Intrepid Cake Eaters

In Berlin, when the snow lays thickly on the ground, the temperatures are in the minus degrees and the wind whistles down wide streets biting into any part of you that's not wrapped in a military grade parka (a very welcome birthday present from my Mum & Dad), even going out for cake can be a big effort. Sometimes you just want to curl up with a book or a DVD box set and watch the snow through the window.

Having made one successful excursion today to see an interesting exhibition at the Deutsche Guggenheim, a not-altogether-well Coffee Boy and I decided to grab a late lunch and head home. Luckily, there are plenty of options for take-away cake in this town so we stopped in at Barcomi's Deli on our way back to the flat. Barcomi's is quite an odd place for Berlin. The original branch is in Kreuzberg and on previous visits has been cramped, scruffy and ever so slightly disappointing as an afternoon tea spot. The Mitte branch though feels completely different. It's set in a Hof between Sophienstrasse & Gipstrasse and has a light and airy feel. Also, considering its location in the heart of tourist Berlin, it's usually full of Germans. Perhaps it's because it is slightly tucked away - despite the fact I've been there about 20 times I always have to keep my wits about me to ensure I don't miss it; or maybe it's because it's an American themed deli and not what the tourists are looking for on a visit to Germany (not that that seems to have any impact on Starbucks...)

Anyway, today we were just popping in for a cake-away (do you see what I did there..?) and there was the usual scrumptious looking selection of layer cakes, cheesecakes and other American styled goodies. I chose a rather wicked looking Raspberry Ganache Cake, and Coffee Boy was swayed by the Banana & Blueberry Cheesecake. The smiley woman behind the counter wrapped them up for us in that peculiar German way - a cardboard tray with a paper wrapping over the top (I find it extraordinary that a country that takes its cake so seriously packs them in such a precarious way) and waved us goodbye. Feeling pleased with ourselves for thinking ahead to tea time, we trudged home through the snow.

When we got back to the flat and unwrapped the cakes I suddenly remembered that the portions were fairly American too! These slabs of cake were huge. In fact we had enough to last us two days. Perhaps they were making the slices a bit larger to ensure they weren't left with any over the New Year. So far so good. I brewed myself an oolong/white jasmine blend and Coffee Boy made a latte and we settled down to a plate of scrumptiousness. Or so we hoped. Sadly the reality didn't quite live up to our expectations.

My cake had a really tasty chocolate ganache but the cake itself was a bit bland by comparison, but worse than that it was actually really dry, even verging on the stale. I had chosen it because I love the fruit and chocolate combination but the raspberries were pretty thin on the ground and failed to really make an impact over the ganache. Coffee Boy's cheesecake wasn't much better. For a start it didn't have a crunchy base which alone is enough to put him off; the actual cheesecake was banana flavoured which really didn't float my boat and the topping was blueberry which was full of fruit and, I thought, the best bit. All round though, it was also a bit of a let down - heavy and stodgy and too much of a mix of flavours for my taste.

We were pretty disappointed. We have certainly had good cakes from Barcomi's in the past - the chocolate espresso cheesecake was a particular highlight - but this time they didn't excite. Maybe it's the time of year; perhaps the cakes weren't quite as fresh as they usually are; maybe they didn't do well in the cold temperatures. Whatever the case, Barcomi's has slid down the league table of my favourite Berlin cake spots. I will try it again (just to be sure) but probably not for a while. Now, does that count as a new year's resolution?

Christmas Gingerbread Cupcakes

I have been going fairly cupcake crazy since my course last month but I've been struggling to find events to bake for. With my family coming for Christmas I had the perfect excuse to bake some Christmas Cupcakes. I had previously made some for Miss O's party that were like little mini Christmas cakes topped with fondant icing and florist paste Holly leaves, as well as some double chocolate ones decorated with stars, but this time I thought I'd try something different.

My Dad doesn't eat chocolate (!) so I looked for a festive recipe that would suit us all and stumbled across a Martha Stewart Gingerbread Cupcake recipe that I adapted and topped with a cream cheese frosting. Finally I made some Christmas trees out of florist paste and covered them in edible glitter. They went down a treat with the whole family - and I thought they looked really cute. Anyway, here is the recipe

Gingerbread Cupcakes - Makes about 10

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

160 gm (6 oz) Plain flour

1 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

60 gm (2 oz) butter

40 gm (1 1/2 oz) dark brown sugar

160 gm (6 oz) of treacle

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Cream Cheese Frosting

225 gm (8oz) cream cheese

60 gm (2 oz) butter

130 gm (4.5 oz) icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• Mix bicarbonate of soda with 125 ml of boiling water and stir well. Put to one side
• Sift flour, salt, spices and baking powder together
• Cream the butter then beat in the sugar until light and fluffy - an electric whisk is best for this (I recently bought a Kenwood one for £18, it was well worth it)
• Beat in the treacle, the bicarbonate of soda mixture and the flour mixture until well combined
• Beat in the egg
• Line a muffin tin with muffin cases and pipe or spoon the mixture in (no more than half full)
• Bake at 180ºC/350ºF/165ºFan/Gas Mark 4 for 15 minutes. Turn the tray 180 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes. Check that the sponge springs back when poked and that a skewer/toothpick comes out of the cakes clean. Cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely

• While the cakes are baking mix the frosting. Blend the cream cheese and butter - again, best with an electric whisk - then add the vanilla extract. Finally stir in the sieved icing sugar
• Store in the fridge until ready to use
• Pipe onto the top of the cupcakes just before serving

If you want to learn by my mistakes here are a few tips: don't forget to sieve the icing sugar - this resulted in my Mum, my sister and I all struggling to sieve the cream cheese mixture through a pair of tights (not easy and very messy); keep each part of the cupcake in a separate place - the cakes themselves and any decorations in a non-airtight container (i.e. a cardboard cake box) and the cream cheese frosting covered in the fridge; assemble a little while before serving - this may sound a bit of a pain but this is quite a wet frosting that combines well with the gingerbread and as such will start to dissolve decorations. If you were thinking of assembling in advance I would recommend removing the cupcakes from the fridge around an hour before serving and then decorating: but in truth I don't find the fridge to be a friend to cupcakes and I would therefore advise against it.

Happy baking - and eating!

The Purple Palace

I was wondering through Covent Garden, enjoying the Christmassy buzz, recently when I decided to pop into the Tea Palace shop. Before their Westbourne Grove cafe and shop closed down I had a very enjoyable afternoon tea there so was keen to see how the new place compared. I have to admit I was really shocked that the previous place had shut. It was very busy when I went there and whenever I passed it seemed to be fairly packed. The afternoon teas on offer were also pretty pricey so I assumed they were making a packet. But given their decision to close, and subsequently open a retail shop - without a cafe - in the centre of town, I suppose I was wrong.

The new shop is within the Covent Garden piazza and is fairly large being set across two floors. I've always thought that the nicest thing about Tea Palace is their gorgeous purple caddies and I'm pleased to see that hasn't changed. It's odd because the branding of the shop's goods feels very corporate as if they were part of a large chain - sort of like an upmarket Whittard - but, in fact, this Covent Garden branch is their only outlet - aside from their online operation.

They still stock their wide selection of single estate teas and blends as well as a nice selection of accessories. I decided to treat myself to one of their absolutely gorgeous hand tied jasmine flowering teas. They're not cheap at £8.50 for 6 (!) but they are beautiful and taste delicious.

I love the fact there is a proper tea shop in one of London's principal shopping areas. A place where people can treat themselves to something more exotic than a box of tea bags. But there's something about Tea Palace I don't love. I'm not sure what it is: it could be the fairly disinterested service; or maybe it's the corporate feel I mentioned. Whatever it is it's not the first place I think of when I need to buy some tea. I will continue to shop there as their caddies are some of my favourites. But for me the real joy of Tea Palace was their cafe and without that I can't help but feel that something is missing.

An Ulterior Motive

It is a fact that Coffee Boy is an excellent present buyer. He always buys me really great gifts, and I never have to drop any heavy hints. I realise I am very lucky to have such a thoughtful partner but this year I suspect there was a fairly strong ulterior motive to the birthday present he got me: a cupcake making course. I was really pleased that he had not only come up with an original pressie but that he had done his research and found a highly recommended place that offered the course. Having finished my latest project recently I finally got a chance to go along to Cakes 4 Fun in Putney this week.

I didn't really know what to expect. Generally I'm quite happy following a recipe for any kind of cake so I was a bit concerned that he might have wasted his money. But I needn't have worried, the course was brilliant and I learned loads. I arrived about 15 minutes late (thank you London Transport) and when I got into the room the cake mixture was already in the mixer. It was actually something of a relief that the basic bun section was covered so quickly as I thought that watching the "teacher" make what is essentially a big fairy cake for too long would have been a bit Home Economics 1985. Once the mixture was thoroughly mixed we piped (yes piped) it into our cupcake cases and popped them into the oven. Then we got on to the real business of the day - learning to make our cupcakes look beautiful.

We learned to make lovely sparkly butterflies from flower paste; little edible flowers and layered water lillies; a textured hydrangea; and perhaps the most impressive looking decoration, a teddy bear complete with a bow. In the afternoon we learned how to frost our cupcakes with either a fondant icing or buttercream and then we had the fun of decorating them.

The whole day was really great. There were seven of us altogether including a family of four women who had obviously come for a girls' day out. The course leader was a lovely woman called Pen who struck the perfect balance between being informative and authoritative without being too teacherly. By the time our six hours were up we all went home with a large box full of - I thought - brilliantly decorated cupcakes. And they didn't just look good, they were really delicious.


So in the true nature of learning a new skill I came home and spent a small fortune online buying such essentials as muffin tins and cases and a variety of cutting tools to enable me to create some, hopefully, beautiful cupcakes. Well, with Christmas coming up it would be rude not to spread the joy. And let's face it, that was Coffee Boy's intention all along.

Afternoon Tea in a Car Showroom

I've always heard people mention The Wolsley but have never really known what or where it is. I vaguely assumed it was a hotel and had an idea it was on Piccadilly. So it actually came as something of a surprise to discover I have walked past it thousands of times without really noticing it. Far from being a hotel it is actually a former car showroom and bank and only actually opened as a cafe and restaurant in 2003. It says something to its success that it was nestled in my subconscious as a grand old establishment even though it's only recently celebrated its sixth birthday.

I visited on a Sunday for afternoon tea, and once inside it was even harder to believe that they had only been serving food and drink for a few years. It would be easy to imagine various crowned princes of Europe popping in for a cup of tea - but unless Wolsley Motors or Barclays Bank were extrememly accommodating they would have been out of luck.

Thankfully myself and Coffee Boy were not. I had booked a couple of weeks in advance and it was obvious why that was necessary - it was completely rammed. There is something of the air of an old-fashioned railway station cafe about the place - but in a good way! It is bustling and quite noisy thanks to the high ceilings, hard floors and abundance of marble and is certainly not the kind of place to go for a chilled, intimate afternoon. At first I wasn't sure how much I liked the frenetic pace but over the course of the afternoon it grew on me. We both went for the Afternoon Tea as we'd had no lunch and didn't plan on having much in the way of dinner. There was a selection of eight or nine teas and we both opted for the Wolsley Afternoon Blend which turned out to be a suitably robust but very refreshing cuppa. It came served in a wonderful Art Deco style silver teapot with a wooden handle. I took a few pictures but as they have a "no photography" policy I had to be somewhat surreptitious which means they aren't the best...

They were happy to accommodate our vegetarian/pescatarian needs and served us up five finger sandwiches each containing such delights as the classic smoked salmon and other more unusual fillings like cream cheese with sun dried tomatoes. Those set us up nicely for the sugar-fest that was to follow. And what a sugar-fest it was! We had mini-coffee eclairs; lemon & passionfruit tart; a delicious little cheesecake with nut brittle; a beautifully light raspberry macaroon; a very rich chocolate and coffee gâteaux; and what for me turned out to be the unexpected treat of the cakes, a slice of Battenburg. The quality of the cakes really was fantastic. Every single thing was full of flavour and beautifully presented. But as if all that wasn't enough we were also served 2 fruit scones with jam & clotted cream. Yes, regular readers, finally an establishment that understands that scones need fruit! And they weren't those little mini-scones that a lot of places serve up, these were full size and of the perfect consistency.

All round I really enjoyed tea at The Wolsley. The building is beautiful, the service was fast but good, and the quality of the food and tea was exemplary. And for £19.50 a head I didn't think it was that bad value - all things being relative of course, it's not the kind of place you'd go everyday but it's nice for a treat. As I said before, it doesn't have the kind of quiet, refined atmosphere that some of the posher hotels offer, but if you actually prefer the idea of somewhere with a bit of a buzz you could do a lot worse than giving The Wolsley a try. One thing's for sure - you won't go home hungry.

Mastering Pu-erh

I think I have finally cracked Pu-erh tea. I first tried it last year in San Francisco - I realise this sounds somewhat pretentious but it's true! Despite having a rather horrible cold which rapidly turned into sunstroke I walked across half the city in search of the famed Imperial Tea Court in Chinatown. Imagine my joy when I found the address only to discover it had closed down... or more accurately it had moved to the Ferry Building. I was pretty disappointed when I found the new branch as despite being in an attractive building devoted to good food and other lovely things it still felt pretty much a mall inside. I mean, I know malls are practical and all that, but it doesn't compare to being in a fantastically vibrant neighbourhood like Chinatown.

Anyhow, although this was very much early days in my tea obsession - in fact it may well have been the start of it - I hadn't made all that effort not to try a cup of tea. The shop itself was a little underwhelming in terms of decor but there was an extensive tea menu and very helpful staff. We were assisted by a waiter who, bizarrely enough, was from the north of England and he recommended a tea to me - which I can't even remember - and a Pu-erh to Coffee Boy. The main reason I don't remember what I had is that I spent pretty much the whole visit coveting the Pu-erh. It had a lovely refreshing top note above the characteristic earthy taste.

For those of you who've never tried it Pu-erh is a fermented tea. Now any tea purists that are reading this will probably be going mildly apoplectic at this simplistic description but you can find other blogs that will go into the minutiae of the different methods of producing Pu-erh if you want to know more. For me fermented is about as much as I've got my head around as yet. One thing that's for sure is that it's a tea that divides people. Even the master blender at a tea tasting I attended said it was the only type of tea that he personally didn't like.

Undeterred, when I returned home I ordered some loose-leaf Pu-erh (it also comes in a 'cake') and looked forward to recreating the San Francisco experience in the comfort of my own home. Needless to say I didn't. The tea tasted far too earthy, in fact on the verge of mouldy, and was a total disappointment. I'd sort of sworn myself off it deciding that my meagre knowledge wasn't enough to guarantee I could buy a Pu-erh I would actually like.

I happened to mention my experience to Tim at Postcard Teas last time I was there and he very kindly gave me a sample of his loose leaf 1992 Vintage Pu-erh to take home and try. But here was the crucial bit, he told me not only that I could make multiple infusions - something I always do with teas anyway - but that I may actually prefer the taste if I rinsed the Pu-erh before even trying an infusion.

As so often where tea is concerned Tim was spot on. I came home, rinsed the leaves in hot but not boiling water and then made the first infusion. When I drank it there I was transported back to the Ferry Building in sunny San Francisco. It was pretty exciting to realise that the simple act of rinsing the leaves had massively improved the flavour. I guess it's one of those little idiosyncrasies that makes tea such an endless source of fascination. For me it's not really an everyday tea, but it's certainly a special treat to enjoy when the mood takes me. So although it's something of an exaggeration to say I've 'mastered' Puerh, I have at least managed to find a way to enjoy drinking it again. And that's good enough for me.