Friday Find: London Cupcake Case set

London cupcake case set, £8 from the Great Little Trading Co.



 You know what it's like, you wait ages for a bus and then 24 Routemasters mounted on cocktail sticks come along at once. At least they do when you buy this London cupcake case set from the Great Little Trading Co. Just the right side of twee, this fun set features double-sided cupcake toppers of London icons including the aforementioned (and much-missed) Routemaster, plus Big Ben, black cabs and what the site describes as Beefeaters, but looks more like a soldier from the Queen's Guard (them what do the Changing of the Guard and that). I am willing to stand corrected if any London supernerds can clarify...

London cupcake case set, £8 from the Great Little Trading Co.

The London cupcake case set also includes 24 cases featuring Union Jacks and more Beefeater's/Queen's Guard. It's perfect for baking with kids, or for Royal Wedding parties. I'll definitely be skewering some Routemasters and cabs into my cakes and Coronation chicken sarnies come April 29th.

£8 from the Great Little Trading Co.

Cakes for Japan: See the cakes



cupcakes by Molly Bakes, photo by Julian Frentzel, © Miss Cakehead


Cakes for Japan was a huge chocolate-laced, sprinkle-strewn, buttercream-filled success. The event at Maiden in Shoreditch, which was organised by the indefatigable Miss Cakehead, raised more than £2000 for the Red Cross and sold out in just three hrs.

Dark chocolate and cherry brownies, photo Nathan Pask 

Almost all the cakes had a Japanese theme, ingredient or twist, including the fantastic sushi cupcakes by Molly Bakes pictured top, and my brownies (pictured above) which contained a couple of fistfuls of sour cherries (not technically a Japanese ingredient, more a nod to sakura, the delicate cherry blossoms which will soon be in full bloom in Japan). To see more of the cakes in their glory, the Cakes for Japan Flickr stream is here.

For more information on Cakes for Japan and holding your own event, visit http://cakesforjapan.wordpress.com/

And for the Red Cross appeal, click here

Cakes for Japan and other ways to help

Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo 2005

Beautiful, mercurial, proud, generous Japan. We are thinking of you.

If you're watching the news here in the UK and feeling helpless, here's some ways to help Japan, just a little bit...




Cakes for Japan



Cakes For Japan is a series of pop-up bake sales raising money for relief efforts. The main sale is taking place at Maiden, 188 Shoreditch High Street, EC2, this Friday 18th March. There'll be sushi and Japanese-inspired cakes including these genius sushi cake pops from Molly Bakes...




Sushi cake pops by Molly Bakes


There'll also be cookies from Great British Bake Off winner Edd Kimber, green tea cupcakes, painted cherry blossom cookies, Geisha-inspired cake pops, brownies with an as-yet-undecided Japanese twist from yours truly, and cakes from top bloggers Gastrogeek and LibertyLondonGirl.

Cakes for Japan is the brainchild of Miss Cakehead, and she's encouraging people to hold Cakes for Japan events across the UK - there are already events planned in Leeds, Edinburgh and Manchester. Check out the website for details on how to hold your own.

If, like me, one of your favourite sights is the green Ocado van pulling up outside the front door, you might wish to contribute to the delivery company's Japan fund. Ocado co-founder Jason Gissing, whose mother is Japanese, has set up a Just Giving page. The company will match the first 20k pledged by its customers and all the money raised will go to Mercy Corps to Peace Winds Japan, a Tokyo-based NGO.

Google also has an excellent page of resources dedicated to Japan, and other ways to help.

This post is for Mino, Doug and Ana who were all so kind to me and took me into their homes while I was in Japan, and for James and Misaki. We are thinking of you all x

Event: Friday Food Club pop-up at Meza with Ravinder Bhogal

Photo copyright Meza

Meza bar and grill in Soho is turning pop-up restaurant in March and April. The D&D restaurant is playing host to Anna Hansen's acclaimed Modern Pantry restaurant from 22nd March to 16th April. It's a fun idea - one successful restaurant from a different corner of the smoke (Clerkenwell in this case), guest starring at another restaurant Up West.

Also at Meza, for three Wednesdays in a row, the restaurant will be taken over by popular sarf-east London supper club and "food movement", Friday Food Club. Run by husband and wife, Lee (a trained chef) and Fi, Friday Food Club has already played host to guest chefs like Anna Hansen (her again!), Mark Hix and MasterChef 2010 winner Dhruv Baker. On 30th March, Ravinder Bhogal, presenter of C4 show Food and author of Cook in Boots will be guest cheffing at the Friday Food Club Meza pop-up.

Ravinder Bhogal - 'that's what I call a knife'

Ravinder's provisional menu is five courses of aromatic gorgeousness.  To wit:
Mumbai shot

Crispy Soft Shell Crab and Aubergine with a Spicy Triple Nut and Tamarind Sauce


Home-ground Ras al Hanout Lamb Cutlets with Spiced Green Lentil Rice, Crispy Fried Onions and Pomegranate Yoghurt

Orange and Cardamom Scented Champagne Rhubarb Jelly, Rose Pannacotta, Rose and Pistachio Praline


Rose and Cardamom Truffles


£60 for 5 courses including wine. Register with bookings@fridayfoodclub.com

Meet the winning Royal Wedding cake...

Kelly Douglass's Royal Wedding cake

Behold the winner of goodtoknow's Royal Wedding baking competition - Kelly Douglass from Northolt's brilliant street party cake. The standard of entries was really high and it was incredibly tough to pick the winner, but Kelly's cake stood out for all the imaginative details.

Check out all the little details: the buns, cucumber sarnies, Champers, jam roly poly and tea on top of the cake. The bunting, the little tressle table and table cloth. Heck - even the cobbles and petals strewn on the pavement...

goodtoknow's winning Royal Wedding cake

Click here for a gallery of the winning cake, runners up and a selection of entries.

Friday Find: Personalised London street mugs

Disco Butterfly Personalised London street mugs, £17

Loving these personalised London street mugs, £17 each from notonthehighstreet.com. You can pick the house number, road and borough and design team Disco Butterfly will do the rest. It could be your current home, the location of a first date or, if you're slightly immature like me, perhaps one of London's more medieval and, er, earthy street names. Cock Lane or Bird-in-Bush road anyone?

A quick look around Disco Butterfly's Not on the High Street storefront reveals some other personalised kitchen gems...

Mug pets...

Disco Butterfly mug pets, £16,50 each

Russian dolls...

Disco Butterfly personalised Russian Doll mug, £14.95

Bespoke personalised alphabet coasters...

Disco Butterfly bespoke personalised alphabet coasters, £3.75 each

Friday Find: Paperchase egg cosy kit

Knitted rabbit egg cosy kit, £25 from Paperchase

Good old Paperchase. If ever I'm in need of a birthday card with Russian dolls on or some natty new pencils for my stationery drawer, I know where to turn. But kitchen stuff, not so much. Which is why I was delighted to discover this adorable knitted egg cosy kit in the store's spring offering.

Ok, so it's a bit previous to start talking about Easter gifts, but if, like me, you lack anything beyond the most rudimentary knitting skills, then you'll need from now 'til Easter weekend in late April to turn this egg cosy kit into something resembling a rabbit. Loving both the muted colours and the big kilner jar, which you could use afterwards to store sensible food stuffs (rice, flour) or a mountain of Mini Eggs. Guess which gets my vote?

Knitted rabbit egg cosy kit, £25 from Paperchase