Covent Garden Night Market. 15 August 2008.
On Friday The Lavender Bakery entered the exciting realm of retail! Several hundred cupcakes were baked and decorated (as well as large cakes for slicing and decorated biscuits) and sold to the lovely people of London and visitors from elsewhere. The sun was actually out and although I was tired after 36 hours on my feet with only two hours sleep, it was a wonderful day - people gave me some great feedback and made some lovely comments and I even got to meet some of the great names in London food blogging - search for blogs on the Covent Garden night market and you will see what I mean. You can read Helen Graves description here - including some pictures and lovely comments about my cakes.
I had only a brief opportunity to sample what the other stalls were selling but I bought some wonderful olive oil and olives, Welsh cheese, mushroom risotto from Carluccio’s and a fantastic mozzarella panini - I fully recommend heading down this Thursday (I will be there again from 3 - 10pm) or on Friday 12 - 9pm and next week on Thursday and Friday. This is the second year the market has opened for August at Covent Garden and long may it continue - there was a great atmosphere and great food - London needs more markets like this until it becomes normal to shop and eat this way.
Baby cupcakes.
These mini cupcakes are the latest addition to The Lavender Bakery’s menu - they are so small, but just big enough for a satisfying mouthful. See pictures below for an idea of their scale - not sure if the egg looks big or the cupcake looks small?
Cakes and camping.
After the orders for the weekend were completed, I went camping in Dorset. It was beautiful and the sun was shining - people are surprised to find I have never slept in a tent before, it seems to be understood that all Australians have (or do…). But it was great, and I will go back - it does one good to escape the kitchen once in a while - and I will not think too hard about whether it is in fact possible to make a cake on a camp fire…
I really enjoyed this wedding cake order - the birds looked so pretty and delicate on the simple white icing. They were made by the bride and her family so I can take no credit for them at all.
Cupcakes for Kelli
Some Lavender cupcakes for Kelli as a thank you from her Mum.
Wedding cupcakes
140 wedding cupcakes delivered to Surrey on the weekend:
Cupcakes for The Make Lounge Launch
Last week was cupcake mayhem, amongst the usual orders - 220 cupcakes for the launch of The Make Lounge in Islington, London - they do craft sessions where you can learn skills, make stuff and meet people - and they do Hen’s nights and birthday parties.
See their newsletter from this week:
http://www.themakelounge.com/assets/newsletter/
I went to the launch - lovely to see people enjoying the vanilla cupcakes - filled with raspberry jam and decorated with graphics from the Make Lounge logo - and to have a glass of wine and make a paper flower with my friend, Julia.
Pink cupcakes and violet cupcakes.
Pink cupcakes and violet cupcakes this week - the pink ones are chocolate with vanilla buttercream - and the violet ones are made with violet syrup - it has a really gentle, floral flavour - not as strong as the lavender but much more vividly coloured! No food colouring in the cakes or buttercream at all!
My birthday - many cupcakes.
It was my birthday on Wednesday - so, of course, I made my own cake (raspberry vanilla cake with raspberry mascarpone filing and vanilla buttercream) I promptly forgot to take pictures of it - but it all got eaten so that was a good sign! It contained half a kilo of raspberries - there is no point thinking of getting someone else to make cake’s for me - too much of a good opportunity to try something out. I fully intend to make my own wedding cake next year.
I also made dozens of cupcakes this week - some with blue dots that I delivered to Soho on my birthday…and a butterfly shaped cake for Lulah.
