Finally...a week of coconut-ing and cupcaking

Sorry for the lack of blogging.  In the week when I am in London our macbook is back in Milton Keynes...so is lightroom, and I refuse to blog unedited photos so I apologise for the wait! 

This week I've mostly continued on my coconut kick! After Mara told me about an amazing new coconut chocolate bar she had tried at Marks & Spencer I knew I had to try one too.  It was amazing and definitely one of the best coconut products out there on the market right now, not that it would be hard...our nation is not one for Coconut loving - we need to learn a thing or too from the Australians in that area that's for sure.

It just so happened that on the day that we bought this chocolate bar it was Monday, and I recalled that Hummingbird's Monday special for summer is a Coconut cupcake.  I decided we should head to their Wardour St store and give them another chance after our very disappointing pineapple cupcake we tried last time.

It was not a good cupcake.  I tried the cake part by itself, minus the frosting and could detect no flavour at all - not even a hint of coconut.  The frosting was far too buttery and the whole thing left me feeling distinctly unimpressed.  This is Hummingbird Bakery! They are known to many as the 'best' and certainly most well known cupcakery in England, yet how can they not make good tasting summer special cupcakes! Surely they would have had to have a tasting panel and their cupcakes would have to be approved etc... how did these cupcakes get past the taste panel? I just don't know, what I do know is that I won't waste anymore of my time trying Hummingbird's mediocre and tasteless summer offerings.  

We also washed down our so so cupcake with yet more coconut - I told you I was obsessed! I decided to try out this 'dreamy coconut drinking fudge' by the Fudge Kitchen... 

and just because you can never have too much coconut, I added coconut marshmallows and shredded coconut with a sprinkling of cocoa! It was a coconut treat, and they do a whole host of yummy flavours of drinking fudge plus regular fudge in a zillion different flavours - it's definitely worth checking them out.

Luckily our week had a happy cupcake ending because we stopped off at The Cupcake Company just before our tasty Mexican on Tex Mex Tuesday.  The Cupcake Company is a cupcakery that has never let me down, there was the one time when we tried to visit it on New Year's Day and they were closed but I suppose everyone is entitled to a holiday! otherwise every time we have gone we have eaten delicious, moist and fresh cupcakes...and this time was no different!

and just because we're coconut crazy, we tried this delicious coconut & walnut bar.  I don't even like walnut but I could have easily devoured the whole bar and it was a pretty hefty slab too! 

We opted for some mini's, just so we could try lots of flavours without being fatties.  Their chocolate cupcake was a little too rich for me, but the red velvet was amazing - they had got their cream cheese frosting just right, I hate it when it's too tangy.  I'm usually not a fan of orange flavoured things but the orange cupcake was so fresh and fruity I couldn't help but be impressed and the banana cupcake was still our stand out favourite.  

So my advice to you is that if ever you're in the Notting Hill/Portobello area walk straight past Hummingbird Bakery and walk the couple of minutes to The Cupcake Company where a far superior and more delicious cupcake awaits you! 

A week of cupcaking and the best new job ever!!

So I forgot to mention that this week I’ve moved to London and am living the dream working for The English Cheesecake Company.  All week I have been baking up a storm on their behalf….and getting paid for it! It’s pretty amazing!

Have you ever been in that really annoying situation of baking something or when you’re about to bake something and you run out of an ingredient? That just doesn’t happen in my job! You should see the amount of ingredients and supplies I have access too! How I love going to the ‘stores’ and scooping up caster sugar or pecans or chocolate chips to replenish my dwindling supplies, everything is at my disposal!!

Living in London also means lots more access to great cupcakes so I have taken full advantage.  On Monday night after the first of many of our Mexican Monday’s we stopped at Ottelenghi’s and grabbed a raspberry and lemon cupcake.

It was definitely one of the best we’ve had in a while!

A window full of yummy delights! 

On Wednesday we stopped by The Hummingbird Bakery on Portobello Road, just a stone’s throw from our work! We went specifically for their special of the day – the pineapple cupcake, as for the month of May and June they are making fruit specials for each day of the week.  I was worried at that time of day they would be all sold out, they were....every variety of cupcake had been sold out with the exception of a whole tray of Pineapple cupcakes.  Apparently for Hummingbird customers variety is not the spice of life and they prefer to stick to the regular cupcakes! Which worked in our favour this time around…but maybe they play it safe because they have been less than impressed with Hummingbird’s specials in the past.  I was excited and a little overwhelmed at the prospect of a ‘pineapple cupcake with pineapple jelly inside and a pineapple frosting with a pineapple to garnish’ it sounded a little too pineapple-y for me, but actually it ended up lacking in pineapple flavour altogether!! (but they do get points for having such cute little cupcake boxes!)

 I tried the cake by itself and could detect no hint of pineapple at all, there was a very subtle mild flavour of it in the frosting and again just a touch of flavour of it in the filling.  At the end of the cupcake I felt cheated! And I really hadn’t got my pineapple fill! We were keen to try Thursday’s offering of Passionfruit and Saturday’s offering of Mango but we’re just not sure whether it will be worth it next time around! 

A few cupcakes to end National Cupcake Week with...

In the UK it has been National Cupcake Week this past week.  I have been sad to be missing out on it, but mostly sad due to the lack of cupcake baking that has been going on in my life! So I finally rectified that yesterday by making some at an Island BBQ I was attending.  I decided hummingbird (pineapple and banana) would fit in to the tropical theme well! However making them was a whole other story, wow do I miss my KitchenAid! I was on very limited utensils...I had to mix the ingredients in a saucepan! but surprisingly they still turned out rather tasty! and were enjoyed by all.

Here I am frosting in action.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to take proper photos because they took so long to make that they flew off the plate before I could even take a photo of the finished item.  So they looked similar to these ones below, but they were just topped with a little chunk of pineapple too.

I made some minis for the Kids at the BBQ and the regular sized ones for the adults.  I made them in my silicone baking cups which apparently they don't have here in Turks and Caicos, because my employer's husband threw his cases away and then when he realised he said he had wondered why they seemed so durable!

So this is the start on my new cupcaking life in Turks and Caicos! but I certainly haven't forgotten about the cupcake scene back in the U.K and get regular updates from friends and family to keep me informed about the latest cupcaking news! 

I was very excited to hear about The Hummingbird Bakery's new Soda range.  Even more excited that my sister has agreed to trial every single one on my behalf! So I present to you Saturday's offering - the cream soda cupcake:

The report from my sister was that sponge was nice and moist and the frosting was really light and fluffy.  It tasted exactly like cream soda and the sweets on top were cute too.  She can't wait to try the rest of the range! and how cute is that little box they give it to you in! 

After her visit to Hummingbird on Wardour Street, she went to broadway market in Hackney and stumbled upon the Violet stall.  She said they had cute bunting and all the cakes were really nicely displayed, as you can see below.

She went with a regular sized coconut cupcake and a mini salted caramel.  Here is her report: 

'The salted caramel was delicious (the saltiness taking away the sweetness of the buttercream) and the coconut milk topping was so creamy and both cakes were nice and moist.  It had dessicated coconut on top as well.'

I will have to try and visit Violet for my self one day when I get back over the Atlantic but for now I'm going to see how cupcake baking kicks off over in the Caribbean! 

Another fun cupcake hunt...

I went to London on Sat to visit my family...and we did what we do best - hunt for cupcakes!

The first stop was CC's cafe in Queen's Park which is just around the corner from where my sister lives. It had a really cool feel inside and I liked the way they baked everything right in front of you. I couldn't find a website for them but you can read a foodie review here. I ordered a chocolate cupcake decorated with an oreo on top. I was really impressed, the cake could have been slightly more moist but the frosting was delicious! It was so chocolately..and was somewhere in between ganache and buttercream! delish. Their selection of cupcakes are limited to vanilla or chocolate but they have lots of other yummy treats on offer like brownies and banana bread too.

After that we headed to the national wedding fair where my sister's company The English Cheesecake Company had a stall. As well as their delicious cheesecakes they had on show a cupcake cheesecake wedding tower!

I was pretty excited about seeing lots of cupcake stalls and trying samples! but it wasn't too fruitful, there were only 2 cupcake stalls there. They didn't have any samples and they wouldn't let me take photos ..boo! but I did find a random stall which was giving away free crumbs and doilies cupcakes which I was pretty excited about! so here I am with a lovely orchid tree and my mini cupcake!

We braved the traffic to make it to the new Hummingbird Bakery on Wardour St.

It was really snazzy inside and the decor was great. I was excited about the cakes because the Hummingbird Bakery was probably the first bakery I ever had a gourmet cupcake at! but that was about 6 years ago and I'm not sure I've had one since! so I had completely forgotten what they tasted like and they're so talked about that I was sure they were going to be amazing. However I ordered a red velvet and Mara had a chocolate malt and we ate half each. The red velvet cake was nice but the frosting wasn't great at all, it was far too sour and needed more sugar to get the right balance. The choc malt was just far too rich and I couldn't even finish it! so a rather disappointing end to our cupcake hunt. I have to say my CC's cupcake was far superior to the ones I tasted at Hummingbird!

8. The Hummingbird Bakery, Portobello Road, London

I believe that my first brush with the elite of cupcakes would have been at this very place. This was going back about 8 years and the cupcake craze hadn't really struck yet so I remember as Mel and I were wondering to Portobello Market we stumbled upon this little bakery and were amazed at the yummy delights we found inside! Whilst they don't have a huge variety like most places do these days they do decorate them really well.
I didn't know it but that cupcake I had that day would have been the first of many many more to come!