Review: Lola's Cupcakes

My lemon cupcakes

I consider myself to be one hell of a baker. At university I baked cakes for my friends' birthdays; charity bake sales and also for the sheer joy of it. Over the years I have learnt various techniques and modified my recipes to  suit, in particular, people who love cakes but shy away from it because of the sugar content. With my 'experience' I am very critical of cupcakes in particular from other bakers. My brother-in-law told me about a young woman who worked at his job place and how she started her own cupcake business. Last week I found  the company's concession in Selfridges, London and this is what I thought of it.

Lola's Cupcakes

Operating since 2005, Lola's Cupcakes began in a home kitchen. As business increased a partner was brought on board and an online store, a flagship store in Mayfair and concessions in Selfridges, Harrods and Topshop paved the way for Lola's Cupcakes to stand out as a luxury brand that quickly became a celebrity hit.

Products

Lola's boasts of handcrafted cupcakes and they come in miniature and regular sizes A variety of cakes that feature cupcakes are also done alongside layered and number cakes. Each signature cupcake, according to the website, has its own special icing that compliments the flavour of the cake, giving it a unique taste. That right there is marketing to a tee!

Cupcake experience

When I visited the concession I had the Sticky Toffee Pudding cupcake. My sister had the black forest and my mother a coconut cupcake. We also had a take away 7 inch red velvet cake. They truly are wonderfully handcrafted. I really liked the effort that went into the decorating and it looked fabulous. The taste was something entirely. I found the sticky toffee pudding cupcake to have a very muffin-like texture. The red velvet cake was also very dry and not only me but my dog also choked on it (he got piece by accident).

The icing on the red velvet however was very nice. I enjoyed it far more than the cake. My sister found the cream cheese frosting on the Black Forest cupcake to be too sweet and personally I prefer a whipped frosting on black forest rather than the somewhat soured taste of cream cheese on black forest. I also prefer my cakes moist and light otherwise I would buy a muffin.

My overall impression of Lola's Cupcakes was rather poor. I did like the unique style of the cupcakes but the taste was a bit too sweet and the texture was a major let down to the raves associated with the brand. If I had a cupcake pre-2011 I might have a different opinion since in 2011 Lola's Cupcakes came under new management.

While I forgot my trusty camera on this trip and unfortunately do not have any pictures you can check out pictures on their website @ Lola's Kitchen and if you like heavy cupcakes you can also purchase the recipe book by the founders called Making Cupcakes with Lola.

Lola's Cupcakes - 2/5 (The cakes were visually appealing and did have some nice tasting frosting but that's about it.)