A Saturday afternoon in Borough Market

On Saturday afternoon I met P and A from work for coffee in Borough Market - they'd been to the new Miró exhibition at the Tate so it was a bit of a late lunch. We settled in Patisserie Lila on Bedale Street, an eclectic wood furnished café with an iron spiral staircase at the back.

At the counter were macarons, huge lilac meringues and an assortment of cakes on stands of all different sizes. I had my laptop with me and was promptly told that working at it was not allowed - I hadn't intended too and it pleased me to hear that this was an establishment to purely enjoy coffee, tea, cake and time with friends.

We sat upstairs next to the large window which flooded the room with light. I ordered the spinach tortilla & a latte served in a beautifully large porcelian cup, P had a mini mushroom quiche & an espresso and A had a generously sliced piece of carrot cake & peppermint tea from her own individual teapot.

Patisserie Lila also does afternoon tea.

The coffee after the night before.

No matter how late I get in the night before, all I need is a cup off coffee to put me to rights the next day. One such late night/early morning (whichever way you look at it) we all ended up back at N and D's house. They were then living in Shepherds Bush at the time and they didn't have much in the way of a good coffee - N's not a big hot drinks drinker - so C and I went in search of good coffee along Goldhawk Road.

This is where we came across Zippy's Diner. Love this place, walls covered in menus, photographs of the owner & selected 'famous' people and mirrors with small lamps at intervals down each wall, giving it a real cozy and well loved atmosphere. 

C and I sat in one of the little plastic red booths which ran down each side of the long room whilst we waited for the owner's wife to make our drinks as she chatted to one customer who was propping up the laminated wooden bar. It didn't look like the decor had changed for the last 20-30 years, but that didn't matter.

The coffee was good even if it did come in a polystyrene takeaway cup, but I can forgive that when it was such a comfort to sit in one of Zippy's booths. It's only a shame that N and D no longer live in the area, I have no excuse to go back there. 

A quick stop at Peyton and Byrne

When I don't have time to bake cake myself or I need to take cake to an event at short notice I make a quick stop by my local Peyton and Byrne in St. Pancras Station. They make the most beautiful and tasty cakes for any occasion, from carrot cake and victoria sponge (sold by the slice or whole cake) to swiss rolls and mini banoffee pies (my favourite).

They also do loose leaf teas and biscuits for gifts that need to travel!

I took these to a triple birthday gathering last night. They don't look very pretty (well maybe the heart shaped raspberry sponge does), but they're very tasty. Larger than you're average pastry or cupcake, they are a great sharing size for everyone to just dive in with a fork.

I ordered: Chocolate and cream swiss roll, lemon curd swiss roll, banoffee pie and fresh raspberry and cream sponge sandwich. These must be stored in the fridge if not eating immediately.

Let's just stop for a coffee..?

My Dad likes coffee, when we're on holiday or on a day out the phrase that's always said within about 20 minutes of the last coffee is "shall we stop for a coffee?".

Drinking coffee at a little table outside a little café on some piazza has been the image I conjure up when I think of most of my family holidays. I guess it was only inevitable I should become a coffee connoisseur too.

Living in the centre of London, away from where I grew up, I don't get to see my parents at home so much. Coffee gives us an excuse to meet up. My Dad travels around the centre of London with his work, so he's always finding a new coffee spot away from the centre of things to do a bit of paperwork or just take a moment to relax.

Allans Patisserie on Duke Street does cake which is more of a dessert and must be eaten with a fork. Lunch there is also good, with salads and savoury tarts on the menu too. The French country-style interior is covered with shelves of produce for sale.

To post, or not post recipes...

I'm not intending this to be a recipe blog, but where I can remember the recipes for my cakes I will try to include them.

I don't have one recipe book that I turn to all the time, I prefer to choose the source depending on the type of cake I want to make, how long I want to spend making it and how many ingredients one recipe has compared to another.

I do have some failsafe places to get recipes from: BBC Food, Jamie Oliver, the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook and finally for decorating tips and tricks, YouTube.

One step more

After making my sister's birthday cakes I wanted to take things one step further so I joined the local cake decorating class at night-school.  One evening a week I was to spend learning how to mix icing and the different nozels and tools needed to make some wicked cakes.

One of the first things we did was to learn how to use Royal Icing to line and edge a cake.  They produced some pretty retro looks which would work really well for a birthday party with all the traditional trimmings.

What got me started was

What got me started was my sister's 21st birthday garden party.  My Mum and I wanted to make small cakes as people were coming throughout the day and we wouldn't have have a specific point in the day to cut a larger cake.  Cup cakes seemed to be the right way to go.

We looked around the shops and some of the boutique bakeries and market stalls which are popping up but nothing seemed to to hit the spot or price range.  In the end, we'd looked at so many ideas that we thought we could do a good enough job ourselves.

My mum has always been a keen cook and baked many memorable cakes for me and my sister when we were growing up, many of which were fairy-tale themed, a rice-paper turreted cake and a real Barbie surrounded by a cake skirt spring to mind.

We got to work and produced some rough looking but pretty and much loved cakes.  The pink theme didn't affect the men trying them, particularly my great uncle who I noted tucked in first.