However, Notting Hill is also home to a branch of The Hummingbird Bakery. You should all know by now, I bloody love to bake. I have baked things from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook! Yet... I WAS A HUMMINGBIRD VIRGIN. Sacrilege.
You walk in to a sea of pink (my favourite). Straight away I was overwhelmed. Too. Much. Choice. I didn't know what the bloody hell I was going to choose! It was a toss up between:
1) Biscuit bar (£2.50 take away - I think?! Can't 100% remember!) - a kind of fridge cake/tiffin thing
2) A whoopie pie (£3.25 take away) - something I'd never heard of before but kind of cookie/cake hybrid sandwiched together with buttercream or frosting. A bit crunchier that a cupcake.
3) Black bottom cupcake (£2.50 take away) - chocolate sponge cake with cheesecake baked into the middle with cream cheese frosting.
Right. Nightmare. How to pick.
Top Tip: Ask the staff to help you out! What would they recommend?
Top Tip: Choose something you would never bake at home.
I decided against the biscuit bar, because I can easily make those at home. It was between the whoopie pie and the black bottom cupcake. I asked the woman behind the counter (absolutely LOVELY lady) and she said as a chocaholic, she would go black bottom every time. Mmm. Tempted. But I'd never had a whoopie pie so... No. What put me off the whoopie pie was that they only had red velvet flavour. Red velvet is the most RIDICULOUS cake flavour. It is just vanilla/vague hint of choc sponge with cream cheese frosting. Dyed red. AKA dull.
WINNER: black bottom cup cake!
Taking this back with me on the tube in the cutest packaging I couldn't wait to tuck into this for my pudding.
And boy was it worth it. I wish I had savoured it a bit more and not gobbled it up in 4 mouthfulls. The chocolate sponge was moist. The cheesecake filling tasted like melted rolos in the middle. There was a fucking FANTASTIC cake to frosting ratio and it was just... mmm decadent and smooth and sweet and yum.
There's a reason why Hummingbird have got such a good rep. It's because they are good at what they do. Like, bloody good. Yeah - I think this cupcake hype is overrated (give me a slice of cake any day of the week). Yeah - I think red velvet is MOST DEFINITELY overrated. But I have to say, this black bottom cupcake was just bang on.
Next time I'm going past a Hummingbird, I reckon I'm gonna pick up one of the following (yes, yes, alright I'm a bit obsessed and have been stalking their website):
- slice of carrot cake
- cheesecake brownie
- chocolate and peanut butter whoopie pie
- slice of pecan pie
Oh. Fuck. Better ask the staff again.