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Love Affair with the Brits

I'm a sucker of anything British, I'm not sure if it's the accent or the food or maybe because it seems like such a exotic place for me being so far away from where I am. I first fell in love with the Brits through Hugh Grants movies... yup! I'm a huge Grant fan.

In term of British chefs, I'm a huge huge fan of Nigella Lawson, she seems so laid back and she makes cooking look so easy. Sorry Gordon Ramsey, I'm scared of you! :P
My latest Brit craze discover is Tarek Malouf's Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, technically these are American fare considering Hummingbird Bakery is known for offering American style dessert in London. This is the British version of the American Magnolia Bakery which was made popular by Sex and the City. I haven't been to either bakery but I had both of them. Tragically I lost my copy of the Magnolia bakery book series in the flood. I'm slowly rebuilding by baking book collection, luckily though I got to try Magnolia's/Buttercup's version of Red Velvet Cake, so I get a chance to compare them.The Magnolia/Buttercup version uses a butter roux icing, it's something I don't care for, taste like any buttercream icing. It was like eating blocks of butter. So not for me. The cake rise as much as I have expected, but man what a glorious bright red color! It looked so festive.

Hummingbird Bakery on the other hand uses a creamy cream cheese frosting. This is absolutely my kind of frosting. Although I found it much too sweet. The cupcake batter have a rich reddish brown color. My guess is that I has something to do with the coco powder in the batter. In terms of taste, I maybe biased here, I love the Hummingbird version because it has a subtle chocolate taste.
If you love cupcakes and other old time favorite desserts that taste like real homemade and taste very comforting after a hard day at work. I highly recommend Hummingbird Bakery book.

nikcreate

I'm a nine to five pencil pusher who loves to play with flour and paper during my free time. Dreams of going to Europe and eat croissants and make pastries all day long!

4 comments:

  1. Manggy3:49 PM

    The cupcakes look fab. I'm glad you like the book, it's actually not expensive which is really nice!

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  2. Alyssa11:27 AM

    A new book to add to the Christmas list! Thanks for sharing...

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  3. nikcreate9:48 AM

    @Manggy - hahaha...now that I think about it that's probably one of the reasons why I enjoyed it :D

    @Alyssa - yeah this book is a nice addition to that list!

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  4. Unknown11:41 PM

    Thank you for the book of easy recipes - it is so helpful especially at the time of all these holidays. It seems easy to make tasty things and happy faces of your family - British Girls.

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