Massive thanks to Emily Bridewell for the amazingly scrummy cupcakes and being an absolute sweetheart!
Also I'm sure you've noticed that this post is peppered with gorgeous photography and this is thanks to Sophie Francisco (also one of the LS photo eds) for all her beautiful work! Check out linkies at the bottom of the post to see more of her work :)
♥
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| Emily and the most perfect cupcakes ever! |
As I step out of the chilly autumnal air and into the inviting warmth of the house, I realise that I have stepped into a wonderful hubbub of domesticity. There’s a brightly lit kitchen ahead of me, the sound of a kettle boiling and the faint aroma of baking in the air.
I’m warmly greeted by two of its inhabitants -Emily Bridewell, cupcake maker extraordinaire and our very own photo ed, Sophie. Having divested myself of my coat and multiple bags, I follow Emily and Sophie into a bright and airy conservatory and there is a breathtakingly gorgeous sight before my eyes – rows of sumptuously decorated cupcakes arranged neatly on a bare table.
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Upon closer inspection, I notice that the chocolate cupcakes have adorable miniature purple elephants generously tumbled across the dark, creamy swathes of chocolate buttercream. In a similar fashion, the cream cheese icing on the red velvet cupcakes have beautiful scarlet hearts scattered on top and an extravaganza of multicoloured sprinkles is perched delicately on vanilla frosting. There is without a doubt, an admirable attention to detail here. After much deliberation, I pick a red velvet cake and settle down in the living room and then, as if by magic, a much needed mug of tea and a perfect red velvet cupcake is placed in front of me.
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| Red Velvet Cupcakes :) |
Emily, a student at Goldsmiths, says that she has always liked baking and is a self confessed ‘cake person’ although her passion for cupcakes in particular took off after a trip to Brighton with friends. Inspired by the offerings of Angel Food Bakery (which she describes as being akin to heaven), Emily not only tracked down cupcake bakeries in London, but after finding constant cupcake trips somewhat expensive, decided to go one step further and concoct some of her own. To date she has baked for baby showers, charity events and birthdays and will also be selling them at her stall in a Vintage Inspired Craft fair later this month.
Amazingly, this has all occurred within the space of a few months and it’s truly impressive to see that in such a small amount of time, she has produced cupcakes which are in my opinion, better than the ones from places like Hummingbird Bakery because they are at the perfect level of sweetness, as opposed to possessing the cloying, overly sugary aftertaste of the ones sold in cup cakeries around London.
It hasn’t always been this easy though. It’s taken a lot of patience, experimenting, tweaking as well as a natural curiosity to get to this level of perfection – Emily tell me about bad buttercream recipes, burnt cakes as a result of electric fan ovens and spending a lot of money on buying ingredients but the satisfying feeling of being productive and sharing her creations with friends is what matters most to her. She touchingly mentions the fact that a lot of love goes into her cupcakes, and it shows – the cupcakes she made for a charity launch party were all decorated with a carefully handmade topper of the charity’s logo. Emily tells me of another time when she made thirty cupcakes for a friend’s birthday on very little sleep after a house party in the space of two hours. It is this warmth of sharing lovingly homemade cake with friends and family as well as the link to fond childhood memories of her mother’s baking which inspires Emily and means that her baking is something she wants to pass down to her future offspring.
On the subject of experimenting, Emily tells me that she has new recipes in the pipeline which she plans to try in the future – these include a White Russian cupcake and pumpkin flavoured cupcakes for Halloween and is constantly on the look-out for new flavours and recipes, citing her favourite sources as being online cupcake blogs. Emily runs her own blog where she details some of her baking exploits amongst other things which is a genuinely interesting read, as well as containing photos of delicious treats like which will get your mouth watering and inspire you to join the baking crew.
The real fun starts when I ask Emily to describe her ideal tea party and who she would pick as her guests – after a few moments of deliberation, which I fully take advantage of by sampling one of the delicious cupcakes Emily tells me that she would have a vintage inspired, floral theme complete with mismatched antique crockery, pretty bunting and copious amounts of tea – in Emily’s own words it would be ‘way too girly for its own good.’
All this would take place in a well tended garden replete with perfect weather for wearing tea dresses. Guests would include her mother, due to her complimentary nature, David Tennant (we then go off on a tangent about his latest role in ‘Single Father’), her boyfriend, Michael Macintyre, Julie Andrews to serenade the other guests during tea and not forgetting the ‘guy that narrates Come Dine With Me’ who I later discover is someone named Dave Lamb. By this point Emily, Sophie and I are giggling madly over this peculiar hypothetical scenario. In a fit of laughter, I manage to send some heart shaped sprinkles flying off the cupcake I’m eating which promptly flutter on the floor, sending us all into another burst of chuckles.
After regaining a sense of serenity, we then turn to more serious business. When questioned whether she would ever like open her own cupcake shop, Emily says that although she hasn’t considered setting up a cupcake business, she is increasingly being commissioned to make cupcakes for events and is selling them at a church fete this month. Costing her cakes and working out how much to charge is still a relatively new concept for Emily who usually bakes free of charge for friends and family. She then goes on to point out that London is already saturated with bakeries, many specialising in cupcakes and so it would be difficult starting up here, amongst so much competition.
I finish by asking Emily what she thinks goes best with a cupcake and the reply is instant: tea! Other ideas include a glass of lemonade on a hot summer’s day and for a truly indulgent treat, a mug of hot chocolate with a chocolate cake. Emily promises to send me her basic cupcake recipes, along with recipes for her chocolate, vanilla and cream cheese frosting which I have since made at home.
Walking back into the cold night air, carefully carrying a couple of Emily’s cupcakes I make my way back to the station, happy in the knowledge that I have met another cupcake lover but unlike me, Emily can actually bake deliciously sumptuous cakes!
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| Cupcake Bonanza! (photography courtesy of Sophie Francisco) |
Details, details:
If you would like to sample Emily’s cupcakes for yourself, then pop along to the Craft Fair taking place at New Community Church on 20th November from 10.00-16.00. You can also keep up with Emily’s adventures at emilybridewell.livejournal.com
New Community Church
Station Road
Sidcup
DA15 7DU
If you'd like to peruse some more of Sophie's fab work clicky clicky:
