The tale of the Cookie Girl and a courgette!

First visit on our mini-cupcake tour of the Notting Hill area was the Cookie Girl's stall in Portobello Rd market! Manny had been keen to visit the Cookie Girl ever since seeing her website and was rather excited to finally go there today!

As usual the selection of cupcakes was FANTASTIC! We opted for 4 - vanilla, courgette (top pic) and Jack Daniels and coke and chocolate praline (second pic). Other flavours included beetroot, pina colada and some other fab ones I can't remember! I opted for the courgette due to the fab green frosting! Manny also had a chocolate and orange brownie - no pics as he snuffled it as soon as he got it - he said it was magnificent!

We had the cupcakes when we got home with a nice cuppa tea and my favourite was definitely the courgette - the base was really really nice and the frosting was absolutely gorgeous - I could have eaten it by the cup. Who'd have thought something like a courgette could make one of the best cupcakes I've ever had! Manny's Jack Daniels and coke one was really nice as well - the frosting was very dense and chocolaty! Manny declared these his favourite cupcakes ever!

I do kinda regret not having the beetroot one now - I wasn't sure how they'd taste, but after the courgette one I'm thinking the beetroot one would've been yummy too!

Am looking forward to the Cookie Girl's cookbook coming out -it'll be a fave on my shelf for sure!

As you can see Angel enjoyed a bit of the vanilla frosting as well - her nickname is pudding due to her tendency to run over to me and look at me imploringly if ever I have anything pudding-like! Today she got a bit of frosting and she's my best friend :)

EAT cupcakes - a cupcake weekend

Manny took me up to Ladbrooke Grove/Notting Hill for a bit of a cupcake day out (and a sneaky visit to the Notting Hill Record and Tape Exchange for him!) as I'd not had a cupcake for over 2 weeks!!!

We visited the Cookie Girl's stall and also popped into Hummingbird Bakery, will post about those later (we've not eaten them all the Hummingbird ones are packed away for tomorrow!), but when we wanted a coffee we popped into Eat and I couldn't resist one of their new range of cupcakes. I've had a vanilla one before which was really nice and this time plumped for something different, a coffee and walnut - I'm not usually a fan of coffee items but this looked really nice and it was absolutely lovely! The base was really soft and tasty and the frosting was very nice, with a hint of cinnamon! Definitely the best "chain" cupcake I've ever had.

They have a whole range of new cupcakes; including Sicilian, Belgian Chocolate and a rather scrumptious sounding Victoria sponge cupcake which I MUST check out!

The second pic is of the chocolate muffin Manny had in Eat - he insisted I take a pic of it and mention it was one of the best muffins he'd had - full of chocolate!! I had a bite and it was rather yummy!

Hummingbird Bakery Portobello Road

Last Wednesday was another day off work so I went for a wander down Westbourne Grove, via Whiteleys/Hyde Park, checking out Food Inc @ Whiteleys on the way - they had cupcakes but I didn't try them this time as I wanted to go to Hummingbird, but will try them next time - they actually looked like cupcakes from Cake Hole in Columbia Road. I also popped into Tom's Deli in Westbourne Grove and saw their lovely display of goodies including Primrose Bakery cupcakes.

When I've gone to Hummingbird in Portobello Road before there's been such a HUGE queue to get in I've not bothered but at 11.30am on a sunny Wednesday they were quiet :) I got a chocolate for me and a vanilla for Manny and a little cute single container with a vanilla one for my friend Helen! I couldn't resist having a cupcake for my lunch so sat outside with a coffee and a scrumptious red velvet cupcake :) Hummingbird is definitely one of my favourite cupcakeries in London and as usual their cakes were lovely and moist, their frosting thick and yummy :) The shop is v.small but had a good range of flavours (including lemon curd which I must try next time if they have it!) and a few big cakes for sale, whole or by the slice! They had a poster up advertising Thursday as meringue topped cupcake day so I must pop over one Thursday to try those!

What I really loved about my trip there, apart from sitting outside watching the world go by while scoffing a yummy cupcake - when I was sitting outside a couple of Big Issue sellers came over and asked me to watch their dog while they went in and bought a big bag of cupcakes to scoff - they reckoned it's their weekly treat, they were followed into the shop by an obviously wealthy "yummy mummy" with her designer clad kids, while the 4x4 was left outside complete with designer little doggie...cupcakes bring everyone together, they REALLY are magical :)

The Cookie Girl

On Saturday I finally made it all the way down Portobello Market and found the Cookie Girl. I'd emailed her in the week and she kindly offered to keep me a box of cupcakes if she started to sell out so I felt I should go down and get them - which was an incentive to go into the busy Market on the hottest day of the year so far!

The cakes are DEFINITELY worth braving the crowds for and the Cookie Girl is lovely and friendly - someone you can tell loves their job!!! The stall looked utterly adorable and so did the cakes and cookies. I bought 4 cupcakes, 3 vanilla and one with dulce de leche (drooooooool!!!!) and got Manny a slice of the scrumptious looking chocolate cake as I felt he'd divorce me if I didn't and he saw the pics! They came to a bargain price of £8!!

An utter bargain for a some small slices of heaven!!!! I managed to resist eating any of the cakes on my walk around London, (I walked from Ladbrooke Grove to Waterloo) and got them home safe and sound where they were immediately devoured, not all by me, but nearly! They were utterly gorgeous, not too sweet with perfect frosting. Manny allowed me to try a little bit of his cake and my gosh it was lovely and moist with stunning frosting/ganache on :)

If you're in the area on a Saturday pop down and buy things, you wont regret it, and if you're not in the area, GO!!!! I shall be going back to get a cookie as I forgot to buy one, and some cupcakes I'm sure!