My beautiful neighbourhood

http://www.timeout.com/london/feature/659/london-area-guides-shoreditch

Look what Time Out has to say about La Ditch. Now none of this is cutting edge by any means, bit being a neighbour to any place that swings is why I can never give up and move to the burbs. Also the cakes aren't as good, but that's besides the point.

ottolenghi - islington

My love for Ottolenghi goes all the way back to when I was a student at Kingston University and doing an internship with a now gone bust fashion label. The owner, at the time on maternity leave brought in some cakes which were some of the most delicious I've ever tasted - a bitter sweet chocolate tart and some gorgeous fruit patisserie. Where had these cakes come from? All that was left was a small piece of the sticker used to seal the box.

When I finally moved to central London about four years ago I happened to be walking past and the penny dropped. Ever since Ottolenghi has been a go to venue for fantastic, delicious cakes and the most wonderful salads too.

I want to do the place full credit, with multiple pictures of the spectacular theatre they create with their food but in the meantime I'll have to describe it cake by cake.

Today I happened to have a little wander in Islington, a day off work prompted a visit to Paul A Young and then a jaunt further up Upper Street.

Although, at nearly 5pm, they were tidying away the selection of cakes still looked fantastic. The chocolate cupcake, complete with a generous dollop of mascapone caught my eye; dusted with cocoa, it looked more like a torte than any run of the mill cupcake.

I've never, ever had a cake from Ottolenghi's which disappointed and this was no exception - goey and with a moist centre, this was the most exquisite of cupcakes and comes highly recommended. It required a fork, after an attempt at hand eating left me covered in chocolate.

Also recommended are the brownies, the baileys cake, the flourless sponge cake, the other cupcakes, the tarts... You get the idea.

Back soon with a full post.

an update

I thought it was only fair to post a quick update here about what I've been up to lately.

Firstly, although I originally planned to diet my way through January I failed miserably. In fact after five days of eating tuna omelettes on the attach phase of the Dukan diet I found myself on a wild goose chase in and around a freezing, rainy Oxford Circus and had to get myself a sandwich from Pret, in fact I had their posh cheddar and pickle and a millionaires shortbread, both of which tasted divine and the damp, miserable, hungry me was suddenly revived.

Secondly, I've started a new job; it's been flat out busy and I've been stupidly tired. I've snuck some supermarket cakage in but nothing really to blog about. I've gone flat out against my mantra that if it's not worth getting fat for then don't eat it. A trip to Ottolenghi or similar will soon sort that out.

And then the most exciting development is that I've finally launched my photography website. I've wondered for a while if I could make a little money out of it, I've had really positive feedback from family and friends so I've set up a blog to track my journey. I'm looking to build my portfolio too and looking for anyone who wants a free photoshoot, or to pose for portraits.

Currently I'm planning a couples shoot with my friends Tilly and Lee, which will hopefully be fun and creative, and then one to help my good friend Kathy of 5678 Vintage to promote the work she does selling vintage clothing and accessories.

So please pop over there and say Hi. I just need to work on getting a link embedded into this site too. Let me know what you think about the layout and the design of the blog too, as well as the logo. I'll be getting some business cards printed up soon and need to finalise what the look of the brand will be.

I'm really excited about this new venture but I don't want to neglect LROC like I have been, I'll just be keeping some of the stuff separate; blogging about food (mostly sweet stuff) here, and about picture taking shenanigans over there.

salted caramel sauce

It's been quiet on the blogging front lately, not to say that I haven't been eating. In fact my five days on the Dukan diet, coupled with a wild goosechase around Oxford Street in the rain culminating in me eating a Pret 'Artisan cheese' or whatever they call it, but regardless, man that's a good sandwich. The Whistles trousers still don't fit.

I've started a new job too, and not going to say much other than it has been very busy.

However, the main focus of this post is to wax lyrical about the wonderful birthday presents I received and in particular, Artisan du Chocolat's Salted Caramel sauce.

I mentioned previously how much I loved their salted caramels encased in dark chocolate and bitter cocoa but this is in another league of pure unadulterated loveliness. Despite the label's proclamation that the sauce 'contains molluscs' (yum) this is the most delicious thing, and finding an excuse the pour it on something is half the pleasure.

Last night, Mr LROC was at some middle management conference, so I bought two slices of baked NY cheesecake from Marks and dowsed it in this stuff. Heaven on a plate. Forget the 'taste the finest' gateux with salted caramel shenanigans, this is the real deal. So bitter, so sweet.

My love for salted chocolate seems to know no bounds, maybe I just need to get a cuttlefish in my cage!

Happy 2011!

It's 2011 and the last time I posted anything was ages ago. There just doesn't seem to be enough time to fit it all in. Although I've been doing a lot of eating, I haven't really been committed to the cake malarkey and what with the new year and everything I'm going to have another concerted effort to loose the weight I've regained since doing this blog and get back into the clothes that fitted me six months ago.

I'm not about to change the title to the London Review of the Dukan diet and although I've been adding lots of unrelated photo posts I've decided that these would be best kept in a separate sphere and so I've set up a Tumblr for it - come and say hello!

http://elliegphotography.tumblr.com

i was trying to think of a more creative title but I've got a raging hangover (what else would you expect!)

I'll drop by from time to time with updates, and should be back on the cakes in about 6 months - maybe.

I hope 2011 brings you all everything you hoped for.

cupcake club: the event

So, to some pictures from the cupcake club meet itself.

Unfortunately marred by the tube strike, the turnout was pretty tight but everyone who came along was lovely - there was Anne from I heart Cupcakes and Manny, Kelly from An American Cupcake in London and Marcus, who came along bearing extremely delicious brandy snaps and also very kindly bought me a pint of Blue Moon.

We ate cakes, we talked about the Walking Dead and moaned about TFL and afterwards I felt like I never wanted to eat a cake again (I soon recovered from that).

Firstly Kelly made both mulled wine and gingerbread cupcakes, aside from the sweet gingerbread men the cakes were delish. Even Mr LROC liked them and he only likes fruit cake. Anne's caramel and Bailey's cakes with a soft centre and Quality Street on the top were amazing and just the thing for a pre-Christmas get together. Also, suitably festive were her sprout cakes which won a prize for most novel cake at Cupcake Camp. Although tasting much more like a carrot cake and the cake itself being delicious, I couldn't shake the knowledge that I was eating sprouts, but well worth a try.

On that note it will be fab to meet up again, and hopefully some more cake bloggers too.

cupcake club: the prep

When I heard that Kelly, from An American Cupcake in London, was throwing a pre-Christmas cupcake club I was eager to go along. After all, what could be more fun than sharing a few cakes with fellow bloggers but there was one stipulation on the invite - to bring along 12 cupcakes.

Now, I'd seen Kelly's baking recipes and tutorials on her blog and knew that nothing that I could do would look anywhere near as good, nor be as imaginative as her recipes so I stuck to a classic that I'd made before. Generally I'm more of a sampler, and less of a baker but I attacked these with gusto.

Pretty much the main cookbook I use is the classic Hummingbird Bakery cookbook and this was the recipe for their black bottom cupcakes - a dense chocolate base with a big splodge of cheesecake and chocolate in the centre, covered in a cream cheese frosting.

The ingredients - in lieu of choc chips in Tesco Express (other supermarkets are available) I picked Cadbury's buttons which actually worked out quite well.

The actual recipe can be found on the Guardian website here.

The main base mix uses oil and vinegar, which makes it dense and moist.

The cheesecake mix is a blend of sugar, one egg, cream cheese and vanilla essence which bakes into a New York style cheesecake. I added the buttons directly into this mix.

The chocolate mix was spooned into the cases, and the cheesecake mix on top. Ideally the cheesecake mix should be slightly thicker so instead of spreading out across the top they sit in a little well.

Once baked.

I tried to pipe on the cream cheese frosting so they looked fancy but it just spead back out into an amorphous blob. Oh well, to eat I really liked the soft consistency but maybe I need to just spread it on and dust with cocoa next time.

I also attempted salted caramel cupcakes too; remembering I had an unused can of dulce de leche from my failed try at salted caramel macarons and inspired by a whoopee pie purchased earlier that day from the Sunday Up-Market at Brick Lane. I made a fairly standard white cake base and substituted some of the milk in the recipe for the caramel and added a little more than the usual pinch of salt. For the icing I mixed the left over caramel with icing sugar, hoping to have something stiff enough to keep the piped shapes that I wanted so much - the mix became so stiff that it broke my electric whisk but as soon I piped onto the cakes, again it flattened into nothing. They were also not particularly salty.

I think, considering my current loved for salted caramels and chocs of all varieties there's plenty of mileage in this idea - I just need to work on the execution.

Now only If I'd tried to make some notes on that whoopee pie....