London’s Sweets: Crosstown Doughnuts & Lola’s Cupcakes

So I had a bunch of other sweets from London’s notable bakeries that I thought should be written up as well, namely: Crosstown Doughnuts and Lola’s Cupcakes. Just in case you poke around Instagram or Twitter ad find they are featured quite a lot, here are unbiased reviews for you.

Crosstown Doughnuts

Crosstown Doughtnuts began from a stall in the London markets but after just two short months, the doughnut-ery expanded to high-end shopping malls like Selfidges; where I got mine. It was a beautiful day in London (missing it so much now!) and I got off at the wrong station which turned out to be a blessing as I walked past Mayfair, and dreamt of being rich and famous (hah).

Mummy and I were waiting for my Dad in the Foodhall (bad idea) when we came across this little stand and “heard” the doughnuts call out to us! I figured my detour justified a doughnut! This doughnut-ery offers a delicious array of the traditional ring and filled dounuts. It also prides itself on “doughnuts made daily from quality ingredients and locally sourced products.” But between you and me, after Bread Ahead’s deliciousness, we simply could not resist getting one of these in the hopes of experiencing another revelation.

We got ourselves a Peanut Butter & Currant Doughnut because I am madly in love with peanut butter.

According to Crosstown D’s website, this flavour is:

Our indulgent take on the classic all-American peanut butter and jelly combination.

It’s filled with a crunchy yet velvety peanut butter cream, and wrapped up in our unique square-shaped Crosstown sour dough. The doughnut is topped with a Tongan vanilla-bean glaze, our homemade tangy blackcurrant compote and a sprinkling of toasted peanuts.

Plus another filled doughnut, perfect for comparisons with Bread Ahead, yeh?!

Like Bread Ahead, this was another generously filled dougnut with the filling to pastry ratio of 2:1. (Singapore, please take note. Customers like more filling so please stop stinging on it!). While it was in general not bad, the pastry unfortunately lacked the pillowy tenderness of Bread Ahead’s. The peanut butter cream filling was a tad bland but the tangy currant atop was quite delectable. I blame the overall dry texture on the exposure in the air-conditioned shop  floor.

But really, I say, if you had to go for one doughnut on your London trip, make it Bread Ahead Bakery in Borough M!

By the way, London is undergoing a Doughnut Explosion! The same way Cupcakes did in New York (did it ever take off in London?). High quality gourmet doughnuts do not seem to have taken off in Singapore but I predict next year.

On a separate note, check out this cute dessert spotted in Selfridges too!

Lola’s Cupcakes

This was EVERYWHERE. Be it in a counter in malls such as Selfridges or Harrods, or just a cart in Spitafields, I saw this so often I had to get one just to appease my “fear of missing out”. I got mine from the Harrods Foodhall. While my parents had Roast Chicken for lunch, I needed a sugar-hit to perk me up. I could not resist Lola’s after seeing it so often on the internet and their cupcakes did look pretty gourmet, isn’t it?

There was a yet again an impressive range of flavours that tugged at my heart and nearly made me get EVERYTHING. It also helped that every cupcake was topped with the most uniform swirl of buttercream.

Unfortunately, the flavours and texture of the cupcake left little to be desired. What’s the big deal, again? Picking up a Harrods exclusive flavour: Double Chocolate Cupcake topped with a Chocolate Brownie. I was all ready to be chocolate-out! To float on some fudgy chocolate clouds after this. Except I didn’t get a chance to.

The cupcake was so dry and densed, after one bite, I craved for water so badly to un-stuck chunks of cake from my teeth. However the rich smooth buttercream was pretty addictive. But all in all, another unimpressive cupcake in London. I say, save the calories for other better eats…