Vegan cupcakes take over my tastebuds

A couple of weeks ago we visited the glamorous Ms Cupcake at her weekend residence, The Tearooms in Brick Lane.

I was lucky enough to meet, and scoff the wares of Ms C at my first Iron Cupcake and have been keen to try some more ever since. Not only are her cupcakes gorgeous and incredibly tasty, they are 100% vegan!! That's right - no butter, eggs or milk - the mainstay of most cupcake recipes. I'm a bit of a sceptic when it comes to vegan cupcakes - I've had a few that are just downright unpleasant, and when I've tried to bake my own from recipes they've been completely inedible and ended up in the bin. When I say you wouldn't know Ms C's cupcakes are vegan because they taste so delish I hope she takes that as the compliment it's meant.

Ms C's stall is enough to tempt even the non-cupcake lovers amongst you. A veritable feast of gorgeous looking cakes in bright colours. Not that you'd know this from my photos - sorry bad camera day. You can see much better photos of the cupcakes, and the many flavours available on her website.

After a chat with Ms C, and a pet of the gorgeous little dog of the stallholder next door we finally decided what cupcakes we wanted. Manny of course opted for two chocolate varieties - triple chocolate and ferrero rocher. I went for raspberry ripple and mango blueberry.

The cupcakes got a little squished on the way home, sorry! Being squished detracted in no way from their fabulousness however and they tasted amazing. The raspberry ripple base was incredibly moist and the frosting was very tasty. Previous vegan cupcakes I've had have been quite dry, or the opposite, and quite oily - this one was perfect. The mango blueberry was my favourite of the two - the frosting was divine, and very moreish!

Manny's two chocolate cupcakes were scoffed with his usual sounds of happiness (hmmm, yum, hmmm, good - caveman style, with a chunk of frosting in his gob). I tried some of the chocolate frosting and some of the cake and both were incredibly chocolaty and very very tasty. I'd love to know how Ms C gets her frosting so tasty without lashings of butter! Some kind of vegan magic!

You can find Ms Cupcake at Greenwich Market on Thursday's and Friday's - get there early as she's always on Twitter saying she's sold out, and at the Tearooms on Saturday and Sunday. More details of her whereabouts can be found here.

Me eat kooky, om nom nom nom

I have been meaning to visit Sunday Upmarket again for months  to try Kooky Bakes baked goods. In particular the Snickers Slice, which I've been lusting after for some time via Facebook!

How yum does the Snicker Slice look?

Drooool

Nearly as good as it tasted.

It was fabulous! A fudgy brownie with peanut butter cake topped with salted caramel buttercream (this was DIVINE and I'm not fond of salted caramel!) topped with a thin chocolate on top. One of the nicest cakes I've eaten - ever! Oh and I shared it with Manny as I'm a nice girl.

We shared some more of Kooky's goodies - including the glorious technicoloured Krazy Kid slice - Fruit Loop cereal made into a gooey marshmallow'y Rice Crispie style treat. I really liked this - nice and chewy and perfect with a cup of tea!

Goooooey goodness

Then came Manny's S'mores slice. Yes it was Manny's. We shared the rest of our Kooky haul but when it came to this one I got a wee sliver to taste and he scarfed the rest! Tsk. This was definitely his favourite. The moist chocolate brownie, covered in sticky marshmallows with digestive crumbs brings together all of the S'mores elements in a gooey, sticky bundle of joy. And it kept him quiet for five minutes- well apart from the usual "hhhmmm hmmmm hmmm"ing that accompanies him enjoying something chocolatey!

Next up was my second favourite - the pina colada whoopie pie. This was gorgeous to look at, and to eat! The filling on the whoopie pie was one of the nicest I have tasted - it was like a mousse buttercream - light, fluffy and melt in your mouth - oh and very, very tasty.

Squished but still yum!

Last, but not least, our only cupcake of this visit, a rather squished black forest gateaux cupcake. It wasn't squished when we got it but I had a bit of a blonde moment with the bag on the way home and it ended up a wee bit mis-shapen. This didn't affect the taste though - moist chocolate cake, with a cherry kirsch filling, covered in delicious vanilla buttercream. Again the buttercream was gorgeous. Manny scoffed the cherry too - sod.

I highly recommend a visit to UpMarket to buy some Kooky goodies, and say hi to Scott (Mr Kooky) as he must spend hours in the kitchen creating these fabulous treats. Well I know he spends hours as I'm forever drooling over his Twitter and Facebook updates.

You can find Kooky Bakes at Sunday UpMarket at the Old Truman Brewery just off Brick Lane. They're at the back entrance/exit off the indoor market bit.