cupcake of Covent Garden

So today was the day the GIANT cupcake finally arrived in London's Covent Garden. I got there about 30mins before the official cutting ceremony and it was already sat there under a canopy with a crowd of rather excited people round it. I popped to get some shopping and when I got back the crowd had grown...people were wandering through the market asking others "have you seen a giant cupcake?" so it wasn't a surprise that so many were excited about it. I got a place to see the cutting ceremony and was happy to see I recognised the person cutting the cake - the girl from Crumbs and Doilies - who later said she read my blog..hello!!

There was a lot of photographers so it was sometimes difficult to get pics as one of them stood on a table taking constant pics - I know its exciting but the cake wasn't going anywhere - once you've got a good pic of it, its time to get off the table and let others take a pic!

The queue for cake was immense, and the heat was getting worse - also I'd seen the slices they were cutting (ie take a tiny slice and then cut it in half, and maybe again!) so decided queuing for an hour for a bit wasn't how I planned to spend my afternoon off and went to Crumbs and Doilies instead! From what Londonist have said I didn't miss much - it must've been warm as it'd been out in the scorching sun for quite some time! And my crumbs and doilies cupcakes were fab as usual! 

I do hope the guy next to me who arrived with a giant spoon in anticipation got his bit of cake!

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!

The streets of London are lined with cupcakes

I found this interview with the ladies from the Great Cake Escape on Londonist's website

The streets of London are evolving. Once upon a time, they were paved with gold. Then came the more practical tarmac. Recently, dog turds, phlegm and spent gum have layered our thoroughfares. Now, The Great Cake Escape are on a mission to line our streets with...cake.
We caught up with the duo who, by an incredible coincidence of nominative determinism, go by the names Cherry Bakewell and Fondant Fancy.

So, fill us in with a little background. What's the basic idea?

Cherry: We make and decorate cup cakes and leave them dotted around the streets with little messaged flags. We hope discovering our cakes makes people smile and stimulates curiosity.
Fondant: We simply want to add dash of vibrancy to this urban utopia of ours. We like creating scenes of contrast -- so we adorn everyday locations, such as derelict buildings, pavements and weather beaten window ledges, with a vivid splash of sugar.

Is it just little cup cakes, or do you ever liberate other cakes? Or perhaps even biscuits? Biscuits are more hardy and would stand up to a short spell of rain. We think you should try biscuits.

Cherry: Biscuits, eh? I’ve never heard such heresy!
Fondant: Well, it’s just little cupcakes at the moment but we’ve been nattering about using biscuits when we do festivals this summer.
Cherry: ‘Take the Biscuit’ could perhaps be our brother project? So if there are any tasty gingerbread men out there who fancy taking up the challenge, they’re more than welcome! We’re about little cakes for now--they’re so handy for transporting and dropping.
Fondant: I don’t think the biscuits would last very long in my kitchen--I’d have devoured them before we’ve got around to any icing. Although, imagine the fun you could have with party rings!

I have to say - while I love the idea of cupcakes just appearing all over London, unless I actually saw the person putting them down so I could immediately have one I'm not so sure I'd want to eat a cake I found on the streets - as the interview says the streets of London are filled with spit and shit and I'm not that keen on cupcakes covered in peoples cough, or poo for that matter!!! Although just finding a cupcake would make me smile and thats kinda what they are aiming to do so its all good!

Good on the girls though - what a great way to spread cheer throughout out occasionally grey city! Like urban gardening but with frosting :)

I may have to go check them out at the London Roller Girls next event!

*for the rest of the interview click here, or the link above! Thanks to the Londonist for the pic and the quoted bits :)