Cupcake Blog

Brighton based charity baking competition, Brighton Bake Off, received a boost today by confirming that BBC 2’s Great British Bake Off winner Edd Kimble will be a judge. Edd took part in 2010’s televised baking competition where he was pitted against 9 other hopefuls through a series of increasingly difficult baking challenges. He was crowned winner at the final at Fulham Palace London which was aired on 21^st September.

Brighton Bake Off will take place on Saturday 3^rd of September 2011 as part of the Brighton and Hove Food and Drinks Festival at an undisclosed central Brighton venue.

People who are interested in taking part or would like to know more are encouraged to register at the website http://www.brightonbakeoff.co.uk. Entries will be open to anyone under three main categories; children, amateurs and professionals.

Brighton Bake Off is a charity event set up in 2011 to help raise money and awareness for the fight against HIV/AIDs. For 2011 the event will be donating proceeds to Sussex Beacon and is currently seeking another charity to support.

On Thursday 3rd March from 7pm to midnight the Indulgence Cupcake Company Team will be part of an amazing shopping and pamper evening  at the G Casino. The event is is in aid raising money for Marie Curie.

Come along and buy our delicious cupcakes and watch us at work creating our amazing designs.  We will be there to answer any questions you may have, maybe you are planning a party, organising an event, getting married, or having a baby shower.  We can chat with you about designs, colours, flavours, funky or retro ideas, we can even book your event for you on the night.  We will also be bringing along our beautiful designs for a perfect Mothers Day gift. So dont miss out!  Put it in your diary and we will see you there!

G Casino, 9 Grand Junction Road, Brighton, BN1 1PP

FREE ENTRY

(You must be over 18)

We’re often asked if we can send our buttercream cupcakes out via post. We don’t blame people wanting to order from miles away as they are so yummy! But we’ve always said no. The reason being that unless we are to hand deliver them ourselves we cannot trust the post or a courier to delivery them in the condition we want. OK, so we’re perfectionists but that’s what has earned our cupcakes and service such high praise!

We decided to test out some competitors to firstly see how they packaged their cupcakes but also try their cakes out. To state for the record that we have tried a lot of cupcakes from some of the well-known and lesser-known bakeries. We will always give praise where due and we’ve found a few places that match the quality of our cupcakes. That said we we’re very disappointed with what we got through the post.

The quality of the cakes we felt were very poor. It would be unfair to try and compare these cupcakes to a fresh one as they were at least 2 days old by the time they reached us! They cakes were very dry and had a “processed bath sponge” texture. The buttercream icing left a lot to be desired! One was so sugary it reminded us of the old sugar mice we used to buy as kids! Yuck!

The packaging on the first delivery was done with great effort and we were impressed with the lengths they had gone to protect the cupcakes. The tops had been squashed a little which didn’t do much for the look. But hey, what do you expect from cakes through the post?

The second company, well, was shocking! I think we’ll let the pictures speak for themselves!

Unopened box

Opened and stood up correctly

We couldn’t even express how disappointing this is and wondered whether this company had any complaints or whether we had been unlucky! Not only was there nothing to hold the cupcakes upright, but nothing to  stop them from hitting the top of the box when turned upside down.

On both orders we noticed that they has put warning signs such as “fragile” and “this way up”. We did have to laugh at the latter given what we know about the postal system! The other surprising thing was that the cupcakes where not sealed very well leaving them exposed to the elements more than we would like. When sending out photo cupcakes out we always individually bag them to keep them extra safe!

We are continuing to work on different idea of how to post our gorgeous buttercream cupcakes to anyone in the UK and we will let you know when we get there! We have also developed a fun range of “posted” cupcakes which are amazingly tasty and topped with an amazing “fudge” icing! Details to follow soon! And of course our photo cupcakes can be sent via post

Have you had any experiences with cupcakes through the post? How did you get on? What are your expectations? Comment below:

It’s not often you can say a national treasure has enjoying you cupcakes, but we can say just that.

Ronnie Corbett, comedy legend popped along to the VIP area of the Paddle Round the Pier festival this year to relax in the chilled out space and enjoy a cupcake. We’d donated a massive tower of our tasty cupcakes to the cause and had decorated them with beach themed treats including surf boards, flips flops on “sand” and beach balls.

Everyone who came over the weekend enjoyed them, especially Ronnie!

Who wouldn’t like a free cupcake? Want to be a cupcake tester?

Our philosophy is that our cupcakes have to be perfect. We love our cupcakes and everyone who tries them does too! And we’re throwing open our doors to our cupcake bakery and our ideas to get to know you and what makes the perfect cake. Not only the cake, but the service we deliver and all the other bits that go with it.

We’re inviting all our Facebook fans to join us in a continuing series of cupcake tasting sessions to get to know you and what you look for in a cupcake bakery!

Join up today and get involved www.facebook.com/indulgencecupcakecompany

Indulgence Cupcake Company Team x

A beautiful location in the heart of Brighton, the Hotel Du Vin hosted our latest wedding creation.  Daisies in hot pink!

Zoe recently contacted us about some cupcakes she wanted for her partner’s 40th Birthday Party. Our brief was to create some cupcakes based on the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party! Have a look and see what you think.

Zoe was very pleased, here is what she said:

“What can I say, your cupcakes are just delicious and the work that has gone into them, tremendous. Wonderful service, I ordered 54 cupcakes for my partners 40th birthday, I wanted a theme based around the Mad Hatters tea party and you truly delivered. From Cheshire cats, Mad hatters hats, playing cards, to daisies – your cupcakes were the talk of the party. We are getting married next year and we will definitely be contacting you at Indulgence Cupcake Company. Thank you so much.”

Did you get a chance to come see us at the Tea Dance Tent this year at Paddle Round the Pier? We had a great day and we sold lots of our delicious cupcakes!

A big thank you to all who came along and to the guys who set up Paddle Round The Pier, a great charity event. Luckily for us the weather was lovely, albeit a little windy!

We were very lucky to be asked into the VIP area for the event to supply complimentary for all the VIP guests. We went all out and hand made little flips flops for a mini beach scene, surfboards on the waves and beach balls. As always these were very well received and they disappeared so quickly!

Have a look at some pictured below!

Cupcake Tower in the VIP tent!

Handmade flip flop and surf board decorations

Paddle Round The Pier Printed Cupcakes, yum!

The term cupcake was first coined long ago in 1828 by Eliza Leslie in her “recipe” cookbook and had long been considered an American product which was made popular by the Sex and the City TV series.

There are actually two variations of the term cupcake; “cupcake” and “cup cake”. The first referring to the old pottery ramekins that these individually portioned cakes where baked in. The latter referring to the measurement of cups used in the recipe for cup cakes on the other side of the Atlantic.

You may also refer to them as Fairy Cakes if you are in the UK. This name given in reference to the size of the cake, perfect for a fairy tea party!

You don’t have to look far to see the debate on the true name for these little cakes. But we stand firm in calling them cupcakes, not only because everyone else does, but because we like it.

The sponge

If you have every made yourself a batch of cupcakes and looked up a recipe online you’ll notice that there are many variations for the recipe. Everyone boasts about having an authentic American recipe, and we congratulate them. But at Indulgence Cupcake Company we have a very different theory.

Our family was brought up on traditional English cake, the kind of stuff Nan used to bake. In fact, our recipe is exactly that, the kind my Nan used to make. My good old Nan used to whip up at least a cake a day, all sorts, she never stopped. But my favourite was always her sponge; moist, full of flavour and delicious! She swore by her recipe and it was a closely guarded secret.

We have used this recipe since the day we started baking cupcakes as we know it makes for the most delicious cupcakes in the UK. Some people have often asked us about the quality of the sponge as they have concerns that they will be tasteless and dry. We reassure them that you can eat our sponge without any icing and still have an amazing experience.

The Great British Cupcake

We are proud to call ourselves The British Cupcake Company because we know the British palette for cake has evolved differently from the rest of the world. We offer the finest British Cupcakes which we know you will love.
Of course, if you disagree there are plenty of American Cupcake companies in the UK for you to choose from.

This Sunday, the 4th July, will be known as Cupcake Independence Day!

Jeremy
Director

Sources:

Wikipedia

We’re very excited that we will be coming to the Paddle Round the Pier festival this year!

We will be hosting the Tea Dance Tent at this year’s festival and will be selling our yummy cakes alongside all the dancing! Hopefully the weather will be perfect for a bit of tea and brighton cupcake! Either way make you pop along to support Europe’s largest free beach festival, support the great causes and grab yourself a cuppa and cupcake!

Yum!