♥ Say it with Flour* ♥

Lola's suggest that their Valentines Love box is suitable for a loved one, someone special, colleagues or clients, but they've obviously never worked with colleagues like those the few normal humans (and I include myself in this) have to endure on a daily basis in my office!

However I do agree that they'd be perfect for a loved one or someone special! If you order a box from their online store, or buy one in Selfridges or Harrods they include flavours such as strawberry, red velvet, chocolate marshmallow and February's flavour of the month, pink champagne, which I've had before and loved:

LOLA’s new limited edition Pink Champagne cupcake is the perfect way to say 'I Love You'.
This latest flavour has a sumptuous fluffy cupcake sponge delicately infused with the finest Pink Champagne, topped with a heavenly butter cream icing and finished with a Champagne truffle for an intense chocolate burst.

Finally, their Kiss it Better cupcake (which I had last week and highly recommend) is available until March 29th with 30% of all proceeds going to GOSH to support the Kiss it Better appeal. Also 15% of the retail price of each LOVE box goes to the appeal.

*I've borrowed this slogan from Lola's - I just couldn't resist - it sums up this blog totally! Thanks also to Lola's for use of the photos.

Eating cupcakes for Charity

I didn't eat a single cupcake for a whole month! Yes that's right from the 25th of December till the 25th of Jan I was cupcake-free! So after some thought I decided to end my cupcake-fast at Lola's cafe in Selfridges (somewhere I've been meaning to visit for ages!) with a couple of their charity cupcakes.

I previously blogged about Lola's Kiss it Better cupcake, and Manny had expressed an interest in their Hazelnut Vanilla cupcake after I mentioned it on here. Since blogging about it, Lola's had announced that 100% of the retail price from their nutella cupcake was going to survivors of the Haiti earthquake - so we were not only stuffing ourselves but doing our bit for charity too.

The cafe is very small, with only enough seats for about a dozen or so people, and as its in Selfridges and looks rather inviting, its difficult to get a seat. This was my 3rd try at a sit down cupcake experience in Selfridges and we got lucky - grabbing a table being used by a member of staff, who kindly took her laptop elsewhere :)

We ordered our cupcakes and a cappuccino for me, mocha (with whipped cream) for tubby Manny. Firstly the coffee, provided by Vida e Caffe is amazing, some of the best I've tried - really flavoursome and well made, and they came with a little square of Lindt dark chocolate which made Manny even happier as he now had something to dunk in his whipped cream. I had seen him eyeing my flake and was guarding it from him.

So, the cupcakes. Last time I tried Lola's Christmas cupcakes I was a little over-whelmed by the amount of food colouring and a lacking of vanilla flavour, however there were no issues with these, they were wonderful. The base of mine was soft and flavoursome and the frosting was very tasty indeed. The smarties and flake worked really well - and I loved the fact that it was designed by a 4 year old - it looked and tasted like something a 4 year old would love! Having said that the 37 year old me loved it too, but then I'm a child at heart, especially when it comes to food! Manny's nutella frosting was fantastic (I took a little smidgen to try it). Oh and as well as the lovely cakes, you get proper mini-cutlery to eat your cupcake with, which is ideal as sometimes wooden forks impair the taste of your cupcake!

I'm not sure if you can still get these cupcakes in Lola's as tomorrow is February but I urge you to pop along and see - the money is going to good causes, and the cakes are definitely worth trying.

Kiss it better

January is a month when people usually start cutting back on sweet treats due to the excesses of the festive season, however if you fancy a cupcake and are looking for an excuse to indulge, here you go;

LOLA’s has teamed up with Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity to develop an exclusive cupcake for the charity’s Kiss it Better appeal.

The delicious LOLA’s Kitchen Kiss It Better cupcake was hand-crafted in LOLA’s bakery by former patient, four year old Jessica.

Jessica’s scrummy cupcake creation has a light and fluffy vanilla sponge made using the finest Madagascan vanilla pods, which is bursting with chunky chocolate chips. This latest LOLA’s flavour is finished with a heavenly butter cream icing, cheekily sprinkled with bright miniature Smarties™ and topped with a Cadbury’s chocolate Flake™.

Priced at £2.50 each, 30% of the retail price from the charity cupcake will go straight to support the Kiss It Better appeal - a national campaign to raise money to fund research into the causes and treatment of childhood cancer, one of the biggest diseases affecting children today.

A really pretty cupcake for a really great cause! You can order them online, or buy them in store at Selfridges and Harrods. I shall be popping along to one of the stores to buy a couple next week, diet be damned!