It's not all about eating yummy cupcakes

This post is a round up of some cupcakes scoffed (or not, as the case may be unfortunately) over the last few months that don't really warrant a post themselves.


First up is April's flavour of the month from the usually fabulous Crumbs and Doilies. I am usually a fan of their cakes, and think they are some of the prettiest you can get (they have a vast collection of sprinkles!), however the Mexican Chilli Chocolate was a big let down. It was incredibly dry and rather flavourless, there was a little kick from the ancho chilli on top which I made a point of eating even though the rest of the cake wasn't for me and I only managed a couple of bites. Disappointing. Lets hope May's Cardamom and white chocolate flavour is much better!

The same day we went to Partridges Market for the Chilli Chocolate cupcake we also picked up a whoopie pie from two newcomers to Partridges, Yummy Boutique. They also did cupcakes, which I foolishly didn't buy as we had some C&D ones. I regretted it as the whoopie was amazing - definitely one to check out in the future. And the two ladies running it were lovely!

The window picture is another reason we didn't opt for cupcakes from Yummy Boutique - our plan was to walk down the Kings Road to Love Bakery as I was keen to try their Easter range - alas they were closed but we did ooh and ahhh over their lovely window and worked off some calories on the walk!
Next up another unfortunately disappointing cupcake - this time from Primrose Bakery. The cupcake on the left is their banana chocolate which unfortunately was inedible and seemed to be lacking any bananas, instead full of really huge raisins which were highly unpleasant against a very, very dry crumb-like sponge. Manny's double chocolate didn't let him down however and he scoffed the lot. Mine went in the bin - minus the frosting which was yummy.

In compassion these rather squished efforts from Clapham's Bread Stall, on Northcote Road were really tasty, flavoursome and had a lovely homemade taste to them. Alas they got a bit squished on our travels but they did start out looking rather nicer!

The Banoffee cupcake from Cafe Nero was perhaps one of the sweetest most unpleasant things I've ever put in my mouth. I recommend neither this or their coffee.

Alas this post is full of dry cupcakes - this one from Tina We Salute You was a bit of a letdown as their cupcakes are usually fabulous. Still worth giving them a go though as previous cakes have been really nice, and their coffee is worth travelling for.

Another coffee shop cupcake, another mouthful of sugar - this strawberry one from Costa's was edible but not that tasty. Really didn't live up to their advertising of "all other cupcakes stand aside" why are you going to send them into a diabetic coma? Very, very sweet and not recommended. And their coffee isn't nice either!

Finally, I can't find the picture but we popped into Buttercup at Westfield after we watched Alice in Wonderland there and got one of the worst cupcakes of my life. Dry, flavourless, smelly and totally inedible. This is a company that has gone from being one of my favourites to one I am actively telling readers of this blog to avoid - I wasted nearly £3 on a vanilla cupcake that I don't believe had seen vanilla, but do believe had been baked a few days earlier from the smell and texture of the cake. I'm still mortified I bought some of these cupcakes last year for a friends birthday and all of them were stale. I gave it one last chance as everyone can make mistakes but unfortunately it just reinforced their quality is nowhere near as good as before. Avoid at all costs unless you like stale flavourless cupcakes. See previous posts about their greatness here and here, their fall from my favourites here.

Buttercup...don't break my heart

If you've read this blog for any length of time (thanks!!) you'll know that Buttercup in Kensington (and now Westfield) is one of my all time favourite cupcake places. Unfortunately my love of Buttercup has now been thrown into doubt, following a visit on Wednesday.

It was a work colleagues birthday and she mentioned previously she's like to try a cookies and cream cupcake - so I thought I'd pop to Buttercup and get her one as Manny'd previously had a beautiful one from there and said it was one of the best he'd tasted. I took the morning off work and headed to Kensington. When I arrived I was disappointed to see that the display case was half full and those cupcakes that were there were kinda sad looking. I wish I'd taken a photo (and then just left) to share how sad it looked. I asked if they had any cookies and cream and was told they were "too difficult to frost early in the mornings", it was 11am and they'd been open since before 9am but anyways I was there and I didn't really have time to go anywhere else so I got 4 cupcakes - a Fantasy (vanilla) and a Chocolate Purist for my work colleagues and a vanilla (for me) and chocolate purist for Manny. As the two for work colleagues were gifts I asked for separate boxes and was charged 50p each for the privilege - even though at £2.50 a pop for half frosted cupcakes they're amongst the most expensive in London!!!

So to the half frosted - both vanilla cupcakes were half frosted - and STALE!!!! Again with the stale vanilla cupcakes. When I bake cupcakes we are still able to eat them 4 days later and they don't taste this stale - I really think that if this was my first ever foray into the world of cupcake I'd have just given up there and then - which may be a good thing for my waistline I have to say. The two chocolate ones I'm told were moist and fresh - maybe they sell quicker as they're more popular so aren't left on the shelf for so long? I really don't know. All I know was this cupcake made me feel nauseous to the point I couldn't eat it and is there a sadder feeling than throwing a cupcake in the bin? The frosting was hard also - obviously not fresh and quite tasteless - quite a difference from their usual vanilla cupcake which I've previously announced as one of my favourite cupcakes ever.

I was really disappointed on Wednesday - I'd wasted a half day at work - not to mention money on cupcakes that were inedible, I also felt awful that my friend may be tucking into a stale cupcake for her birthday (thankfully her chocolate one was ok - my friend with the fantasy one was not so lucky). Next time I'll go to Hummingbird who've yet to let me down.

Also - please note: having someone try to shove a big box of cupcakes into a bag that he couldn't fit the single cupcake box into is not good for your business.

New London Cupcakery

Another cupcakery has opened in Kensington High Street - meaning you can now enjoy cupcakes in 3 different locations within walking distance of the tube station - Buttercup, Hummingbird and the new kid on the block, The Cupcake Company.

Not a lot more to say at the moment - I may try and pop over there next week to get some pics, more info if I can but I'm cutting back on cupcake consumption at the mo...however if I walk through the park to there I'm sure I'm allowed one :) And they do look rather yummy.

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!

A recap of the London cupcake tour

I'm posting this for the lovely Kara, a fellow cupcake addict, who posted asking for any suggestions of where to visit in London, specifically near Knightsbridge.

We did a mini cupcake tour last March for my birthday and all 3 destinations are within walking distance of Knightsbridge and I thought I'd repost the links for Kara and anyone else interested.

The tour went from Crumbs and Doilies at Partridges Market (about 2 mins walk from Sloane Square tube) to Hummingbird Bakery near South Kensington Tube, ending up at Buttercup near High Street Kensington (where you can pop into Wholefoods for a cuppa to re-energise!). You can walk it all in an hour or so (probably quicker if you don't keep stopping) or you can do it all via the underground, or just go to one of them!

You can check our tour at the following links

Crumbs and Doilies

Hummingbird

Buttercup

Feel free to ask any more questions. Oh and if you're near Richmond or Chiswick I urge you to go to Outsider Tarts cupcake weekend - which is next weekend. You wont taste better I promise you!!!

Also if anyone else has any questions about cupcakes in London please get in touch! And dont forget to check out Kara's blog!

The pics above are from our tour last year :)

S'more Spooky Cupcakes

We were in Brighton for Halloween so as a pre-Hallow's eve treat I popped into Selfridges after a fruitless trip to Westfield on its opening day for a Buttercup Cupcake, to get a couple of Lola's garishly frosted Halloween cupcakes.

As well as two pumpkin cupcakes I was tempted to try one of their 'flavour of the month' which was S'mores so we ended up with a treat and a half each! Unfortunately although the pumpkin Halloween cupcakes were lovely, lots of moreish frosting with nice soft batter base, the S'mores cupcake was a MAJOR disappointment. The base was incredibly dry - to the point I couldn't eat it, and there wasn't really any flavour to it - it was like a flavourless dry cake. The frosting was also disappointing and I'm still left wondering what flavour it was meant to be. I know S'mores are meant to be marshmallow, chocolate and wafer but there was not obvious trace of any of those flavours unfortunately! Oh well at least the Halloween ones were yummy!

Oh and I did make it back to Buttercup at Westfield the following Monday! Their 'cafe' is located near the giant Habitat in case you can't find it and it is rather tiny, with about 4 seats. It's not listed on their website for some reason but it is there honest! Luckily we got there before the queues started and we got to sit down and enjoy our cupcakes, although I'm not sure if we enjoyed them as much as the little boy next to us who had frosting from his eyebrows to his elbows - his mother was mortified but it made me giggle! While we were there a lot of people came and bought cupcakes and there seemed to be a lot of "oh thank god we found it finally"...so I wasn't the only one traipsing round looking for it! As usual their cupcakes were lovely, a moist base with lots of beautifully flavoured frosting! Their vanilla purist is one of my favourite cupcakes ever! As soon as I feel better I'm going to Kensington to get some - right now I'm so sick I don't think I could even manage a cupcake...the horror!!!

STILL no internet access but STILL cupcaking

So am in my favourite coffee shop Coffee@whitecross checking my email etc and thought I'd just let any readers (and I know someone is still checking here from my Google analytical thingumabobs!) know that I am still obsessed by cupcakes but just can't post at the moment!

When I've got proper internet access again you can read all about our Halloween cupcake jaunt to Angel Food Bakery in Brighton, Lola's Kitchen Halloween Cupcakes (and a rather disappointing Smores flavour from them!) and our trip to the GIANT new Westfield shopping centre solely to scoff a buttercup cupcake - it was worth it :)

Till I'm back online Happy Cupcaking! Dont forget its Oreo cupcake as cupcake of the month at Crumbs and Doilies to get along to Partridges Market on a Saturday and try them!

Today I went to....

Buttercup Cake Shop....aren't they lovely!! I think this is my favourite shop in London

We had banoffee, vanilla purist and chocolate purist - I resisted the temptation to get a sticky toffee one but they do look like they're missing one don't they!

As usual the frosting was melt in your mouth and the cake/batter was soft and yummy.

Craving cupcakes...Daisy Cakes to the rescue

So today I was home alone and craving cupcakes - I have gone nearly 2 weeks without a "fix" so I woke up thinking FROSTING! Then I realised I really wasn't in a 'getting on the bus and listening to each stop being announced then jostling with a zillion people' mood so I decided to ditch my idea of going to Buttercup and went to Daisy Cakes Bake Shop in Greenwich instead.

As soon as I walked into Daisy Cakes and smelt the fresh cupcakes baking I knew it had been a good idea - I quickly got a red velvet and a vanilla and headed home to enjoy a people free Saturday!!

Both cupcakes were gorgeous (I liked the red velvet base best and the vanilla frosting...go figure!) and my people free day has been great :)

I heart Buttercup

If you've read this blog before you'll know how much I utterly love Buttercup Cake Shop in Kensington.

I popped in there last week and bought the fantastic array of cupcakes above - picture three and four show Fantasy and Banoffee and picture four shows Sticky Toffee and Chocolate Purist. They were all melt in the mouth, sugar rush fantastic!! Although the Fantasy looked fantastic it didn't taste as good as their vanilla purist which and seeing as it was a Vanilla Cupcake I thought it would - however it was still lovely, looked great, but I just prefer the more vanillaesque Vanilla Purist.

Buttercup is definitely in my top three of cupcake places in the world!!!

Quick go visit!!!

Buttercup doesn't let me down...

I made an excuse to go to Wholefoods in Kensington High St yesterday as I REALLY craved a Buttercup Cake Shop cupcake....is that bad? And is it worse that I had two instead of the one I promised myself I'd have?

As usual they were absolutely GORGEOUS -each time I eat one of their cupcakes I think that they are my favourite cupcake store in London...and I think they may be. Maybe its cuz their name, and cakes, are very similar to my all time favourite in New York, Buttercup Bake Shop. As well as their cakes, I love their moto - "Life is uncertain, Eat dessert first!"

Anyways I had a vanilla purist (to DIE for), a banoffee (oh.my.god this was GOOOOOD!), while Manny had a chocolate purist (he loved it was usual) and a cookies 'n' cream which he was rather orgasmic about while eating it...lots of "oh my's"!!! I tried a bit of the frosting from his cookies 'n' cream one and "oh my" was correct - it was UTTERLY fantastic frosting - I didn't care about the cake under it, which of course was lovely and light as usual, that frosting was enough to make it a must have cupcake next time! On their website it says that its just vanilla frosting with oreo dust, I'd say the Oreo dust adds that something extra special to it!! Definitely worth the trip to Kensington for...make an excuse, you need something from Wholefoods, it always works for me :)

I'll be back :)

Cupcake Tour - Buttercup Cake Shop

Our third, and final, destination on our Cupcake Tour of South West London ended at the fantastic Buttercup Cake Shop in Kensington! When we arrived there weren't many cakes left, but thankfully they had some of my favourite, banoffee, left!! And they were just putting the finishing/frosting touches to some double chocolate ones which Manny couldn't resist! Think he was hoping they'd offer him the opportunity to lick the bowl ;)

We had the Buttercup cupcakes when we got home, following a walk through Hyde Park and a trip to Morrisons where we acquired some more cupcake-goodies - and as usual they were utterly, UTTERLY gorgeous. Of all the ones I had today I think this is my favourite but I do think the flavour swayed it - I heart banoffee!

In all the cupcake tour was an utterly great way to spend a cold Saturday afternoon - we didn't actually eat that many cupcakes, considering how much temptation there was and in all we walked about 7 miles or so so worked off lots of calories!!!!

We are now planning the North West London leg of the tour for April :)

Yukky cupcakes

I was off work on Wednesday and decided to toddle down to Kensington for a browse around the shops including Wholefoods which I ADORE!! After a quick coffee I thought I'd check the patisserie section and was chuffed to see they'd some cupcakes, or "fancy cupcakes" as they decided to call them (I suppose "disgusting and tasting of oil" wouldn't be a strong selling point!!). So I happily chose 2 - one greeny/blue one and a pink pig for Manny and went for a stomp round Hyde Park/Marylebone High Street to wear off a tonne of calories in anticipation of my, wrongly assumed, scrummy treat later! I was heartbroken when I dropped them in Primark (a.k.a hell on Oxford St) as I paid for my lovely pink spotty vest, but thought they'd still taste nice if look a bit scruffy! By the time I got them home they'd melted into a mass of yuk and it looked like a cupcake massacre inside the box - nevermind, I thought, a smoooooshed cupcake is still a cupcake - how WRONG I was!

After taking the above pics, I decided to just try some of the "frosting" as it didn't look quite right - and oh.my.god thank goodness I didn't take a big mouthful as it was UTTERLY gross! It tasted like how I'd imagine unflavoured shaving foam would taste, i.e. AWFUL. I tried a bit of the cake bit and it was just yuk too - no taste, hard and just unpleasantly textured. It was so disgusting I had to throw it in the bin - something I've thankfully never had to do with another cupcake! Only then did I look at the box (my greed got the better off me before I ate it!) and realise that the 2nd ingredient listed is Canola Oil..eugh, eugh, eugh.

And what makes it even worse - my favourite cupcake shop was just round the corner and I could've had Buttercup cupcakes instead :(

Unless you WANT to eat something that tastes like drinking oil then do NOT buy Wholefoods Markets cupcakes! You've been warned!

Buttercup Cake Shop - Kensington

Having been good this week (so far) and not sucummbed to the temptation of the cupcake I thought I'd post some pics of other cupcakes I have scoffed!

Buttercup Cake Shop (http://www.buttercupcakeshop.co.uk/) in St Albans Grove, Kensington is my favourite cupcake place in the UK so far!!

I first read about it in Time Out one Wednesday lunchtime in January and I nearly had a heart attack as I thought at first it was a London branch of Buttercup Bake Shop (http://www.buttercupbakeshop.com/) that I'd visited in New York last July (Still my absolute favourite cupcake in the world - so good I carried a box of them back with me!). However some research revelled it wasn't related to the Buttercup Bake shop in NY, however I still wanted to try it and dragged Manny there that weekend!

It took some finding but when we arrived it was an absolutely gorgeous little store (I must get some pics on my next visit) and the lady serving (I think it was the owner) was so friendly and cool - she thought it was great that I adore cupcakes so much and that they're getting so popular in the UK! Manny nearly slid on a puddle of his own drool there and he couldn't choose what to get so we ended up with 5 gorgeous cupcakes - including one for a friend so we weren't being totally fat!

I had a vanilla purist (I ALWAYS have to have a vanilla) which melted slightly but was so lovely I had to stop myself from eating the 2nd vanilla one we bout for Carly! There website says they use a pure vanilla extract by Nielsen Massey and it had the nicest vanilla flavour I've ever had - it was little eating a slice of heaven!!! (having searched for it http://www.nielsenmassey.com/) it turns out their international store is in Leeuwarden, Holland where we visited last year - typical!! I'll have to go back now). My second cupcake was a banoffee one, which topped the vanilla one!!! Seriously, this cupcake was soooo tasty I wanted to marry it and have it forever! It just tasted so lovely - the frosting was just so caramelly - I feel hungry just thinking about how great it was!!

Manny had a chocolate purist (of course, chocolate cupcakes are his fav!!) and he can be seen above just before he tucks into it!! I think his second one was a chocolate bunny - as usual he didn't take a pic of the second one as he was too busy stuffing his face!

I am going back there the day before my birthday to get some cupcakes for my birthday breakfast and shall make sure I try some other flavours and get some more pics, although I'm not sure about trying the chocolate zucchini - maybe I can persuade Manny to give it a go!