Cupcakes by the canal

We took advantage of the sunny weather yesterday and took a walk along the canal from Islington to Broadway Market. I'd been wanting to go to Broadway Market for ages but as Manny usually has band practice on Saturdays and wanted to come I'd put it off till he had a day off. Unfortunately he also had a stonking hangover - but thankfully a good bumble down the canal in the fresh air sorted that out - and some Ghanaian stew he had :) 

One of the first stalls we chanced upon was Violet -my main reason for heading to the Market. My previous encounter with Violet at Covent Garden had been slightly marred by my experience with  the salted caramel and wanted to give them another go as the other cupcakes were very tasty and gorgeous to look at :)

I was going to just get a couple of large cupcakes, however there were so many flavours to choose from we just opted for a box of 9 minis for £7 which included all the flavours on offer. We got vanilla, valrhona chocolate, salted caramel, figs, lemon, strawberry, candied violet and I think the final one was blackberry - or blueberry...I really should write things down at the time! We shared most of the cupcakes and they were all really nice - including the salted caramel which this time wasn't over-salted. The cake bases were all really soft and melt in the mouth and the frostings were all fantastically well flavoured. I particularly loved the fig cupcake and also the strawberry.  I'm really impressed by  the range of cupcakes available and all seemed to be available in both sizes. 

Highly recommended :) I shall definitely be going back to the Market as I want to try the coffee as well as the cupcakes. You can always buy some cupcakes, get a coffee and then head into the nearby fields (or down to the canal) if weather permits :)

Does a free cupcake taste better?

If you follow the fabulous Crumbs and Doilies on Twitter you can enter their weekly comp to win a free box from their stall at Covent Garden's weekly food market. We entered yesterday's comp and Manny popped over there and managed to secure us a freebie box of 12 delicious cupcakes including 2 of the flavour of the month, Turkish Delight. I had both of those as Manny doesn't like it (he snarfed most of the chocolate ones) and they were gorgeous.

You'd deffo have to look hard to find a prettier cupcake then Crumbs and Doilies - they have the best sprinkles! I am jealous!!

Oooh sounds like a bakewell cupcake to me!

This months Crumbs and Doilies flavour of the month is definitely worth a visit to Partridges Food Market I'd say, or you can order them online as well.

A moist and light almond sponge made with organic ground almonds and topped with a sweet, tangy cherry buttercream made using real cherries

I love cherry flavoured stuff (as my massive consumption of cherry carmex will attest!) these sound right up my street! As the title says these sound just like a bakewell tart cupcake..how very English and yummy!

C&D have also sent out details of how to get your hands on their yummy Easter cupcakes - I highly recommend the little egg boxes - we had one last year and they were very tasty!

Baked by Melissa...dissapointment by Anne

The NY cupcakes continue...

After a trip to the Ugg store (It was my birthday I needed insoles for my Uggs as the amount we were walking in NY wore mine out - and I may have treated myself to a new pair of boots at the same time!) we were dragging ourselves to E Houston to jump in a cab back to our B&C when I spotted a teeny tiny hole in the wall with cupcakes on offer. I was totally excited to see they were Baked by Melissa cupcakes as I wanted to try them after blogging about them previously.

We got a box with 6 flavours - cookies and cream, tie dye, red velvet, smores, cookie dough, peanut butter cup - they're mini (about a mouthful each so in reality this amounted to about 2 cupcakes). Unfortunately the cupcakes got smooshed on the way home - there was a breaking Ugg boot bag incident and everything kinda fell...however even the smooshyness of the cakes wasn't going to put me off, I had a cup of tea and wanted a cupcake... I tried the tie dye one and immediately had a sugar rush, and not in a good way. They just tasted of pure sugar, no distinguishable flavour, just sugar and maybe some oil thrown in...pah. Manny tried the red velvet and the cookies and cream (I think..they were v.squished) and even though his tolerance for sugar is greater than mine he couldn't' manage to eat them.

Cute idea but not tasty! kinda like the pig candy which I've included a pic of just so you can see it really exists!

Baked by Melissa, 529 Broadway, NY 10012

Treacle - too much is never enough!!

After YEARS of saying we'd go to Columbia Road Flower Market we FINALLY made it on Sunday and we actually made it waaaay before closing! I found a way to get Manny to move and get out - I offered to take him to a good ale pub, The Royal Oak for Sunday lunch and a few pints of Harvey's Stout AFTER we'd been to the market! This was enough to put his bottom into gear and we got out of the house before midday which is generally unheard of with my faffing hubby in tow! Apart from wanting to see the market itself we also wanted to try some cupcakes as there are TWO places on Columbia Road with cupcakes available - Treacle and Cake Hole which is inside Vintage Heaven (both only open on Sundays). The market itself was really lovely - lots of lovely, and cheap, plants and flowers and lots of pretty old quaint shop where I could've spent a fortune if payday hadn't have been so far away - I did manage to pick up a lovely cat cream pourer though. Even walking to the market was a treat as there were loads of really nice unspoilt areas of old housing - it reminded me very much of Berlin round there!

We first saw Cake Hole, however it is at the back of the shop and the front bit was heaving with people looking at antiques so we carried on down the market to Treacle which was slightly quieter and absolutely gorgeous. They had lots of lovely old furniture/kitchen bits and some really pretty cupcake memorabilia, such as aprons and cake stands. And....LOTS of cupcakes in lots of pretty colours. They had both large and small ones available (I've read they do 3 sizes but I think we only saw 2). We opted for a box of 9 minis for £7 - 3 of each flavour; chocolate, lemon and vanilla - it was difficult to be so disciplined as everything looked finger-licking good!! They were all prettily decorated and I especially loved the glitter!

We waited till later that night before having them as we were stuffed after our lovely lunch at the Royal Oak (definitely recommended!) - and the cupcakes were worth waiting for - little bites of heaven. All three flavours were really tasty - soft and tasty bases and lovely and not too sweet frosting!! This is definitely worth the trip up to the market and as its only open on Sundays its a good reason to buy a little box to treat yourself!

We never made it into Cake Hole but will be popping back very soon to test their cupcakes!