The Great Cupcake Trail of 2012

Some months ago, whilst I was in France and my former housemate Georgia was in Reading, we were sharing our mutual appreciation for those things cake, iced and delicious - the (not so humble) cupcake. Jokingly, we suggested a tour of the cupcakeries in London once we were back in the same country.

Well yesterday, we did just that.

After much research (Googling 'Best cupcakes in London' and drawing up a list), planning (Picking which bakeries and in what order), and organisation ('Thursday good?' 'Yep'), the day of The Great Cupcake Trail of 2012 dawned.

We arrived into Paddington at about 12, and headed straight to Baker Street for me to take the obligatory tourist photos and see the famous 221B without having to pay the £6 entry fee - that is, we went into the gift shop and took a photo outside the door itself.

A jump across to Oxford Circus, and a few minutes spent pining after the Beautiful Things in Liberty's later, we grabbed a quick lunch so that we could tell our parents that we did have more than just cake to eat. After that, it was time to visit the first stop on the tour: the Primrose Bakery.



They have several locations but we decided to go to the one in Covent Garden, partially because Georgia had been there before and partially just because I love Covent Garden. There weren't many seats inside the bakery and they were all taken, so we ate our cupcakes on a little bench just outside, leaving an embarrassingly large patch of crumbs around us afterwards.



After much deliberation, we finally managed to decide which of the many delicious-looking cakes we'd go for. Georgia had a lemon cupcake, I had a lime and coconut cupcake, and we both had a mini cookies and cream one (chocolate sponge, marshmallow frosting and crumbled up Oreo cookie), but that was gone before I even took out my camera, and was was lovely, if a bit messy!




They other two were just as gorgeous. The sharpness of both citrus fruits cut through the sweeness of the frosting - mine a normal buttercream with lime zest and a sprinkling of dessicated coconut; and we think Georgia's was a cream cheese frosting with lemon zest. If I had to be really mean, I would say that the sponge was a bit dry, but we think that might have been because they'd been baked a while before and so had hardened up a bit - the frosting was pretty solid too, hence the smattering of crumbs we left as we peeled back the cases. Nevertheless, they were beautiful and not overly expensive for their size - the mini cupcakes cost £1.25 and the regular sized ones £1.85.

After a quick nosy around Covent Garden, we hopped back onto the tube and made our way to Notting Hill and stop number two: the famous Hummingbird Bakery. I have two of their books so it was with high hopes that we went in, once we'd had a poke around Notting Hill and fallen in love with the colourful houses on the side streets of Portobello Road first.



I went for a red velvet cupcake (£2.65) and Georgia had a vanilla cupcake (£2). Again, any seats they did have available were taken, so we took them away with us in a cute little Chinese takeaway-style box and found a place to sit, eat and enjoy.

    


I can't speak for Georgia but I assume her cupcake did the trick as it was gone pretty quickly! The red velvet I had was delicious, and a real scarlet colour that Georgia assures me was obtained by using paste rather than liquid food colouring. The texture was light thanks to the buttermilk they use, and the cream cheese frosting was divine. After much deliberation, we decided that, although these cupcakes were fresher than those of the Primrose Bakery (probably to do with the time they'd been baked as Hummingbird seemed to be doing a roaring trade and so it was unlikely that any cupcakes they made would hang around for long); Primrose won in terms of variety. While the Hummingbird Bakery only had about five different flavours, and fairly 'safe' flavours at that, the Primrose Bakery could boast a more impressive array of cupcakes, and were a bit more daring. The cupcakes in Hummingbird were quite a bit more expensive on average, too.

After two big cupcakes (and one little one) each, we thought it might be a good idea to shake it down a bit. We took the tube to Pimlico and walked along the Chelsea Embankment to get to the final stop on our list - Bea's of Bloomsbury on King's Road. Despite our best efforts, once we got to the bakery we were still too full to eat a cake so settled instead for a coffee and a hot chocolate, and decided to buy a cupcake to take back home. Again, this is a bakery with several locations but we picked this one because of the description on their website. It had a cosy feel to it with a long bench running along the wall and lots of pretty cushions scattered about. But what really sold this particular location for me was that the tables were old school desks, complete with inkwells and lids that lifted up (which we did, and of course they were covered with scribblings from schoolchildren!).

Pretty much from the moment we'd come into the place we'd both been drawn to the same cupcake, a chocolate sponge, topped with glittery raspberry frosting and a plump raspberry (£2.30).



There wasn't a great deal of choice, mostly because they were about an hour away from closing by the time we'd made it in there, but I'd be interested in coming back another time earlier in the day to see what else they could offer us. Georgia couldn't help but make a little impulse buy of a salted caramel chocolate dusted with gold glitter than was clearly singing to her as we went to pay for our drinks and cupcakes.

After walking the wrong way down the King's Road, eventually getting to Paddington and having to wait because our tickets weren't valid on any of the five trains that were heading to Reading for 50 minutes, enduring perhaps the slowest journey between Paddington and Maidenhead ever, racing for our bus home, and finally getting through the door; we were both shattered and definitely feeling the cold. As we were half-asleep watching Road Wars (classic mindless telly) we took the executive decision to leave the cupcakes from Bea's until the following day, where we could enjoy them properly.

Even after being in a box for over 24 hours, the sponge and buttercream were both soft and delicious. The chocolate sponge was rich without being too heavy, and the frosting was smooth and not at all sickly-sweet, flavoured delicately with raspberry. I think it says a lot about the quality of the cake that they were so delicious even after being in a box for over a day. I think Georgia and I are already quite tempted to get the recipe book, and if it gives us the secret of how to make that frosting, sign me up! Without a doubt, the best cupcake I have ever, ever had.



There were a couple of other cupcakeries that we didn't manage to get to in our busy day. Bake-a-boo comes highly recommended by a friend I have who lives in London, and in our research the night before we stumbled across a gorgeous sounding place called Treacle in the East End. Unfortunately, neither were open on the day we had picked, which was the only reason we didn't go. We'll simply have to come back next year to pit these two against the three we visited this year!

It wasn't perhaps the most cultural of excursions to the city, or the healthiest by any means! - but it was definitely the sweetest and most delicious of the day trips I've ever had.

Primrose Bakery WC2E 7PB | www.primrosebakery.org.uk
Hummingbird Bakery W11 2DY | www.hummingbirdbakery.com
Bea's of Bloomsbury SW3 5UZ | www.beasofbloomsbury.com