Sprinkles galore!

I decided I was going to have a little test run for Iron Cupcake! but then I got so carried away with the baking I forgot about my plan altogether and just baked some chocolate cupcakes. I used the recipe from my new Primrose Bakery cookbook. I didn't have any dark chocolate so substituted with milk chocolate and was a bit disappointed that they didn't turn out as dark brown as I'd hoped for! They also didn't rise as well as they should have because having only one kitchenaid mixing bowl meant I whisked up the egg whites by hand and got bored near the end so altogether I wasn't that thrilled with what I'd made! It made quite a big batter so I made these mini ones and decorated them to take into work today. They were a big hit, and I was even going to take some of my big ones to the meal we're going to tonight but Byron asked me not to since he thought they were the best cupcakes I've ever made!! So I must be my own worst critic! I will say I was very impressed with the icing..it was chocolate cream cheese - a recipe I found online and it was delicious!

I then went crazy with all my different sprinkles in the cupboard for decoration. Here they are all packed up in my polka dot Emma Bridgewater tin ready to take to School.

New cupcake Tee!

On our cupcake hunt in London on Saturday we went to Carnaby Street and you can imagine my delight when I found this t-shirt! I was so pleased..but knew I didn't really have enough to buy it so Mara took a photo of me just so I could post it on here to show how cool it was..then I remembered my husband's lovely grandparents in South Africa had sent us some money for Christmas and so I was able to use that..which meant I could buy it! Happy Days!

CUPCAKE ENVY!

So I totally want this....

An amazing cupcake seat from Jellio...or perhaps this cupcake coffee table in my fave colour! If only I had a spare £1000 to indulge!

Thanks to Jellio for letting me post their awesome pictures on here!

Going on a cupcake hunt!

My sister just moved to London on New Year's Eve, we went and watched the fireworks and did

some ice skating which was awesome! but we were also able to go on a cupcake hunt all weekend! I am so excited about the possibility of visiting even more cupcakeries on my next visit to see her! and hopefully it will be slightly more successful than this time!

So we hit up 5 cupcakeries in 2 days, and 2 of them were closed which was very disappointing! but we had fun visiting the open ones!

1. Butter Cupcake, Westfield

Our old favourite..we love Westfield, Mara especially! so we headed there on New Years Day and were delighted to find the cupcake stand was open. I got a cookies n cream one which apparently was limited edition but I'm not sure how different it was to the Oreo one I usually get when I'm there, it was moist, topped with tons of icing and just generally delicious! Mara had a banana one with a banana bread like taste to the cupcake with lashings of banana buttercream - I am consistently impressed with their cupcakes! so we were off to a good start.

2. Bake-a-Boo, West Hampstead

On Saturday morning we set off on part 2 of our hunt. We headed to Bake-a-Boo in West Hampstead and were very disappointed when we arrived there and found them closed. They said they were closed for the Christmas break and re-opening on Wed 6th Jan! It did seem to be a pretty quiet road they were on and not alot else was open so I guess that was fair enough. Here's a picture of their cute pink exterior!

3. The Cupcake Comany, Notting Hill

We headed on to Nottinghill to try out The Cupcake Company which I think is a fairly new addition to the cupcake scene. We couldn't believe when we got there that it was also closed!! The day had not got off to a good start, when we checked out the sign on the door they said they were re-opening on 17th January!!! Now that's what I call some good holidays..maybe I ought to enter into the cupcakery business after all - if only for the holidays! This is my 'I'm hungry and want a cupcake face'

4. Bea's of Bloomsbury, Holborn

Now this is where the day started to get exciting!!! Not only were they open! which was a relief to us but as soon as we stepped through the door we were seriously impressed! Everything they had on offer looked delicious! from the warm spiced apple to drink to the giant meringues which could be passionfruit flavour if you opted for it!! We went for a little platter of goodies for two and it was very decadent indeed!! On the bottom layer we had some delicious scones with jam and clotted cream, the next layer up was a chocolate and raspberry cupcake and a red velet one and on the top layer were lots of mini treats: blondies, brownies, marshmallows and meringues and we topped it all off with some hot chocolate!! In retrospect I'm pretty sure we could have managed with half of what we ate but we didn't realise that when we ordered!

For attractiveness of all their tasty treats on display and general atmosphere I'd definitely give Bea's a 10/10 and would recommend it to anyone but if you were planning to go there for cupcakes only there are better places to spend your time. I'd give their cupcakes a 6, the raspberry icing was lovely but the chocolate cake it was place on was far too rich and the red velvet was just okay.

So we did!!

5. Ella's Bakehouse, Covent Garden

After my last cupcake hunt in Covent Garden I got home and discovered I'd missed this little Gem which had just opened up over Summer! So I was determined to try it this time and was pleased to find another open cupcakery! It was pretty busy and you can imagine Covent Garden was really bustling in the busy crowds! What I loved about all these cupcakes was that they were covered in glitter - I thought that was fun! and they also had cute mini ones for £1 each but only in the regular choc and vanilla flavours and we fancied something a bit different. So we got the malteser one (to share might i add..my husband was horrified at how much we'd managed to consume in those 2 days!!) it had maltesers baked in it and vanilla buttercream with crushed maltesers on top and it was delicious. The icing was just right, I give Ella's Bakehouse an excellent 8!!

And so ends another spectacular cupcake hunt!! I'm sure it won't be long before the next one!! If anyone can recommend any establishments we haven't made it to yet please let me know!

I think I should stick to cupcakes!

So I bought these awesome festive cookie cutters and decided it would be fun to make some shortbread and decorate it as a festive treat. I'd planned to give it to my visiting teachers but it all seemed to go wrong!

The cookies spread out whilst baking and so there was an extra outline around them of cookie that shouldn't really have been there (not sure if that makes sense!) and they didn't really seem to have the consistency and appearance of shop bought shortbread. The decorating part didn't go too smoothly either and by the end of it all I decided it would be embarassing to give to people as they were so bad so I saved them for By to eat and he thought they were pretty tasty!

Maybe I'll have to try again sometime but for now I'm back to cupcakes!