The Hummingbird Bakery

This is a bakery I have wanted to try for about two years now but I was never in the right city. I never knew where it was but I managed to stumble upon it a couple of weeks a go, however, sadly by this point I was cupcake'd out from Patisserie Valerie. Thankfully today I managed to re-discover it and resolved to try their most famous Red Velvet cupcake. This cupcake was £2.65 so quite pricey really, it took the best half of my five pound note. Regardless, I was aware that Red Velvet is their speciality and I was terrified that it would not live up to my expectations.

Presentation: 4.5/5 (oooh!)
Yeah yeah, .5 of a point is a cop-out I know, but I personally think the presentation for this cupcake is pretty good. It didn't wow me, however, there were others in the shop that were hand decorated (as opposed too....?) which were absolutely beautiful with sugar flowers etc. which would have definitely earned a 5 (although these retailed at over £3!!!) (£3!!!!). I think however, that we need to take into account just how rich the red of the sponge is. I've tried to make red sponge before, it didn't turn out fantastically, so major props to these lovely people for making it so intense.

Frosting: 5/5 (well isn't that nice!)
I've always been quite put-off by the idea of cream cheese frosting. It's not something that's very big in traditional British baking, or at least not in my house. I was sceptical even when I took a finger-ful from the top of the cake (who doesn't!) and to me it wasn't sweet enough, the texture was great, very creamy, the consistency was great and the ratio of frosting to cake, but where was that beloved sweetness I so desperately crave. Now quite doubting my choice I bit into the whole cake and was delighted. I could see why the frosting wasn't too sweet, it balanced perfectly with the sponge, it was still (maybe I'm being picky) a little too sweet (is that possible). Never the less, I was pleasantly surprised and I firmly resolve to never turn my nose up at cream cheese frosting again.

Sponge: 4/5 (Gimme Gimme!)
So no, sadly this was not a 5. It almost was. Almost. But when I think back to Angel's Bakery I remember how amazing that sponge was, how I nearly cried the first time I tried it, it was that good. That's not to say that the hummingbird sponge was not excellent, it really was, and it was complemented very well by the frosting, the frosting was by no means the star of the show, and I really wanted to be able to eat it all day every day, but it wasn't quite as jaw-dropping. It was light and springy but it didn't melt in my mouth and had I not already had a 5/5 sponge, I would have given this that title without a doubt, but sadly this will remain a 4.

Overall: 4.5/5 (I'm so going back for more.)
So yes, I feel the real challenge for a bakery is to find loyal customers, but I know that I will go back to this one again, I loved it, I really did. Nothing really let this cake down, each part of it was superb, if not quite as superb as others - OhMyGosh do not get me started on after taste - I couldn't stop eating it!. Another reason for me docking .5 of a point is the price. Perhaps I'm used to cheaper cupcakes because I'm not yet used to things being more expensive in the city ... but I know that if I lived as near to this bakery as I'd like too, it would create a considerable dent in my bank account. Otherwise, it couldn't have gone better.

Patisserie Valerie

This weekend I moved to London, and so naturally I am far more at risk of running into bakery's and cupcake shop's. Today I have tried cakes from no less than three bakery's however, two of them were not cupcakes. The one that was however, I gobbled up before I remembered to take a photo so we'll have to make do with the photo above. Imagine however that the frosting is blue. Yes, and blueberry cupcake. I didn't know such a thing existed and I'm not usually a fan of blueberry but it was so unusual that I felt I had to try it.
This cupcake was £2 and so it was pretty average for a decent sized cupcake.

Presentation: 4/5 (impressive)
Although looking through the window of this bakery, you wouldn't expect anything less, the delicacy of the frosting and the detail of the paper case being folded over and the chocolate flower on top, make this cupcake seem decidedly French and very luxurious. Also as I say, I was enticed by the blueness of the frosting which caught my eye more than anything else. It was blue!! In my mind no food should be blue, only blueberries and blue smarties should be blue, (definitely not skittles!) however, I made an exception for the cupcake.

Frosting: 5/5 (Oh!)
Oh! Is exactly what my cousin exclaimed when I made her try the frosting. It was almost like cream, it was incredibly sweet but was so impossibly light that I wondered how it had any butter in it at all! the taste was obviously of blueberries which I've already explained are not my favourite, so it wasn't to my taste (fruit themed frosting rarely it ... ) but I could certainly appreciate it.

Sponge: 3.5/5 (Well ... I suppose ...)
The sponge on this cupcake was good, it really was, but it felt like I could have made it at home. It was not particularly impressive, neither was the taste anything special, but it was competent. However for a well revered bakery, this should have been better. the texture was fine, the sponge to frosting ratio was fine, but once again it felt as though the sponge was there as a platform for the frosting, they were not working in equal partnership, as it were .... does that make sense?

Overall: 4/5 (I might re-purchase)
In fact this was a repurchase, I've had a strawberry cupcake from here before and my thoughts were the same. Maybe my expectations are again too high, but I always think that they could do even better. I've tried their chocolate gateaux and was ecstatic, but on the issue of cupcake it's not their best. I'd also like them to do chocolate cupcakes, I know this is because I am a chocolate fiend, but some variety outside of the fruits (blueberry, strawberry, lemon) would be nice.

Moral of the story: 
While it's important to try new, interesting cupcakes, if the cashier says the blue one is blue berry and you know you're not a fan of blueberries, don't get it anyway just because it's blue. It's still going to be blueberry.

Kensington Gardens - The Orangery

For my Mum's birthday she was treated by her colleagues to tea for two at Kensington Palace in London and my parents decided I could tag along and they'd buy me a cake and a drink (Side note: the home made lemonade was a mistake) Naturally I decided on a cupcake and I hesitated, nearly getting the chocolate but I decided to push the boat out and get toffee. This cupcake was I think £2.49, which is possibly the most I've ever paid for a cupcake (besides one so awful it shall remain nameless) needless to say, my expectations were high.

Presentation: 3.5/5 (could do better)

The piping on this cupcake is excellent, but I felt it was lacking some wow and although there is a pool of toffee in the middle, for the amount it cost I was expecting at least some sugar flowers. You may be thinking that this is a similar criticism of the Angel's Bakery but the main difference is the price. You pay £2 for a good cupcake, but that extra 50p suggests this should be a really special cupcake. I do however like that the paper case seems to compliment the colour of the cupcake - although I have no idea how intentional this was.

Frosting: 4/5 (yummy!)

This was almost a cross between Angel's and Rick Stein's, it certainly wasn't light, you really had to cut through it with a fork, but there was a certain mousse-y-ness too it which I liked. Plus it was quite clearly a toffee frosting, aided by the centre pool of toffee/caramel. Again the portion of frosting was just right, not too thin, not too thick in conjunction with the size and texture of the sponge.

Cake: 4/5 (pleasant)

I've very little to say about the sponge, mostly because, as usual, it wasn't memorable. I wasn't appalled by it, I remember it being nicely moist and had a lovely flavour. The cake was ... nice, it didn't leave me hungering for more. It was pretty much what I expected, a scaled down version of their usual cakes, which are I'm sure just as lovely. It, as a cupcake, received very little attention beyond how to make it taste of toffee - a feat which was executed beautifully.

Overall: 4/5 (nice, better than the lemonade)

I'll admit that there was an overall heaviness to the cupcake, it took me a good 15 minutes to finish it, as I took breaks between each bite. It was a perfectly lovely cupcake, which I would be glad to re-purchase, but it wasn't extraordinary. By this I'm not surprised, they don't specialise in cupcakes, they aren't a bakery, the main choice at the orangery is the scone and so it is understandable that the scone should be much more elaborate and amazing than their cupcake (which it was).

I worry that all my reviews - no matter how much I like the cake - come out sounding negative ... I don't mean too ....

Angel's Bakery.

This is a bakery I found about a year ago in Brighton and had the good fortune to rediscover when I re-visited about a week ago.

I may as well let you know now that this bakery produces the best cupcakes I've ever tried. I will admit that it feels somewhat a disservice to this blog that I'm revealing my favourite cupcake so soon! But this will at least serve as a bench mark, something I will be comparing almost everything too in some aspect or another.

Lastly, before we go on with the show, this was a chocolate cupcake with white chocolate frosting and white chocolate curls. The price was I think £1.87, although again I'm not sure, I tend to just throw my purse at the cashier in excitement, and disregard the price haha!

Presentation: 4/5 (nice job)

This is the only place I feel this cupcake falls down. It looks sweet and yummy, perfectly suited to the baby pink napkin - but I don't think *WOW!!!* It's not quite Rick Stein's in terms of presentation. The piping isn't fantastic, although quite nice, it's not distinctive and so this doesn't quite get the five, it could achieve.

Frosting: 5/5 (OMGHHKP)

A white chocolate frosting is a rare thing which is why I opted for this over my traditional chocolate, and I was not disappointed! It was perfectly light, buttery and creamy, not unlike an elaborate mousse in texture; it was also not too sweet and overpowering but was still obviously white chocolate flavour. I think the thickness was just right, I wouldn't have asked for more, although die-hard frosting fans may waver in agreement.

Cake: 5/5 (Finally!!!)

Finally, someone read my mind as to what makes a good sponge! (about time too!) (Joke!)

It was soft and spongy yet crumbly and light. I think it could literally melt in your mouth if you had the will-power and patience not to the eat that baby as fast as you could. It was chocolate delight in all it's glory, pure and simple, it took every inch of self-respect not to beg for their recipe. It didn't taste at all manufactured, it wasn't over/underdone, not dry nor too moist and could not be improved - I'm convinced that if they tried they would ruin it.

Overall: 5/5 (Please move into my kitchen)

I know what you're thinking, "But the presentation! The presentation!" The thing is honestly, it doesn't matter. Not in this case. So often the presentation is all that's focussed on and I think this bakery needs to be commended on it's ability to stick with simplicity and put their energy into baking the tastiest cupcake it is within human capacity to bake. Also, in truth, there were other more impressive cupcakes (the red velvet I believe, although this is a territory which I have yet to properly venture) and so this bakery really does deserve 5, I've never tasted a nicer cake. Honestly.

There is a danger that every other will disappoint, but have no fear, I'm open to suggestion ;)

xxx

S

Rick Stein's Patisserie

Sorry for the long absence, I've been distracted various things, but that's not really the point. The point is I'm sorry but I've have a run of very successful cupcakes (3 to be exact) and they should unfold in the next week or so.

The first is from Rick Stein's Patisserie in Padstow - I was in Port Isaac for my holiday :) . This cupcake (again chocolate) was priced at about £1.80/90 I believe, so a higher end cupcake, but not extortionate if it's a treat. (Bearing in mind I had a cupcake instead of lunch the other day - my perspective may be a little off, I apologise.)

Presentation: 5/5 (Heck Yeah!)

The presentation of this has actually caused some controversy among my family, as my grandmother said "Urgh! That looks horrible" when it came up in my holiday photo's - although I maintain it was because she didn't have her glasses on. I think the piping is excellent and the colour is so rich and chocolatey. However what really makes this a five for me is that when I turned around and saw them I made an audible gasp, my pulse quickened and I got butterflies in my tummy. That's what makes a five.

Frosting: 3-4/5 (impressive, but good - not great)

If I were being totally unbiased, and based this rating on general impressiveness, this frosting deserves a five too, but there was something holding me back. It was amazing, there is no doubt.

I had to use teeth to bite into the frosting alone (woaah!), it was certainly not light and mousey, airy fairy some might say. I don't know how they did it but it was the chocolateyest chocolate chocolate frosting I've ever had! However, it was very difficult to finish the entire cupcake because of the rich frosting. It was difficult to eat the frosting and cake at the same time and actually, was just quite difficult to eat.

Cake: 4/5 (pretty good)

I have a confession, I don't remember the cake much, it's been a few weeks and the frosting was so overpowering I can't quite remember. I vaguelly remember being impressed. It was little to crumbly for me, it was really too messy, I do remember at one point it breaking horizontally under the weight of the frosting. Although it was clearly of a very good quality and was certainly not neglected - once again, it wasn't bad, it was probably even very good, it just wasn't memorable.

Overall: 4/5 (Nice One Rick!)

Generally I thought this a very good cupcake. It was certainly one made to impress, although I feel it would have been better suited to eat at a table with a plate and a fork rather than my lap, a bench in Cornwall and my teeth. If I were in Padstow I would certainly buy another one, but I wouldn't go to Padstow just to buy another one. Does that distinction make sense?

Moral of the Story:

Maybe I had very high expectations as it was Rick Stein's Patisserie, I expected the best from a "celebrity" chef, supposedly, the best of the best. But I don't think a cupcake can stand on reputation alone. Mr Stein, sir, the overall experience of your cupcake was delicious but as the taste was too rich and the structure too difficult to eat, it could do better.

Am I still being too picky?

Criteria

Before I upload my first cupcake review (I know, it's taken a while, I apologise) I would like to set out how I will be reviewing different aspects of the cupcake. (Oh yeah, this is serious stuff my friends!)

I would like to point out that these reviews are in no way meant to offend, they are purely my opinions and the purpose of this blog is to share these opinions with you because I love cake and I love talking about cake almost as much as I love eating it. If you have any suggestions of cakes or suggestions for improvements let me know, I'm more than open to change :)

I will give every criteria a mark out of five and then an overall score, I would have done it with stars but I couldn't work out how without just using ***** which just looks like I've edited out obscene language. so 1-2-3-4-5/ 5 it is.

Presentation:

We all love to look at a cupcake and think "Wow! Half of me wants to keep that in a glass cabinet and look at it all day, it will be my pride and joy, but the other half wants to eat that tasty concoction of eggs, sugar, flour, and butter!" this is what we're looking for in the presentation, something unusual, something interesting, but ultimately something that looks tasty.

Frosting:

Here is where we dissect the humble cupcake and look at it's components separately. The frosting is important as it is this that defines it as a cupcake, not a muffin, or a roll, or a bun but a cupcake. Taste and texture are what's important as well as balance with the sponge. For example is the layer of frosting too thick or too thin? This is the sort of thing I'll be looking at.

Cake :

Sponge is - I believe - more important than frosting and is by far the most difficult to get right. I've only tried one cupcake where I've really felt they paid attention to the sponge and I've tried far too many that didn't. I'll again be talking about taste and texture as well as originality; if it's just a plain sponge or if it has chocolate drops in it, peach slices, bit's of strawberry, nuts, rainbows, all that fun stuff will be talked about under the "cake" section.

Overall:

This will be my personal impression of the cake and the overall quality and memorability of the cake.

The moral of the story...

If I feel that there are lessons to be learnt from the cake, eg. an ingenious way to pipe the frosting or a disastrous combination of flavours (like bacon and vanilla - I'm not saying it wouldn't work, but I'd rather not find out) this will be the place to talk about such things.

I hope you enjoy!

S xxx

Greggs

Hello Lovelies!!!

So it's taken me a while to post this, firstly because I didn't have a picture of the cupcake and so I needed to buy a new one to show you what it looked like as presentation is very important with these cakes, and secondly because once I had taken the photo my computer was very annoying and wouldn't upload it from my phone. So it's taken me me a while but here it is.

Presentation: 4/5 (pretty good)

The presentation for this cupcake was pretty good, the dollop of molten chocolate was a nice touch and something I hadn't seen before, along with the white chocolate curls and the swirled frosting, it wasn't anything special but it does look yummy.

Frosting: 3/5 (around about average)

The frosting was nice, very light and mousse-y, and the taste was helped massively by the aforementioned molten chocolate as otherwise I think it would have tasted quite bland. The layer of frosting was pretty thick but it wasn't overpowering as it was a light consistency.

Cake: 2/5 ( disappointing/poor)

This is where the cake as a whole was seriously let down. Being a bakery I expected Greggs to produce a fairly good sponge but I was disappointed. It was dry and dull, but by far the weirdest thing was that it actually felt like a sponge, I reckon my mum could have used it to mop up the kitchen counter. I know you want sponge to be springy but there's a line that shouldn't be crossed. The dryness may have come from the fact that it was nearing the end of the day, but this isn't really a good enough excuse. The only thing that redeemed it was that the taste wasn't that bad. It wasn't the worst sponge I've ever eaten but it certainly wasn't the best.

Overall: 3/5 (it was okay...)

I would have been inclined to give this a higher mark if it weren't for the sponge which kind of ruined the whole thing for me. It wasn't a bad cupcake, it was just a bit disappointing.

The moral of the story ...

It's very easy to focus on the frosting as this is what really sets the cupcake a part from the muffin, but it is first and foremost a cake and so the sponge needs the most attention it can get.

You'll probably notice me get quite angry about sponge texture and taste as I feel it is too often wrongly neglected. I'd like to remind people that these are just my opinions and if you like Greggs cupcakes (I happen to like their doughnuts) then feel free too, I personally wont be re-purchasing.

Umm Hi?

So, I've been a lover of deserts for a long time, particularly cake and it has been noted by some friends that I am very critical of cupcakes in particular.

It was recently (aka this afternoon) mentioned that I should start a blog about my cupcake eating endeavours posting reviews and such.

If anyone finds this I hope they find it instructive, interesting or at the very least amusing ... I try not to take myself too seriously so hopefully this will be fun :)

Happy Eating.