The last cupcake place I tried in London was Candy Cakes in the Covent Garden Piazza. Candy Cakes is a chain of coffee, cakes and shakes shops, though there are five in the city, this is the only one I ran into during my travels. The cupcake I had from here was unlike any I have ever encountered before. The topping is not really icing. It’s sticky and super sweet, but I don’t really know what it is.

I had a blueberry gourmet cupcake from there. The cake was pretty good, but I couldn’t really get over the icing. I did enjoy the cupcake overall, but I don’t know if I would have another. I like candy and I like cupcakes, but I don’t want candy melted on top of my cupcake. Candy Cakes does carry a series of more traditional cupcakes, but I didn’t try and out, though I wish I had so I could see if they were more my taste with normal icing.

The one upside about Candy Cakes is that the icing doesn’t damage despite the fact they put it in a plastic bag. I crammed mine in a bag with other shopping and it remained undamaged after a walk about to find a place to eat it (there was a eat-in price for the cupcakes I wanted to avoid.) Even though Candy Cakes wasn’t my favourite cupcake during my trip (probably ranks third out of four), I would still recommend trying it, even just for the novelty of it. It’s like The Magnolia Bakery in NYC – the cupcake isn’t the best, but you still have to try one, just because it’s Magnolia.

The second last stop on my cupcake quest through London was Hummingbird Bakery in Portobello Market. This was the only bakery I had heard of before hitting the streets with my cupcake finding senses, as my dear friend Carly told me about their cupcakes. She also gave me a Hummingbird Bakery cookbook for my birthday, which due to the fact I don’t have a scale/haven’t had a chance to convert recipes I have yet to actually try. Summer project maybe?

Anyways I went to Hummingbird after stumbling across the Cupcake Company, which is located fairly close by. As I had already eaten one cupcake that day, and Carly had headed home to rest after our excursions to Madame Tussaud’s and Abbey Road, I decided to get a couple boxed up and take them back to her flat to eat after dinner.

For Carly I bought a red velvet cupcake and for myself a chocolate with buttercream icing. After having brought back Kooky Bakes, Carly was disappointed by Hummingbird’s red velvet. My cupcake was also not the greatest. I’m skeptical about these types of sprinkles on cupcakes, as I find they detract from the cupcake. In this case I felt that this usual skepticism was justified, as the cupcake was amateur at best.

Hummingbird gets points for pretty packaging and a lovely storefront, but that’s about it. They do have a bunch of different flavours of cupcakes offered every day, and I’m curious how those measure up. If you’re in the Portobello Market area go out of your way to try The Cupcake Company and skip over Hummingbird.

The second cupcake shop I went to in London was The Cupcake Company, which was in Kensington, not too far from Portobello Road Market. My sixth-sense for cupcakes led me wandering down from Notting Hill tube station when it was the opposite direction from Portobello Road. Lucky for me I ended up across the street from The Cupcake Company.

Inside I ate a banana cupcake with caramel buttercream. It’s rare to find banana cupcakes, especially ones that are closer to a cake than a bread. As much as I like banana bread, I find it too dense to eat with icing. This cake was light, moist and very tasty. This was my favourite of the cupcake places that I tried when in London.

This little cupcake shop was not all that far from Portobello Road, and worth the trek down, as the cupcakes were much better than Hummingbird Bakery which is in the market. I’ll write about those cupcakes a little later. While I was in the shop a women was picking up a bunch of cupcakes for her son, and placing an order for his birthday. Loyal customers are always a good indication at businesses, especially happy moms!

Photo Credit

For my reading break I spent the week visting my friend Carly in London. This was both my first time in London and my first trip overseas. As with every city I visit, I went out in search of cupcakes, trying four different bakeries in my week there. As I didn’t take notes while eating the cupcakes as I usually do, I won’t do my usual rating system. Instead I’ll just provide my thoughts about the cupcake, the location, selection, without giving it a grade.

First up is Kooky Bakes, the cupcakes I purchased from just outside Brick Lane’s Sunday Up Market. There were so many vendors selling cupcakes around Brick Lane that I had trouble deciding which to choose. Kooky Bakes’ white chocolate and raspberry cupcake drew me in, so I returned there at the end of the day. While I’ve eaten a lot of cupcakes over the year, I’m not actually sure I’ve ever had a white chocolate and raspberry one. This is however my favourite flavour of gelato.

I bought two cupcakes from Kooky Bakes near the end of the day, and was given a 50p discount. The two cupcakes cost £4 and were wrapped individually in paper bags in a way that didn’t damage the icing. The other cupcake I bought for Carly was red velvet with cream cheese icing. The white chocolate raspberry cake was moist and had an unexpected, but pleasant, surprise in the form of a raspberry filling (see below). The icing was the right level of sweet, and overall very delicious.

For a small vendor at a market, Kooky Bakes had a large selection of cupcakes, whoopie pies (which in general I have yet to try), and possibly even cookies. Full section is listed on their website. The vendor has prime real estate just on the way out from the Sunday Up Market, making it easy to find amidst a large number of vendors. The only downside is the plethora of baked goods vendors to choose from. I will definitely try to eat my way through more of Brick Lane on my next visit to London. If you’re there, go try Kooky Cakes; you won’t be disappointed.

On my last day in New York I went to Crumbs Bake Shop across from Bryant Park, as I was in a rush to eat it, get back to my hostel and head to the airport I didn’t make a lot of notes on this cupcake.  The cupcake I had was the Bryant Cake cupcake, I know, I’m lame, but I thought there was no better place to eat a Bryant Park cupcake than in Bryant Park.  This cupcake has chocolate cake with chocolate mousse inside, topped with cream cheese icing, chocolate cake crumbs and white chocolate curls – an absolutely divine cupcake.

Flavour: Bryant Park
Cake: 4/5
Icing: 5/5
Presentation: 4/5
Location: 5/5
Flavour Selection: 5/5
Total: 23/25

This was a very good cupcake, though I did find it to be too big.  The cost of a cupcake is $4.50 here, and definitely worth it.  I love cupcakes, but part of the appeal is the individual size of them.  I felt that this would be a cupcake much better shared, which I find difficult to do with a cupcake, especially this one, as it was slightly flaky and hard to hold together – something I typically find with filled cupcakes.  On a nice day, I would definitely recommend sitting in Bryant Park with a Crumbs cupcake as it was a very nice area.  I did a little damage at the Original Penguin store.  All in all I would recommend checking out Crumbs, just make sure you go with an empty stomach as their supersized cupcakes are difficult to finish alone.

I recently took a little trip to New York City, so of course I had to try a cupcake from the world famous, Magnolia Bakery.  With three locations in Manhattan, I went to the location in the West Village, right across from the Marc by Marc Jacobs store. This is the bakery’s original location, since it opened in 1996.  This bakery has been credited with the “cupcake craze” that emerged in the late 90s.  It is also a stop on the “Sex and the City” tour, as in one episode Carrie and Miranda sample their cupcakes.  I was almost hesitant to try the cupcakes as I’d heard mixed opinions about the bakery’s most popular item.  As they also offered up many tasty looking mini-cheesecakes, I was tempted not to try a cupcake.  However, my inner cupcake connoisseur knew I had to be able to compare all other cupcakes to the one that started the craze.

Flavour: Vanilla with Vanilla Buttercream
Cake: 4/5
Icing: 4/5
Presentation: 5/5
Flavour Selection: 4/5
Location: 5/5
Total: 22/25

Initially I found the icing on the cupcake a little too sweet, and considering I have a major sweet tooth, that’s saying something.  The more I ate, the better it got.  For once, I was happy not to have the cupcake towered high with icing, as it was super sweet.  There were quite a few flavours to choose from, but they were all pretty standard.  The cake was good, but not anything special.  Overall, the cupcake was worth it, though I can’t see standing in hours for a good, but standard cupcake.  As I went first thing in the morning on a Thursday, there was no line up, but I’d been warned by friends that I should be prepared to stand in line.  I adore the location of the West Village location, it was right across from Marc by Marc Jacobs, down the street from James Perse, and a few blocks from a major sale at Olive & Bette’s.  While it wasn’t the best cupcake I’ve ever had, it’s easy to tell how they are the basis of a craze, which other bakers have built upon and improved.

This post is a long time coming, I went to For the Love of Cake back in March, but never got around to posting my review.  I first heard about For the Love of Cake because of their Mancakes - you read right – a cupcake made for the men in your life.  These decadent cakes use “man-worthy” ingredients; the flavours range from Maple Bacon to Guinness Chocolate. The other specialty at For the Love of Cake, is the 4-dimensional cupcake, made up of cake, icing, garnish and filing.

On my trip to For the Love of Cake, I made it not too long before closing, meaning I was faced with end of day selection.  The only two flavours offered up were Japanese Ginger and Maple Bacon – being a vegetarian I obviously chose the former.  According to their website the Japanese Ginger is “A tangy ginger cupcake filled with a plum sake reduction and topped with cream cheese frosting and a plum slice covered in a sake glaze.” Needless to say I was intrigued by the complex list of ingredients.

Icing: 5/5
Cake: 5/5
Presentation: 5/5
Location: 2.5/5
Selection: 5/5
Total: 22.5/25

While there were only two flavours available when I went into the store, at the beginning of each day, the bakery tweets (@4theloveofcake) the selection for the day.  At the beginning of the day there are around nine flavours available, so if you want to have full pick, go early in the day!

As I tried the cupcake a while ago, and do not remember the specifics, I can’t go into detail about it.  I would however, recommend going to For the Love of Cake to try their cupcakes for yourself.  The flavours are complex, while there was minimal icing, with the filling I did not desire more.

Currently, Liberty Village seems quite the trek for a cupcake, as the area is not fully developed.  I think as the area grows, it will become a much more desirable area to check out.  Right now, there is a cute boutique located next to the shop, which I would recommend to any fashionista.

Last Thursday after work I ventured over to Dessert Lady (12 Cumberland St.), which is just off of Yonge St. This location really can’t be beat, as it’s in Yorkville, and really close to both the Bay and Yonge-Bloor subway stations. The Dessert Lady specializes in wedding cakes, truffles, cookies and homemade ice cream. Four flavours of cupcakes on their site – Red Velvet, Amaretto, Chocolate and Vanilla. When I went into the store they only had Red Velvet cupcakes, which they have sitting out without icing; upon order they pipe cream cheese icing onto the cake.

Presentation: 3/5
Icing: 4/5
Cake: 3/5
Selection: 1/5
Location: 5/5
Total: 16/25

Despite the high cost of the Dessert Lady’s cupcake, it was exactly the type of cupcake you could make at home. While I know cupcakes in generally range from $2.50-$3, this cupcake fell on the high end of the price spectrum, though the quality of the cupcake did not justify the price. The Dessert Lady has a prime location, and with the higher overall price range of things in Yorkville, it’s understandable that they would have a higher price tag on their cupcake, but honestly, in the future I would buy a cupcake from Starbucks over this one.

For starters, the cake was really dry. I’m a huge fan of red velvet cake, but I was disappointed with the cake portion. The icing was fine, though I felt they should have topped it up much higher to compensate for the dryness of the cake. The icing was a light, cream cheese icing that wasn’t anything special, but was the best part of the cupcake. I also wasn’t impressed with the presentation of the cupcake, even though they pipe on the icing only after a cupcake is ordered, it didn’t cover the entire top of the cupcake, one of my pet peeves. It also wasn’t very visually pleasing, definitely not the type of cupcake I would as a gift. As I mentioned before, there was only one cupcake to choose from when I was there – I would have preferred to try the Amaretto cupcake as it is at least a unique flavour.

All in all, the only thing the Dessert Lady has going for it is the individual semi reusable container the cupcake came in, and the  location, though with three-four Starbucks in close proximity I’d rather go there for a cupcake than return to the Dessert Lady.

I went to the Wedding Cake Shoppe a week after going to Miss Cora’s Kitchen. One of the masterminds behind this shoppe, placed second during a Food Network Challenge. Though I had been disappointed by Miss Cora’s Kitchen, I went into the Wedding Cake Shoppe with high hopes. I purchased a Caffe Mocha Cupcake and a Spiced Chai Latte, which I feel were the perfect choices for my coffee/cupcake love affair.

Presentation: 5/5
Icing: 5/5
Cake: 5/5
Selection: 5/5
Location: 3/5
Total: 23/25
This cupcake was absolutely amazing. I am obviously a huge caffeine addict, so the combination of coffee, chocolate and cupcakes has me in heaven. The icing on the Caffe Mocha cupcake was mousse-like, making it very light with a hint of coffee taste. The crunchy coffee bean on top was the cherry on top for someone like me. The cake was perfectly moist, combining perfectly with the icing.

Presentation: 5/5
Icing: 4/5
Cake: 5/5
Selection: 5/5
Location: 3/5
Total: 22/25
The Spiced Chai Latte Cupcake was not as good as the Caffe Mocha cupcake, but it was still better than many I’ve had. The icing had a hint of flavour, but was much thicker, making it a heavier icing. As a result there was not as much icing on the cupcake, which I thought worked well well this style of icing. The cake was very similar, nice and moist. While I wasn’t as fond of this cupcake, it is a unique flavour I haven’t seen before, and I feel like it would be good for the person that prefers cupcakes with less icing.

The shop is located near College & Ossington, making it a bit out of the way from my usual College St/Kensington excursions, but on a nice day the walk was pleasant. As they do wedding cake consultation, there are a lot of tables in the shop. The atmosphere is very stimulating as there are lots of pretty cakes to admire in the window. They serve coffee there as well, though I didn’t eat in the shop.

Overall, the Wedding Cake Shoppe offered up a really good cupcake, and I would highly recommend checking it out. So far it they served up the best cupcakes I have found in Toronto.

The third stop on my cupcake quest, was Miss Cora’s Kitchen, “home to Toronto’s best cupcake?” according to their website. Below this quizzical disclaimer is an invitation to come and be the judge. I had high hopes for this place as not only do they have rave reviews online, but they are in Kensington market, one of my favourite areas in Toronto.

Flavour: Double Chocolate
Cake:3/5
Icing:3/5
Flavour:Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
Cake:3/5
Icing:4/5
Presentation:3/5
Flavour Selection:1/5
Location:5/5
Total Points:15/25 and 16/25

Despite my high hopes for Miss Cora’s Kitchen I was disappointed from the moment I arrived at the shop.  I’ve never been a fan of mini cupcakes, as I figure you might as well go for the full thing, but I wasn’t excited enough about the cupcakes here to pick up a full size.  Instead I sampled two mini cupcakes, a chocolate one and a carrot cake with cream cheese icing with them.  There was really limited selection when I went, with three types of mini cupcakes but only one type of full size cupcake.

The chocolate cupcake was dry, despite being towered with a thick chocolate icing.  The large amount of icing felt like a compensation for the small amount of cake, but there was just too much on it – I REALLY like icing and all, but it was a thick glob that I did not enjoy.  The icing was also poorly distributed; I would have preferred it reached the sides and wasn’t piled as high.

I’m a huge fan of cupcakes with cream cheese icing; it’s usually a safe choice as cream cheese icing is pretty difficult to mess up.  In my experience I find cupcake places with poor buttercream icing often make up for it with their cream cheese icing.  The icing on this cupcake was fine, but it wasn’t phenomenal.  I was not a fan of the carrot cake at all.  I’ve been spoiled as my mom makes an amazing carrot cake, but I felt Miss Cora’s Kitchen just needs a better recipe.  The cake had an unpleasant texture – there was also coconut and raisins in the cake, two things I don’t believe belong in carrot cake, but that’s just my opinion.  As it was a small cupcake I found the extra ingredients took away from the cake, as there was too much texture in a small amount of cake.

Both cupcakes are okay in terms of presentation, but they do look quite amateur.  What Miss Cora’s Kitchen makes up for in lack of a good cupcake is in location.  I love Kensington Market – it’s walking distance from my apartment and there’s lots to do.  However, next time I’m in Kensington I’m passing by Miss Cora’s Kitchen for cupcakes, though someone ordered pizza while I was there and it smelled delicious.  All in all I would not recommend the cupcakes there and question who called them Toronto’s Best Cupcake – I don’t believe they’ve ever tasted a really good cupcake.