Have your cupcakes got the X-Factor?

Lola's cupcakes do!

Why anyone would want something with the face of that evil leprechaun Louis on it bamboozles me (or the nasal noise that is Diana), but if you're a fan click here to order!

You can also sign up to Lola's Lovers Loyalty Scheme - but only if you work in a company with over 24 staff! I signed up my office as there's a chance of a freebie box of cupcakes each month!

Christmas shopping drives me to cupcakes

I know I don't need any excuse to have a cupcake but seriously Oxford Street on a Friday afternoon was enough to drive me straight to the nearest cupcake outlet - Lola's cupcakes at Selfridges (Which resembled hell on earth at lunchtime on Friday!)

After deciding not to buy the bacon chocolate I keep reading about as it was �5.99 and I'm not sure if it would be eaten - I headed to the Lola's counter and although the Thanksgiving cupcakes looked a little bit cute I wasn't willing to pay an extra 60p for a vanilla cupcake with a leaf on (haven't these people heard of the credit crunch..lol) so opted instead for a couple of red velvets and a strawberries and cream for me and an Oreo and cream for Manny.

My strawberry cupcake was one of the moistest, best cupcakes EVER...seriously it was so soft it melted in my mouth, and the combination of strawberry and white chocolate was just divine! And the fresh strawberry frosting was yum-tastic, oh and it was glittery too!

Manny very much enjoyed his Oreo cupcake - and it kept him quiet (except for a few hmmm's) for a good few minutes, and seemed to go a long way to cure his Saturday am hangover, and prepare him for a Saturday trip to Ikea!

The red velvets were absolutely gorgeous - the frosting was just right and the base was really soft and tasty - my only grumble was that it wasn't as red as I like it to be! I know the red colour adds nothing much really but I do like them to be v.red! Bring on the food colour!

Battle of the GIANT cupcakes!

And it would seem that Angel Food Bakery in Brighton is going to win it!

Their website is finally up and running and their menu lists their giant cupcake (which we saw when we went to the bakery and I was VERY tempted!) at a very reasonable �16.95 which is a nearly a third of the price of Lola's Showgirl giant cupcake, which is the same size! That means I could go to Brighton on the train, buy Angel Food Bakery's giant cupcake and still have enough left for some small cupcakes, a cappuccino and a couple of pints of Kriek at the Evening Star! I feel a trip coming on!!

Check out Angel Food's website now - they really are worth the train journey!!! And if the giant cupcake tastes as good as their normal sized ones its a definite tastier alternative to the Christmas pud!

Oh and I love their "no fridge" logo - how cute!

Her name was Lola...

Finally Lola's got round to using the fantastic song as inspiration for one of their cupcakes!

The Showgirl is a whopper...

The SHOWGIRL giant cupcake Christmas edition will be iced in red, green and white with holly decoration. Choose from any of our scrumptious cupcake flavours and as always, it will be baked fresh on the day. It feeds approx 12 - 15 people. Please note that as our product is fresh every morning, cupcakes and cakes may differ from the images.

Would be a perfect end to a Christmas meal instead of a pud!!! Click here to buy.

Is it too early to start planning Xmas cupcakes??

Hell no!!!

The Independent today rounded up all the 'season's most festive cupcakes' - I'm loving the headline - 'Bake that and party!'

You can read the full list and see pics from all of the bakeries listed here.

I also read in Easy Living magazine last month that Lola's will be doing a different cupcake every day for the 12 days of Xmas and I plan on going as often as I can to try as many of them as possible - although anyone who's been to Oxford Street in December knows that it IS hell on earth so I'm not sure how often I can bear it - even for cupcakes!!!

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!

Halloween cupcakes in London

First up is Lola's Kitchen's Halloween cupcakes, or as they're calling them their Boo! cupcakes...how cute!

LOLA's BOO! cupcakes are now available. We have launched a scrumptious pumpkin flavour and you can mix this in a box with any of our other flavours. Each cupcake is topped with scary decoration, icing colours and fun sprinkles. As always, they're freshly baked on the day they're delivered amd make the perfect gift for clients, friends and family or any Halloween party!Your cupcake box will have a Halloween sticker and is beautifully tied for delivery or collection with a personal greeting.

You can order them from their online store, or you can buy them in Selfridges from 24th October till Halloween! I shall be heading to Selfridges to try and bag a pumpkin flavour one!

Football crazy, football mad...

Today's cupcake email came from Lola's Kitchen to alert you to their fantastic new football range! You can get them in any team's colours and any of their flavours! How fab - but why would you choose any team apart from Glasgow Rangers???

Cupcakes are the best gift!

I met my lovely friend Helen for coffee earlier this week and she brought along two gorgeous and scrummy cupcakes from Lola's Kitchen @ Selfridges for myself and Manny. You can't help but love people who give you cupcakes ;)

* Please note - we like Helen even without the cupcakes - I'm not that fickle!!!

Cupcake-less 4th of July

So I went to Selfridges this am, ready to get my lovely 4th of July cupcakes (below) and alas they didn't have any. The man serving at Lola's didn't have any idea about them, although he didn't seem to have much of a clue at all, it took him 10 minutes to stop his conversation and come to serve me, while another woman just stood there blatantly ignoring...nice staff they hve there!

I think tomorrow I shall go to Hummingbird and see what they have - I have to say I heart Lolas but the staff at Selfridges are just rather unpleasant to deal with and if you promise special cupcakes maybe you should have them :(

However we can trust good ole Martha Stewart to be patriotic today and clicking here will find you her American Flag cupcakes!

Sex and the City cupcakes - part two

I had some very bad news a few days ago and I seem to have eaten a TONNE of cupcakes and little else - thought I'd post some pics of those I've eaten!

First up was some Sex and the City cupcakes from Lolas at Selfridges which were really nice. I went in today and they still have the SATC range in stock! I think the films so popular they might be making them for some time :)

Happy St George's Day

As promised I went to Selfridges today to get my Lola's St George's Day cupcake and it was rather scrummy! Don't worry they weren't all for me - one was for Manny to have after he's been to his St George's Day gig (Saxon), and the odd one out was their special Selfridges flavour of the month Choc Chai Latte - which I wasn't keen on at all - was full of cinnamon which I like but not that much!

English and proud!

Well I'm Scottish by birth but I choose to live in England when I was old enough to do so and have now lived here for longer than I lived back "home" so I happily call myself English (I support the football team so that's all that counts isn't it!)

Anyways 23rd April is St George's Day and what better way to reclaim England's national day than eating a CUPCAKE adorned with the St George's Cross!

The lovely people at Lola's know how to spoil us and are creating scrummy St George's day treats as I type (I imagine!). I checked with the bakery today and they will be selling these patriotic cupcakes in Selfridges tomorrow (Tuesday) and Wednesday (St George's Day) only. They will also be having a taster session from 2pm-4pm on Weds so you can pop along to Selfridges for a free nibble of cupcake. The only thing better than a cupcake is a FREE cupcake surely!!!

The cupcake above is from Cupcake Recipes blog site - doesn't it look great! I'll have a pic of the Lola's ones on Wednesday (I hope!!!)

Her name was Lola....

And she wasn't a showgirl, BUT she did make exceedingly good cupcakes! I honestly didn't mean to eat these many cupcakes in a week BUT I had an impromptu days leave last week and decided to go to shopping up town. This led to me walking for MILES hrough crowds of irritating people and finally after the hell that is Primark at lunchtime I NEEDED to go somewhere lovely and peaceful, and that place was the food hall in Selfridges, where I stumbled upon Lolas. Okay, I knew it was there and it was my very reason for going there but like I said I needed something nice after Primark!

I got myself a vanilla (insisting on pink - the girl serving wasn't one of the usual nice staff and seemed perturbed I specified what frosting colour I wanted..pshaw she obviously did not fully comprehend the significance the colour can make!) and Manny a chocolate. I resisted the urge to get two each so we could try the lovely looking Pistachio Cupcake (current flavour of the month - check here for all available flavours). I also resisted the urge to eat them on the way home and instead waited patiently till I was in the house, before scoffing mine with a cup of tea. I was drooling while taking the pics - aren't they just stunning looking! It was worth the wait, all vanilly goodness with frosting you want to drown yourself in, and you very nearly could - look how thick that frosting is!!! I then had to further avoid temptation as Manny was at the forge blacksmithing and his cake was calling me from the kitchen..however I was a good girl and made do with my own one! Greed is a sin you know ;)

Weekend cupcake extravaganza

Well not really an extravaganza but LOTS of cupcake shopping :)

First Friday - PAYDAY!!!! I headed to Oxford Circus, and Selfridges to try and get my mother some cupcakes for Mothers Day today - however they only had the special "I heart mum" ones with a use by date of 29 Feb or 1 Mar which was no use as they had to be sent to Scotland. However I did manage to get a couple of cupcakes for myself and Manny - I just couldn't resist! Manny had a rocky road one - which had a really nice coconut base and I had a banana one with pink vanilla frosting which was lovely! Lola's (http://www.lolas-kitchen.co.uk/) are definitely in my top 3 cupcake places in the UK!!

Also on Friday I visited Primark (http://www.primark.com/) and got the two tea towels pictured above for a very reasonable �2!! Not only have they got cupcakes, they have pink pompoms too!!

Then a trip to Debenhams http://www.debenhams.co.uk/) where I finally gave in and got the mini-cupcake cookie jar for �10. I would've gotten the giant one but theres no room in my kitchen as cupcake memorabilia slowly takes over! They still have quite a range of cupcake items for the kitchen in Debenhams, including a lovely "tea for one" set that I think may be my next purchase there :)

Then is was a walk to Covent Garden to Candy Cakes (http://www.candycakes.eu/) - OH.MY.GOD - it was ADORABLE!!!!! The shop window was a sea of glorious, neon bright cupcakes and then I realised...I'd forgotten my camera, I took a few with my phone but as usual I can't find the lead to transfer them, so will go back this week and take some more pics! The shop itself was really small and cute, and all the staff were friendly and were wearing pink Candy Cakes aprons and baseball caps - I want one of each!!!! I had a coffee (v.nice and Fairtrade too!) and got 2 "cupcakes" to take away - a double chocolate for Manny and a banana toffee for me. I say "cupcakes" as when we had them although they were absolutely divine, they were more like muffins than cupcakes. Mine had chocolate covered honeycomb on top (like a scrummy big chunk of crunchie!) and Mannys had a very appropriate humbug! They were really nicely flavoured cakes and the icing was yummy!! Although not a cupcake they were still gorgeous and I shall definitely be going back!

Just for the record - we didn't scoff all the cupcakes in one day - Friday we ate the candy cakes ones (they were too beautiful looking to resist!) and Saturday after a long walk I had my Lolas cupcakes - Manny had walked nowhere but had worked up an appetite sitting on his butt!

Also why does Bloggers spellchecker suggest farted as an alternative for Fairtrade?? Bizarre!

Lolas Valentine Cupcakes - day 2

I could not manage to eat all my lovely Valentines cupcakes yesterday so after a walk all the way home from work today (in all I walked over 17,000 steps including from Angel,Islington to New Cross..go me!) I treated myself to a lovely cup of tea and my second cupcake! This one was definately one of THE best cupcakes I've ever had.

It was a lovely surprise to peel back the paper to reveal a lovely carrot cake cupcake with some pecan nuts in it - it was SUBLIME! It was sooooo good I wanted to marry it I tell you! (I could've given it the cupcake ring!!). The pink frosting was just gorgeous - it melted in my mouth and was not in the slightest bit sickly (which some frosting can be) I could've eaten a big bowl of the frosting easily!! This is perhaps the reason I need to diet!!!

Definately one of the best cupcakes I've ever eat...go Lola's Kitchen and go Manny for buying them for me.

Note: this pink cupcake wasn't one of Lolas valentines range - there were only 3 available and Manny couldn't face only buying 3 cupcakes so choose another for me and knowing me totally he choose the pinkest one, with glitter :)

Happy Valentines day

Okay its 2 days early but my gorgeous husband realised he couldn't get to Selfridges on the day itself so he went today and got me four beautiful cupcakes from Lola's. Well when I say "got me" I mean us - Manny can't say no to a cupcake - especially a chocolate one!!!

I have had the pink one with the hearts so far today and it was fabulous - the base is more like a fairy cake than an American style cupcake but very nice and the frosting was lovely and not too sweet! I'm saving the other one for tomorrow but if you read this head down to Selfridges asap if you want to catch them - I think they only have the valentine ones till Thursday!! You can also order Lola's cupcakes from http://www.lolas-kitchen.co.uk/ but there are no slots left for the 14th Feb!

Thanks Manny for such a lovely suprise :)