Cupcake Week round up

If you're a cupcake fan you must know that yesterday was the start of the second Cupcake Week. The event, launched in 2009 by British Baker, was launched with an installation using 5000 cupcakes in Westfield Shopping Centre London, depicting the face of Olympic boxer James de Gale with cakes were baked by Lily Vanilli and organised by blogger Ms Cakehead. You can see pics on Ms Cakeheads blog. If this reminds you of something, it's quite similar to Zilly Rosen's Obama cupcake mosaic.

It's two days into Cupcake Week and I've not yet scoffed a single cupcake so thought I'd do a round up of some of my recent(ish) cupcake purchases instead.

First up are some disappointing lemon cupcakes (top pic) I baked from the Primrose Bakery cookbook. The cakes were rather dry and didn't have much of a lemony taste too them. Instead of their lemon frosting I opted to make a white chocolate and lemon frosting using Green and Blacks white chocolate which tasted really nice but was waaaaay too runny for piping. Although I wasn't too impressed with them Manny seemed to enjoy them.

Next was a trip to Ella's Bakehouse after our visit to Cake Britain made us fancy a cupcake!

I've been a bit disappointed with the offerings on previous occasions however this time the cupcakes were fabulous. I had a banoffee cupcake which was very moist and incredibly flavoursome and unlike last time the frosting was tasty and not just buttery.

I got Manny an Oreo which he loved. I had gotten him an Oreo cupcake from here before and it was stale - this time it was moist, fresh and incredibly moreish.

I also got a little red velvet mini cupcake which was one of the better red velvets I've had. Alas the greed of not just settling for one cupcake resulted in my banoffee cupcake looking gorgeous on one side but like this...

on the other - alas my red velvet mini was rather unceremoniously shoved on top of my banoffee cupcake. The horror!

Beneath the red velvet cupcake you can see my chocolate of choice, Hotel Chocolat's caramel Tiddly Pots - heaven in a polka dot pot.

Another weekend meant a trip to Paperchase which resulted in me buying another cupcake tote bag. I see it as being environmentally concious as buying cotton shopping bags means I don't have to use plastic ones. Manny see's it as another f*cking bag in the house. However it was too cute to resist and even he agreed I should buy it.

I also got this cute little birthday card which sums up perfectly how you should spend your birthday. Although I'd add and lashings of mojitos too!

After our trip to Paperchase (and a mornings boxing for Manny, a morning of shopping and lounging in Starbucks with the Sunday papers for me) we couldn't resist popping in for a cupcake on our walk past Primrose. The last cake I had from Primrose was inedible, and as mentioned earlier in this post I had a disappointing lemon cupcake incident from their book however the cupcakes restored my Primrose faith as they were gorgeous. Manny got double chocolate (is anyone surprised by this?) and I had a strawberry and white chocolate which was moist and incredibly tasty with a lovely strawberry jam/compote in the middle.


The polka dot cases and cupcake boxes were bought on a recent trip to Sainsburys who have added loads to their baking range and seem to be embracing the home baking phenomenon. Wish they'd start stocking some decent extracts and colourings though instead of those horrid essences! They did have a baking promotion running with 1/3 off lots of baking essentials (I stocked up on tonnes of Doves flours) but I think that may have ended.

Finally on a trip to Tescos today I spotted these strawberry cupcake cones and couldn't get over how unappealing they looked, they also had some really vile looking whoopie pies that looked so unpleasant I can't imagine anyone buying them. There's a pic on my Twitpic page if you want to see them - sorry was trying to be surreptitious with my phone taking pics hence the quality!

Also in Tescos were these rather nice cupcake mugs which I felt would cheer up anyones morning cuppa. I didn't buy them though as I'm banned from purchasing crockery.

I got love in my tummy

I mentioned Yummy Boutique last month when their amazing whoopie pie saved the day after a disappointing Crumbs and Doilies cupcake. Since then I've been back. Twice. The first time I got possibly the most gorgeous whoopie pie yet - coconut. It was amazing. You can see a pic here but its rubbish as it was on my mobile and I took it very quickly as a pigeon was dying to peck it - a pigeon with good taste! I also got chatting to the lovely ladies behind Yummy Boutique and I mentioned I was hoping to try their cupcakes after last time, however they told me they're not allowed to sell cupcakes at Partridges which is unfortunate. As I couldn't buy them the ladies gifted me some and I have to say they are a must taste cupcake.

We had four flavours, all with a chocolate base except for the oreo. My favourite was the chocolate coconut - I'm a sucker for anything coconut and the frosting was so tasty - sweet but not too sweet and really flavoursome with a lot of coconut - just perfect. Manny's favourite was the double chocolate with the ferrero rocher on top and this was my second favourite. A moist chocolate cupcake base covered with lashings and I mean LASHINGS of decadent chocolate frosting - it was basically a pure ganache frosting! Third favourite was the Oreo - I could only manage about half as it was quite large, but the frosting was sublime. I've had a few Oreo cupcakes and this one is by far the best. Manny really liked the fourth flavour, which I think had cream cheese frosting on but it was a little sweet for me (But if it was cream cheese frosting I'm not keen on it as I find it too sweet so this explains it for me!)

Yummy Boutique are going to be selling their cupcakes and whoopies at the new Elephant and Castle Sunday food market or you can get their whoopies and cakes at Partridges Market on Saturdays.

Finally thanks to the lovely Yummy Boutique for the gift and I will be back for another whoopie very soon :)

When cupcakes go bad...

So this weekend I didn't make it to either of Outsider Tart's cupcake days (but I WILL next month for sure) as I had to meet Dennis from Ann Arbour y'day and today I wasn't feeling well. Unfortunately I spent a great deal of y'day feeling unwell too and I think a cupcake had something to do with it...gasp!

Myself and Dennis popped into Selfridges while out yesterday and I bought a Lola's lemon cupcake for me and an Oreo for Manny. He loved his (as usual!) but mine was undercooked - the batter was a bit sticky, had a layer of what looked like raw batter and the frosting tasted like plain butter. Pout. I'm cutting back on my cupcake consumption and I really get pouty when one that I have isn't v.nice. I'll be thinking hard before I give Lola's another chance as the last one I had there wasn't that great either - the base always seems a bit stinky/wrong! Bring back the good old Lola's cupcakes please!

Christmas shopping drives me to cupcakes

I know I don't need any excuse to have a cupcake but seriously Oxford Street on a Friday afternoon was enough to drive me straight to the nearest cupcake outlet - Lola's cupcakes at Selfridges (Which resembled hell on earth at lunchtime on Friday!)

After deciding not to buy the bacon chocolate I keep reading about as it was £5.99 and I'm not sure if it would be eaten - I headed to the Lola's counter and although the Thanksgiving cupcakes looked a little bit cute I wasn't willing to pay an extra 60p for a vanilla cupcake with a leaf on (haven't these people heard of the credit crunch..lol) so opted instead for a couple of red velvets and a strawberries and cream for me and an Oreo and cream for Manny.

My strawberry cupcake was one of the moistest, best cupcakes EVER...seriously it was so soft it melted in my mouth, and the combination of strawberry and white chocolate was just divine! And the fresh strawberry frosting was yum-tastic, oh and it was glittery too!

Manny very much enjoyed his Oreo cupcake - and it kept him quiet (except for a few hmmm's) for a good few minutes, and seemed to go a long way to cure his Saturday am hangover, and prepare him for a Saturday trip to Ikea!

The red velvets were absolutely gorgeous - the frosting was just right and the base was really soft and tasty - my only grumble was that it wasn't as red as I like it to be! I know the red colour adds nothing much really but I do like them to be v.red! Bring on the food colour!

Hooray for Oreo cupcakes!

After a long walk through St James Park to Partridges Market we bought a massive feast of Crumbs and Doilies goodies including 4 mini Oreo cupcakes and 2 lemon cupcakes :) As usual they were utterly fantastic - I managed to snarfle one of the Oreo cupcakes while Manny ate the rest (tubby!) and it was really nice and the Oreo frosting was fantastically chocolaty! The lemon one was really nice as well - soft base and lovely lemony frosting - they really are in the top 5 cupcake makers in London! And they definitely have the best sprinkles - today we had some cow ones on one of the Oreo cupcakes, and on Manny's lemon cupcake we had little fishes! Ultra cute and sprinkletastic!

The pink cupcake was bought from outside Partridges store - I think it was part of the store, but I didn't care I just spotted the pink cupcake and had to have it! It was really tasty and the frosting was raspberry flavoured - it tasted very homemade and had a tonne of frosting on!! Luckily we walked LOTS today so it made up for all the frosting :)

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!

Desert Wars in Ann Arbour

The Cupcake Station opened last Friday and gave away 500 free cupcakes!

"People like the individuality of a cupcake," said co-owner Kerry Johnson. "They get their own choice of what they want for dessert that day. And it's the perfect size - it's not too much."

The Cupcake Station will sell up to 25 different kinds of cupcakes, including Michigan bumpy cake, red velvet and Snickers - a caramel-filled chocolate cupcake topped with butter cream frosting, peanuts, more caramel and dipped in dark chocolate.

Their cupcakes are making me HUNGRY and I'm too hungover to go out and get a cupcake! I love the look of the Michigan bumpy cake, the snickers, the vanilla filled and oh I just want them all!!!!! And Ann Arbours just too damn far :( I love their idea of build your own cupcake with up to 4 toppings and you can choose a filling too!!!! Their frosting choices, including Oreo butter cream are making my mouth water!

In case you're wondering why I get excited about a cupcake place so far away its because my lovely chum Dennis lives there and I'm forever bombarding him with cupcake news, and he brings me lovely things like Sprinkles baking sets :)

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 :)