The Sugar Bar

(*Cupcake teaser only. Real feature next week!)

I’ve been thinking, dreaming, sleepwalking cupcakes all week.

Every day I’m saying to myself “All I want is a cupcake!”. When the sun has set and dinner is polished off the plate, all I’m thinking is “I need a cupcake!”

No doubt my favourite motto in general is “When you’re feeling blue, have cake (or a cupcake if you prefer smaller portions)!” I mean there are quite a few signs showing here, aren’t there?

And when I went for my first job trial at LUSH, this is the new season product that I purchased – Let Them Eat Cake lipbalm which smells of cinnamon, orange peel, vanilla and black treacle. Simply gorgeous and smells a little bit like Christmas. It’s hard not to bite my lips or eat the balm off it. Unfortunately (and also thankfully), the balm is taste-free. Other than its wonderful scent, its main function is to condition and moisturize your lips!

I was in Harrods a couple of days ago. I was literally in the area and wasn’t intending to go shopping at all in Harrods. Honest, I promise! I was there in this house of ridiculously ostentatious goods simply to use their bathroom as the bladder was giving me the ‘Red Alert’ sign. I couldn’t have possibly survived the tube journey home across London in such a state. Strangely enough I got lost very quickly attempting to maneuver myself out of the building only to find myself in the Food Hall. Surprise surprise. And which counter was I standing directly in front of? Lola’s Cupcakes! Another sign!

In such a situation, who would ignore all the signs and deny themselves one of the simple pleasures of life – the enjoyment of a little harmless, albeit naughty, indulgence in the semblance of a sugary cupcake? I’ve never known myself to utterly resist my fate to the end so I gave in. After I left the university library today, I hopped – hang on, no, I descended into the Inferno-like underground at Russell Square – and zipped my way to Hummingbird Bakery in South Kensington. I may have spoilt my appetite a little (Mummy always said no sweets before dinner!) and feel a tad bit sick from all the sugar and creamy goodness of the icing, but I do not regret it one bit.

The last time I visited Hummingbird was a little over 2 years. And at that time, I really wasn’t impressed at all. We’d visited the shop on Portobello Road and my sister and I each had bought a mini cupcake, mine obviously being the Red Velvet which is my prized and most treasured flavour. A mini cupcake was about 95p for one with the red velvet costing 20p more. They were definitely small but we were blown away, not in a positive way, by the sugary-ness of it all. It was small and had simply no other taste than vanilla and sugar. There wasn’t any fancy packaging at the time either and we were served our cupcakes over the counter in a little square bit of tissue paper. We weren’t impressed. In fact, we had to chuck about 3/4 of the generous icing dolloped and shaped onto the cupcake just so as not to choke and spasm out on the sugar overload. Nevertheless, it was a busy Saturday and we managed to find something else to amuse ourselves with and other yummy stuff to munch on amongst the many stalls in Portobello Market.

I suppose that memory has stuck very much with me and I always write off Hummingbird as a sorry and melancholic wish to be like NYC’s Magnolia Bakery. I think I might have to change my tune now, however. 

My mate and I are planning to make a little tea trip down to the cupcakery café some time next week but curious me simply couldn’t just wait til next week. Besides, I wanted so badly to post up a cupcake teaser on the blog so I decided to pop in and take-away 2 cupcakes. The one with the green vanilla icing is a chocolate cupcake with vanilla icing (£1.55/cupcake for takeaway). Just like the Magnolia cupcakes, they have a pretty selection of coloured icing ranging from pink, blue, green to yellow topped with different types of sugar sprinkles. The cupcakes in the window are iced with shocking pink frosting and sprinkled with gold dust. They were a looker! And definitely made the cupcakery easy to spot.

But what about my all-time favourite and truly adored Red Velvet (£1.85/cupcake for takeaway), which is also the star of the show – Cupcake von Tease? Did it still taste disappointingly sweet and unexciting or had Hummingbird totally upped its game in the last 2 years?

Verdict? They certainly did! And I loved this cupcake so much I gobbled it down real quick. The cream cheese icing was just perfect and I found myself licking up every bit of it, even the bits that got away along the cupcake liners. It wasn’t too sweet and you could certainly taste the smooth cream cheese. The cupcake itself was a gorgeous red colour with a wonderful cupcake texture. Flavour-wise, it was rich, lush and accented with chocolate and vanilla. Red velvets aren’t heavily chocolatey and this one wasn’t either but it had a deeper savoury-ness I found absolutely delightful and contrasted the cream cheese sweetness of the icing perfectly. Nothing was chucked and definitely not disappointing to me at all. In fact, I was so pleased with my cupcake I’m determined to take-away another box of them to share on my next trip down to Hummingbird. So damn, I should’ve warned you about these cupcake spoilers huh? Time to getchaself some cupcakes people.

Nevertheless, here’s a bit of a teaser for the next feature on the Hummingbird Bakery! Or a cupcake strip-tease if you like. Apologies for totally disregarding the chocolate cupcake but I truly love the red velvet and thought something red, such a vibrant bold colour, would be more of a tease when stripped. Funny? I hope!

Like my hot red nails too? Yea. All for the true and very dedicated cause of the Red Velvet. Whey.

Okie dokie. End of teaser. Hope you enjoyed it. I know I sure did enjoy stripping the red velvet and then eating the damn thing in less than 4mins. I mean eating it from frosting to sexy cupcake bottom! I stopped all I was doing, didn’t speak to anyone, didn’t breathe, didn’t look at anything else but focussed all eyes and mouth on the cupcake. All good!! Mmmm. If you want more cupcake tease, please stay tuned to The Sugar Bar for Diva’s proper visit to the Hummingbird Bakery!

I wonder if it’s the advent of the Spring/Summer 09 Collection, MAC’s release of its Creme Team collection, Valentine’s Day or just a general sense of girlishness overcoming me that’s starting to get me to fancy the colour pink. I’m talking about the pink of pinks – the sweetest, sugariest pink you’ve ever come across. I’ve always been pretty adamant about pink being an empty colour, simply a non-colour – a mere shade. Talk about the hierarchy of colouration and pigments! Frankly speaking though, it’s somehow been drilled into my head from young that pink is a shade lacking in sophistication, associated with whimsical froufrou-ness, found wanting in the depth and strength of hues like fuschia, violet and turqoise. Hence, when it comes to lipstick shades I find myself steering towards (if I have to) going for pink shades with either tints of blue/orange in it or going for a pink shade that’s rather dark and not at all baby-ish.

Somehow, my head’s gone a little weird and I find that baby-ish pinks are so it for Spring/Summer. I’ve gone and bought myself a Vivienne Westwood brooch in shades of light pink and purple. I leave a Firefox tab on for Deeba’s  Strawberry Refrigerator Cheesecake and gush at the gorgeousness of that pink cheesecake for hours on end. I’m making a date with my ex-Beauty/Fashion editor on Monday to go makeup shopping, and the end result of that is definitely a couple of lipsticks and glosses in that kitsch shade of pink. I have a feeling I’m to become completely maniacal and funkedelic in my choice of colours. Somehow, that’s going to affect my cooking and I’m gradually getting fearful of the bottle of red food dye in the right corner of my kitchen cupboard.

YIKES!

It hasn’t not happened before. Half a year ago, I went insane over green and still am – just check out my window sill and overall bedroom decor (some examples below). You can imagine how my love for matcha and the colour green came together in some sort of passionate explosion of green gooey edible whatsits everywhere, every day… Still is today actually. It hits me in waves.

After visiting the lovely Milk and Honey Cafe, I fell in love with Sarah’s Strawberry Cupcakes (click the link for the recipe) and absolutely knew I had to have some as well. These were simply the perfect St. Valentine’s treats. The drool was literally rolling off my tongue and spilling onto the laptop. In my cupcake-stunned state, I made a very grumpy and embittered Goodchild drive me to Sainsbury’s for ingredients. Talk about the bitter singles on Valentine’s Day, geeez!

My cupcakes aren’t half as beautiful as Sarah’s. I really should have made an effort but at 4 in the afternoon, it was getting dark. I was getting a little sleepy. I kinda slowed down a little. Nonetheless, I love Sarah’s recipe. I followed the cupcake bit exactly and my oh my did they taste fantast-alicious! Frosting wise I messed up a little as it just got a bit too wet and drippy. Ended up making a buttercream of sorts, adding a couple of tablespoons of the strawberry sauce and adding some red food dye (I can’t resist this stuff). One thing about being away from my home kitchen is that we don’t have a sieve, an electric mixer or proper mixing bowls. Hence, I’m always hesitant when it comes to the icing and never confident that I can make good, stiff enough frosting without my proper equipment. It’s a gamble each and every time. Today, I might’ve messed up a little but thankfully it still sorta worked out and the end result is fairly pretty.Most of my housemates have gone home for the weekend. This year is a little depressing for all of us as we’re all – except one – single! Left alone in the house, Anna and I were definitely not going to let ourselves get moo-moo ish about it at all. Kitchen’s cleaned, music’s pumping, cupcakes-a-cooking. Blimey, we were in a well good mood. Not a sight of a grey cloud hanging over our heads. Nothing wrong with being single. In fact, there is nothing wrong at all with being single or attached. So come on, let’s really enjoy Valentine’s for what it really is. Let’s go non-commercial and have just good ol’ fun with friends, families, loved ones.

Happy St. Valentine’s everyone! Have a joyful, laughter-filled and wicked time.

If you’re looking for the recipe, check back up this post for the recipe link to Sarah’s blog Milk and Honey Cafe. Now I shall change out of my floury scruffies, sit back relax, and wait for Anna to whip up some posh dinner for 2 tonight. Fantastic!

I am a wally brain. The white buttercream you see was originally meant to be cinnamon flavoured, but idiot that I was – I’d forgotten about it completely only at the moment I’d piped it onto the cupcakes! But it turned out good because it kept things simple. The next disappointment was the almost-unnecessary addition of (watch this) cold milk. Cause and effect: my buttercream curdled. 2 preschool mistakes today. Boy, was I utterly annoyed with myself. I’ve made buttercream before. I’ve experience working at a cake shop. So why was I making these silly mistakes?! Honestly? I think everyone has a bad day, or a day where you just space-out and go somewhere else. Which is therefore fine and I’m alright giving myself allowance for mistakes. But, blimey. It has put me in such a mood. I thought I’d publish this on my blog as a reminder to myself of the silly things I do. Besides, this blog is all about kitchen trials and drama. So mistakes are only a natural aspect of it.

When the buttercream started to curdle, I flipped out completely and started screaming my head off. My drama queen days are yet to be over. To top it off, the hand holding the wooden spoon thought it’d be a mighty fine moment to twitch, sending a spray of sifted icing sugar across my Abercrombie top. Seeing as this classifies as a tiny kitchen drama, I honour my blog code with this.

Amateur that I am, I can’t help these setbacks. But good thing is: I learn. At least I hope I do. All is not lost either as this recipe is then kept very simple and classic. As Kate Nash once said, ‘keep it simple, guys. keep it classic’ which is the motto a lot of the blokes I know go by. There have been times when I’ve been accused of meddling too much and overdoing things. Alright, I do admit that once in a while I do go over the top – it’s just cause I like to over-achieve. But somewhere I honestly believe that only when we meddle and play with the classics can we find new classics! And so the original Godfather will remain as it is and even more ‘classic’ than it already is – it’ll be timeless. Let’s just say space of generic transformations of these Godfathers keep moving us forward in time to find new things to try so that cooking is never boring! My favourite Godfather would be the chocolate and vanilla combination. Each on its own works just fine, but together, they’re a phenomenon to behold. So there. Not much to be sad about considering I attempted what I have defined as ‘timeless’ and so I give myself a pat on the back and say ‘ay, not too shabby’.

Good thing that happened out of this was – I’ve found the best chocolate cupcake recipe ever! I have tried different recipes here and there, and they’re all good, just never quite perfect the way I like it. It’s either too dark, or not dark enough; too wet, or too dry. This recipe is moist,but not too moist to the point that it’s gooey; holds its structure well; great taste! and doesn’t taste flat at all; smells amazing and works perfectly well with the simplest of buttercreams. Also, I tend to assume recipes that use blocks of ready chocolate are way better than those which require unsweetened cocoa. Don’t know how that came about but that’s absolute bollocks. This recipe uses cocoa, and doesn’t ask for any complicated, fancy pants ingredients which is great. I have to thank Chockylit for this recipe, it’s her Old Fashioned Chocolate Cupcakes and the only thing I’ve altered is the sugar. Instead of using 2 cups of white sugar, I’ve switched it to 1 cup soft dark brown sugar and 1/2 cup caster sugar. Because it’s so simple and as classic as the OREO cookie, it’ll be perfect for kids and adults alike. I know my mum, who is not a big fan of dark chocolateyness, will love this too. Not an overpowering cupcake, it’s a great recipe to keep as a base for any sort of funky recipes you might like to try. Indeed, when there is a wicked thing such as generic transformations, there’s always a time for you to give it a go

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Recipe yields 24 regular cupcakes.

Best Moist Chocolate Cupcakes & Naked Buttercream
Ingredients

3/4 cup butter
1 cup soft dark brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tbs coffee granules
1 1/2 cup milk (I used semi-skimmed)
2 tsp vanilla extract

For the buttercream:
1 cup unsalted butter
3-6 cups of icing sugar (depending on how you like it)
1/4 milk, if needed to thin it

Preheat to 190d Celsius.
Beat butter till soft, smooth, creamy and pale. Add sugar and beat till creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time.
Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa and coffee granules together. Mix the vanilla and milk together in a small bowl or pouring jug. Add a third of the dry ingredients into batter, mix well. Add half of the liquid, beat well. Alternate till you end with the dry ingredients.
Line muffin tray with liners. Fill cups 2/3 full.
Reduce oven heat to 175d Celsius (this trick is once again thanks to Chockylit). Bake 25-30min.
Let cool completely before icing.

To make the buttercream, beat the buttercream till nice and pale. Add a cup of icing sugar. Give it a good mix then slowly add the rest cup by cup. If it needs thining, add the tiniest bit of milk that is at room temperature! Be careful not to make my mistake. The more sugar you add, the better it is for piping. Or if you’re going to just slap it on the cupcakes with a spoon or palette knife, less sugar is needed.
I have piped this with a plastic bag snipped at the corner. I recommend using a proper piping bag or a baking parchment folded. Also, use a piping tip. Don’t take the lazy, poorman’s route like I have.

If you’ve liked this post, and love old-fashioned classic dishes, watch out for my next post tomorow. I’ll be making Eton Mess! Nothing like strawberries and cream to send you up on a cloud of ecstasy of gastronomic proportions.