Last week my friends and I trekked down to London for a few days of fun. I had a cold and consequently no voice during most of my stay (why did I have to get ill?!) but that didn't stop me. I was a woman on a cake mission! And it didn't stop in London, it continued back in Edinburgh. Here's a collage of what I digested within 6 days.
London food!
Top left: Salted caramel cupcake from Peggy Porschen's cake parlour. Hands down my favourite place.
Top right: Sticky toffee cupcake from the Hummingbird Bakery on Wardour Street. Definitely as tasty as the ones I've baked from their Cake Days book.
Bottom left: Macarons from Harrods. Although the coconut and passionfruit one was good, the raspberry and chocolate was definitely my favourite. It tasted fantastic with a Pret hot chocolate at the end of a very long day.
Bottom right: Oreo cupcake from Lola's Cupcakes in Topshop on Oxford Street. In a funny way I was slightly disappointed with this cupcake as I was expecting a whole oreo baked inside the sponge (like you often see with oreo cupcakes) but the oreos were crushed and mixed through the sponge. Still tasty though.
Edinburgh food!
Top left: Lemon and passionfruit sponge from Love Crumbs on West Port in Edinburgh. My goodness this is a hilariously hipster establishment! Good flavours and a lovely curd running through the middle but I thought the sponge was a little dry, possibly from sitting out on display without being covered.
Top right: A night in at my friend's house updating our scrapbooks (yeah, we're cool) with sponge cake, mini strawberry tarts, tea and the Princess Bride. My friend had never seen Princess Bride before. Inconceivable!
Bottom left: A yummy scone from Casa Angelina, Vintage Tearoom and Patisserie. A place we stumbled upon on London Street after discovering that Mandors the fabric shop had closed down! The scone stopped me from feeling too upset. I loved that the cream had flecks of vanilla running through it - delicious.
Bottom right: Strawberry dream cake from Mimi's Bakehouse in Leith. I can't believe it has taken me this long to visit! Unfortunately by this point my cake stomach was protesting so I didn't quite finish this slice. As you can tell from the following photo, it was a very sad day.
Quite frankly, I'm embarrassed.
Back to London... other than cake hoovering our main reasons for going to London were to see The Crucible at the Old Vic (excellent!) and visit the Harry Potter studios. I feel like every blogger and their dog has been to the Harry Potter studios but WOW, it was amazing. A bit like a Disney land/ Ikea hybrid in terms of being overwhelming. The amount of creativity and attention to detail with the whole production is astounding and mind boggling.
Other highlights from my holiday included matching the seating in Irregular Choice on Carnaby Street, (wooh dinosaurs!) seeing porcelain asparagus and cauliflower tureens (wtf?!), wearing fake moustaches, trying to fit into a trouser press and actually MEETING RICHARD ARMITAGE!!
I think that more or less sums up our trip. Short and sweet. Till next time, London!
(Yes I was roasting in my tights in London. Damn it.)