Cupcake Perfection

I've know for ages that I was going to have a cupcake tower rather than a traditional wedding cake...in fact I've know about the cupcakes for much longer than I've actually known I was going to get married. I've never liked wedding cake (or Christmas cake for that matter). The worst part is the marzipan, but even if it's made without I don't really like the cake. The only good bit is the icing. If my brother happens to be around we have pretty good deal going on - seeing as I don't like the cake and he doesn't like the icing we split a piece into its constituent parts and everyone is happy. We're like the Williamson family's own cake-based Jack Spratt and his wife.

Anyway, I have been taking my mission to find the perfect cupcake quite seriously over the last few years. I started off posh with 4 cupcakes from Lola's at Selfridges. That was about 2 years ago and to be honest I can't remember that much about them apart from that they were tasty (and expensive).

Fast forward a year or so and on another trip to London I made the pilgrimage to the Primrose Bakery and bought another 4 cupcakes. I do remember the Malted Marshmallow which had a particularly sticky buttercream. I'm fairly sure there was something chocolatey and perhaps a lemon one in there. I'm not entirely sure as I ate two of them for lunch and demolished the other two in rapid succession when I came in drunk from the pub. Again, they were tasty, and this time a bit more reasonably priced but London is a long way to go for a cupcake. And if I'm being truthful, when in London I'd rather indulge in a Krispy Kreme doughnut which I've yet to find on sale in Scotland.

My next significant cupcake experience came a little closer to home from the Sweet Tooth Cupcakery in Manchester. On one of my visits to see the boy before he moved up here we visited this place (which I think I had read about somewhere when carrying out cupcake research). Again we bought 4 cupcakes (there are always too many to choose from just to have one each) and my favourite thing about this cupcakery is definitely the delightfully named cakes. All the cupcakes are named after film and TV stars and characters - there's the Mrs Slocombe , the David Niven, the Rocky, and I seem to remember a Mae West in there somewhere. I carefully carried our box of cupcakes home to Altrincham....where the boy managed to knock the box out of my hands in the supermarket five minutes from home. Still the cupcakes were slightly squished...this didn't stop the buttercream from being delicious but unfortunately these cakes (and I've been back since to make sure) are let down by their quite dry and uninspiring cake beneath all that lovely icing. 

[I've also just noticed that the Oldham Street shop we went to is now closed although they are still operating from the Chorlton shop.]

Now all these tastings were before I even got engaged but since then my research has felt much more serious (and gives me even more of an excuse to eat cupcakes as if one were needed!). So a few weeks ago on a day out in St Andrews we visited Bibi's Bakery. There was a great choice of cupcakes but we managed to narrow it down to four again. I had a Chocolate Marshmallow and a Malteser while the boy had a Cappuccino and a Oreo Cookies and cream flavour. And they were all bloody lovely. The cakes were moist and tasty and they were topped with just the right amount of buttercream and decorations. My only criticism would be that the Malteser cupcake had actual maltesers baked into the top of the cake and I don't think it quite worked. Bibi's have another shop in Edinburgh and I'm already trying to work out when I can pay them a visit. What I also like about Bibi's is that they have provided recipes on their website - and I can confirm the vanilla cake and buttercream recipes work a treat! We are hoping to go to the St Andrews shop for a cupcake decorating workshop as part of my hen weekend which I'm really looking forward to. I'm pretty good at baking and my cakes always taste great (well I think they do and everyone else seems to agree) but my piping skills still leave a lot to be desired. I would love to make my own cupcakes for the wedding in fact but because they have to be super fresh I think baking and decorating 90 cupcakes the day before getting married might be a bit too much to ask.

The need for freshness also rules out Bibi's for the wedding itself too especially as we are getting married on Easter Saturday and would have to collect the cakes ourselves possibly two days before. Which brings us to the next purveyor of cupcakes The Little House of Cupcakes

Of course, even if I do decide to order from The Little House of Cupcakes that isn't going to mean an end to my research...we still need to decide on flavours and that's going to involve a lot of tasting. (Plus, there's a shop in Manchester called And The Dish Ran Away With the Spoon which I really want to try just because it sounds cool.)