S'more Spooky Cupcakes

We were in Brighton for Halloween so as a pre-Hallow's eve treat I popped into Selfridges after a fruitless trip to Westfield on its opening day for a Buttercup Cupcake, to get a couple of Lola's garishly frosted Halloween cupcakes.

As well as two pumpkin cupcakes I was tempted to try one of their 'flavour of the month' which was S'mores so we ended up with a treat and a half each! Unfortunately although the pumpkin Halloween cupcakes were lovely, lots of moreish frosting with nice soft batter base, the S'mores cupcake was a MAJOR disappointment. The base was incredibly dry - to the point I couldn't eat it, and there wasn't really any flavour to it - it was like a flavourless dry cake. The frosting was also disappointing and I'm still left wondering what flavour it was meant to be. I know S'mores are meant to be marshmallow, chocolate and wafer but there was not obvious trace of any of those flavours unfortunately! Oh well at least the Halloween ones were yummy!

Oh and I did make it back to Buttercup at Westfield the following Monday! Their 'cafe' is located near the giant Habitat in case you can't find it and it is rather tiny, with about 4 seats. It's not listed on their website for some reason but it is there honest! Luckily we got there before the queues started and we got to sit down and enjoy our cupcakes, although I'm not sure if we enjoyed them as much as the little boy next to us who had frosting from his eyebrows to his elbows - his mother was mortified but it made me giggle! While we were there a lot of people came and bought cupcakes and there seemed to be a lot of "oh thank god we found it finally"...so I wasn't the only one traipsing round looking for it! As usual their cupcakes were lovely, a moist base with lots of beautifully flavoured frosting! Their vanilla purist is one of my favourite cupcakes ever! As soon as I feel better I'm going to Kensington to get some - right now I'm so sick I don't think I could even manage a cupcake...the horror!!!

STILL no internet access but STILL cupcaking

So am in my favourite coffee shop Coffee@whitecross checking my email etc and thought I'd just let any readers (and I know someone is still checking here from my Google analytical thingumabobs!) know that I am still obsessed by cupcakes but just can't post at the moment!

When I've got proper internet access again you can read all about our Halloween cupcake jaunt to Angel Food Bakery in Brighton, Lola's Kitchen Halloween Cupcakes (and a rather disappointing Smores flavour from them!) and our trip to the GIANT new Westfield shopping centre solely to scoff a buttercup cupcake - it was worth it :)

Till I'm back online Happy Cupcaking! Dont forget its Oreo cupcake as cupcake of the month at Crumbs and Doilies to get along to Partridges Market on a Saturday and try them!

Today I went to....

Buttercup Cake Shop....aren't they lovely!! I think this is my favourite shop in London

We had banoffee, vanilla purist and chocolate purist - I resisted the temptation to get a sticky toffee one but they do look like they're missing one don't they!

As usual the frosting was melt in your mouth and the cake/batter was soft and yummy.

Craving cupcakes...Daisy Cakes to the rescue

So today I was home alone and craving cupcakes - I have gone nearly 2 weeks without a "fix" so I woke up thinking FROSTING! Then I realised I really wasn't in a 'getting on the bus and listening to each stop being announced then jostling with a zillion people' mood so I decided to ditch my idea of going to Buttercup and went to Daisy Cakes Bake Shop in Greenwich instead.

As soon as I walked into Daisy Cakes and smelt the fresh cupcakes baking I knew it had been a good idea - I quickly got a red velvet and a vanilla and headed home to enjoy a people free Saturday!!

Both cupcakes were gorgeous (I liked the red velvet base best and the vanilla frosting...go figure!) and my people free day has been great :)

I heart Buttercup

If you've read this blog before you'll know how much I utterly love Buttercup Cake Shop in Kensington.

I popped in there last week and bought the fantastic array of cupcakes above - picture three and four show Fantasy and Banoffee and picture four shows Sticky Toffee and Chocolate Purist. They were all melt in the mouth, sugar rush fantastic!! Although the Fantasy looked fantastic it didn't taste as good as their vanilla purist which and seeing as it was a Vanilla Cupcake I thought it would - however it was still lovely, looked great, but I just prefer the more vanillaesque Vanilla Purist.

Buttercup is definitely in my top three of cupcake places in the world!!!

Quick go visit!!!

Buttercup doesn't let me down...

I made an excuse to go to Wholefoods in Kensington High St yesterday as I REALLY craved a Buttercup Cake Shop cupcake....is that bad? And is it worse that I had two instead of the one I promised myself I'd have?

As usual they were absolutely GORGEOUS -each time I eat one of their cupcakes I think that they are my favourite cupcake store in London...and I think they may be. Maybe its cuz their name, and cakes, are very similar to my all time favourite in New York, Buttercup Bake Shop. As well as their cakes, I love their moto - "Life is uncertain, Eat dessert first!"

Anyways I had a vanilla purist (to DIE for), a banoffee (oh.my.god this was GOOOOOD!), while Manny had a chocolate purist (he loved it was usual) and a cookies 'n' cream which he was rather orgasmic about while eating it...lots of "oh my's"!!! I tried a bit of the frosting from his cookies 'n' cream one and "oh my" was correct - it was UTTERLY fantastic frosting - I didn't care about the cake under it, which of course was lovely and light as usual, that frosting was enough to make it a must have cupcake next time! On their website it says that its just vanilla frosting with oreo dust, I'd say the Oreo dust adds that something extra special to it!! Definitely worth the trip to Kensington for...make an excuse, you need something from Wholefoods, it always works for me :)

I'll be back :)

Cupcake Tour - Buttercup Cake Shop

Our third, and final, destination on our Cupcake Tour of South West London ended at the fantastic Buttercup Cake Shop in Kensington! When we arrived there weren't many cakes left, but thankfully they had some of my favourite, banoffee, left!! And they were just putting the finishing/frosting touches to some double chocolate ones which Manny couldn't resist! Think he was hoping they'd offer him the opportunity to lick the bowl ;)

We had the Buttercup cupcakes when we got home, following a walk through Hyde Park and a trip to Morrisons where we acquired some more cupcake-goodies - and as usual they were utterly, UTTERLY gorgeous. Of all the ones I had today I think this is my favourite but I do think the flavour swayed it - I heart banoffee!

In all the cupcake tour was an utterly great way to spend a cold Saturday afternoon - we didn't actually eat that many cupcakes, considering how much temptation there was and in all we walked about 7 miles or so so worked off lots of calories!!!!

We are now planning the North West London leg of the tour for April :)

Yukky cupcakes

I was off work on Wednesday and decided to toddle down to Kensington for a browse around the shops including Wholefoods which I ADORE!! After a quick coffee I thought I'd check the patisserie section and was chuffed to see they'd some cupcakes, or "fancy cupcakes" as they decided to call them (I suppose "disgusting and tasting of oil" wouldn't be a strong selling point!!). So I happily chose 2 - one greeny/blue one and a pink pig for Manny and went for a stomp round Hyde Park/Marylebone High Street to wear off a tonne of calories in anticipation of my, wrongly assumed, scrummy treat later! I was heartbroken when I dropped them in Primark (a.k.a hell on Oxford St) as I paid for my lovely pink spotty vest, but thought they'd still taste nice if look a bit scruffy! By the time I got them home they'd melted into a mass of yuk and it looked like a cupcake massacre inside the box - nevermind, I thought, a smoooooshed cupcake is still a cupcake - how WRONG I was!

After taking the above pics, I decided to just try some of the "frosting" as it didn't look quite right - and oh.my.god thank goodness I didn't take a big mouthful as it was UTTERLY gross! It tasted like how I'd imagine unflavoured shaving foam would taste, i.e. AWFUL. I tried a bit of the cake bit and it was just yuk too - no taste, hard and just unpleasantly textured. It was so disgusting I had to throw it in the bin - something I've thankfully never had to do with another cupcake! Only then did I look at the box (my greed got the better off me before I ate it!) and realise that the 2nd ingredient listed is Canola Oil..eugh, eugh, eugh.

And what makes it even worse - my favourite cupcake shop was just round the corner and I could've had Buttercup cupcakes instead :(

Unless you WANT to eat something that tastes like drinking oil then do NOT buy Wholefoods Markets cupcakes! You've been warned!

Buttercup Cake Shop - Kensington

Having been good this week (so far) and not sucummbed to the temptation of the cupcake I thought I'd post some pics of other cupcakes I have scoffed!

Buttercup Cake Shop (http://www.buttercupcakeshop.co.uk/) in St Albans Grove, Kensington is my favourite cupcake place in the UK so far!!

I first read about it in Time Out one Wednesday lunchtime in January and I nearly had a heart attack as I thought at first it was a London branch of Buttercup Bake Shop (http://www.buttercupbakeshop.com/) that I'd visited in New York last July (Still my absolute favourite cupcake in the world - so good I carried a box of them back with me!). However some research revelled it wasn't related to the Buttercup Bake shop in NY, however I still wanted to try it and dragged Manny there that weekend!

It took some finding but when we arrived it was an absolutely gorgeous little store (I must get some pics on my next visit) and the lady serving (I think it was the owner) was so friendly and cool - she thought it was great that I adore cupcakes so much and that they're getting so popular in the UK! Manny nearly slid on a puddle of his own drool there and he couldn't choose what to get so we ended up with 5 gorgeous cupcakes - including one for a friend so we weren't being totally fat!

I had a vanilla purist (I ALWAYS have to have a vanilla) which melted slightly but was so lovely I had to stop myself from eating the 2nd vanilla one we bout for Carly! There website says they use a pure vanilla extract by Nielsen Massey and it had the nicest vanilla flavour I've ever had - it was little eating a slice of heaven!!! (having searched for it http://www.nielsenmassey.com/) it turns out their international store is in Leeuwarden, Holland where we visited last year - typical!! I'll have to go back now). My second cupcake was a banoffee one, which topped the vanilla one!!! Seriously, this cupcake was soooo tasty I wanted to marry it and have it forever! It just tasted so lovely - the frosting was just so caramelly - I feel hungry just thinking about how great it was!!

Manny had a chocolate purist (of course, chocolate cupcakes are his fav!!) and he can be seen above just before he tucks into it!! I think his second one was a chocolate bunny - as usual he didn't take a pic of the second one as he was too busy stuffing his face!

I am going back there the day before my birthday to get some cupcakes for my birthday breakfast and shall make sure I try some other flavours and get some more pics, although I'm not sure about trying the chocolate zucchini - maybe I can persuade Manny to give it a go!