In conjunction with National Cupcake Week, I was excited to be invited for the Zomato Meetup (#ZoMeeto!) at Sponge and Cream in Brixton, where the lovely Paulina very graciously welcomed us into her wondrous little kitchen - where all the magic happens!
We had a bit of a Q&A session with Paulina, previously head baker at Hummingbird Bakery, who explained a bit about her story and how she started up her business.
After much drooling over the scrumptious looking cakes on display, it was finally time to get a taste of them.
All the flavours looked so good that it took me a while before I
managed to come to a decision. I settled for the rich German Chocolate
Coconut with Praline...or something along those lines - and it sure
tasted good! As with most blogger events, we always like to share our
food, and thankfully each of us had chosen different flavours.
The
Butternut Squash Dream was one of a kind indeed, made with butternut
squash, apples, raisins, and frosted with strawberry marshmallow
frosting - and some of you may also be glad to know that it is gluten
and wheat free. Another favourite was the (gluten/wheat free) Lembluca cake which was a rich lemon and blueberry cake frosted with lemon frosting, and of course the classic Carrot cake.
Everyone knows the drill when it comes to blogger events, so here are a couple of 'behind-the-scenes' shots...
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| Photo credits to the lovely Sheepa |
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| Photo credits to the lovely Sheepa |
Paulina then demonstrated one of her new recipes, a three-tiered Coconut and Lemon Curd Cake. She had baked the layers and prepared the frosting ready beforehand and we got to observe her whilst she assembled them together.
To make sure that the top is level, a thin layer was cut off. I gasped as this cut off bit was disposed off (!) - I would have gladly eaten up the leftover bits, but then again I suppose there is only so much cake that one can consume (!)
A thick rim of coconut frosting was then piped around the edges of the cake, forming a wall of frosting. This was followed by the pouring of a large portion of lemon curd in the middle of the cake, and the steps repeated for the second layer.
The top and last layer of the cake was leveled and placed top downwards on the other two layers. The whole cake was then covered with the remaining frosting and finally sprinkled with lots of desiccated coconut.
Add a few slices of fresh lemon disks as decoration, and here you have this stunning looking Coconut and Lemon Curd Cake!
Paulina kindly provided us with the recipe for this dream of a cake, which looks simple enough to follow, but I might just be cheeky and try and suggest to one of my baking friends to give it a go in their kitchen...I have better faith in the pros when it comes to baking.
Next, Paulina talked us through our Halloween-themed cupcake decorating session, as we were just about a month away from the much awaited yearly celebration! She had prepared three different designs for us to replicate. I have never handled or used fondant before, but it was sort of like play-dough so it felt easy enough to play around with - I think that I am generally quite good with my hands...
Okay, so my cupcake decorations didn't quite turn out as well as I was hoping for...and I also decided to go a bit 'freestyle'! Notice my groovy ghost with the multi-coloured spots (picked at fondant bit leftover on the table...) and my cat sitting next to the pumpkin (or rather a standing one but whose legs seemed to have collapsed...). It turned out to be slightly demonic looking I must say - not that I have ever been that fond of cats anyway...
After a pleasant evening of cakes and cupcake decorating, we each got to take home our three 'works of art' - that's breakfast sorted.
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| Photo credits to the lovely Sheepa |
Thank you once again to the Zomato team and Paulina for organizing the event.
Paulina is also looking to host workshops in a larger space in October, so if this sort of thing tickles your fancy, then keep a lookout for more details and get yourself booked in.
The Cheekster, signing out x
