A Cupcaking Round Up from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, London and Ironbridge!

So we've moved...again! back to North Wales where we lived two years ago for my husband to finish off his last year of Uni.  We've been here for 3 weeks now and we've had amazing weather so we've been out and about exploring daily, showing Ella the sights and with everything basking in golden sunlight and blue skies I'm wondering what I didn't like about living here the last time around?

Oh yeah...lack of cake!

So whilst I'm dreaming about better cake days, here's a round up of all the best baked treats I've been eating over the past year!   

In Leeds on the last Saturday of every month, Kirkstall Abbey (pictured at the top) hosts a very awesome food market!

It's worth going for the Yummy Yank's stall alone! because everything's baked by an American, so what more needs to be said! Think huge slabs of rocky road bars, peanut butter bars, pecan pie bars and...

chocolate nutella cheesecake cake!
Everything I've ever tried from here is amazing!

I was also SUPER excited to discover a stall selling only Nanaimo bars! which originate from Vancouver Island and are a truly Canadian confection! It's safe to say I ate my fair share whilst we lived over there...and whilst I came across all kinds of combos - raspberry, peanut butter, mint variations...I never came across an Oreo one!

They were so tasty, and I wanted to buy every variety on the stall!!

Heading up to Scotland next...here's my cakey round up of all things tartan and bagpipe like!

Cup is right in Glasgow's town centre, they have a cabinet filled with a good variety of cupcakes, and they also offer afternoon tea's which seemed quite popular. 

For me, their cupcakes were just okay - not particularly moist and the frosting was on the heavy side.

Just outside of the centre is Cushion & Cake, a little vintage style tearoom.  I was a little disappointed with their cake selection on the day I visited.  I had heard good things about this place but none of their flavours were that appealing to me...

until I heard them mention coconut and I was sold! It also came sandwiched with some pineapple jam, I asked them if it was homemade and they said it wasn't (insert stoney Mary Berry face here!) I would have expected a little place like this would have whipped everything up themselves! it was a pretty good cake!

My mom and sister shared the polenta cake and they weren't bowled over either! 

Next up was Cupcakery Bakehouse, whose cupcakes I really wanted to love! We went in when Ella was still a teeny tiny newborn to take away some cakes for a sweet treat! The owner would have chatted to us all day and was such a nice guy, he told us how he had gone down to London and sampled all the cupcakes down there before he opened up...so in my head I was thinking these are going to be good!

 My husband got the ferrero rocher one, and his chocolate frosting tasted of mint! It was so weird! I don't know whether it had been next to mint flavoured ones in the cabinet or if the wrong frosting had been put on but it was just a strange combo!

 My coconut frosting on the bounty cupcake was tasty but again the chocolate cupcake part was just dry, so Glasgow really didn't impress on the cake front!

but in Edinburgh it's a whole different story and the cake scene is a whole lot tastier!

Just off the main road is Bibi's Cake Boutique specialising in cupcakes, and what a variety of flavours they had!

It was a no brainer! and I had to pick the Nutella one! A nice moist chocolate cupcake with fluffy creaming Nutella frosting - you can't go wrong!

Now my very favourite find is Love Crumbs.  I love everything about it, from the piano you can sit at that acts as a table to the little window seat if lucky enough to score it where you literally sit in the window - like you're on display or something! to their unusual flavour combos, and most of all their creamy dreamy beautifully frosted layer cakes! This place is a total winner! 

 

My only complaint, is that both times I've gone have been late in the day and they display their cakes in an open cabinet (which looks very cool and hip admittedly) but I'm pretty sure their cakes would be way fresher if they were contained better...

Storage issues aside,

I present the peanut butter and jelly layer cake!

Any UK cakery that presents peanut butter baked goods makes my husband do a happy dance! He was loving it!

Cheesecake swirled brownie - it's a win win!

Another time went and got peanut butter and white chocolate tart and this utterly divine mint and white chocolate brownie - see those green pieces on top - they were like mint cracknel! which features inside one of my favourite South African chocolate bars, peppermint crisp, where they found them in the UK I will never know but the baked goods are consistently inventive and amazing here! I'm still hoping to make it there one day when they have made their brownie meringue pies because they always look amazing on their IG feed!

Over in Leith, Mimi's Bakehouse had been on my to visit list of a long time! I finally made it with my mom and sister shortly before we left Scotland, which was a shame because had I discovered it sooner I would have been back for sure!!

It was very cute inside, bunting galore!

and I adored the hanging rolling pins and whisks from the wall!

Clearly, Mimi and I think alike!

This coconut slice was the dreamiest creamiest slice to ever touch my lips! I am so desperate to recreate it! a chocolate biscuit base, covered in creamy coconut with tiny coconut shreds in and topped with milk chocolate and a piece of bounty - a coconut lover's dream!

Once back in England again, we couldn't stay in Shropshire without visiting my favourite Shropshire cake establishment - Queenie's Cupcakery.

I was so pleased to see their more out their flavour combos this time around, our first visit they mostly had traditional flavours but I loved that they had branched out!

This berry cupcake was covered in cream cheese frosting, and meringue pieces and was so amazingly delicious it almost made me regret my choice...

almost but not quite because this snickerlicious cupcake was the best cupcake I've eaten all year! Now that's some compliment! The frosting was oh so silky and creamy with a little layer of peanut nougatty goodness underneath and a MOIST chocolate cake! Finally!!

Byron was also super happy with his chocolate hazelnut combo and again we couldn't get over the creaminess of that frosting!!

We took a random daytrip to Liverpool! I googled cupcakeries as you do, and came across Cuthbert's Bakehouse.  I heard their Nutella Cupcakes were worth the visit alone, I tweeted to ask if they would have them on the day we were going and they said they would make them especially - now that's service!

It was all very quaint inside...but with no cupcakes in sight we were getting worried! I asked about the Nutella cupcakes and I was told they were just coming out the oven.  So we had to wait a while for them to cool down and be frosted...but when a fresh Nutella cupcake is headed my way I can find a lot of patience!

They were SO worth the wait! and so good, that we boxed up a whole load of them to take home too! That frosting was to die for!

Sooo silky smooth! if you are ever near Liverpool, you have to detour to try on of those!

 

 

My last caking adventure ended up in London where I hadn't been for nearly 2 years! which was painful for me! I love London with a passion! and the one thing I was desperate to do was try a Nutella duffin from Bea's of Bloomsbury.  I've tried their jam duffins, but as you all know I'm obsessed with Nutella and these little beauties weren't around on my last visit.  I especially tweeted and asked if they would be in the bakery when we visited, I was assured they were made Mon-Fri.  So off we headed to their St.Pauls location which was waaaay out of our way but man I wanted a Nutella duffin! It was bank holiday so they only opened at Midday, cue sitting around in the rain waiting for 30 minutes because no other shops were open either!

and then we get inside and not a duffin in sight! Apparently they only make them at their St.Pauls store on the weekends! I was SO upset to have missed out.  We weren't going to have time to go to their other store...so we picked up a few goodies to keep us going but I was too bitter about my poor Nutella duffin disaster to enjoy them!

The brownie was packed full of coconut and walnuts and was just the fudgy kind of delicious you expect from a brownie, and the monster peanut butter and jelly slice was pleasing my husband no end!

When I'm in a happier mood, I'm sure their key lime cupcake will hit the spot! with toasted meringue frosting and a key lime curd filling - yum!

So that's that...the one upside of a lack of tasty baked goods to buy around these parts is I will be making alot more so hopefully this blog will see more action! and you can bet it's going to be Nutella orientated ;)

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!