Archive Hot

Bubble Tea Fever Hits London!

Bubble Tea is officially* the "it" thing this summer in London! Not one, but two dedicated bubble tea outlets have opened in the last two months. I started thinking about bubble tea when Ute went to Boba Jam back in January (there are also plenty of places in Chinatown that serve it and I've also had it in Ping Pong before) and a few weeks ago my interest was renewed when I found Bubbleology on twitter.

Bubbe tea was originated in Taiwan in the 1980's where it's as popular as soda in North America. I read somewhere that there are 8,000 bubble tea cafes in Taiwan! I used to live in Seattle and it's a common to find it there too.

Chaboba is in Camden Lock Market and opened two months ago. I am in love with this place. I was wandering around the market for about 40 minutes trying to find it but the crush bubble tea I had in the end was well worth it.

I ordered a mango crush bubble tea (a cross between a slushee and a smoothie) with the "bobas" or pearls at the bottom. I chose to have the strawberry "popping" bobbas on top (for an extra 50p). They are so awesome. They're made from natural seaweed extract and are filled with fruit juice. I think the popping bobas give Chaboba a bit of an edge over the competition. I am already hooked and will be back.

Bubbleology opened a few days ago in Soho. The shop is larger and a tad more intriguing.

The fun part about Bubbleology is their "Cruffins"! English muffins or crumpets with your choice of topping. I of course had a crumpet with cream cheese and m&m's. I'll be back for another Cruffin.

I had a passion fruit bubble tea.

A bubble tea will set you back about the same price as a frappacino so I thought, I've seen the stuff in china town how hard would it be to make my own? I bought some supplies for £5 and made 3 different kinds.

First step is to prepare the tapioca pearls according to the pack. A whole bag cost me £1.70. They come in black or rainbow. Only make as much as you need for the day. They don't keep well.

The pearls need to be boiled for 5-25 minutes and then rested for the same amount of time. You can boil the pearls in tea to give them more flavor and add some sugar or honey to them after as well.

Simple Bubble Tea

Powdered or already prepared iced tea

3-4 tbs pearls

1. Make the ice tea and pour it into a glass and drop the pearls in. Enjoy!

Lavender Bubble Tea

1 pot brewed Ceylon tea

1 cup sugar

1/2 water

2 tbs dried lavender

3-4 tbs pearls

1. Brew the Ceylon tea and place it in the fridge to get cold.

2. Make a lavender simple syrup by boiling the water, sugar and lavender in a saucepan. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Pour into a suitable container and place in the fridge to cool (I used a french press so I could separate the lavender later).

3. Once everything is cool pour a small amount of sugar syrup in a glass and top up with tea and pearls. The sugar syrup can be kept in the fridge for awhile.

Raspberry Green Bubble Tea

Iced green tea

Raspberry Coulis

3-4 tbs Pearls

1. Make the green tea according to box or brew some green tea fresh and refrigerate.

2. Once chilled pour the tea into a glass with a few tablespoons of the coulis, stir and top with the pearls.

I think my home attempt was successful and I will continue to make it inbetween trips to the various outlets! Has anyone else been for bubble tea this summer or tried to make it themselves?
-

*By officially I mean I made it up

· london, tea, yummy places

Ms Cupcake Vegan Bakery Opens in London

Ms. Cupcake opened April 1st in Brixton. She's London's first all vegan bakery. I've been to see her many times in Brick Lane but this was my first ever trip to Brixton! I met Ms. Cupcake at Iron Cupcake almost one year ago.

The shop is very spacious and as you can see the cupcakes are made right there! Not too many shops make their cupcakes on the premises.

Her right hand man Jason was in the shop when I arrived. There he is hard at work making more cupcakes. Anne and I both arrived at the same time and had a coffee outside at Rosie's. I love getting together with my blogging friends for a little cake gossip! My husband and co-workers can only take some much cake talk.

The shop has huge windows all at the front and it was incredibly bright hence all the glare on the cupcake cases. I bought a key lime cupcake to take home with me. The frosting was great and had a really nice lime flavor.

They also have a few vegan books and cupcake paraphernalia for sale.

Anne and I were both tempted down to the bakery by these babies. Vegan donuts! I have never had a vegan donut before and they taste no different than a regular donut. If there is a baked good that London is missing it's donuts. I have made a few of my own donuts.

Jason prepared us a whole plate of goodies to try! I enjoyed the Boston Cream donut the most but the custard was a bit absorbed into the donut. I think that the cookie sandwiches are my new favorite. I really liked the vanilla one and I could eat 10 of them!

I'll definitely be back!

View Larger Map

· cupcake paraphernalia, cupcakes, donuts, yummy places

Cupcakes at The Shed London

The Shed is a new coffee shop in Fulham, West London. I've been curious to visit as owner Danielle is constantly tweeting about how good the cupcakes they serve are.

The shop is on a quiet street and is bright and cosy inside.

If I lived locally to the area I would prefer to have my weekend coffee and read the newspaper (ok, the National Enquirer) here than at Starbucks.

I like that the shop has character and Danielle's other half was in the shop that day. He was very friendly and we had a nice chat.

The opening party got a small feature in OK! magazine (Danielle is the sister of Spice Girl Mel B). They managed to fit a dance floor and a DJ in the tiny space for the opening party!

The cupcakes are made by Crumbly Wumbly. Sorry for the out of focus pictures!

This is the Lime and Coconut Cupcake. It is "award winning" from The Guild of Fine Foods. I'm not sure what cupcake they ate but it wasn't the best cupcake I've ever eaten. The frosting was delicious and tasted of coconut. I couldn't taste any lime though and the cake was awfully dry.

I also had a lavender and lemon cupcake. The frosting was amazing. I love lavender and this had a lovely taste. Such an imaginative combination as well. It was let down by the cake though, such a shame that the basics aren't there. A cupcake should be soft, this was again hard and dry (and maybe stale).

To test if a cake is fresh and moist very gently squeeze the wrapper that's over the cake. If it's stale or dry you'll be able to tell straight away!

My friend had a peanut butter cupcake. It was also a little dry.

The Shed is a very pleasant coffee shop. Despite the iffy cupcakes I would return again for a coffee and relaxing experience.

The Shed, 59 Walham Grove, Fulham, SW6

p.s. please make sure not to leave embedded links in comments. They are marked as spam by blogger. I usually click and read profiles and check out as many blogs as possible when reading genuine comments.

· coffee, cupcakes, yummy places

Cake Pops at Harrods

Exactly one year ago today I went to Harrods to try one of their new whoopie pies. It was one of my first blog posts and it's also the number one post with the most visitors! I thought it would be fun to go back and try another one to see if they had changed at all.

I got to the bakery case and saw that they now also had cake pops! Even better! I went for one cake pop and one whoopie pie.

I chose a Strawberry & Pistachio cake pop. At £2.25 I think it's the most expensive cake pop I've ever had! It's pretty darn cute though. The little hearts are drawn on, not sprinkles. The outside coating is white chocolate. I was also excited to see such an exciting flavor combination.

I was trying to take a picture of it and it wasn't staying on the stick very well because it's actually two cake halves made from a mold. The cake was pistachio and the center was filled with strawberry frosting! The cake was good and moist but didn't have much flavor. I couldn't taste any pistachio at all. The center was light and had a lovely strawberry flavor.

I might be tempted to try another one since I really liked the "surprise" in the middle, but due to the filling there wasn't actually much cake on the stick.

Last time I had a Mango & Lime whoopie pie. This time they only had three kinds to chose from and only in one size.

I chose a Red Velvet whoopie pie with peanut butter filling, £2.50. I think it's a fun idea of putting a classic American filling inside a classic American cake. It also had a pink glaze on the top but same as last time the boxes they pack them in are too small and the glaze all came off on the lid.

The filling is a really perfect light peanut butter swiss meringue buttercream/marshmallow type frosting. The cake part is not very good. It's the wrong consistency and tastes as flat and dense as it looks. It has potential but as the whoopie pies haven't changed since they launched I doubt they will improve.

I think next time I'll stick with a cake pop!

P.S Thanks to the person at Google with a sweet tooth for choosing me as the Blog of Note for April 6th!

· cake, cake pops, fruit, peanut butter, whoopie pies, yummy places

Tea Tasting at East India Company

Early last week I attended a tea tasting at the new East India Company store in Mayfair. If you read my blog often enough you'll know that tea is my second love after cake so I was pretty excited! I love drinking tea but didn't know that much about the different varieties. Andrea from Made With Pink was also there!

Jane Pettigrew gave the lecture. She's written seven books on tea! Seven! I had no idea there was so much to say about tea.

Due to the company's heritage it takes it's tea seriously. They have their own master tea blender that can help you chose any tea you could possibly need and he makes the blends they sell in store.

We tasted six different kinds of tea ranging from a delicate white tea to a black early gray tea. White tea has the most antioxidants and is great for having after lunch. It was interesting tasting each tea and then trying to guess the tones (a lot like a wine tasting). Tea comes from a variety of different tea plants and herbal teas such as chamomile aren't actually tea at all!

These were the varieties we had

Golden Tips (white)
Dragonwell Lung Ching (green)
Chun Me (green)
Sencha (green)
Sacred Heart (green)
Earl Gray (black)

Hopefully I've got all my facts right (I didn't take any notes). For white tea the leaves are not oxidized at all, slightly oxidized for green tea and completely oxidized in black tea. Certain kinds of tea are also protected. Dragonwell tea can only come from a special town in China. I really liked all of the blends we tasted. I am partial to a good earl gray though!

The Dragonwell tea is also know as eyebrow tea as the leaves are all twisted.

The store is pretty posh! This is the perfect place to get, as the store manager put it, the person that has everything. Also beware, it is all delicious and a tad pricey. They sell gold leaf orange marmalade, sea salt chocolate and chocolate cherry and chili biscuits (I bought these along with some tea and they are hot!). They served some snacks after, and as usual I ate till I felt stuffed.

Chocolate covered coffee beans were amazing! I really liked the shop as the products have interesting flavor combinations. Not just plain marmelade and plain black tea. I think they'll give Fortnum & Mason a bit of competition.

Thanks to the East India Company for inviting me! I was a guest for the lecture and purchased some goodies from the shop after.

· chocolate, fruit, tea, yummy places

Sweet Couture Cake Boutique Review

Sweet Couture Cupcakes opened near Covent Garden a few months ago and this was my first visit. I really wanted to like this place. It's really cute inside the staff were friendly and the cupcakes looked very pretty. Unfortunetly I'm on the fence. I had one bad cupcake and one ok cupcake.

I thought that the inside while very cute was trying really hard to be like Lola's or Sprinkles and not very individual. The cupcakes were also iced in two different ways. Most cake places seem to have their frosting style as a signature.

I always say this but the flavors on offer were really unispiring. Always the same, vanilla, chocolate, lemon and Oreo and not much else. I'd like to see more interesting flavors but I think their basics need a little work.

I got a Chocolate Toffee. It was not very pleasant. The only toffee I could taste was the little bit drizzeled on top. The icing was hard and tasted of nothing but butter. I ate all of it and regreted it later. It sat like a rock in my stomach. The cake part was ok. It was a little crumbly and had an ok chocolate flavor.

The chocolate cupcake was much better in comparison. I really enjoyed the chocolate frosting. It was smooth and had a nice chocolate taste. The cake tasted the same as the chocolate toffee.

I think that in a few months I'll go back again and see if they have any different flavors or if anything has improved.
For two cupcakes it was just under £5.00