Cutter & Squidge - Cake Pop-up in Soho

Dear Readers, 

Last week I discovered a hidden sugar-gem in the heart of London's Soho. 

Located on the corner of Wardour Street and Brewer Street in the glass-fronted corner shop that used to be (I think) 'Shop' - my favourite ever Soho boutique run by Pippa Brooks from Britop era indie band Posh - you will find the Cutter & Squidge Soho cake cafe pop-up! It is the perfect location for post-shopping cake eating and re-fuelling. 

Formed by two sisters with the desire to make cakes without food colouring but also without any compromise on taste (which as regulars will know is exactly my aim at Silver Whimsy where if something is pink, that's because it has raspberries or strawberries in it rather than something man-made), Cutter & Squidge have, as well as making dreamy Dream Cakes (which get bonus Whimsy points for having whimsically brilliant names), invented their very own creation called the Biskie which is not a whoopie pie or a macaron (according to their website) but a "moorish blend of crisp, soft, chewy cakey and creamy delivering a massive flavour fiesta!" 

(I'm pretty sure that there's a noun missing from that adjective heavy sentence, grammar pedants, but nevermind.)

Whilst I didn't go for a 'Biskie', I will be going back for one because not only do they look divine and have amazing names like 'The Ambassador', 'I Scream Sundae' and 'Bounty Hunter', but based on having sampled a slice of Dream Cake I am convinced they will be delicious.

In the pop-up Soho shop at the moment, they are also serving soft-scoop ice cream in the vein of The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, which regular readers will know is the ultimate Whimsy Ice Cream favourite. So if it happens to be a sunny day in Soho, why not pop in for an ice-cream pick-me-up?

But let's move on to the CAKES! The cakes in Cutter & Squidge are American style Magnolia Bakery triple layered baking extravaganzas. This is Very Exciting because it is actually pretty hard to find a decent slice of cake in London, let alone fantasy American buttery vanilla old-fashioned wonder cakes! 

I plumped for a piece of the Ice Cream Dream Cake which the delightful girl in the cafe told me was modelled on an old-school Neopolitan ice cream and it genuinely was! The flavours were almost Proustian - the dense, dark, moist chocolate sponge, the super-light ultra creamy and refreshingsly strawberry frosting and the vanilla bean cream-dream flavour sponge and frosting all combined to re-create that sense of running through sprinklers in your best friend's garden after a long hot school holiday summer day in the sunshine.

 As if the cake couldn't get any cuter, it comes resplendent with a mini ice cream cone filled with more of the melt-in-your-mouth strawberry frosting, covered in mini strawberry sugar strands. I haven't felt this way about a piece of cake that I haven't actually made myself for a very long time: I genuinely want to go back and work my way through all the varieties of cake that Cutter & Squidge have to offer!

Follow them on twitter / instagram / facebook OR (best option) go and visit them in Soho before the pop-up pops-down!

#Biskie,
Silver Whimsy x

PS - goes without saying (but is nonetheless very important to say) that their cakes are only made with free range eggs and proper British butter!! 

Whimsy and the City!

Dearest Readers, 

I have just returned from a city break in NYC! Whilst you are all aware my poison is (generally speaking) cake, I felt that I simply must take a break whilst on holiday and enter the alcoholic equivalent of baking: cocktails. As I explained to one exceptionally polite bartender, making a cocktail is rather like baking a cake:- if the ingredients are not in full proportion then the cake/drink won't taste quite right. Seeing as NYC is the ultimate cocktail-capital I felt it my duty to bring you tales of three secret cocktail bars where the drinks are up there with the finest of cakes...

1. PDT

Part of the thrill of the NYC cocktail scene is that each bar seems to come with either a secret entrance, a hidden door, or it's own speciality that enables it to stand out from the crowd. These are not your average British drinking spots, nor are they treated as such by the patrons. PDT (full name 'Please Don't Tell')  is situated on the effortlessly hip St Mark's Place in Manhattan's Lower East Side. (I intend to LIVE in the Lower East Side one day.) To enter PDT you must first pick up the courage to go into a slightly sunken 'gourmet' hot dog shop called 'Crif Dogs':

Once inside 'Crif Dogs', the fun begins! On your left as you enter the restaurant you will see a wooden phone booth...step inside and all is revealed. A hand-written note invites you to dial PDT on the phone and then you await your reception from an immaculately groomed gentleman in a perfect three piece suit with slicked down, side-parted hair. I couldn't possibly tell you any more than that or it would ruin the surprise on entry, but  - traveller's tip ahoy - it really is advisable to book a table (by phoning from 3pm on the day you wish to go) otherwise you have to join the 'walk in' queue from 6pm and most people leave disappointed...

I really do believe all bars should i) be hidden ii) have smashed-mirror toilets and iii) come with a strict etiquette. I might like them all more were this the case. Now to discuss the drinks! I had a Tompkins Square  named after the local park and SIBF had a Paddington Bear named after, ummm, Paddington Bear. The Tompkins Square was PDT's take on a Cherry Manhattan and utterly delicious - dry and crisp with the most succulent maraschino cherries ever to be tasted. I was instantly transported to a finer and more glamorous time. SIBF's Paddington was made with real marmalade in the drink and absinthe and citrus juices mixed with rum. He drank it under PDT's very own Paddington and enjoyed it immensely! We did stay for another drink and the bartender was more than happy to experiment on the theme, so I had my own bespoke version of the Tompkins Square which was extra dry with added absinthe (!). Suffice to say the East Village looked even more like the streets were paved with gold when we emerged from our speakeasy...

2. Death & Co

If PDT is a super-cool underground speakeasy with slightly tongue-in-cheek humour, then Death & Co is the darker older brother who listens to Joy Division in his never-lightened room and has slightly sinister friends. Whilst Death & Co (situated on East 6th Street) does not have a secret entrance, it does not exactly advertise itself either. There are no signs, just a hipster doorman glued to his iphone and a dark oak panelled doorway. Inside it is like the darkened glistening gleaming den of your deepestly dark dreams. The bar is seemingly lit by candlelight and it takes a good twenty minutes for your eyes to adjust fully to the Hadean land in which you find yourself. Once they do, you can savour the sleek bar and gaze in awe as the mixologists craft their drinks. 

SIBF and I had been reliably informed that Death & Co's "thing" was "ice". We weren't sure exactly what this meant until our cocktails arrived. I ordered the Jekyll & Hyde - a short whiskey drink featuring CINNAMON BARK SYRUP, yes, cinnamon bark syrup!! - and it tasted of Victorian libraries. Smokey, sweet and slightly dangerous. But in terms of ice, to preserve the intensity of the drink it came served in an old-fashioned glass with one huge ice cube in it - I mean the ice cube was the size of the glass - meaning the ice dissolved less quickly and so the drink stayed the same until the last drop was drunk. Sublime.

3. La Esquina
Finally, dear Readers, should you find yourselves in NYC on a Saturday night in need of a more 'weekendish' secret bar, then please allow me to alert you to La Esquina between Kenmare and Lafayette in Soho.

This may look like a Taco take out (and if the reviews are to be believed, the tacos are pretty good!) but deep under the streets in the subterranean bowels of New York City is a hidden TEQUILA BAR!! To enter this fun-tastic bar-disco (which was playing, bizarrely, mostly British indie tunes when we were there) you must go into the Taco stall and be sussed out by the man guarding an intriguing looking door in the wall. If you pass the test (I'm not sure exactly what the test is, but we were there with a real New Yorker, director extraordinaire, and he sorted it out for us) you are ushered through the doorway, down a long staircase, across several winding corridors and through a KITCHEN where they make the Tacos for upstairs until finally you come out in a lively Tequila bar with booths, bar stools and an area for dancing. Having never tasted tequila before, being at La Esquina was a 'learning experience', as one likes to say, but I was told on good authority that they have the best selection of Tequila going so if you like Tequila get yourself down to La Esquina!!

This is me post-tequila leaving La Esquina. I'll spare you the image of me and the Taco chef. 

And so, dear readers, there you have my three step guide to NYC bar life. I would do PDT on Monday, Death & Co on Thursday and La Esquina on Saturday for the ultimate in prohibition era speakeasy drinking week!
But remember, shhhhh, tell no-one!
Cocktails and canapes,
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?!