Food: Where Are London’s Best Cupcakes?

Choosing the best cupcakes always comes down to personal taste. Some can’t get enough of the light sugary buttercream while others find a little cream goes a very long way. There are those who like their sponge strong and springy and then there are the fans of muffins so moist that they’re falling apart.

Luckily for cupcake fans, London has every shape, size and sponge in stock and even better, it’s National Cupcake Week so you have an excuse to go out try them all. But if you’re a bit bored of the Hummingbird or you’ve lost your love of Lolas, then why not check out these three contenders baking their way to the cupcake crown.

Crumbs and Doilies

Blink and you might miss Crumbs and Doilies. Hidden away in Kingly Court off Carnaby Street, this bitesize bakery rarely has a free seat, partly because there are only seven.

The other reason is that its cakes are just so good and what C&D lacks in quantity it makes up in quality. As it’s so small, Crumbs bakes in smaller batches than bigger shops so the cupcakes are always fresh, moist and constantly changing.

Crumb and Doilies classics include much-loved standards as well as spiced-up stars like cinnamon toast, honey and rosemary or Jamaican gingerbread.

Then there are the specials; lavender caramel, Mexican hot chocolate, maple bacon and a take on Britain’s most underrated biscuit – the custard cream. Team your treat with a warm T2 brew (the toffee is a surefire hit) and sit and watch the world go by.

It may be all about the cupcakes but the best C&D wares are arguably the large loaf cakes. The portions are so big that you can rarely finish it all, making it a bargain-bake in London’s often extortionate cupcake market.

Flavourtown

Located in Selfridges, Harrods and on Sundays at Old Spitalfields Market, Flavourtown is true to its name. The endless number of cupcake creations could fill a small city – if you find it difficult to choose then Flavourtown is not for you.

True, a few of its cupcakes capitalise on quirk (the “unicorn” flavour cupcake has a horn and rainbow sprinkles) but quality is by no means forgotten.

Flavourtown serves up a mouthwatering mix of familiar friends and sensational strangers. Blueberry crunch, raspberry lemon and coconut cloud will please fruit fans while mint chocolate chip, Nutella vs Oreo and banana and sea salt caramel are a sweet-lover’s dream.

All of these, however, are just preamble for Flavourtown’s big hitter: the posh peanut butter cup cupcake (above). This Midas-touched morsel is packed with peanut butter and choc chips and topped with PB mousse buttercream. If that’s not decadent enough, the whole thing is then dipped in Belgian chocolate and sprayed gold – glorious.

Lily Vanilli

Lily Vanilli reinforces the idea that a good cupcake shop is hard to find. This pretty purveyor of baked beauties is tucked away in a courtyard off Columbia Road Flower Market and stumbling across its tasty treats is like finding treasure.

You can never tell what Lily will be creating from one week to the next (the shop is only open on Sundays) so you’ll simply have to go back again and again.

If you’re lucky, each exploration will reward you with the likes of a blackberry and apple (above), a sticky toffee, a chocolate cherry or a chocolate matcha cupcake.

Every cupcake is beautiful and clearly made with a lot of love; an individual work of art topped with flowers and fruit that almost looks too good to eat. Almost.

Lily Vanilli also serves up tarts, pastries, brownies, doughnuts, biscuits and cronuts or croissant-doughnut pastries. Just make sure you don’t load yourself up with too many bouquets from the market as you’ll want your hands well and truly free for this flower-topped feast.

by Jo Davey

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