Sweet London

When planning my trip to London, I did not plan on eating so many sweets or pastries.

Who knew that PAUL Patisserie was going to be lurking around every corner!

Sonya and I arrive in London and got to the flat

we were staying at in the morning. We had an overnight flight so sleep took precedence over food. Once we

napped and were heading out for

the day we were on a quest to eat lunch at a proper fish & chips shop. Our hostess

Nancy suggested we try a place that sounded like it was right around the corner. I was

really eager to try the authentic food so we walked a bit further out of the way than was necessary. The one good thing was that Sonya's bank was on the block that were on searching for the fish & chip place. At this point I was STARVING & about to have a low blood sugar meltdown so I told Sonya that I would be right back & I ran across the street to PAUL & got a mini chocolate croissant & a vanilla macaroon. My first bite of London food was of the vanilla macaroon & that was the moment that my love affair (sometimes hate) with PAUL was started up again.

I had forgotten about PAUL (Ft. Lauderdale FL location) for 2 reasons, one being I thought it was just some cute French patisserie that was only in the Sawgrass mills outlet mall & I did not try the famous macaroon when I was there (I know crazy).
The other reason (this makes 3) which was subliminal that I wanted to forget about PAUL is because that is the name of my ex boyfriend who I was trying to put out of my mind.

Since I stumbled upon PAUL the first day we were in town, I assumed we would have to make special trips back to PAUL to get a bite of heaven before the trip was over. Boy was I wrong, everywhere Sonya & I went we saw PAUL. Apparently, there are many PAUL'S all over the city of London. I think that the only way to describe how many PAUL'S there are in London is to say that it is like trying to find a Starbucks in NYC meaning they are literally everywhere & you do not have to look it up in the directory. Well when we finally got to the Marleybone tube station which was right next to our flat, we found PAUL (my London boyfriend) yet again. I am not sure if I am exaggerating or not but I think I may have eaten at PAUL on a daily basis while I was in London or perhaps PAUL was just occupying too much space in my head. I was sad when the trip was over because I really enjoyed London but I was happy to know that when I got home I could break up with PAUL for good. One of the other things that I was pondering standing in Marleybone station is why are the people here not grossly obese like in the states if they have tons of food around. Right in the center of the station, there is a huge candy boat. There is also a grocery store right next to PAUL, a pasty (like an empanada) shop, a bagel shop, a Burger King, & a sports bar.

I think the reason (explained by my friend Christian who is a dietitian raised in London) that Londoners are not as fat as Americans is because they have smaller portions of food & they walk a lot. Perhaps they are laughing at all the tourists who get trapped buying candy at the tube station.

The next must try stop on the sweet train was Patisserie Valerie. I had a cream filled doughnut which was great but that was the first day I was in town before I got swept away by my very DIRTY boyfriend PAUL. Valerie & I never had a chance to really get to know each other.

When I was looking through the Time Out London guide I came across a bakery called Hummingbird which was described as an American style bakery, so naturally I had to put it on the to do list more for Sonya really since she is a cup cake officionado. I tell myself this as a way of rationalizing eating cup cakes in London. We had tried a very bad cup cake earlier in the week which was just pretty so my hopes were not very high for London's finest cup cakes. Although I am no expert when it comes to cup cakes, I must say that the cup cakes at Hummingbird were hands down the best cup cakes I have ever had anywhere period.

Red velvet on the left & Vanilla Vanilla on the

right.

Very pretty but bad malt ball cup cake below

So it is a good thing that London is an easy walking city because I did do a fair amount of walking but then again, I did a very fair amount of eating. Sonya had the camera so on the day that she went on a walking tour without me, she took this great picture of caffe Nero which sums up the trip in a sweet little package. Shouldn't it always be cake time?

Cupcakes the original "DIRTY" food from Sweet Revenge

SWEET REVENGE

I have to start this post with a little bit of background on how I started calling myself "THE DIRTY DIETITIAN." One day my friend Amie (also a dietitian) and I went to a bakery on the lower east side called Sugar Sweet Sunshine. http://www.sugarsweetsunshine.com/ Amie had met one of the owners previously and asked her if she remembered her. When the owner replied that yes she did remember her, Amie introduced me and said Heidi is also a dietitian but we are "dirty dietitians" because we like to eat cupcakes. Those of you out there who are not dietitians may not fully understand what the general public expects of dietitians. For the most part people assume that dietitians are perfect people when it comes to the foods we eat. The truth is that yes we are quite knowledgeable about the science behind healthy eating but we are also human and have a craving for something "bad" every now and again. My personal philosophy is that there are no bad foods in general, it really boils down to how often you eat the "bad" food and how the food was manufactured (what are the core ingredients) and by whom.

This post is about my great experience eating cupcakes at Sweet Revenge but I have to give a shout out to Sugar Sweet Sunshine (SSS) for also making great classic cupcakes that are still only sold for $1.50 each. I guess that SSS really deserves it own post but I am feeling a bit lazy at the moment so they will just have to wait.

Sweet Revenge, is pretty new to the cupcake scene which explains why my friend Sonya had not heard of it. I consider Sonya to be a cupcake expert and she is also my friend who likes to go on cupcake adventures with me. Sonya is not a dietitian which helps me see the adventure from a more fun, pure place of just straight up enjoyment. I came across the LIST of the top 100 must eat foods in NYC which was published in Time Out New York. Of course I printed a copy of the list for me and one for Sonya which was proudly displayed on my bulletin board at work becuase that is where I spend most of my time (sadly).

Upon entering Sweet Revenge on a Friday night, I felt like I was at a cafe in Europe (I have never been to Europe) because there was a bar and tables. The menu was impressive offering multiple flavors of cupcakes with both wine and beer pairings. They also have a few savory offerings that also looked great but we went straight for the sweet. The "list" suggested the Crimson and Creme cupcake made of red velvet cake with raspberries baked inside and cream cheese frosting.

Crimson and Creme Cupcake

Sonya and I were both super excited at how yummy the cupcakes looked and sounded from their descriptions. We knew there would be other opportunities to eat them again so we decided on 3 flavors to split since we had just gone to the gym (chuckle chuckle). The price was a bit more than the average price ($3.25-$3.50) however the size was also a lot bigger. It was a given that our #1 choice was the Crimson and Creme cupcake. Sonya's gold standard when it comes to sampling cupcakes from different places is to try the vanilla cake with the vanilla frosting which was our #2 choice. Sweet Revenge calls their vanilla/vanilla the Pure cupcake which is a mix of Mexican vanilla cake topped with vanilla buttercream. Our #3 choice was the Sweet Revenge cupcake which was peanut butter cake with a drop of chocolate ganache in the center topped with peanut butter buttercream.

Sweet Revenge Cupcake The taste test results were not the same as the number order that we decided to try them. My favorite was the Crimson and Creme cupcake. It did not taste as light as a traditional red velvet cupcake (the cake part was a bit more dense or "cakey" if that is a word) but the addition of raspberry and the amazing cream cheese frosting brought the overall taste to new heights.

My second favorite was surprisingly the Sweet Revenge cupcake. I usually prefer vanilla or lighter tastes when it comes to my dessert choices. Although the description sounded great the taste was a bit flat or generic vanilla. I think Sonya agreed with me that the Pure cupcake was not up to snuff. The peanut butter flavor came through strong but at the same time subtle as the frosting was a whipped sweet peanut butter flavor. The cake was nice in it's texture but don't expect a large amount of chocolate ganache.

I wouldn't get a repeat of the Pure cupcake as it was too plain for me. I like more complex, layered flavors. Living in NYC there is so much DIRTY WORK to be done. My next adventure is going to be Butter Lane.

Pure Cupcake