Cup cake trials

On any given day I take cooking pretty seriously, and baking even more so. But ever since I was entrusted with whipping up cup cakes for a landmark double birthday next month, I have become a cook on a mission.

Cup cakes are undergoing a bit of a renaissance in London. To be fair, I think it all started across the pond, when in a Sex and The City episode the girls ate the pastel delicacies from the Magnolia Bakery on Bleeker Street in Soho. In London, cup cake mecca is the Hummingbird Cafe, so that's the standard I'm measuring myself against. Nothing inferior shall do.

In the past few days I have scoured the Internet far and wide for the prettiest edible rice flowers, pastel-colored muffins cups and elaborate sugarcraft decorations. I have mulled color schemes, weighed the merits of buttercream icing versus instant royal icing, and finally, this morning, made my first practice batch.

I turned to Nigella for a starting-point recipe because, as anyone who's ever baked under her guidance knows, the woman is a genius. She doesn't send you to specialist stores for exotic-yet-superfluous ingredient and deals out just the right amount of advice without unnecessary handholding. Most important of all, we share the same countertop philosophy: pursue maximum effect with minimum effort.


The practice run went well. The recipe for the batter was very easy and yielded excellent results. The cakes, a cross of a pound cake and a victoria sponge, came out moist inside and just crunchy on the edges. I thought the burnt butter buttercream icing I went for a bit too sweet, even though I had only used half of the recommended amount of sugar. Then came the fun bit: the deco. I had silver stars, purple violets and tiny silver sugar drops and tried many different combinations. I don't think I have hit the perfect match just yet though.

I hope to make the icing just a bit zingier in the next batch, perhaps using a drop of lemon juice, or cream cheese instead of butter.

Then perhaps I can start selling them at a stall on Sunday morning at the Columbia Flower Market. Cup cakes, surely, are impervious to the credit crunch.

For cup-cake supplies:

http://http://www.cakescookiesandcraftsshop.co.uk/