Cupcake review – Planet Organic

Planet Organic is an organic supermarket  (unsurprisingly!) in Muswell Hill. It provides fresh food as well as normal groceries, as well as baked goods.

Me & the boyfriend stopped here to grab some gluten free cupcakes after a hard day doing absolutely bugger all!

There isn’t really anywhere within a 5 minute drive of East Finchley to get our gluten free cupcake fix, so North London really is slightly limiting if you’re wanting a cheap GF cake sample!

Ok onto the cupcakes…! We got one vanilla and one chocolate cupcake to share, and at £1.99, they are quite cheap for London!

The cupcakes….

I have to say these weren’t the prettiest cupcakes but at 4pm, they had probably been sitting out all day, which also probably accounted for the slightly dry cake. I definitely preferred the chocolate one, it had a good taste and the icing was nice too, and tasted really chocolatey but wasn’t sickly. The vanilla had a funny taste, probably down to the raw cane sugar, which I am not a fan of.

We did manage to polish both of these off, so all in all definitely not a bad experience! A cheap/friendly option to have a gluten free cupcake with your coffee.

I give this a respectable 5/10.

Have you had better gluten free cupcakes?

Tags: bake, food, cake, cupcake, eat, cook, chocolate, buttercream, blog, dessert, gluten free, flourless, vanilla, easy, London, review, the best cupcake in london, planet organic, north london, muswell hill, price, cheap, expensive, wheat free, friendly

Gefiltefest 2012

On Sunday I attended the 3rd Gefiltefest, the Jewish food festival, and tweeted from there the whole day!

There was a mix of cookery demonstrations, discussions, chances to learn and also workshops for the kids. I had a brilliant time, meeting legends like Claudia Roden and Sula Leon, as well as learning from amazing chefs like David Mendes and Sarah Magnus.

I loved the Falafel from Falafel Feast

Sula Leon’s pastry session was fabulous, and I especially loved the savoury smoked salmon cheesecake!

A highlight of the day was the Shakshouka competition – as a hater of tomato I adored the spinach shakshouka which won the first prize (jointly with Ilan Scorer of the UJIA)

I helped out Sarah Magus, pastry chef and culinary goddess, creating marshmallows and turkish delight.

The kids had a great time making their chocolate Mount Sinai (and I had a great time eating it!)

The last session I attended was a chocolate truffle demo by David Mendes, assisted by the lovely Steph of Kokopellis chocolates.

David showed us how to make some gorgeous peanut butter truffles, which I enjoyed immensely!

All I saw the entire day were smiling faces, stuffed full of food! And here’s me… doing just that!

A massive thanks and well done to Michael who organised the entire festival. If you didn’t make it this year, you must go next year!

Tags: bake, baking, blog, cheesecake, chef, claudia roden, cook, eat, evelyn rose, falafel, festival, food, foodie, gefiltefest, israel, jewish, jewish food festival, kosher, London, recipe, savoury, shakshouka, shakshuka, smoked salmon, sula leon

The best cupcake in London

It’s that question that’s been bugging me ever since I became obsessed with making my own cupcakes… who makes the best cupcake in London?

I’ve decided to document this journey and add in all my comments and try to taste test from all the good bakeries.

First up: Lola’s Cupcakes - I’ve tried these quite a lot, having them so close to work and not being able to resist! I’ve long been a fan of theirs and today I tried a custard cream cupcake, and it was yummy. I tend to find store-bought cupcakes slightly dry as they have been sitting out for most of the day, and this cupcake was slightly dry, however the custard filling inside definitely helped keep it moist. The buttercream on top was nice however ot exceptional. A good all round cupcake for custard lovers.

Overall I give this cupcake a 7/10 as it was nice but not groundbreaking!

Where shall I review next? Suggestions welcome!

Tags: bakeries, best, blog, buttercream, cake, cream, cupcake, cupcakes, custard, custard cream, dessert, easy, eat, food, journey, lola, lolas, lolas cupcakes, London, rate, rating, restaurants, score, topshop

Superman Cupcakes

Sometimes in life you need to be a kid again… and celebrate with themed cupcakes! These Superman ones are extra fun and have the added bonus of having ring toppers so that guests get a small gift too! These were also ALL gluten free! Flavours were: Vanilla bean cupcakes and bite size brownie cupcakes with Marscapone topping. YUM!

From this…

To this…!

If you could theme cupcakes, what theme would they be?

Tags: bake, baking, birthday, blog, blue, brownie, buttercream, cake, chef, chocolate, cook, cupcake, dessert, easy, eat, flourless, food, glitter, gluten free, kosher, marscapone, recipe, red, superman, vanilla, vanilla bean

#MasterBaker

It’s charity bake sale day in the Spreading Jam offices, for a great cause. One of the team is running the London marathon and is running short of her target so we’ve clubbed together to have a bake sale in order to get her to her goal.

There is also a competition running, for someone to be crowned the #MasterBaker after the goodies have been judged.

I’ve offered up some pink velvet cupcakes with marscapone topping:

With a selection of gorgeous cakes like these, anyone could win!

Tags: bake, bake sale, baking, blog, buttercream, cake, charity, chef, cook, cream cheese, cupcake, dessert, food, kosher, marscapone, red velvet

Passover Smores

I got this idea from Pinterest (which is my new fave site!) Passover is the Jewish holiday which celebrates the Jews leaving Egypt and slavery behind. This is the festival where matzah (a type of flat cracker/bread is consumed) and nothing leavened can be consumed as when fleeing, the Jews didn’t have time to allow their bread to rise, and so it baked on their backs as they left Egypt. I don’t know about you, but I would have definitely prepared some bagels and cakes in advance!

So, back to smores! Traditionally an american food, I was looking for a quick and easy snack. For those of you that know me, this usually means something sweet!

You’ll need 3 ingredients:

- Matzah (of course)

- Chocolate of your choice (I went with white choc)

- Marshamallows

Place the chocolate on top of the matzah and then place marshmallow on top of the chocolate. Bake in the over at 180 for about 3 mins.

Make sure the chocolate and marshmallow is melted before you take a big, gooey bite!

WARNING: One is definitely NOT enough! I’ve definitely found my new favourite Passover snack!

Enjoy

*Above picture is not me. I am female. This is my brother, Edd!

Tags: bake, baking, chef, chocolate, cook, dessert, easy, eat, flourless, food, gluten free, holiday, kosher, marshmallow, no flour, passover, pesach, recipe, smore, white chocolate

New choc shop alert!

I work in great Portland street and have a fantastic array of eateries to choose from every lunchtime. There are new places opening all the time, so you’ll forgive me if I’m my excited about every cafe!

However there is one cafe I’ve been looking forward to visiting for quite some time.

Choccywoccydoodah is a shop from Brighton now in london’s carnaby street. Full of amazing choccy sculptures and cake, it was literally my heaven! So I had to have a taste of their white chocolate covered popcorn bar. It was fantastic, all i can say is try it for yourself, you wont be disappointed!

Tags: blog, cafe, cake, choccywovcydoohdah, chocolate, dessert, eat, food, London, shop, white chocolate

Hot chocolate cakes

Yesterday was valentine’s day, so of course I had to make a yummy dessert – gluten free and containing chocolate! I made hot choccy fondant pots!

Tags: bake, baking, blog, cake, chocolate, dessert, easy, eat, food, gluten free, hot, ice cream, kosher, ramekin, sauce, valentine, valentines

Cupcake Skillz

Yesterday I went to a brilliant class run by Faircake to learn how to make things out of sugar paste. As you all know im a “bit”  buttercream-mad, so persuading me to decorate with something else was always going to be tricky! However, I am converted and fell in love with the beautiful decorations invented by Shikita and her team of Jess’s!

I can’t quite believe I made these!

And of course I added my own CakeSnobs twist – cupcakes are nothing without some sparkle!

Tags: bake, baking, blog, buttercream, cake, cook, cupcake, decorate, dessert, eat, flower, fondant, food, gold, rose, royal icing, sugarpaste

MORE cupcakes!

Some more cupcakes for you – this order the customer requested everything from the colours, flavours and theme! Order yours now from tashkahn@gmail.com

Tags: bake, baking, blog, buttercream, cake, chocolate, cook, cupcake, dessert, easy, food, kosher, recipe