Cupcakes and cookies and crepes, oh my!

I almost forgot my password for this blog...that's a sign that I need to post more often!

Anyway, I'd like to dedicate this post to all things sweet.

If you know me well enough, or really if you know me at all, you know that I love anything with sugar. More specifically, desserts and baked goods. In fact, the other day I had honeycomb crumble cheesecake for dinner (because I had eaten in the middle of the afternoon and didn't feel like ordering a proper meal when we went to an Italian restaurant later that day). There's another LMU girl here who has just as big of a sweet tooth as I, so we have made it our mission to try everything with loads of sugar. She might even be worse than I as she always buys candy bars or cookies as the grocery store!

Cupcakes:
The Hummingbird Bakery, South Kensington: Beautifully decorated cupcakes with awesome cream cheese icing. They have specials of the day (like marshmallow) but they also carry staples like chocolate and vanilla. My favorite so far is the red velvet cupcake.

Candy Cakes, Covent Garden: Wouldn't call these cupcakes beautiful, but they are way cute. So many crazy colors! The frosting looks more like that fondant icing. I had a really good toffee banana cupcake (by the way, London seems to love toffee - you'll find it in candy bars, in banana bread, in McFlurries - toffee is like the chocolate chip here).

Next stop for cupcakes: Primrose in Covent Garden, which Jess said was really good, and Crumbs and Doilies which unfortunately only has a stand at the Partridges Market on Saturdays - I don't know when the next Saturday I'm in London will be.

Cookies:
Sainsbury's: I've actually had delicious chocolate chip cookies here. They come in a pack of 4 or 5 for about 1 pound. They're labelled "American style" because they are soft and chewy. They aren't as good as those Nestle break-and-bake cookies but very satisfying, especially since they're about the size of a CD.

Tesco: Also has freshly baked chewy chocolate chip cookies, about 41p each. Sooo good.

Next stop for cookies: I've seen Oreos in grocery stores so I know I'm going to be craving those soon. McVities Digestives chocolate cookies are everywhere. They don't sound or look the most appealing but Jess says they're good, so I'll try them sometime. Also a chain bakery called Ben's Cookies. I bought a huge chocolate chip cookie from Harrod's that looked delicious, but was of the crunchy cookie kind, so I didn't enjoy it too much. And it was sickeningly sweet.

Crepes:
Portobello Road Market: There are several crepe stands here. I ordered a simple crepe with banana and cream, but the cream was just whipped cream from the bottle. It was good for a snack while shopping around the market, but not something that I'll be dreaming of.

Creme de la Crepe, Covent Garden: Great range of sweet as well as savory crepes. Had staples like nutella but also other fun ingredients like some kind of applesauce and cinnamon crumble. I enjoyed my banana and double cream crepe, but it was hard to eat out of the cardboard holder. Also it was a pretty heavy crepe - I watched them cover it with butter while cooking it. Delicious but a bit much.

Next stop for crepes: The Kensington Creperie which is in my hood. I've heard good things about this place. Needless to say, I'm partial to KC's - I miss the easy to tear paper wrapping and homemade custard cream. But I'll continue the search here in London.

Other notable mentions:
Oddono's, South Kensington: This is the most delicious gelato I've ever had. My flat is obsessed with it - we've gone at least once every week, sometimes even twice. I can't say til I've been to Italy and had gelato there, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's comparable. The staff seem to be Italian (at least their shirts all say "Italia" on the back). They make the gelato every day and often switch up the flavors, though staples like chocolate chip and vanilla and mango sorbetto are always around. My favorites so far are tiramisu and caramel.

Bailey's Haagen-Dazs ice cream: I've never seen this flavor in the States but since the grocery store only seems to carry Bailey's and strawberry cheesecake I gave in and tried Bailey's. So. Good.

Okay, I just realized that this post is a little ridiculous, so all I will say in closing is that I love sweets. So sue me.