Back to Baking... Chocolate Chip Cookies (featuring alliteration)

Dearest Readers, 

Well, as promised I am back and baking!

This is a super-easy recipe for the super-softest-squidgiest-srcummiest (told ya there'd be alliteration) chocolate chip cookies on the planet. It's a fail safe recipe for one of those 'I desperately need something sweet and home made' moments, but when you don't completely fancy baking and icing a cake. 

That's the beauty of cookies; once they're made they're ready to be eaten. 

So. Without further a do, how to make Chocolate Chip Cookies in Six Simple Steps. 

(Are you enjoying the alliteration?)

The all important ingredients. 

What you need: 

100g best quality (pref Green & Blacks) dark chocolate or a mixture of dark and milk depending on how sweet you can take it! 

125g unsalted butter, gently melted

100g caster sugar

75g soft brown sugar

1 organic, free range egg

vanilla extract to taste (I use half a teaspoon)

150g plain flour]

1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder (preferably magic)

An oven at 180 (fan assisted, 190 not fan assisted)

Step One: Mise en place, mise en place, mise en place! 

Heat the oven, weigh out all your ingredients, melt the butter, line your baking sheets. 

This is my Magic Baking Powder. It was a WONDERFUL gift from a friend - it has TRANSFORMED my baking! 

;

Step Two: 
Weigh the sugars together and mix them up, add the melted butter and mix with a wooden spoon. It looks like this - don't be alarmed! It gets more attractive soon...

Step Three: Add the vanilla essence and egg to the sticky, fluid sugar and butter mixture and beat together with your wooden spoon. The mixture becomes thicker and glossier.       

                       Step Four: sieve the flour and baking powder together into the mixture and then fold in quickly with a large silver spoon until just mixed. The mixture will still be slightly sloppy. 

Step Five: add the chocolate chips to the mixture and stir together. (In this batch I used a mixture of milk and dark choc.) Spoon tablespoon fulls of the mixture onto your lined baking trays and put in the oven. 

I do recommend that you aim to make each cookie the same size, as this helps with the cooking process. 

Bake for 8-10 mins, but check after 8 as they turn very quickly. They're done when your kitchen smells of cookies and there is a slightly crackled sugary finish to the golden mouthfuls of delish. 

Cookies going in the oven...

 Step Six: Take out of the oven and move on to a wire rack to cool as soon as you can! This cooling tray belonged to my Grandma and I LOVE the fact that it has squares and sometimes makes a pattern on the bottom of biscuits (more alliteration).

 EAT AND ENJOY. 

Fondest regards,
Whimsy x


Amusing anecdote:

I once baked these cookies for newly moved-in neighbours and went to take them round on a Sunday mid-morning. They thought I was really weird and I kept repeating my name over and over again in embarrasment but never managed to work out what their names were. So I suggest when you bake them, you keeo them and eat them all yourself! 

'full stop.' Brick Lane's finest!

Dearest Readers of Confessions,                

Well! It has been an age, has it not, and yet so much cake has been both baked and consumed over these months - what excuse could I possibly have for not keeping you up to date with all the latest in, ummm, cake-eating and coffee-drinking? Well, aside from Jubilantics with the SIBF which mostly consisted of using gold card and double-sided sticky-tape to transform our ever-suffering cat Princess Tildred of Cumberland into HRH (see photo below) I have been busily making cake for young people as of yet uninitiated in Whimsenomics which, incidentally, appears to have taken over Europe. 

But moving swiftly on... I have returned and today come with news of a fantastic and utterly unpretentious cafe on (be prepared for a shock)  Brick Lane! Yes! It is possible for a cafe thereabouts not to be pretentious and, indeed, to be deemed worthy of a review from Whimsy! 

 The SIBF and I were escaping the Jubilee (having re-enacted the flotilla at a friends suggestion by floating Tildred on a tray in the bath) by attending an amazing FRIENDS gig at Rough Trade. But the lure of cake was too much and, after much to-ing and fro-ing we stumbled upon FULL STOP., roughly mid-way down Brick Lane. How could we resist a beautiful black-board featuring the incantation below...?

 On entering 'full stop.' the first thing one must comment on is the beautiful de-marcation of space consisting of the gorgeous vintage conservatory feel of the area towards the shop-front and the rather more sultry, sofas n papers n your dream of a place you could hide from a torrential downpour if stuck in the middle of London, towards the back.

 I was rather taken with these divine roses,
and struck by the whimsical beauty of it all! 

The next fabulous thing about 'full stop.' is that they have four variations of hot chocolate on the menu! Dearest Readers! Thant is not one, not two, not three, but four different types. I may not be brilliant at maths, but I do know that that is approximately four times more sub-genres of hot chocolate than your archetypal cafe! We went for the straightforward 'milk chocolate' variant and, oh, the joy to Whimsy when it arrived in a small glass with perfectly formed creamy froth on top AND a LONG SPOON for better drinking, stirring and sipping!

We also ordered the 'FRESHLY BAKED!' banana loaf and I was pleased to be offered it toasted - a delightful proposition on such a miserable day. In honesty, whilst I *did* enjoy eating it, I also did find it rather peculiar but not in a bad way - just in a is this completely cooked/isn't it/how much cinnammon (sp?!) is in this/what is in this/how do you make a cake with a crust and a squidgy centre?! kind of way.

Well, with that it is time to say tootle-pip for now and also to give you advance warning that TSWCS 3.0 will be taking place this year on July 1st in the usual place... 

Until next time, I'll leave you with some Brick Lane Bunting! 

Fondest Fondant Fancies, 

Silver Whimsy x  

PS Why didn't I ever start up my bespokebunting.com website? I would surely have made a fortune by now!

L'Eto Caffe

Dear Readers,

I have a confession to make. I cannot claim that I made the discovery of this cafe that has ricocheted into the Number Two spot in Silver Whimsy's Top Ten list of cafes across London. No, that accolade goes to my SIBF, as does the joy of Hipstamatic as demonstrated by these divine photos that actually do do justice to the indie lo-fi delights of the most extraordinary Soho cafe that is L'Eto Caffe ....

I love the fact that there is Astro-Turf on the window! I love the glass shop front for maximum cake gawping! And I also love the cakes themselves!

Whilst I am currently obsessed with 'English Muffins' owing to Madeleine's love of the aforementioned buttery delights in Eugenides latest 'The Marriage Plot', when faced with the option of muffins or Epicurean patisseries, the patisseries win out. I am yet to try many of the extraordinary array of cakes on offer at L'Eto, but those I have tried (raspberry mille feuille, cherry mille feuille and raspberry tarts) are up there with those of Maison Bertaux. (To new readers out there, this is the HIGHEST ACCOLADE WHIMSY HAS TO OFFER!)

There is something intensely life-fulfilling about sitting at a quasi-formica surfaced table, staring into the million layers of a cherry mille-feuille whilst gazing into the eyes of a SIBF replete with new hair cut and winter coat. When you add an extremely well chosen eclectic indie soundtrack, ridiculously attractive serving staff and ultra-cool clientele, you have basically the best cafe in London town.

Quasi formaica tables + super-shiny floors = epitome of lo fi cool.

I have not yet tried a Hazelnut and Honey Latte, but I intend to do so before the winter's out. I am yet to find out the secret recipe of 'London Hot Chocolate', but I have Spooks working on it as I type...

As you can see, detail is all at L'Eto. Where else can you drink a divinely silky, dreamily delicious cappuccino from such a beautiful cup? Sometimes their coffee comes in the most amazing glasses and, seeing as one of my most favourite things in the world is drinking coffee from a glass, this makes me very happy.

This is the cherry mille feuille. It is basically like eating a whole pot of cream. The cream is pillowy, cloud-like, and not at all over-whipped (which is one of my pet hates).
Next time you're in Soho and feel in need of an oasis of non-try hard indie cool amidst the fast paced life of Wardour Street head straight for L'Eto Caffe. You will not be disappointed!

Kisses,

Silver Whimsy x

PS Hipstamatic - quelle revelation!!!!

Hurwundeki

I first heard about Hurwundeki from a wonderful brown paper bag (that I still have) given to me by my friend Lara which contained the most amazing birthday presents ever! (A baking tray and a number of excellent head-bands for the curious amongst you.) Months later, my friend Rebecca suggested meeting there and I was amazed by it's fantasy cornucopia charm.Visiting Hurwundeki is a little like stepping out of the dull grey pages of Hackney Road and into the magic realism of a Carter-esque side-show funfair.A sandy beach gives a home to faded carousel horses and rusted pumpkin coaches;old wooden chairs threaten to tumble over, precariously balancing on the uneven ground; a ramshackle railway arch is transformed into the heart of trendy Shoreditch without being remotely annoying or pretentious. (A miracle in itself.)

You can sit in Hurwundeki for hours at a time and they don't mind. You can order one coffee and use the wi-fi to your heart's content and they won't be rattled.

You can hang out by yourself or with friends and their small children and they will be absolutely cool with it. It is possibly simultaneously the greatest meeting point and private out-of-the-house working place in the whole of London. That is a mighty accolade to bestow on a place but I believe Hurwundeki may well be worthy of it.

They serve delicious Square Mile coffee which is roasted in nearby Bethnal Green and a host of delicious home-made salads and sandwiches and - joy of joys - occasionally cherry pie.

It is most certainly off the beaten track, however, it is also well worth a journey right the way up the Hackney Road purely for the sake of visiting this most delightful cafe haven. You can walk through the beach and enter a world in which your writing/reading/designing dreams can all come true.

Back with baking soon, honest!

Silver Whimsy x

Maison Bertaux

Oh, Readers of Whimsy!

Allow me to take you on the ultimate tea and cake pilgrimage in London... This cafe is the undisputed Number One cafe around London as voted by Silver Whimsy herself since she first arrived in London in 1997! Maison Bertaux.

Not only is this cafe located in the heart of Soho, it is also the BEST place in London for tea.

The shop window is a candy-coloured cornucopia of delights. The baking here is the essence of baking - baking at it's most artful, generous and magical.

Frequently, on a first visit to Maison Bertaux, people can be put off by the seemingly unfriendly service, however it is really just a case of familiarity and being prepared with your order before you enter the cafe!! (They like you to have already perused the cakes and made your mind up before you clutter up their hallway.) When I first started going to Maison Bertaux, I was obsessed with wearing butterflies in my hair, and as a result the extraordinarily beautiful waiters that grace the cafe would occasionally give me an extra cake for my butterfly to feed on! This is the sort of wonderfully romantic and generous gesture that a place like Maison Bertaux can make...

I prefer taking my tea upstairs because it has this amazing secret romantic tryst/writers paradise feeling to it, but there is a delightful space downstairs as well, currently featuring lots of bunting and some pretty tablecloths.

The thing about sitting upstairs though, is that Noel Fielding has had several art exhibitions in the cafe over the years and lots of his writing remains on the walls, so if you haven't got either a notebook or a SIBF with you for company, there is always something with which to occupy yourself! If you tie it right and you're in the cafe when one of his art exhibitions are actually happening, then there is no way you would want a notebook for company because there is way too much to look at!

Your tea (normally brought to you by a ridiculously good looking waiter) arrives in a wonderfully genuine no-nonsense well-pouring tea pot with a generous jug of hot water, milk and a much-used and loved tea strainer. (Modelled below by my SIBF. Look to the left of the tea pot and you will see examples of Noel Fielding's wall-writing.)

The house-blend tea is dark, golden, strong and seemingly never-ending. (If you order camomile tea, they bring you the actual beautiful little flower heads in a pot - how extremely divine.)

One of the truly joyous things about being in Maison Bertaux is that you feel as if you are genuinely attending Alice's tea party, except it is a million times better than expected.... And then there are the cakes...

Words cannot do justice to these epicurean creations. On this visit to Maison Bertaux with my SIBF, I went for my usual favourite cream fruit choux bun. I have no idea how every piece of fruit they carefully choose for their delicacies can be so sumptuous, nor how the cream can be so excrutiatingly delicious.

My SIBF spotted a new cake in the window - one we had never seen before - and so chose it. I was very glad that he did - I would LOVE to know how they make this chocolate icing. It is sticky and chocolatey, smooth and shiny and all encompassing in a way that chocolate icing rarely is - it tastes better than it looks. Other favourites are the Maison Bertaux chocolate eclairs and these almond ring cream buns. Seriously the best patisserie in London.

Whilst Maison Bertaux is on the expensive side, it feels like an occasion being there; you can sit for hours and hours, all the best dressed people frequent the glories of it's slightly ripped black plastic-leather old school 60s almost-beatnik-seats, and you actually feel like your life and creativity have seriously improved by virtue of being there. I cannot recommend it enough.

Baking will resume in a week or two, so keep your eyes peeled for the next Summer of Whimsy!

Patisserie and Papillons,

Silver Whimsy x

PS Whilst this is not the usual Whimsy thing to do, I must leave you with a photograph of the toilets at Maison Bertaux - where else is this the standard of grafitti?!

The Camden Arts Centre

Dearest Readers,

I may well regret this post. For I am about to reveal to you The Secret of Whimsy. Well, maybe that’s a bit of a grand statement, but this truly is my ultimate writing place, my top two café of all time, my place-to-come-to-in-time-of-need, my failsafe, trusted artspace / café / garden / purveyor of a damn fine cup of coffee…

Readers of Whimsy, I present to you...

The Camden Arts Centre!

Hidden away on Arkwright Road, just off Finchley Road is the beautiful late Victorian ex-library that is home to the Camden Arts Centre. There is a changing exhibition every few months, and that is one of the best things about this café – you can always combine a visit with a quick skip and jump around the exquisitely configured galleries with sky-high ceilings, wooden floors, masses of natural light and perennially interesting exhibitions.

The re-design of the building is an architectural tour de force – there is a pretty little garden hidden behind a glass wall

that does a remarkable job of blocking the traffic noise and makes you feel as if you are hidden in a caffeine-fuelled utopian vision of arts for the people!

A major pull of the Camden Arts Centre is its huge tables, daily newspapers laid out, free wi-fi and lap-top friendly atmosphere. I have written dissertations, novels, poetry and endless rants from these tables, and today, for the first time, I am actually BLOGGING LIVE from here!

Is this the birth of site-reflexive blogging? The coffee here was voted as Time Out’s best cup of coffee, and I have to say it is always delicious, never burnt or bitter and one of the few cups of coffee on offer in London that actually gives you a caffeine hit.

I wouldn’t recommend the cakes here, but fresh, home-made, healthy and unusual salads (‘Salad?’ I hear you say, ‘Salad in the World of Whimsy?’ – well, there’s a first time for everything…) are made on the premises right before your eyes every morning, and provide good value for money as well as plenty of your five a day. (It is useful to recompense for the endless slices of cake by coming here for lunch once in a while.)

This café is a complete contrast to Burgh House – whilst you may well fall in love over a cream tea at Burgh House, it would be far more appropriate to come in city-chic post-modern polos and talk Ginsberg over an Americano at the Camden Arts Centre – but equally one of the best in our city of love and poison.

Until next time,

Silver Whimsy x