Crumbs and Doilies...

Seems fitting that this post follows the last as this darling little cupcake shop is situated in Kingly Court like the restaurants I mentioned in my past post. 

Crumbs and Doilies may not look like much from the outside but inside are the cutest cupcakes you have ever seen. On their website you can browse the over 30 flavours they have or you can visit their shop where they usually have about 8 flavours out everyday.

You can get a full size cupcake or an exact replica as a mini cupcake. As well as cupcakes Crumbs and Doilies does brownies, rocky roads and big cakes. 

When my mum, my sister and I visited we were just in the mood for a little afternoon pick me up so opted for a bottle of water, a cold brew coffee and 3 mini cupcakes.

My chosen mini cupcake was a snickers cupcake, a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter icing drizzled with chocolate and caramel sauce and topped with peanuts.

Mum's pick was a buttered popcorn cupcake, I'm not quite sure the flavour of the actual cake part but it definitely tasted like butter popcorn, buttery and slightly salty. Of course it was topped off with actual popcorn and a drizzle of caramel.

Em had a Velvet Volcano cupcake which was a red velvet cupcake on a biscuit base topped with cookies and cream icing. I have to say I was a little envious of this one!

Crumbs and Doilies is owned by Youtube Cupcake Jemma who actually has videos on her youtube channel showcasing recipes and baking. 

It is a small shop but entices you to revisit many times to try out all the flavours. When I go back I want to try the biscoff rocky road or maybe a slice of one of their big cakes.

Said Dal 1923...

I have a sweet tooth. Not just your now and again craving chocolate sweet tooth, a raging give me any form of sugar you have on you sort of sweet tooth. My favourite remedies to cure my longing being cake and chocolate. So when my boyfriend announced we were going to chocolatier and cafe Said Dal 1923 in Soho I was positively skipping down the street. 

Said Dal is a small Italian cafe furnished with little wooden tables next to a giant counter full of goodies from truffles to vats of churning melted chocolate. The smell in there is incredible.

There are a selection of sandwiches and salads on the menu that pop up through the dumbwaiter on the wall of the cafe from the kitchen below. But of course I cannot recommend these to you as we skipped to the main event straightaway, the chocolate!

Boy and I both ordered a Mocha. "A Mocha?!" you say, outraged that we diluted our pure Italian chocolate with coffee. Truth is we both needed a caffeine fix and ordered the Mocha because of the insane way it is made. Melted dark, milk and white chocolate are spooned over the entire mug encasing it in rich silky chocolate before the coffee is poured in.

It was heaven on earth when the chocolate mixed in with the coffee and of course we shamelessly licked off all the chocolate from the outside of our mugs.

If you yourself do not have a sweet tooth/chocolate addiction you might be inclined to stop there but we simply could not leave without trying their chocolate cake. We figured chocolate cake from a chocolate shop must be insanely tasty, and of course it was.

Just look at that stodgy goodness. This cake was definitely more of a dessert than a fluffy cake but this suited us perfectly and we finished it off JUST before the sugar coma kicked in.

I live in Guildford so when I go into London I do not tend to go to the same places as there is so much to see and do all over the place especially where food is concerned. However, I just had to bring my twin to Said Dal 1923 because I knew she would love it as much as I did. 

Again, I ordered the mocha because I think I may have been dreaming about it ever since I tried my first one. It was just as perfect as the first one I had. Emily ordered the small milk hot chocolate (you can have either dark, milk or gianduja which is hazelnut) with whipped cream. A small hot chocolate being actual melted chocolate in a small mug. It was so thick that she was glad she had the portion of whipped cream to cut through the richness of the chocolate, she isn't as well seasoned in the chocolate drinking business as boy and I are.

Of course I recommend heading to Said Dal 1923 as soon as you can. Do not be put off by the brusk Italian staff whose service can seem a little rude and unwelcoming. Order anything chocolate as the quality is very impressive. Next time I go, and I'm confident there will be a next time, I think I'll try the chocolate truffles or chocolate brownie. See you there!

Mocha Cake Recipe...

For Father's Day this year I decided to bake dad a Mocha cake. A compromise on everyone's favourite, a rich chocolate cake, and dad's favourite, coffee cake.

Ingredients for the Chocolate Cake

50g cocoa powder

175g self-raising flour

1 rounded teaspoon baking power

275g caster sugar

60ml milk

3 eggs

100g butter

Method

Firstly, grease 3 20cm sandwich tins. You can use baking parchment but I simply sprayed them with spray light.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Mix the cocoa powder with a tablespoon of boiling water to form a paste.

Simply add all the remaining ingredients into your mixing bowl and mix to form a thickish batter.

Divide this mixture between the 3 tins. Tap each tin on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles and put the tins in the oven for 22 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

The next step is to make the coffee glaze to go on top of the cake.

Mix 2 tablespoons of instant coffee powder with 2 tablespoons of boiling water to form a paste then mix this paste with a cup of icing sugar. If the glaze is too thick you can add more boiling water.

Buttercream is a popular choice so to make a coffee buttercream to spread between the cake layers mix 
100g unsalted butter
200g icing sugar
2 teaspoons of coffee granules dissolved in 1 tablespoon of boiling water

Finally, assemble your cake by firstly spreading the buttercream across 2 layers.

Spread the coffee glaze over the top layer of the cake. I like the messy drip look but for a neater looking cake you can add more icing sugar to the glaze and you will be able to avoid the drips.

You can decorate the top of your cake with anything you like.

I chose walnuts and grated dark chocolate for my cake.

I hope you enjoy making and eating this indulgent Mocha Cake!