I feel loved. Money can’t buy you happiness so I suppose you might as well give it away/or get it for free. This brand of happiness came in a little cup. Yeah cuppie cake.
Thank you LOLA’s for my free cupcake.
Two Easters ago, I baked a feast. I went so crazy there were cakes, muffins and cookies everywhere: on the tabletops, in the bedroom, in the freezer, in the fridge. It was gloriously nightmarish. A thoroughly obsessively psychotically sick affair.
Last Easter, I believe things were a little more toned down. Moderation was key.
This year, we went for a nice balance of things. Don’t they say good things come in pairs? Two’s a nice number. Well-rounded and more acceptable. In that case, this Easter, we’ve got cookies and cakes. No more than that. No more, no less. I thought we were quite clever.
On Tuesday, we had a nice little wander through the Oxford Covered Market. There’s a cake shop in there which I’ll blog a little later on about. Truly inspiring cakes and sugarcraft. And they make personalized easter eggs made to order too! In fact, H and I had our Easter eggs from there last year. They were yum. And almost too pretty to eat. It’s shops like that that make you feel like you’ve gotta bake. You leave wanting to make something of your very own, to get creative and start challenging yourself in the kitchen. I don’t suppose we really did challenge ourselves but we sure had good fun in the kitchen that day.
Little fairy cakes topped with dolly mixture (we’ve so gotta love these sweets…so mildly flavoured and pretty to look at) for Easter cakes and a twist on the usual oatmeal raisin cookie which gives you something to talk about as well if you’ve got guests coming round for tea. I haven’t posted a recipe for the Fairy Cakes as H actually remembers this basic recipe by heart. It’s simply margarine, vanilla, flour, eggs, sugar all skillfully beaten by hand then baked at 175d Celsius until ready. Cooled, then frosted with a mix of icing sugar and water. Voila. Top them with sweets or decoration of choice. Cute as a button.
When it comes to eating cookies, dunking in a glass of cold milk is second nature. Or sometimes just eating it sans milk is pretty okay too. Dunking in hot coffee or tea seems unthinkable to me. I’ve seen my mum do it and it leaves rings of buttery-surfaced coffee in the cup. I’ve seen my mates do it and it just all looks a little drippy, a little messy. This time I tried it with this oatmeal cookie and I have a strange feeling my cookie-eating ways have been forever altered. Or at least, when it comes to oatmeal cookies. You’ve gotta dunk them in something warm. Leave the cold milk for the chocolate chip cousin. Oatmeal cookies have so gotta be dipped in a hot coffee or tea. A momentary experience of sweet bliss, as comforting as a spoonful of warm honey-laced porridge. So good.
Happy Easter everyone! Hoping the Easter bunny sends out much sugary love to all. Will post up some of my little Oxford visit here soon.
Oatmeal Cherry & Walnut Cookies
Ingredients
Preheat oven to 175d Celsius.
Cream butter and sugar til light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, then beat.
In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon. Add oats to this and mix. Add to wet mixture of creamed butter and sugar. Mix until it is just incorporated.
Fold in cherries and walnuts. Do not overmix.
Form into 1-2 tbs balls or simply drop onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15-18mins or until just golden brown.
Cooking it for longer gets these cookies a darker shade and they turn into nice crunchy cookies when kept. Cooking for 15mins leaves it nice and chewy in the middle so cook according to your preference. Leave to cool on sheets for a minute before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.
I’m writing this post all dizzy and heady from extensive sugar consumption so I’m quite sure when I read back on this, I’ll realize how much rambling and nonsense has gone into this. Then, I’ll sit in my room all embarrassed and avoid Twitter for a bit. But I suppose that’s all fine since rambling about food is better than not rambling at all. In fact, it must be the best rambling in existence. Gosh, someone stop me. I’m going off like a train without brakes. Anyhow right this moment, I am quite pleased to carry on and hopefully some of this sugar rush will rub off on you.
I thought quite long about this weekend and how everyone’s all excited that Chinese New Year and St. Valentine’s fall on the same day. That makes me (initially) less psyched about this weekend. I never liked Valentine’s Day and if I had ever celebrated, it was amongst girlfriends. Don’t get me wrong I’m not a cynic or a single lady suffering from sour grapes (I am single but that’s really not it ya know). I just don’t like getting left out of any festival or celebration and I feel frustrated that I’m frustrated about it at all because I know there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being single or coupled-up or married or not at all! What’s the fuss about? And how odd to celebrate a relationship with the rest of the world, left right centre up down underground. It’s just all a little weird and contrived. Point is, why am I celebrating or not celebrating, and what does it mean to others?! Surely things like anniversaries would mean more since it’s unique to a person or couple? But each to their own. Nonetheless, if I get another email or stupid leaflet about that special Valentine’s dress or lipstick I need, I might just grab the nearest person and snuff the very life out of him/her.
But after all that ranting, I realized I wasn’t the only one feeling the same way. And why bother being all grumpy about it. Nonchalant. The attitude I have adopted to this whole schmuck ya know. Let’s just all be calm, cool collected. KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON. Or…
Never be too trusting of signs (especially the ones that direct you down dark alley ways), that’s what I would like to tell all ya kids out there. But trust this one. Mowie, if you’re reading this –> this pink sign is just for you! Smooch. (Actually it’s a poster, I might buy it)
All that blizzarding, snow and bone-chill has resulted in a hideous itch in my sweet tooth. So boy, was I happy to check out Hummingbird’s newest addition to their stores – the Wardour Street one. The Portobello store is quaint and the mama of the trio; the Kensington one is quite beautiful and elegant set away from all the bustle, noise and crowd of the Portobello area; the Wardour store is possibly my favourite now as it’s a lot bigger than the others, very snazzy with the brown and pink checkered floor with burgundy velvet bar stools and oh, spotless dustless greaseless cake counter! My heart’s just racing thinking about it now. And of course, what I’ve always loved about Hummingbird is the immaculately dressed staff who are all smiles and lovely to speak to. You’re simply treated like cupcake royalty.
Black Bottom Cupcake: Chocolate Cupcake with Bitter Choc Chips & Cream Cheese Frosting
And like royalty, into the corner burgundy velvet sofa I placed me fat bum into and snogged my Black Bottom Cupcake. We were made for each other. Totally loved that the chocolate chips were bitter chocolate ones, or it would have been too sweet for even me to handle I reckon. Nicely done. And almost as brilliant as the Red Velvet in my opinion, almost. Although I overheard the manager telling a confused customer that the Black Bottom is their bestseller. I would second that in an instant if not for my undying love and loyalty toward the big red V.
As if that cupcake wasn’t enough to floor me to the ground and max out my week’s calories, I did ‘The Take-away’. Totally guilty – unabashedly guilty, I’m afraid. Really, I wanted to share some love with my flatmate anyway. Spread the cupcake love, she says. And that’s why living with me is probably a very exciting thing (this self-praise is really the sugar talking. I’m not gonna remember any of this tomorrow). I bring home the goodies, when I can.
Valentine’s Day Chocolate Cupcake
Valentine’s Day Vanilla Cupcake
And just before I zip off to rest my dizzy head, check out the front of the shop. As much as I dislike all the big va va voom hearty farty decorations of Valentine’s Day, this was rather cute along this flat grey end of Wardour Street (it’s a little away from the Chinatown side of Garrett Street). And I’m sure Hummingbird, blessed with such romantic theme colours, milked the colours associated with Valentine’s Day for all it’s worth.
Whether or not you’re taking part in the Valentine’s Day craze, surely you can spare some time and calories on a cute cupcake?
Happy Vday, like it or not. Because this cupcake sure is mindblowingly good and even if I don’t celebrate it, I can at least use it as an excuse to eat this monster yes (and gad yes, I need to massively detox starting NOW)?
Hummingbird Bakery – Wardour Street
155s Wardour Street
Soho
London
W1F 8WG
Tel: (020) 7434 3003
