Want to eat cake and support a charity?

Plus an excellent cardamom bun and a book you'll definitely want to help you eat out in London.

So much for skipping a week. I can’t seem to help myself!

Short and sweet today.

A celebration cake.

A magic show for kids that made me emotional, proceeded by a soft, properly Scandi cardamom bun.

A book you will definitely want if you like eating in restaurants in London.

Before I get to that, just to let you know that there’s now a live, ongoing community thread for paid subscribers to ask questions of me and each other and share delicious things they’ve tried or see upcoming.

It really bothers me that the orange is not the correct shade. Maybe next week!

A few weeks ago I met a board member of Luminary Bakery who mentioned the social enterprise was celebrating their 10th Anniversary this year. I offered to help if there was any way she thought I could. That offer ended up being rewarded with an invitation to come and taste the cakes made by the bakery along with the bakers who will choose which will be the anniversary cake.

It will be sold in their two bakeries and online this summer from Friday 5th July.

Today!

Here it is, a cake interpretation of sisterhood: Blackberry & Lime, chosen because of how blackberries thrive in bunches and persevere through almost whatever is thrown at them. 🥰

Photo from Luminary of the Blackberry & Lime 10th Anniversary Cake

We loved it.

(I went with Juliet Sear, Jemma Wilson,

Edd Kimber

, Liberty Mendez and

Felicity Spector

.)

Do you know Luminary Bakery? It might ring a bell as Meghan (the one married to Prince Harry) wrote the forward for their cookbook. They’re a social enterprise that employ and train women to aid their journey into the workplace in hospitality or support them getting work in other fields as well. Each year they take 56 women into a two year apprenticeship. The women they employ have all experienced some kind of economic or social hardship. Some of them have escaped domestic violence, others were refugees. Luminary has a joined charity which fundraises to cover the costs of training and receives no government assistance. The profits from the 10th anniversary cake sales will all go to this. It will be available in celebration size, minis and pairs of minis. It’s available in store or online.

They are an inspirational organisation. They also make great cake and other baked goods!

They have two locations, both with seats inside (but no air con we discovered on England’s hottest day of 2024 so far. 🥵😂):

📌 47 Chalk Farm Rd, Chalk Farm, London NW1 8AJ

🚆 Chalk Farm / Kentish Town West

And the original

📌 71-73 Allen Rd, London N16 8RY

🚆 Dalston Kingsland

A local mum recommended this Magic Show for kids to me so we took Maya. Did not expect to have to wipe my eyes! 🥹

It’s pretty intense so just under an hour was plenty! Maya is already asking when we can go again.

It’s running in Soho at Underbelly Boulevard until 4th August.

It’s right next to Cafe Kitty (not a cat cafe) which I’ve heard is good, and three minutes further down Berwick street from Soderberg Bakery which at 10:30am on a Sunday had soft and still warm cardamom buns with caramelised edges.

📌 Soderberg, 36 Berwick St, London W1F 8RR

🚆 Tottenham Court Road / Oxford Circus

I meant to tell you about this last week. I can’t wait to get a copy of this Hoxton Mini Press book written by experienced London restaurant critic David Jaw Paw. The best guide to where to eat and what to order.

London Food - An Opinionated Guide on Amazon and on Bookshop.org. (aff links)

Bon appetit!

Jen xx