Miss Cupcake (Brixton)

I had heard about Miss Cupcake quite a few times, mainly through the internet but recently through a new vegan acquaintance. I have lived near Brixton for a couple of years but as I have a massive tendency to get lost I don't tend to wander off the main streets and so, as much as I hoped, never stumbled upon Miss Cupcake. Recently I had a friend stay with me for a couple of weeks so armed with her sense of direction and an address we set off in search of the illusive cake shop.


In my head I expected all 70 flavours to be there but there were a selection of about 18 flavours to choose from which rather than being disappointing probably saved us about 4 hours as it still took us ages to pick our four flavours.


In a much deliberated  decision ("..well that one does look good but we already have 2 chocolate ones we want..." "..maybe we should go for two chocolate ones and two non-chocolate ones.." "..how about all different colours..." etc) we went for: Jaffa Cake, Ferrero Rocher, Apple Crumble and Pumpkin Pie. During our deliberation we even got to meet Miss Cupcake herself which almost felt like meeting someone famous!


THEY WERE AMAZING! They are probably about half icing but so well flavoured and deliciously moist cake. You cannot manage more than one. In fact we had 1/3 of one and had to take a break. My favourite was Pumpkin Pie but we had chosen it because Miss cupcake had told us it tastes a bit like carrot cake and I ADORE carrot cake. This was closely followed by Ferrero Rocher which was so perfected it tasted identical to the chocolate. Jen's favourite was Jaffa Cake. All of them were so good though- it was only personal preferences which made us choose our favourites. The apple crumble cake even had pieces of apple in it. I think the only disappointment was that the apple crumble was just slightly drier than it should have been.


That visit was so cupcake orientated that we forgot to check out the rest of the shop but before Jen left I decided to go back to get her a cupcake as a present to eat on the train and this time I spent a little longer checking out the rest of the wares. There was so much to look at for a shop that size! There was a lot of cupcake themed products e.g. mugs, cupcake stands, icing equipment but there was also other vegan products like chocolates, marshmallows, "jerky" style snacks and more. I bought her a Mocha cupcake (feedback was very good!), some marshmallows (one banana and one vanilla- they are quite expensive and I'm only a lowly student!) and also my first ever GoMaxGo Chocolate bar- the Jokerz one which is like a snickers.


The marshmallows were very authentic- I definitely wouldn't be able to tell the difference between "real" ones and those. My only criticism is that the banana one didn't have a very strong banana flavour at all and I couldn't tell them apart easily. But the Jokerz bar! My god that was good!! I didn't even realise quite how much I missed Snickers until tasting this. Even Jen (a non-vegan by the way) was raving about it days later. I definitely want to try some more.

Top = Jaffa Cake, Middle (L to R): Ferrero Rocher, Pumpkin Pie, Bottom: Apple Crumble.

Ferrero Rocher. (not the best photo sorry!)

Tofu in a sandwich??

Today I decided to go all the way to Camden under the ruse of researching vegan DHA supplements for my research project. Although I did succeed in that it was nothing I couldn't have done on the internet so my trip to Camden ended up just being for a sandwich. But what a sandwich it was! The sound of a tofu sandwich has never quite appealed to me. I did not really see how the tofu could really bring anything to it. The main factor in making me choose this particular form of lunch was the gorgeous looking bread (oh how I wish I had paused to take a photo before shoving it into my mouth). It was a thin baguette style roll made from what looked like brown flour and covered in sesame seeds. It was not too big (i.e. upper crust size baguettes that make you feel bloated just looking at them) but big enough to feel like a really good sized lunch. Inside were these big slices of tofu with sundried tomatoes and, I think, some wilted spinach. I can tell you this has converted me to the tofu way! It made such a difference- it was almost like having an out of this world cheese and salad sandwich but 10 times better. Obviously the tofu didn't taste like cheese but it made me realise that the cheese in cheese sandwiches was mostly about the texture, and the right kind of tofu can hit the spot just right. Anyway..perhaps this is a little too much writing on a sandwich but if you are ever peckish and near whole foods.......

Note to self: remember to photograph your food!

Well, although I still have not got a kitchen I still have a couple of things to blog about but I keep being so greedy and diving right into the eating before I have taken a photograph! What a pig!


SWEET POTATO AND FRIENDS RISOTTO
Last night was my first bit of decent cooking in a while. It wasn't very adventurous and was an old easy favourite of mine- risotto. What I love about risotto is how different you can make it with different ingredients. Last night I chose sweet potato, butternut squash, courgette and mushroom. Another fault of mine is adding ingredients my eye- so I basically just add until my instincts say to stop. That said I can guestimate a lot of the amounts so here goes:


Ingredients (serves 4)


2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion
3 cloves of garlic
a glass worth of white wine
arborio rice (this is the biggest guess- I'd say maybe 2/3 of a mug <---not exactly your usual cooking measurement I know! The packet probably gives an idea of how much you will need)
mixed herbs (probably about 1 desert spoon full)
about 1 stock cubes worth of vegetable stock
1 medium courgette
around 10 closed cup mushrooms
1 medium sweet potato
1/2 a medium butternut squash


What you do:
Chop and fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil until softened
Add in the rice and herbs and fry for a couple of minutes
Put the wine in and let it simmer
add in all the vegetables except for the mushrooms
Add the stock in bit by bit stirring all the time- each time waiting for the liquid to be absorbed. You may need to adjust the amount of liquid-- taste as you go to feel when the rice is the right texture. This could take around half an hour but if you put the lid on and stir every 5 minutes you can speed it along a little but beware of the rice sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Add the mushrooms for the last 5 minutes.


Enjoy with the wine you opened!


Once again- please excuse my poor writing style. I am hoping this will improve!

Sugar rush alert: Millionaire's Shortbread!

OK, so at the moment I have a pathetic excuse for a kitchen in which I cannot cook many interesting things but because I am desperate to start posting I will share a recipe I have done many times to the delight of my friends who all love it. But beware- it is soo sweet and also addictive! I almost always end up feeling sick from eating too much. Make sure you have plenty of people to share it with or you may be working it off in the gym for the entire week after! I found the recipe on a lovely site called Parsley Soup (.co.uk).


Ingredients:
SHORTBREAD:

• 150g margarine
• 75g sugar (preferable caster) n.b. make sure this is vegan- most (or maybe all) in UK are but it's different in other countries
• 175g plain flour
• 75g cornflour

CARAMEL

• 300g sugar
• 60g margarine
• 130ml soya cream
• vanilla: if you have some use seeds from pods (1/4 pod the recipe says), otherwise a dash of vanilla essence is fine (this is what I use)

• CHOCOLATE: the recipe calls for 100g but I usually use more :). Plain chocolate is the classic but experiments are always good if they involve chocolate. My next batch I really want to try adding dark chocolate with cherries to add a fruity element. 

what to do:

• beat the sugar and margarine together (shortbread only)
• add in both flours mixing it into a dough
• press into a lined baking tray and bake for 30 mins on gas 2-3/160 C
• wait for this to be out and cooling before you start your caramel as you want it to have hardened up before you add your caramel on top
• put your sugar for the caramel in a stainless steel pan and heat over a medium flame (or medium setting) until it all melts into a lovely brown liquid, stirring all the time
• add the cream, margarine and vanilla - be careful it often spits and bubbles up at this point and it is very hot (obviously!)
• Cherry (on parsley soup) has a good tip to know when your caramel is ready- have a cup of cold water and put a drop of the caramel in. If you can form it into a soft ball with your fingers then it is perfect. Timing on this for me seems to vary quite a bit but it does take a little while to get there
• put the caramel over the shortbread and leave this to set
• once again I would advise waiting for this to cool before starting on the chocolate
• melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water
• spread the chocolate over the caramel and short bread and put it in the fridge
• cut the finished product into whatever size you wish
• PIG OUT! yummy

Sorry about the rubbish picture. I didn't have my SLR at the time! I promise future photos will be much better! You might be able to tell by the photo but on these ones I got a bit impatient with the caramel and it is a little bit viscous still. Tasted amazing though!


I hope you enjoyed my first post. Hopefully I will get better as time goes on!


Jules x