Pretty vacant

Today I finally made it to Cox, Cookies and Cake after previously turning up on their "opening day" to find it full of builders after they didn't bother to announce it was no longer opening as expected.

I wish I hadn't bothered.

Manny and I trekked through Soho in the pissing rain, avoiding umbrellas and the wheely trollies of tourists to get there. When we arrived I was quite impressed with the look of the shop - neon sign outside (complete with flashing Cox..oh how risque), black glittery walls, black pretty much everything and a pink neon sign "designed"* by Tracey Emin saying "I keep haunting you".

Anyway to the cupcakes. I won't comment on the cookies as I didn't see any at all when we were there - just cupcakes. There were none of their advertised bars either - I had hoped to try a nanimo bar but there were none to be seen. Perhaps that was for the best.

The cakes all looked quite nice but there wasn't much on offer, about 3 of their classic cupcakes, with featuring the usual suspects like vanilla, lemon, chocolate and some of their specialities featuring the skulls, the marilyn and the bling. Which are basically the classics fancied up at nearly double the price.

I had intended to just buy one cake after hearing nothing but bad reviews on the cake but Manny couldn't resist a brown titty cake so we ended up buying two. I chose a black skull cupcake. Two cakes came to the grand total of £8. Yes you read that right, two normal sized cupcakes were just short of a tenner.

Were they worth it?

In a word, NO.

My skull cupcake is advertised as being.. triple Valrhona chocolate cake with goth black frosting and a dark chocolate jewelled skull. I am not exaggerating when I say there was not a hint of chocolate in either the cupcake base, or cupcake frosting. None. Nada. Zilch. If we want to get Scottish about it, f**k all. As well as being utterly flavourless, the base was as dry Gandhi's flip flop. Completely devoid of moisture. The frosting, again, tasted of absolutely nothing. Not a hint of chocolate. None. The only flavour was food colouring but I'd wager money that the frosting had never seen any Valrhona chocolate. In fact Valrhona should be suing for using their name under false pretences. I'm assuming the triple came from the chunk of something unidentified in the middle of the cake -which may have been chocolate - I gave up trying after the second tasteless bite. Life is too short to waste on a bad cupcake.

a right tit - what I felt after paying a fortune for an inedible cake!

Manny's boob had slightly more flavour, with the merest hint of chocolate but was still as dry as a nun's gusset. I've made chocolate cupcakes that retained their moisture for four days so god only knows when these were put together. (I refuse to say baked - baking involves love and care -something these cakes had not seen!)

I cannot believe I've waited this long to try the baking of Eric Lanlard and this is it? I also can't believe he allows his name to be used with such atrocities to baking. A dry, tasteless waste of money. I can compare it to only one other cupcake experience - trying chocolate cupcakes from Aldi - these tasted pretty much the same. If I'm honest the Aldi ones were probably slightly less dry, and cost about £1 for four. So yes I paid the most money ever for a cupcake and it was the worst I've had. Go figure.

This place is definitely a case of style over substance which is a pity as it looks quite cool, is something different from the usual cupcake cafe and the staff were really nice. One thing I did adore was the staff aprons - very S&M with leather and studs - and the girl who served us was chatty and friendly. If only the cakes were as pleasant as her.

My recommendation - avoid unless you want disappointment. If you're in Soho and want a cupcake Hummingbird is about 4 mins walk away and everything is fresh and full of flavour! Cox, Cookies and Cake join Buttercup in my cupcakeries to avoid.

*I'm possibly not the best person to comment on modern "art" but how much design goes into a neon sign? Surely its just choosing a font, a colour and a phrase that means naff all?

Visiting Violet

I've been a fan of Violet cakes since I first tried them over two years ago at Covent Garden Market and as soon as I heard they had a cafe opening I've been thinking of ways to get there. On Saturday we finally made it - after a long walk from The View Tube at Pudding Mill Lane - it's quite a walk and we certainly earned our cupcake (although someone couldn't stop at one!).

First impressions when walking in is that it is a quaint little shop, with seating inside for about 6 people, with some tables outside, and if its busy there are a couple of benches nearby. Its in a quiet street off the main Dalston to Hackney route so you can sit outside and enjoy some peace and cake. As well as cakes they stock sourdough bread and some fruit and veg. We got there quite late in the day but thankfully they still had some delish looking cupcakes left.

Manny opted for the last Valrhona - of course and said it was amazing. He certainly wolfed it down as I didn't get a chance to sneak a bit. Oink oink.

I couldn't resist the coconut milk cupcake and I chose incredibly well. It was incredibly moist and flavoursome - the taste of coconut was lovely. And it went fabulously with my mug of breakfast tea. Sometimes you just can't beat a cup of tea and cake.

Manny spent the whole time we were in there drooling over the afternoon tea scones that were on display and just couldn't resist having one. And who can blame him - this is sheer food pornography. I had a little smidgen (I wasn't going to but can't resist clotted cream ever!) and it was absolutely divine.

We couldn't resist taking a couple of cakes home for pudding on Saturday night. Manny got a Devil's Food and I got a raspberry. Manny's devils food was really nice and tasty, however my raspberry one was just ok. The frosting was delicious but the cake was a little bit lacking in flavour.

However this doesn't make me change my mind and I still say Violet make some of the nicest cupcakes you will ever try. Definitely in my top five.

Manny summed it up - as we were leaving, my foot hadn't even stepped outside when he asked "when are we coming back?"

Oh and if you're interested in baking some Violet style cakes, owner Claire Ptak's The Whoopie Pie book comes out next month and if the recipes are as good as the cover looks it'll be a stunner.

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 :)

A romantic date...

Today Manny was bitten by the romance bug and decided to take me for an afternoon liaison at Bea's (perchance to shut me up whining that I wanted to go...or maybe he was just feeling romantic!!).

On my first visit I found the ambiance at Bea's a little overwhelming, verging on snotty but have since been back twice and I'm not ashamed to admit..I was wrong!!!! It is rather an upmarket place but there's nothing wrong with that at all - I'd rather eat my cupcake somewhere pretty and tastefully decorated, than something resembling a Morleys.

The staff are really friendly and the place is gorgeous in side - the cakes make you want to swoon and the decor is really swish. I love the giant sheep pic on the wall, it just makes it feel so homely somehow! It even has a piano on a raised area near the kitchen!

Anyways we went in today and it took Manny an eternity to decide what he wanted, but then I cannot blame him, there are a LOT of scrummy looking goodies to choose from in Bea's. He eventually settled on a German chocolate cake and I chose a praline chocolate cupcake. Now this date was quite unexpected so I didn't' have my camera with me (pshaw) however the pic above is of a chocolate cupcake I bought at Bea's a couple of weeks ago and the top pic is borrowed from Bea's website. They seem to have about 3 flavours of cupcakes available each day and I recommend a visit if you like a cupcake or any cake in fact! Their meringues look to die for, and come in a variety of flavours and I shall definitely be making an Eton Mess with some of them in the Summer!

Back to the cupcake..although I still stand by my opinion that the frosting is NOT frosting as we know it, I have come to like it and its rather moreish. I do still prefer the good old butter cream frosting I'm afraid, but Bea's comes a close second, and is deffo tastier than royal icing (ie the kind we have on fairy cakes here). My cupcake was really nice, with little chunks of nut on top and the batter base was soft and lovely. I had a nibble of Manny's cake and it was really chocolaty, the topping was like pure ganache so he was in chocolate heaven. So much so that he couldn't resist a Valrhona brownie when leaving for later!

Also Bea's has a fab philosophy, which the hippy in me (as Manny keeps insisting calling my love of recycling and being "green") adores ...

Bea's of Bloomsbury strives to make a difference in the world---we compost all of our food waste, recycle any possible paper, plastic and aluminum, and have designed our packaging to be as environmentally friendly as possible. In addition we run on 100% green energy, use energy efficient induction cooking methods and locally source as much of our food as possible, using only sea or road freight, never by air.
We also believe if we offer something, it's the best we can offer, which is why we provide the best organic fairtrade coffee you can find on the market and the best pastries and savouries our hands can make. Enjoy.

Oh and I think we met Bea - well I think it was her who came over as we were leaving and seemed v.happy when we said we really enjoyed the cakes and lovely coffee! I wish I'd asked her now so I could ask her the secret of her frosting...next time!

Oh and the staff were ULTRA nice - they thought we'd left a notebook on the table and came running down the street to return it to us.

Definately a destination for the cake lover visiting London! Or for romantic husbands trying to sweet talk their wives ;)