For National Cupcake Week, we asked London's elite cupcake makers what their favourite flavours are. Here are their responses:
While The Hummingbird Bakery favours the Red Velvet as its best seller, company founder, Tarek Malouf, says the Black Bottom also comes high on his list of top cupcakes. The Black Bottom has a decadent, dark and dense chocolate sponge, baked with real cheesecake in the centre. Just like the Red Velvet, it is frosted with cream cheese frosting.
Another vote for the Red Velvet comes from fashionable Lola’s. “Our most popular flavour is our Red Velvet cupcake, this is a mild crimson chocolate cupcake topped with a heavenly cream cheese icing and our famous cake crumbs!” Sounds like heaven to us! Lola’s also have a cookbook coming out in October, so soon you will be able to create this cupcake for yourself!
The customers’ favourite design from this edgy and suggestive Soho cake shop is the Red Skull cake. You can make this at home with this recipe from the shop’s new cookbook (the foreword to which is written by Sir Elton John and David Furnish! Wow!)
Crumbs and Doilies in Kings Road and Covent Garden list Earl Grey, Red Velvet and Salted Caramel as strong contenders in the running for favourite cupcake, but right now Flavour of the Month is this Lavender Caramel – “a slightly treacly golden lavender sponge topped with caramel buttercream made using lavender-infused caramel.” Meanwhile, their king of all cupcakes, not yet available to order, is a salted-caramel filled chocolate mudcake, with chocolate ganache frosting. This magnificent creation is always brought out for special Crumbs & Doilies birthday celebrations!
What is the favourite ‘naughtiest vegan cupcake in town’? The Ambassador, or as customers call it, the Ferrero Rocher. “It is a chocolate and hazelnut infused sponge with a layer of our own made nutella-like ganache, topped with chocolate/hazelnut icing and rolled in roasted hazelnuts.”
Crumbs! Couture cupcakes come in a huge range of flavours, with sponges ranging from vanilla and chocolate to fudge and banoffee, and icings such as peanut butter, rose, oreo & malteser! However the favourite cupcake here is the Zingy Lemon cupcake, which comes in a variety of colours and beautiful designs, and is very popular amongst their numerous celebrity clients. The Zingy Lemon cupcake is made with delicious lemon zest in the sponge and lashings of secret-recipe lemon sauce in the buttercream. You can try their cupcakes at the Portobello’s Fine Foods Market or by appointment in their West London Kitchen.
Rose cupcakes are the favourite in this shop that has catered for the likes of U2 and Kate Moss! With their delicate rose sponge, buttercream rose icing and pretty decorations, we can see why! Primrose Bakery have shops in Covent Garden and Primrose Hill, and also supply to Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason, Libertys and more, so you have plenty of opportunity to get your hands on this popular rose cupcake!
Sweet Things bakery, also in Primrose Hill, tells us that their Oreo cupcake is the most popular of the moment, while vanilla wins as their best-selling cupcake in Fortnum & Masons. These cupcakes can both be customised with photos and messages to give an extra special personal touch!
