Pret a Manger (London, day 6)

Judging by the number of sandwich shops and other fast food restaurants in the city, Londoners (except Nigella) never cook. Seriously, I have never seen that many sandwiches and soups anywhere. If it's a store, they have sandwiches. Next to shampoos? Yes! Newspapers? Of course! It doesn't even have to be a grocery store; if they have a cash register, they almost definitely have sandwiches. 

When I was reading my Rough Guide to London, trying to find some good places to eat at, I came across an article about two sandwich shop chains that aren't like the others. EAT is a chain, founded and owned by a married couple, who wanted to offer fresh, quality sandwiches, soups, salads etc. That was 14 years ago. Today, they own around 100 shops across London and UK; they prepare all their food in regional kitchens, and deliver them to their shops every morning, so it's always fresh. 

The second chain mentioned in the article was Pret a Manger. Pret was founded 24 years ago by two college students, who wanted to serve food made with quality, fresh ingredients and without preservatives and other chemicals.  Now they own over 200 shops, more than 100 of them in London. Each shop has a kitchen, where the food is prepared throughout the day and everything left unsold is collected by charities. Sounds impressive, huh? 

Pret and EAT are not hard to find in central London; everywhere you go, just look around you and chances are, there'll probably be at least one of their shops. We went inside Pret numerous times, and even though I don't eat sandwiches (which taste good, as I was told), those desserts they offer really caught my eye. Especially that Chocolate Moose that you can see on the photo. I forgot about it every day and remembered when we were already at the hostel and it was too late. Luckily, they have not one, but two shops at the Stansted airport; one before and one after security, in the departures lounge. 

I was really looking forward to that Chocolate Moose. It had now been 5 days since I first saw it and I simply needed it. So the first thing after going through security was, obviously, to go to Pret and get one of those Mooses! (Sometimes the Pret shops are also sold out of something and I was afraid that if that happens, I'll never be able to try that Moose and I'll never know how delicious it was.)

When I got there, I was relieved - they had lots of Mooses. So I bought one. For a little less than 2 £. I took a dark red plastic spoon and found a place to seat and eat it in peace. As I was tasting the first spoon... It was just disgusting. I expected something soft, creamy, chocolate-y, and all I got was this. So the first layer, the white one, is based on sour cream. And yes, it's SOUR. The second and the third layer are chocolate, but don't taste very good. The last layer has a really strong flavor, like a dark dark dark chocolate. I even tried getting all three layers onto my spoon to see if that tasted good. It didn't. So there I was, disappointed, as always. To top it off, I just ate something with more than 500 calories, and I hated it.

I should have gotten the chocolate cake.

Krispy Kreme (London, day 5)

I'm sure you've already seen the donut on the photo many times. It's from Krispy Kreme! I've always wanted to try the ''real, american donuts'', the ones that policemen buy every day and bring to work in TV shows (do they do that for real?). It was very convenient to find out, that I don't have to spend 500€ for a plane ticket to the US, since they have Krispy Kreme donuts in the UK too.

If I'm honest, I didn't really know what to expect because I eat a lot of donuts at home and I love them. I thought I would like these more! But I was wrong. (Again...). We ordered the Chocolate iced with sprinkles donut and the chocolate-filled-with-chocolate donut. I tried the sprinkled one first and wow, I could almost hear my pancreas screaming. I still don't get it; why would anyone glaze the donut with sugar, then cover it with chocolate AND sprinkle really sweet sprinkles over it? And I thought the donuts I eat at home were sweet! One of these contains 293 calories, while the cream-filled donuts contain even more. Unfortunately, I didn't read this information until after I came home. Ha.

Next one on our menu was the chocolate filled donut, or, as they call it, the Chocolate Dreamcake, filled with chocolate fudge filling. I used to like chocolate donuts at home, when they still had chocolate cream inside. Then they started filling them with vanilla cream! Why, oh why, I kept asking myself, but it didn't help. As one would expect, I was disappointed after trying this donut too. Again, it was too sweet. And overpriced too! The donuts with the hole cost well over one pound each, while the regular ones (filled) cost even more! And they're really small. I don't understand why so many people would want to eat them every day. I'm sure I never will again, since the donuts I eat at home are much healthier (as funny as the phrase ''healthy donut'' may sound) and taste a lot better.



Those of you who like donuts can find their shop in the Selfridges Food Hall on Oxford street. They also offer them in many other grocery stores. But really, if you can, have a cupcake instead. Seriously.

• Candy Cakes (London, day 1)
• Lola's Cupcakes (London, day 2)
• Patisserie Valerie (London, day 3)
• Selfridges Food Hall (London, day 4)

Selfridges Food Hall and Lola's Cupcakes (London, day 4)

I went to the Selfridges Food Hall almost every day of my stay in London. Not just to buy food (I don't really have that much money) but to look at the beautiful cakes, pies and macarons... One day,  I was there in the evening and one of the patisseries (I forgot which one it was and the box that the cake came in just said Selfridges Food Hall!) had a discount on the Red Velvet cake and Chocolate cakes. It's the second bakery on the left, if you come to the food hall from the main building.

How could we possibly resist a cake ON SALE? So yes, the Red Velvet cake came home with us.  But maybe it would have been better to buy the chocolate cake. This one wasn't that good. It tasted good enough to eat, but nothing special. The frosting that you can see on the picture wasn't cream cheese frosting, but the classic frosting, made with flour and milk. I'm not a fan. I even made it myself once, but I still prefer the cream cheese frosting. The cake was also a little burnt. It didn't show, of course, because of the color. I like this fact about dark cakes. It helps me too sometimes. :) I'm definitely coming back to this shop, since there were so many luscious cakes and pies and cupcakes to choose from. There is no option to eat in though; you can either take the packed cakes home or eat them at the counter on the other side of the food hall. That can be a problem though, if you don't carry a fork with you at all times.

This is the Red Velvet Cupcake from Lola's Cupcakes (yes, we went there again). The frosting on top is cream cheese frosting. It was definitely better than the red velvet cake we had bought earlier. And doesn't it look delicious?

I must say that I'm not a fan of Red Velvet cake at all, so I'm not very objective. But I can certainly say that Lola's cupcake was better. However, every time I see red velvet cakes, I ask myself, why is coloring the cake batter with huge quantities of food coloring (which, by the way, is toxic) so acceptable? I only attempted to color the batter for my cupcakes once, but when I poured a few spoonfuls of the coloring into the bowl and saw that it had no effect, I just stopped right there because I didn't want anyone to eat something so full of chemicals. To color the whole bowl of batter, I would've had to pour the whole bottle of coloring in it and even the instructions on the bottle stated that this was too much!  There are things in our food that are far less toxic than colorings, but I don't hear anyone talking so excessively about these. Which is weird. I wouldn't mind using natural food colorings though, if I knew where to find them, so if you know where to get them, please leave a comment! I might even make real Red (and not brown) Velvet cupcakes myself one day.

Selfridges Food Hall

400 Oxford Street, W1A 1AB

• Candy Cakes (London, day 1)
• Lola's Cupcakes (London, day 2)
• Patisserie Valerie (London, day 3)

Patisserie Valerie (London, day 3)

Before I went to London, I made a plan for everything. I even listed the must-see (must-eat) cupcake bakeries and cafes. When I got there though, not everything went as planned and I ended up not following the plan, simply because there were so many shops and cafes to stumble into that I didn't need additional ones. Even though I hadn't planned about going there, I was pretty sure that I had read about Patisserie Valerie in my Rough Guide to London but when we decided to go there, it just disappeared from the book! I found it, 10 minutes later, under the name of Patisserie Valerie at Sagne, which sounded a little weird, but that didn't stop me. (An hour later, while browsing my shopping map for where to go next, I found another Patisserie Valerie there, the one that I saw first and wanted to go to.)

Patisserie Valerie was founded in 1926 by Madam Valerie in Soho. It was an instant success. That was the only shop until 1993, when Sagne joined them. Sagne was founded by the Swiss chocolatier and patissier M. Sagne in 1921; now this Marylebone cafe is called Patisserie Valerie at Sagne and that's the one I visited. Right now, there are 19 Patisserie Valerie cafes in London and another 12 in other British cities. From what I've read on Tripadvisor, that seems to bother some people because the service isn't what it used to be and the cakes aren't the same either. I can't judge though; this was my first time there.

Patisserie Valerie on Marylebone High Street is (conveniently) located within walking distance from Oxford Street, a few minutes north of the Bond Street tube station. It's a nice walk, but unfortunately not long enough to burn all those calories! Except you're carrying 20 full bags of clothes, shoes or whatever you can buy on Oxford Street. Then, maybe, it's enough.

I really liked the exterior of the cafe, but they only have three tiny tables outside and there was no room, so we had to go sit inside. It was a little crowded with all those tables and chairs, but since there were almost no people in there, it was manageable. First, I checked what they had on display and yes, their selection of cakes is amazing. Not just cakes, but everything else too. Cupcakes, macarons (2£ for one macaron, seriously, who pays that much for one bite of anything?), profiteroles, donuts, eclairs, cheesecakes, croissants, muffins, smoothies... In addition to all that, they also serve real food - breakfast, lunch, brunch - sandwiches, eggs, porridge, soups, omelettes and salads. Thinking about this, I just want to go back there right now. After eating chocolate cupcakes for two days I was a bit fed up with it, so we chose the Black Forest cake (for me) and the Double Chocolate cake. 

Don't they both look delicious? And trust me, they were. My Black Forest cake had just enough cherries for every bite and ahh, I enjoyed it. I really did. I don't usually order Black Forest cakes anywhere because they are always so high and full of whipped cream and I hate that. (Also, I usually don't like their cake:cream:cherries ratio. I would prefer more cherries.) This one wasn't. It was just perfect. The only weird thing was the chocolate decoration on top, which was disgusting. The cone, not the Patisserie Valerie sign (isn't that a nice touch?). But who cares about decorations. I want cake! (And I got it.)

The chocolate cake was, well, chocolate. It even had a half of a profiterole on top of it. By the time that I tried it, I'd had enough of chocolate for that month and I really wasn't objective. It was good though, I can't say it wasn't. You even get a special cream-colored Patisserie Valerie napkin, which I didn't use, so I could bring it home. Every piece of cake costs about 4£, while the cupcakes and the macarons cost 2£. The whole menu is available on their website. If you're in London, you have a lot of money and you don't know where to spend it, I would suggest coming to one of the Patisserie Valerie cafes. Every day. There are 19 of them in the city after all, so they can't be very hard to find!

Patisserie Valerie - Marylebone

105 Marylebone High Street

London

W1U 4RS

• Candy Cakes (London, day 1)
• Lola's Cupcakes (London, day 2)

Lola's Cupcakes (London, day 2)

There isn't a shopping street in the world more famous than London's Oxford Street. It's Europe's busiest shopping street with more than 500 stores! Ever since I've heard of it, I'd wanted to go - I'm somehow addicted to shopping. When I finally got to do it, I spent two days wandering around, trying to find something to buy, cute but not too expensive. In the end, I came home empty-handed. It was so crowded that getting into some of the affordable stores, like Top Shop or Primark, was extremely difficult, and actually browsing for something I'd like to get was impossible. Needless to say, I was disappointed because it was nothing like I thought it would be.

My favorite store on Oxford Street was Selfridges. It's a high end department store, the second largest shop in the UK (after Harrods) and it's 101 years old! The building is humongous (540,000 square feet or 50,000 square meters) and the architecture is just amazing. It really stands out in the ''crowd''.

I love department stores. They're usually more expensive, so they aren't that crowded. I don't actually buy those famous expensive brands that they sell, but I spend my time in other areas of the store, like the bookstore, stationery, food hall... That's why I like these stores so much, anything you want is right there in the same building. In Selfridges, I even got to touch a cranberry Kitchenaid Stand Mixer (I thought that color was discontinued!?). At first I wanted to take a picture with it but then I decided it would be best to just walk away (after five minutes of looking at it) and not look like a mental patient. I'm not sure I succeeded with the latter. 

If you like food in any way, the Selfridges Food Hall is unbelievable. There's a great choice of takeaway food and even more cakes. I've never seen anything like it. Although some of the prices, like one scoop of ice cream for 2 pounds (seriously?) were shocking, other things seemed actually worth it. I found my second cupcake stop right here, in the Food Hall: Lola's Cupcakes. They serve normal and tiny cupcakes, at 2.25 pounds for the normal one and 1.10 pounds for the tiny one to take away, prices to eat in were slightly higher. They also sell beautiful boxes of 9 different tiny or 4 different regular cupcakes, giant cupcakes (called Show girls), cupcake cakes and bottles of colorful sprinkles. 

I treated myself to two tiny (mini) cupcakes: chocolate and Oreo. This is the box they came in. Isn't it cute? I didn't even get any frosting on it, so I could bring it home.

I didn't eat them right away, so they had to wait in their little box until I got to the hostel. First, I tried the chocolate cupcake. It tasted good, although the batter was a little dry. I blame myself, because I should have eaten them sooner. I loved the huge sprinkles on top. 

The Oreo cupcake was a different story. It just didn't taste good. I don't know why they even bothered naming it Oreo, apart from the cookie on top there wasn't much taste that would even remind me of Oreos. But I should have known this before I ordered it, since it didn't look impressive at all. Luckily I chose two tiny cupcakes, so I could eat both of them whole.

I'm definitely coming back to Lola's next time I'm in London, since there are so many flavors to try! Fifteen, to be exact. If you want to try some Lola's cupcakes, you can find them in the Selfridges Foodhall, but they also have other locations (Harrods Patisserie Counter and a cupcake counter in the Top Shop store on Oxford Circus for example). If you live in London or somewhere in the UK, you can also order their products online (Lola's Online Store).

LOLA's Cupcake & Coffee Bar

Selfridges Foodhall

400 Oxford Street, W1C 2BU

• Candy Cakes (London, day 1)

Candy Cakes (London, day 1)

Guess who's back from London! And not just back, suffering from post-London depression too. I have a terrible cold that I always get when I come home from a vacation. London is awesome and I can't wait to go back (which, hopefully, will be in December). I saw the mummies in the British Museum, the dinosaurs in the Natural History Museum, one of the first Dyson vacuum cleaners in the Science Museum (it was pink!), nothing in Tate Modern (I still can't believe that any of those paintings qualify as art), and all the Monets, Manets and Picassos in the National Gallery. Oh yes, and I watched Inception in the BFI IMAX, the largest screen in Europe. It's my new favorite film (and I'm definitely coming back to this cinema)!

I spent my first minutes in central London buying an Oyster card at the Baker Street tube station. Which is also home to this beautiful bakery - Candy Cakes. Their cakes and cupcakes were so cute! Unfortunately I couldn't decide which one I want, so we went to the hostel first and when we came back a few hours later, they were already closed. But that didn't stop me from coming back next morning! I'm not a fan of fruity flavors, so I chose the double chocolate cupcake. I paid the ridiculous price (3.50 pounds if I remember correctly, and the price to eat in was even higher) and got the cupcake wrapped in plastic and a cute paper bag.

I didn't even attempt to eat it in public because it looked so sticky. When I got home, I opened the package and found out that I was right, it was sticky. Very sticky. I think it was covered with melted chocolate, but there must have been something added to it, because it was too sweet to be made of chocolate only. And it was huge. For my first bite I had to open my mouth as wide as a snake, when it tries to swallow a whole elephant. Seriously. 

I wasn't too impressed with the flavor. The batter tasted good, but topped with this chocolate-whatever, it was so sweet that eating it would probably result in a diabetic coma. And I don't even have diabetes. So I stripped the cupcake and ate its lower parts only. 

This certainly wasn't worth the huge amount of money I paid for it (considering that I had to throw half of it away because it was inedible). If I ever come back to this bakery, I'm going to order one of their normal-looking cupcakes and hope they taste better. Which reminds me, they also serve beautiful cakes and other sweets, but my mission was to try cupcakes only.

The overly-sweet cupcake almost made me lose faith in chocolate cupcakes. But it didn't. I overdosed on chocolate though. For the first time in my life, which certainly means something! 

Candy Cakes 

Shops D&E Jubilee & Bakerloo Lines

Booking Hall, 

Baker Street Underground Station

London NW1 5LA

0203 145 1857