Where does Cupcake Jemma love?
She's moved to Hove, but founder of Crumbs & Doilies and the Cupcake Jemma YouTube channel with 2.4m+ subscribers, Jemma Wilson, has London recs too. Plus some summer Soho recommendations from me.
Before I get to Jemma’s recommendations, now that the sun is here - at least for now 😏 - I wanted to let you know about
Excellent new gelato by Oxford Circus
Al fresco gourmet pizza by Tottenham Court Road
A curation of food brands at Wolf & Badger in between the two (with links to order some of them wherever you are in the UK and maybe the world)
Easy iced tea
Exciting gelato flavours
My friend Aneesh Popat of The Chocolatier has launched a gelato range in BritYard (where you’ll also find Grape & Fig cheese selection - including Kinda Co vegan cheese - and other great British food and nonfood brands, and a wine bar downstairs).
I popped over last week to taste them all and I especially loved the greek yogurt | vermicelli | honey gelato. It gave baklava vibes. But they were all great. The flavours are just as creative as those he uses for his chocolates, and some directly borrowed from his truffles.
I also got to try some flavours in development, too. One I really loved, which I hope will be launched soon: raita.
It sounds suspicious, but it was incredible. The cucumber and mint, coriander seed, cumin and yoghurt combined to make something so refreshing. It was between sweet and savoury and just so interesting. I can’t wait for it to launch.
I was thrilled to discover Aneesh now uses only Original Beans for his chocolates. His chocolates were already good, now they’re better.
📌 Brityard, 310, 312 Regent St., London W1B 3AU
🚆 Oxford Circus
Somewhere to eat pizza outside in Soho (at a table!)
Yesterday I was invited to make pizza at Daroco in Soho - just by Tottenham Court Road station. There are quite a few outdoor tables so if you’re looking for somewhere to make the most of the sun and you love pizza then do check them out.
They will tell you themselves that it’s more expensive than the average pizza place (£16-23), but it’s because all of the ingredients are top quality. It definitely tasted like it.
The pizzas are Neapolitan-style, so ultra light in texture (the dough is 70% hydration and proved over a 48 hour period), bendy and soft. Easier to eat with a knife and fork than by hand, not that it stopped me. I really enjoyed the one I made with pesto and sundried tomatoes, but thankfully you don’t have to (nor can you) make it to enjoy it.
They do serve more than just pizza! I failed in getting a photo of the menu but you can see it online here. This London branch opened last October, but they have a place in Paris, too.
📌 Manette St, London W1D 4AL
🚆 Tottenham Court Road
RAYE is back inside Wolf & Badger
Beware getting distracted by the clothes!
RAYE the travelling pop up, curated for conscious consumers across food, drink, wellness and beauty is back, on a slightly smaller scale.
Until 31st July a small part of Wolf & Badger in Soho will be dedicated to a curated selection of food and drinks, including my friend Chloe’s brilliant granola and crackers made from apple pulp (upcycled! full of natural fibre! delicious!), some seriously good Sichuan chilli condiments by Yep Kitchen (definitely buying this, too) and some wonderful, ethically sourced, high grade tea in completely plastic free packaging, including the bags (they’re made from corn starch). JP Originals’ packaging is beaut, too.
I’ve got more things to sample that I might shout out individually in future weeks, but if you’re in the neighbourhood you can pop in and buy yourself, or someone else, a treat.
📌 102 Berwick St, London W1F 0QB
🚆 Tottenham Court Road / Piccadilly Circus
Easy Iced Tea
Speaking of tea, Mariage Freres, the French company that’s been selling tea since 1854, have launched their summer tea concentrate in this gorgeous bottle.
You already know I’m not a big fan of peppermint 😁, so this blend of green tea, peppermint, yuzu and green bergamot was not quite the one for me, but other people there loved it and I could still tell it was well balanced. Not only is the bottle beautiful, I think it’s pretty cool that you can use it for immediate hot or iced teas or in baking.
At their tea room in Covent Garden (such a beautiful oasis from the madness of Covent Garden on an evening or weekend), they’re making a cheesecake and ice cream sandwich with it. The peppermint isn’t obvious in the cheesecake, it very much is in the ice cream sandwich (where it’s amped up by more peppermint, very refreshing if you like peppermint ice cream!).
📌 38 King St, London WC2E 8JS
🚆 Covent Garden
a quick heads up for paid subscribers to this newsletter
(or anyone thinking of becoming one! 😁)
I’ve switched up one of the things paid subscribers to this newsletter get (obv the most important remains the knowledge you’re supporting the writing of these 😘).
Instead of chatting live with me and the rest of the subscribers who are around once a month, I’ve opened up a private chat where you can reach me and the other TNDT community to share exciting things and tips or ask for recommendations, as and when.
I feel like that will be more useful for you. Do let me know what you think. I’m here to be as helpful as possible! I can reinstate the once a month thing, too, if you want?
I‘d love you to join us!
I learnt there’s now a place for people to write something when they sign up as a paid subscriber, if they want to, and I found this there a few days ago and it made my week. Thank you,
. 😊And thanks for indulging my pride and joy in sharing it. It makes me so happy to hear that people trust my recommendations and find them useful! 🥰
Now, to someone else’s opinions!
What does Jemma Wilson love?
You probably already know who Jemma Wilson is, though you might not recognise her by her real name.
Jemma is known to her 2.48 million - yes, MILLION - YouTube subscribers as Cupcake Jemma, where she’s been regularly sharing recipes and demonstrations for all things sweet for more than a decade.
I first met Jemma when she was selling her cupcakes at a special foodies market in Covent Garden in the summer of 2007 or 2008. I met quite a few food lovers and producers I knew via Twitter for the first time there. It was a great market. This was at least a year before Jemma started recording the videos which exploded her business, Crumbs & Doilies.
Now, that cake business includes a gorgeous boutique in Soho selling different recipes daily (there are HUNDREDS in their repetoire); a pilgrimage for worldwide Cupcake Jemma fans, as well as still selling via delivery and for corporate orders, including bespoke celebration cakes.
Jemma was so busy making cakes and videos - and then a human being - that the Crumbs & Doilies cookbook (or here on Bookshop.org) with all the core recipes only came out in 2022. It’s a beauty.
My favourite thing from Crumbs & Doilies is the Cornflake Brownie and thankfully (or not? 😅) she teaches you how to make them in the book.
📌 1 Kingly Ct, Carnaby, London W1B 5PW
🚆 Oxford Circus
Here’s Jemma in her own words (questions in bold by me and so are the bits in [square brackets]):
What brought you to working in food?
I don’t think I knew it at the time but I now know that I have a deep desire for connection through hospitality. Initially I just loved baking, but over the years have come to feel truly at home serving people and giving them a great experience, whether it was on my market stalls, in my shop or, nowadays, through my recipe tutorials.
What food memories from growing up have shaped you or stuck with you?
Fresh iced fingers on Saturday mornings, my grandma’s lemon curd sponge, trying all the flavours of Chewits from the school tuck shop [along with proper Cadbury chocolate, chewits were the thing I missed most about England, living in Australia], being taken to The Brasserie on Fulham Road at the weekends as a kid for buttery artichokes and being treated like a grown up, the annual New Year’s Day trip to Joe Allen for the secret burger and a frothy milkshake. The truth is I was an incredibly fussy eater and eating at home or at friends’ was very stressful. But I LOVED going to restaurants and how FOH [Front of House] staff made me feel so special.
Joe Allen
📌 2 Burleigh St, London WC2E 7PX
🚆 Leicester Square
What’s the most delicious thing (or things!) you ate recently that you’re still dreaming about?
I had an amazing passionfruit cheesecake gelato from Boho Gelato in Brighton that I was so surprised to love because normally I don’t go for fruity flavours. I also recently experienced the best doughnuts of my life from Small Goods in Bristol. I can’t wait for another one!
Boho Gelato
📌 31 Ship St, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 1AD
📌 6 Pool Valley, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 1NJ
🚆 Brighton
📌 140 Montague St, Worthing BN11 3BZ
🚆 Worthing
Small Goods
📌 Unit 3, Temple Quay, 2 Glass Wharf, Bristol BS2 0EL
🚆 Bristol
What’s your most memorable meal and why?
I ate at Locanda Locatelli about 15 years ago. It was my first time eating in such an expensive restaurant and the first time in such a quality establishment! The service was amazing. I was made to feel utterly like I belonged there, despite the rest of the clientele being much more likely to dine there or in similar places on a daily basis, and me being much more used to cheap, relaxed local places. I’ll never forget it. I needed the loo at one point and before I’d so much as shuffled my butt out of my seat, one of the team had pulled the table out of my way like they’d read my mind! And of course the food was incredible.
📌 8 Seymour St, London W1H 7JZ
🚆 Bond Street / Marble Arch
Which restaurant or bakery or other food place are you most excited about visiting?
I still haven’t made it to Quince Bakery.
I used to live in the area and I’m gutted it can’t be my local, everything looks amazing.
I’ve recently had a few trips to The Street Bakeshop in Old Basing, while visiting friends, and have been blown away by everything each time. It’s getting to the point that I’m suggesting I visit my friend mainly so I can go there. I wish someone would do something as good in Hove, which is a barren wasteland for really good baked stuff.
Quince
📌 267 New N Rd, London N1 7AA
🚆 Essex Road
The Street Bakeshop
📌 The Street Bakeshop, The St, Old Basing, Basingstoke RG24 7BW
🚆 Basingstoke
What do you think is overrated?
Those…