Making Whoopie in Brighton

After our trip to Swallow Bakery we had planned a stop in Worthing to visit the awesome Parklife but time was not on our side so we headed directly to Brighton as we were aiming to end our mini tour there with a trip to our favourite pub, with a stop at Angel Food Bakery first for a second bit of lunch (two cupcakes = lunch!).

Luck was on our side as we managed to secure a table in the usually v.busy Angel Food and Manny managed to get the last of their chocolate whoopie pies.

Manny's whoopie was HUGE and the filling was amazing - I tried a little smidge and it was ever so tasty. I opted for a banana cupcake which came with a white chocolate and cream cheese frosting. The cake was incredibly moist and tasty and the frosting was divine. I occasionally find cream cheese frosting a bit cloying but this combination was fantastic. I really like Angel Food Bakery, it's a lovely little cafe with fabulous coffee and even better cakes - everything is incredibly fresh, and you can see the kitchen staff preparing your cakes through the window at the back. And it seems I'm not the only one who loves it - the place was constantly busy, people popping in for a cupcake or to pick up or place orders. It's nice to see an small retailer doing so well!





Again we grabbed some take away - this time opting for four as we just couldn't decide and we needed some cake when we'd finished drinking! I had a toffee apple (with a Toffifee on top - one of my favourite sweets ever!), and a vanilla. Manny opted for a chocolate orange (with piece of chocolate orange on top) and a devils food with honeycomb on top of coffee frosting.

All of the cupcakes were lovely, except the vanilla which was unfortunately inedible and ended up in my bin. The frosting tasted of nothing but butter, not a hint of vanilla, and the cake itself tasted days old (we tried to eat it on the Saturday - about 16 hours after buying it), and again tasted of really flavourless sponge, again not a smidge of vanilla flavour. The other cupcakes made up for it though and were incredibly flavoursome - and really different from the usual cupcake flavours you get! I highly recommend a trip to Brighton for these cakes, especially the toffee apple which I adored and Manny recommends the whoopies and devils food cupcake!

We shall be doing the tour again, perhaps this time with less takeaway (I was stuffed of cake by the time my birthday was over!) and next time we're definitely going to Parklife - especially now they've started doing macarons!

Lashings of cupcakes in Chichester

My birthday cupcake tour of the South East has taken me a while to write up but I still wanted to share with you this wonderful little bakery in the lovely town of Chichester - it is a definite must visit.

I have wanted to visit Swallow Bakery for some time, and finally got round to it 3 weeks ago and it was worth the wait.

Getting off the train in Chichester after being in London is like another world. We left Victoria Station on a day when a famous Dutch activist was in town so we spent our wait at the Station listening to bone head idiots who seemed to think they were the creme de la creme of Englishness shouting abuse at everyone, and surrounded by the usual fragrant part of the population that seems to be loiter in London stations. Chichester is lovely and I'm not just saying that because we found cupcakes, a great little food market, a fab kitchenware shop and a store where I found the cutest Hello Kitty purse all within 3 mins of each other. And they have a Lakeland which we didn't visit but it kinda adds to me wanting to live somewhere like this! It's a really picturesque little town - I loved it!

Anyways, to the cupcakes. Swallow Bakery is a cute little cafe, with about 4 tables and lots of lovely goodies to purchase. And the cupcakes - rows and rows of lovely looking, perfectly frosted cupcakes. I opted for a pink vanilla (my usual to test a bakery) and Manny had a double chocolate. Manny secured a table and I waited for the coffees and cake. This is where my first little problem with Swallow Bakery occurs - there were 2 tables free, however both were swarming with dirty crockery. The girl serving noticed and did nothing, fair enough she was serving. However there was another girl sitting down just near the counter reading The Sun who I did think could have perhaps gotten up and cleared the tables (sorry but even if she was on a break it's a cafe so tables need clearing, you can take a break later). We got our coffees etc and ended up clearing the tables ourselves, even when the girl behind the counter spotted this she just left them piled up on the table we'd put them on.

Anyways back to what we travelled two hours out of London for - the cupcakes. They were AMAZING. Really, really flavoursome, moist and yummy. Both were engulfed in a thick layer of really lovely frosting - some of the nicest cupcakes we've had. The coffee was great too - the perfect little cafe!

We decided to get a couple of cupcakes to take away and went back to the counter -where my second problem occurs (part of which we didn't realise till the next day). By going back and asking for takeaway we seemed to interrupt the staff chatting which seemed to perturb the girl serving to the point of putting one of our cupcakes upside down in the box. If you look at the pic above there isn't really any way just one could've ended up the wrong way up unless it was done purposely. They still tasted great though - Manny had a black and white (the upside down one) and I had an apple and fudge (I think it was a daily special). Both were still really fresh tasting and moist the day after purchase and really tasty - mine was full of lovely bits of fresh apple and the fudge on top was lovely. Manny loved the chocolate base of both his cupcakes declaring them some of the best he'd had. And again the frosting was just superb - some of the tastiest frosting I've ever had!

Staffing issues aside I highly recommend a visit to Chichester - next time we'll go back and explore a little more. If you do fancy a day out Southern Trains do a Daysave ticket which means you can explore all over the Southern network for a tenner!

An apple a day keeps the doctor away

I'm sick.

I spent my birthday lying on the sofa, surrounded by mountains of tissues, stinking of vicks, feeling sorry for myself, while drinking Benylin mucus. Even cupcakes didn't make me feel any better.

Perhaps these Apple for the Teacher cupcakes, from What's new Cupcake, the new book by the authors of Hello Cupcake would make me feel better - their cuteness certainly brought a smile to my face! They'd certainly provide a sugar rush - a cupcake topped with a doughnut!!

These books are choc full of great decorating ideas! As well as the Apple cupcakes, you can also preview how to make their Playing Koi cupcakes here.

All pics with thanks to What's New Cupcake.

The worlds most expensive cupcake?

The worlds most expensive bake sale is being held to help fix Vista....a v.cute advert from Apple!

I tried to embed the video but it wouldn't work so you can check it out here!

In the new ad, the character of "PC," played by humorist John Hodgman, says he is holding a bake sale because "the marketing guys decided to run a big, expensive ad campaign rather than use that money to fix Vista."
When "Mac," played by actor Justin Long, asks PC why he has been forced to raise money by selling pies and cupcakes, PC replies: "Since my problems don't seem to be a priority for them, I'm taking matters into my own hands ... a bake sale."
Mac then buys a cupcake, and at PC's urging, takes a bite after asking its price. "[That will be] $10 million," says PC. "Now you have to pay me because you had a bite."