Improvise - {MacGyver�s Microwaved Indian Cake]

This is my first guest post and it was written by one of my best friends. Apparently, his interests include, baking, writing and saying nice things about me.Yeah, he's pretty cool.Maybe even cool enough to forgive me for lying to him about exactly which cake I was making last night when he called...?-------------------------------------------------Hey everybody, this is P writing. I�m a friend

Cold Feet - {Alfajores}

On a chilly February day, I find myself venturing carefully down the sidewalks of the main drag just north of campus. Although dutifully cleared, the walkway is menacing and slick under my shoes. Charting my unsure steps over its surface proves to be quite a challenge, but I see myself through by gluing my eyes appropriately to my salt-stained toes. Carrying on in a semi-confident if not slow

I like big butts and I cannot lie

The Big Booty Bread Co on W.23rd Street in New York has been confounding me - I've tried to find its website (have you tried putting Big Booty in Google!?) but although I can't find its official site (I'm still working on it) I have found a zillion reviews claiming that they make the best red velvet and Dulce de leche (drool) cupcakes in NY.

I simply MUST visit it -and buy one of those fantastic shirts for Manny - luckily he does indeed "heart big booty" as you could park a bus in the shadow of mine ;) And this is probably because since I read about Dulce de leche booty buns I've been practically licking the pic on my screen!

The thin girl can keep screaming - she is NEVER getting out!

The Cookie Girl

On Saturday I finally made it all the way down Portobello Market and found the Cookie Girl. I'd emailed her in the week and she kindly offered to keep me a box of cupcakes if she started to sell out so I felt I should go down and get them - which was an incentive to go into the busy Market on the hottest day of the year so far!

The cakes are DEFINITELY worth braving the crowds for and the Cookie Girl is lovely and friendly - someone you can tell loves their job!!! The stall looked utterly adorable and so did the cakes and cookies. I bought 4 cupcakes, 3 vanilla and one with dulce de leche (drooooooool!!!!) and got Manny a slice of the scrumptious looking chocolate cake as I felt he'd divorce me if I didn't and he saw the pics! They came to a bargain price of �8!!

An utter bargain for a some small slices of heaven!!!! I managed to resist eating any of the cakes on my walk around London, (I walked from Ladbrooke Grove to Waterloo) and got them home safe and sound where they were immediately devoured, not all by me, but nearly! They were utterly gorgeous, not too sweet with perfect frosting. Manny allowed me to try a little bit of his cake and my gosh it was lovely and moist with stunning frosting/ganache on :)

If you're in the area on a Saturday pop down and buy things, you wont regret it, and if you're not in the area, GO!!!! I shall be going back to get a cookie as I forgot to buy one, and some cupcakes I'm sure!

The Sweet Spot....drools!

I spend waaaaaay too much of my time looking at Etsy at work (Shhhh don't tell anyone!), mainly for cupcake stuff as you can imagine!

Lots of people seem to sell baked goods on their as well as the usual cute cupcake goodies and I couldn't resist posting some pics from the Sweet Stuff store - seriously dulce de leche cupcakes sound like HEAVEN to me! I adore that stuff - its just soooooo yummy! It sounds like the sickliest thing in the world but its like ambrosia on my tongue :)

Also their chocolate butter cream cupcakes look like Manny's idea of bliss!!

Wonder if they'd ship to the UK?? And would the cupcakes survive the journey?