Cupcakes and baths, Portobello style

This weekend I went to Portobello Market to see my lovely friend, Phoebe and her equally lovely boyfriend, Neil. We met up at 11am, having not eaten breakfast so headed to The Hummingbird Bakery. I got the recipe book from the lovely Charmaine (read her blog, food fans) but had never eaten any of their infamous cupcakes.

Phoebe and I walked in to an incredibly fresh, vanillay baking smell and were seduced right away. All the cakes look incredible - cookie cheesecake, carrot cake, banana bread, red velvet cake. I plumped for a chocolate brownie with a cheesecake topping which was then also topped with lashings of fresh whipped cream with raspberries muddled in. Chocolate and raspberries is one of my favourite combinations.

I fell in food-love on first taste, as did my boyfriend Andrew, who ordered the same. Phoebe got a black bottom cupcake (chocolate, with cheesecake inside and a cream cheese frosting), but I think Neil ate most of that after demolishing his apparently unimpressive savoury muffin.

Anyway, I'll definitely be making those brownies as they're in my recipe book.

After cupcakes, we battled through the crowds and antiques to the food stalls and gapped at the mile-wide (might be an exageration) paella pans filled with delicious seafoods and golden rice. We were almost regretting eating the cupcakes first. I picked up a few treats from Lush - my favourite sakura bath bomb, along with a new find - their vanilla bath bomb (comes complete with a vanilla pod). I also got a melting marshmellow island thing for my bath. I'm not keen on Lush's sickly sweet smells, so I'll see how that goes.

We eventually made our way to Ladbroke Grove tube. It took about two and a half hours. This is because so many bad idiots got in our way. I think you need a lot of patience for weekend markets in London.