Saturday 14 April 2012

London Town...and the best cupcakes around!


So a few weeks ago I had the chance to go down South for the weekend and I knew exactly what I wanted to do - a day of cupcaking in London with my sister! 

We had planned that we were going to visit a few new cupcakeries that have popped up in the past few months.  The plan was to meet at St.Pancras - I suggested we meet in front of Peyton & Byrne.  That was my first mistake! We were just meant to meet there and then head off to the respective cupcakeries...but as I sat waiting for my sister staring at these cupcakes piled sky high with frosting how could I resist! 


So when she turned up we decided we would pick one cupcake to share, and save it for later and be on our way.

Along the way we stopped off at the Kings Road to visit Partridges and buy some graham crackers.  Of course we just had to take a little stroll around their food market (which is one of our faves!) and when we saw that Crumbs and Doilies speciality flavour was buttered popcorn how could we resist!


This was one seriously amazing cupcake! I don't know how but the frosting managed to taste just like creamy buttery popcorn flavour and having actual popcorn on top was just ingenius - we loved everything about it and devoured it on the spot!

and then we stumbled upon another stall, whose name I didn't even manage to look at since I was mesmerised by these super fudgy raspberry and white choc chunk brownies!!


How could we say no! So we bought one and shared it on the tube as we headed on with the trip.  This was one of the best brownies I've had in a very long time - I must find out the name of the stall and hunt them down again...very soon!

It was getting close to lunchtime and of course we needed to eat some real food so we decided to head to the new Westfield at Stratford.  It opened the weekend after I left London last summer so I hadn't had the privilege of checking it out yet! and in my family we are big Westfield fans.  It certainly didn't disappoint and I think it's got some of the best food courts I have ever seen!

My sister suggested we get a pizza from Franco Manca because she had gone there before and loved it.  Now I am a pizza fan and I eat a lot of it at home, but when I got out for meals Mexican and American cuisine and sometimes Indian just always grab my attention.  Going out for a pizza would probably be at the bottom of my list...so I wasn't too thrilled by this idea but I decided to go with it and trust my sister - she usually has good foodie instincts! and oh my goodness this was definitely the best pizza I've eaten in the UK.  It is made with sourdough bread and you may notice it didn't have any toppings on, just cheese, but it didn't need any other toppings because it was so delicious as is - I can seriously recommend trying this delicious pizza.  It was a hit.


How can it not be when accompanied by a Root Beer float though - courtesy of Chicago Rib Shack!


You definitely don't get those kind of lunches in North Wales, I was loving it! 

After some shopping around, my sister told me we simply couldn't leave without getting a Pinkberry - because, shock horror, I haven't tried one yet! Again I'm not that much of a fan...when in London I would much rather stuff my face with cupcakes/brownies/cookies than with frozen yoghurt, but I went along with it anyway and oh my gosh it was amazing! I am a Pinkberry convert! Did you know they have the yummiest flavours - we got two swirled together...coconut frozen yoghurt and mango frozen yoghurt! How good does that sound, even just on it's own! and then we got it covered with shredded coconut, fresh strawberries, raspberries and mango! 


So by this point it was time to leave Westfield and head to the 2 cupcakeries we were meant to be checking out that day, but have you even just seen the amount of stuff we had eaten already! There was no way I was going to be handle 2 more cupcakes! So we decided to call it a done deal and leave those 2 cupcakeries for another day!

We headed back to St.Pancras and while we waited for my train we ate our Peyton and Byrne cupcake that we had carried around with us all day! We had opted for the toffee and banana, my sister is a huge banana fan! It was sooooo tasty.  You could see the fresh bits of banana actually swirled through the frosting and when cupcakes have a high ratio of frosting:cupcake that is just fine by me! I was loving it! It was a seriously tasty end to a seriously tasty day!

You know it's been a great day when the only photos you took were of food!

p.s can anyone else tell that I am still procrastinating my essay, ahh!

10 comments:

  1. Perfect timing for this post! I will be in London for a week next week! Adding these places to my "to-eat" list!

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  2. Sounds like you had a great day! I can't believe that I actually live in London and haven't been to a single one of the places you mention - I haven't even heard of some of them! I must really be missing out!

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  3. Yes that is defo the best pizza ever. Hmmm I can just taste it now. I think its the herbs they use and the dough. We all had samples of it the first time and even though we'd eaten a few hours before we ordered a huge one and shared it = sooo good! xxx

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  4. I love the food court at Westfield Stratford!

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  5. Now that sounds like an awesome day out! I've been hearing lots of good things about Pinkberry on a few blogs recently. Funnily enough I was discussing with a friend a few days ago that if we made a trip down to London this year we should do a cake tour.

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  6. Wow that sounds like such a fun trip!! :) argh I wish I had more cupcake shops near me. I'll just have to keep eating my own cupcakes hehe!! :) ps: your posts lately rock, I love checking them out. Hopefully I have Internet at home again soon so I can get back to blogging again!

    Kc

    a-sparkley-silver-lining.blogspot.com

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  7. I just can't live without cupcakes! Peyton and Byrne at King's Cross is so easy to pop in...

    I just mentioned on my blog some fabulous cupcake places in London! Please, go and check http://shoptravelfood.blogspot.com

    Have a sweet Sunday!
    Tibs

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  8. OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! I am SO SO SO SO SO SO JEALOUS! Hahahha i hope you can feel HOW JEALOUS i am of you :P with my repeats of 'OMG' and the word 'SO' lol i really really want to have those cupcakes and the brownies! and i'm so sad....i didn't get to try Pink berry last time i was in NYC :(

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  9. Sounds like a fab day and definitely one I would enjoy too - maybe we should have a cupcake meetup in London one day :) I had the cupcakes from Peyton & Byrne so I can agree with you that they are good. Pinkberry is also another firm fav after snog (similar). I have not tried the pizza but I will now after your glowing review. Crumbs and Doilies is next on my list as I have a voucher to spend :) Which other cupcakeries were you planning to visit? ps you could reward yourself with more cupcakes if you finish the essay!

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  10. You did well avoiding the rather famous cupcake place inside Westfield - they are awful! Pinkberry however is AMAZING - I'm addicted to it. And Franco Manca is one of my favourite places to have pizza - although not tried any of their newer places as am a fan of the Brixton location!
    Glad you enjoyed Crumbs and Doilies - haven't had any in quite some time as last few I had were very hard and tastelss - may give them another try

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