A key lime croissant & your summer drink...

One you'll want on hand as the sun returns, plus bakery news snippets and a spectrum of lunch recommendations.

May 24, 2023

Good morning!

Long weekends are not what they were pre-kid! I relished my first May Monday alone this week. Last week I accompanied the nursery group to a farm; if I didn’t go, my daughter wouldn’t have been able to. Gut punch.

It also means this newsletter is making it out before the evening!

In an hour I’m leaving to try a new chocolate (from the bean) which is launching in the UK. I’m particularly excited about being able to leave the house without a coat and I have the perfect drink for you for these warmer days ahead.

I’ll tell you all about the chocolate next week or you will probably get a sneak preview on Instagram stories today. In the meantime, there are many delicious things, plus bakery news, which await you below…

Key Lime Pie Pastry of Dreams

Possibly the best thing I ate in the last week. I do really love citrus.

Popham’s turn out such consistently excellent pastries. I love them. I especially love their hybrids between viennoiserie and patisserie. So much thought has gone into each component and they’re so beautifully balanced.

This key lime pie (not a weekend special 🙌🏻) with a ginger biscuit, cream cheese custard, zingy lime compote, cream cheese crème diplomat and ginger biscuit crumbs. It was gorgeous and I really really wanted to buy a second one but didn’t want to queue again!

Key lime pie pastry from pophams. Whole and with cut through

I am sorry I didn’t also get the weekend special of the sweet Margaherita: a wholemeal croissant dough layered with an olive oil sponge soaked with basil-infused milk, tomato and vanilla jam, Buffalo mozzarella pannacotta, basil oil and fresh basil leaves.

Check out their locations and opening hours (every day!) here.

London Bakery Scene Updates

It’s the final days for Meringue Girls. 💔

I really admire them making the decision on their own terms, while they’re still thriving.

If you’re interested in buying their business or taking over their bakery lease then you should reach out to them on Instagram.

If you don’t know them, they became famous for their colourful meringues with fabulous flavours more than a decade ago, but they also make tarts, cakes and cookies and have written two cookbooks: Meringue Girls and Meringue Girls: Everything Sweet.

The bakery by Broadway Market has only ever been open on a Saturday.

📌 Unit 1 Broadway Market, London E8 4TS

NEAREST STATION: Cambridge Heath

I’d expect long queues for these final weekends. Saturdays until 17th June.

You can still order whole cakes and cookie boxes online until then.

Dusty Knuckle are crowdfunding again.

I love that a business can have such heart and such quality. If I lived closer I’d eat a sandwich from there at least once a week.

To support them and get great rewards go to: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thedustyknuckle/the-dusty-knuckle-needs-your-help-again

The rewards are basically pre-purchasing at a discount so it’s a no-brainer, really.

LOCATIONS:

📌 Abbot St, London E8 3DP

NEAREST STATIONS: Dalston Junction & Dalston Kingsland

📌 429 Green Lanes, Harringay Ladder, London N4 1HA

NEAREST STATION: Harringay Green Lanes

Whipped has reopened in Covent Garden!

In a different location:

📌 29 Bedfordbury, London WC2N 4BJ

NEAREST STATION: Leicester Square

Great news for cheesecake fans that can get to central London more easily than Brixton!

📌 Unit 65, Brixton Village, Coldharbour Ln, London SW9 8PS

NEAREST STATION: Brixton

Lunch at Café Cecilia

32 Andrews Rd, London E8 4FX

It’s as good as everyone says it is. I preferred the savoury courses to the sweet (maybe because of not ordering anything with chocolate or fruit), though the deep fried bread pudding is wonderful: squidgy inside, doughnutty edges, resting in a smooth, vanilla-flecked custard soup.

Ordering all of the vegetarian options (4 starters, bread and one main, plus the deep fried bread pudding, custard tart and Guinness bread ice cream) was perfect for two people. With three drinks the bill for two came to £122.65.

NEAREST STATION: Cambridge Heath (Overground)

Less fancy meals

I had perfectly acceptable quick meals from Gopal’s Corner (a sibling of Roti King and it’s really wrong not to get their roti, but I’d just led two back to back chocolate tours and figured I had to say no to something) and from Buy & Bite (a Green Coconut Curry with crispy tofu and rice).

GOPAL’S CORNER

📌 Market Halls in Victoria, Oxford Street and Canary Wharf

BUY & BITE

📌 5A Cowcross St, London EC1M 6DW (FARRINGDON)

A perfect bubbles substitute.

I don’t drink a lot of alcohol (it makes sleeping even more difficult for me) and I don’t really drink any soft drinks (I prefer to eat sugar and I definitely do enough of that every day 😁), BUT I do enjoy a glass of bubbles while the sun is still high in the sky. By bubbles I mean champagne, prosecco or similar, but this Sparkling English Blush Kombucha from LA Brewery also hits that spot for me perfectly while being nonalcoholic and a HEALTH drink. Bring it.

Named after the founder - Louise Avery - rather than the city, this is a heart and health led B Corp business based in Suffolk and founded in 2017.

I really recommend having a bottle of this in your fridge for a warm weekend.

DID YOU KNOW?
Kombucha culture (known as the Mother or SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeasts) can be dried to become a leather-like textile which can be used for clothing. It’s known as microbial cellulose. So cool.
Also, the first time the word was used in the English language (and it appears it was adapted incorrectly from Japanese) was in 1944. Took a while to catch on. Kombucha didn’t really become available commercially until the 1990s and sales are still in growth.
Be careful making it yourself. You can make yourself very sick.

Let me know what you’re most excited to try (or have tried already?).

The Next Delicious Thing