Cupcakes

I went to The Hummingbird Bakery yesterday. I've been curious about it for a while having read and heard lots about it and so took advantage of a trip to visit a friend in Notting Hill to also visit this infamous cake shop.

I found the shop quite easily nestled amongst the antique shops, jewellery stalls and other quirky shops on Portobello Road and was slightly surprised by its diminutive size. A couple of tables out front for those who want to enjoy their cakes right there and then, and then a small interior with some glass fronted displays showing the days offerings - a few 'specials' and then trays of their 'standard' cupcakes all beautifully iced. I chose a selection of the latter which were quickly boxed up for me to take as a gift for my friend. The store is known for its red cupcakes but I couldn't see any available and to be honest I'm not totally sure if the idea appeals to me or not - I like my cupcakes light in both texture and colour!

Happily my friend suggested that we try some of the cupcakes when I arrived and I can confirm that they tasted as good as they looked. Lovely deep and fluffy sponge cakes topped with a generous swirl of creamy butter icing (I'm sure that I could make cakes just as tasty but my butter icing would definitely let me down) topped with some coloured sprinkles or piles of chocolate vermicelli! What on earth is there not to like?!

Being a 'local' my friend reported that there is always a long queue outside the shop on a Saturday when they walk past having bought their fruit and veg at the market, a fact for which she assures me she is grateful as otherwise it would be all to easy to succumb to the temptations of these wonderfully indulgent treats!

Isn't it just common sense?

So, I've been watching the new show on BBC2, 'Economy Gastronomy', and have realised that maybe I am in a minority when it comes to food and doing the weekly shop. In case you've not seen the show, it features two chefs trying to help a family reduce their large weekly shopping bill but without depleting the quality of the food they are eating, and in some cases improving it! One of the things they advocate is cooking one big meal that can then be transformed into something else on two other days, ok so I don't do that but the other things they proclaim all seem pretty logical and obvious to me...

One, plan what you are going to eat a week in advance. Maybe I'm a bit anal but if you don't know what you're going to eat how to do you know what and how much food to buy? Which leads nicely on to

Two, make a shopping list and only buy what is on your list. Ok, so I don't rigidly stick to the second part of this rule, but if I didn't have list when I went shopping the impulse buys would be far worse and I'd also probably end up forgetting vital ingredients. Actually I sometimes do this anyway when despite the planning I inadvertantly manage to omit a crucial ingredient from my list.

Three, homemade is better and cheaper than ready-made. Surely this is a no-brainer? I'm no expert on ready meals and how long they take to cook but I'm guessing if you don't have a microwave it's around 25-30 minutes. A quick flick through a modern cookery magazine (or even the freebies they hand out in the supermarkets) and you can find countless simple recipes that proclaim to be ready in 15 minutes. Ok, so the reality when you do it in your own kitchen is a little bit longer but you're still only talking the same time as your ready meal takes to cook and surely the satisfaction of eating something freshly prepared easily outweighs the effort involved in preparing it. Homemade cakes and cookies take a bit more effort compared with shop-bought ones, but ultimately they taste better and there is a certain joy in the whole process of mixing the ingredients and then the aroma of baked goods filling your house.

So these three things I've been doing for years - part of the joy of planning what to eat a week ahead means that it gives me time to flick through my magazines and find new recipes to try out meaning we don't eat the same old things all the time. It also enables me to plan combinations of meals to ensure that I'm not wasting food (I'm not perfect at this but I try my best not to let too many things take on a life of their own in the fridge). The shopping list allows me to make a smooth trip around the supermarket without needing to double-back to pick up things I've forgotten, well in theory it does. Inevitably life doesn't run smooth and sometimes that crucial ingredient isn't available and so I have to rapidly re-assess my meal plan and re-trace my steps to collect the appropriate ingredients. And although I love the homemade bit, I'm not religious about it and do buy some ready made items, like pizza and chicken kievs, where the effort involved in making them is too much. Plus, don't tell my mum but even more occasionally I will buy some shop-bought cake, although only things like Battenburg which with its checkboard design I can imagine being a nightmare to make....