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.