My Happy Place: The Hummingbird Bakery – Islington

If I had to give up writing, I would bake for a living. All day, every day, I wouldn't mind the early starts if it meant filling a kitchen with the sweet smell of freshly baked cakes. Is there a better way to start the day? Probably. But when I visit The Hummingbird Bakery in London, I wander off into my dream world for a little while and imagine a life completely different to the one I actually lead...

I imagine the kitchen to be a place of deep concentration, yet satisfaction as each product is finished and ready to be taken down to sit in the window, where eyes pass by, wide and adoring. That's me on every approach to a branch of The Hummingbird Bakery.

Before I had ever visited The Hummingbird Bakery, I simply read the recipe books and enjoyed making many of their treats, including a blueberry pie, the fluffiest vanilla cupcakes, and a juicy hummingbird cake.

But there is nothing quite like tasting the real thing – a cupcake that has been baked and iced to textbook perfection, and every time I visit, I am always amazed at how wonderful everything looks and tastes.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to visit the Islington branch twice, so, naturally, I bought two different treats. They were both, unsurprisingly, decadently delicious.

Out of all the branches I have visited, the one in Islington had the biggest range of cakes and bakes to choose from, and this made me very happy. Just writing this blog is making me drift off into my dream land of spending my days with other cake lovers in a sweet pink shop filled with colour and sugar. 

I picked up a piece of the grasshopper slice on Friday – a minty, soft brownie which was just incredible, but far too big, even for me ;) I must have a go at making a tray myself, as chocolate and mint is one of my favourite combinations and HBB hit the nail on the head with their grasshopper slice.

On my second visit, the shop assistant persuaded me to buy a nutella cupcake – one of their monthly specials. I waited til I got home on Monday to eat this (I had a long weekend off lent, shh) and it did not disappoint. I didn't expect anything less, but this cupcake was just... perfect. 

Inside was a glorious gloop of nutella, encased in a chocolate sponge and topped with buttery chocolate frosting and a sprinkling of crushed hazelnuts. If you love nutella as much as I do, go and get one of these cupcakes right now.

The Hummingbird Bakery is my absolute favourite place to go when in London and I am so pleased that more and more of them are popping up all over the city. I hope that they'll soon branch out a little further and come closer to Wales! Have you ever been? What's your favourite cupcake? I do love the classic vanilla cupcake, but the black bottom cupcake is probably my all time favourite. You can find out more about The Hummingbird Bakery here :)