Shoe designer Patrick Cox and patissier Eric Lanlard weren’t aiming for the shrinking violet look with this new cupcake shop. With its eye-catching neon shop-front, loud electro music blasting out and staff clad in black leather aprons, it fits in well between the sex shops and gay bars of Soho.
The gloss black interior lead up to the glass display counter. Classic cupcakes (£2.50) such as red velvet are available, but the specialities make it stand out. It's all about the eye-popping decorations, with glitter-dusted chocolate lips on the Kiss cakes, sugar 'diamonds' adorning the Bling cakes and an edible version of Warhol's Marilyn perched atop the Pop cakes - you can even get your hands on bum shaped cakes.
The Black Skull Cake we tried was supposed to be triple Valrhona chocolate cake with goth black frosting and a dark chocolate jewelled skull as decoration – but the cake appeared to have been switched for a passable chocolate cake with a strawberry compote centre, while the skull was grainy in texture, perhaps due to the chocolate being tempered incorrectly.
Moving even further up the kitsch scale, the vanilla Titty Cake – seemingly modelled on a sex doll’s breast – was moist but light on vanilla flavour. The lemon and white chocolate gluten-free cake was the most disappointing of all, as it tasted like a powdery, leaden lemon biscuit more than a cake.
As a cupcake alternative, try the Canadian Nanaimo Square (£2.50). Traditionally a layered bar of biscuit crumbs, custard and chocolate, this version has coconut and granola worked into the layers. This calorific treat makes for daunting eating.
Other sweet treats available range from cookies to loaf cakes, and all produce will be baked on site once the kitchen has been fully fitted (cakes currently come from Lanlard’s Cake Boy premises in Battersea). A range of mugs, t-shirts and leather aprons, designed by Cox, are also due to be added to the pair’s offerings.These cakes are novelty items and fun to look at, but the recipes need some TLC.