Better baking

The western world is going bake-crazy! American-style cupcakes have been all the buzz for the last few years and by now it seems every second person can effortlessly turn out beautiful ornate cupcakes, perfectly frosted and covered in glitter. The supermarkets are on it too, charging full whack for industrial scale cupcake outputs.

My worry is that there is too much emphasis on the decoration and not enough on the crux of the matter: the cake. While the aesthetics of icing are clearly important and most definitely play a part in your cake decision, the substance, the cakiness of the cake are often forgotten. So many perfectly decorated cupcakes are dry and bland inside; there is often no art to the baking.

But two recent baked experiences have reassured me that some bakers are still passionate about their cake.

My friend Hattie has recently set herself up as a cake-maker and does a good run of traditional, well-made, feel-good baking. Hattie had her first stall at the Kentish Town Community Centre autumn picnic and I bought myself a bespoke sample platter. There were brownies (moist but not too sludgy), chocolate cake (impeccably iced, soft inside), rocky road (very sweet, chocolatey and moreish), as well as carrot cake, old school cupcakes (not American style) and vegan brownies...wow.





Obviously food tastes better when you know how much love goes into it, but Hattie's cakes are some of the best I've had in a while. Save your money next time you think of ordering a Hummingbird and get Hattie to bake you something! Drop Hattie an email on harrietphillips258 @hotmail.com if you want some good cake.

Another great baked experience I had was at the Great Brownie Bake Off at look mum no hands!, everyone's favourite cycle cafe, all in the name of charidee. Chefs gave demonstrations of their best brownie recipes, sharing handy hints and tips as they went along, and then the finished products were passed around the audience. Every 10 minutes or so, another batch of warm brownies would be passed around on plates and I quickly felt a bit queasy from the sheer amount of sugar.



The star attraction was Stacie Stewart, a recent Masterchef finalist, who is a total mod with amazing hair, attitude and cooking skillz. She is also Pete's workmate, so we got introduced and had a quick chat about the cake scene at the moment and agreed about the downsides of Americanisation, or something. Anyway, Stacie was very charming and funny and gave some great tips when she was mixing it up. She says cooking is an art and a science and you got just tell she's got both sides covered.



Stacie baked a chocolate cupcake with a chocolatey mascarpone icing. They were in short supply, so Pete and I shared one. It was very nice. Very soft, light cake and the icing was luxuriously creamy and caramely, but without being too thick or sugary.



I left on a total sugar high, but with a strong desire to get my bake on!

My Portuguese sweet tooth

My adventures in Portugal at the beginning of July seem like a million miles away with autumn in London getting into full sway. But I'm not too far from Lisboa Delicatessen in Camden where I can buy great pasteis de nata and bring it all back. Looking through my food pictures from Portugal, it struck me how many different Portuguese puddings there are and how integral they are to the cuisine.

Pastries or pasteis are a big part of everyday life in Portugal. Every neighbourhood or town, however grand or scruffy, will have at least one decent pastelaria, where locals will stand at the long bar to have a quick bica (espresso) and a pastry of some sort. When we were in Portugal, we noticed that 3-5pm was a very popular time to engage in this ritual.

The most famous pasteis is the pasteis de nata, or 'Portuguese custard tarts' as some call them. I don't like that description - it puts them on the same level as those insipid chemical custard tarts pensioners buy from supermarkets. Anyway. I had at least 10 in my 14 days in Portugal, and none were better than from the world famous pastelaria in Belem. We had three between the two of us and I could have eaten a couple more!



We visited the town of Sintra, which is full of elegant and dramatic palaces on top of mountains, and were sure to try their local delicacies. These are called queijadas de Sintra and are made with fresh portuguese cheese and sugar and egg and cinammon and have a slightly pungent savoury taste to them, in a good way.



Watching locals ordering and eating is an almost foolproof way of making sure you get a real local taste, so after eating our queijadas, we ordered one of these pastries which was filled with the same cheesy mix as the queijadas. Also delicious.



Pasteis de coco are another popular treat. It's another egg based pastry, this time with coconut and a cherry on top. Ah!



When we were in the Alentejan city of Evora we shared a hefty slice of chocolate cake made by the nuns in the convent. It was as rich and gooey and lovely as it looks.