Violet Cakes

"Walking into Violet Cakes is like stepping into the Pinterest of one of those effortless, classy people who somehow know how to arrange flowers, pull off hot pink, and make an egg yolk cookie so gorgeous and gooey that you start to suspect chocolate chip witchcraft. You’ll find this sugar den of sun-washed California cool and handwritten blackboard charm on a quiet residential street near London Fields. The sweet treats here lean towards frothy American-style cupcakes and brownies so rich they could probably get an unlimited overdraft, but you shouldn’t overlook the savoury options. The kimchi and blue cheese toastie is spicy, fried to crisp perfection, and comes with a jolly little pot of pickles. There’s also a little suntrap terrace that’s ideal for discussing the minutiae of your life with someone you love, while eating a sprinkle-topped cookie you’ll also love. video credit: Emily Hai photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch video credit: Emily Hai photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch Food Rundown Chocolate Cupcake Small in size but rich enough to make Miss Trunchball proud, this cupcake is a must-order. video credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley Egg Yolk Chocolate Chip Cookie Egg yolk might actually be the most important component of cookie creation. The evidence: this cookie. It’s gooey at the centre, crisp at its edges, and the butteriness of the egg yolk counteracts the dark chocolate and salty finish to create the perfect bite. photo credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley California Cookie While we stand bravely on the frontlines of ‘more grown-up foods should involve sprinkles’ debate, this cookie is already running the campaign for us. Beyond the smile-inducing sprinkles, it has a subtle strawberry milkshake flavour with a hint of vanilla. Banana Buttermilk Bread If you ask the servers at Violet what to order, they’ll point you towards this banana bread. Listen to them. The buttermilk and dash of booze takes this bakery classic from ‘that thing you order when you want to convince yourself you’re being healthy’ to an indulgent slab of butter-sponsored brilliance. photo credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley Kimchi & Blue Cheese Toastie All of the sweet little cakes here will lull you into a false sense of a sugar euphoria and then along comes this sharp, spicy toastie. Thanks to the hefty portion of kimchi, it’s a genuine tear-jerker, in the best fried and butter-slicked way possible. It also comes with a little pot of pickles and we think that’s classy." - Heidi Lauth Beasley

"Violet Cakes announced their mince pie drop on Instagram with a simple caption: “they are here”. We can get behind that kind of drama. The Hackney bakery have filled their buttery pastry with English apples, brandy-soaked sultanas, candied citrus peel, and winter spices. Forget a light dusting of icing sugar, these pies have been out in a blizzard. " - sinead cranna

"So nice they named it twice, the Chocolate Chocolate Cupcake from Hackney bakery Violet might not have the grandeur of a tiered slice but we couldn’t not include it. The sponge manages to be both moist and light and airy, with a dark chocolate edge. The slight bitterness balances out the mousse-like, creamy chocolate buttercream and sprinkling of crystallised violet petals. The fact that it’s not always on the counter and we wish it was in slice form means that, although one of the best in London, it ranks last. Know that we found the chocolate cupcake with salted caramel buttercream overly sweet too." - Rianne Shlebak, Daisy Meager

"Ptak, a Northern Californian who was a pastry chef at Chez Panisse before moving to London, started off selling cakes from an East London market stall and opened her cafe, Violet, in 2010. In key ways, Ptak and her bakery typify an East London style that I’ve been describing to my friends for the past year. It’s a post-industrial space softened by the memory of a country house you’ve never been to: a little gingham and a lot of linen; terra-cotta pottery; dried flowers; sponge painting; enamelware; natural wine; white-washing; candlelight. The food in this paradigm, especially as shot for Love Is a Pink Cake, is unfussy, neutrally and pastel-colored, and showcases big, ripe hunks of whichever fruit’s now in season, all arrayed in rustic interiors nobody’s swept up before the shoot. At the same time, Violet is unique among London’s, and especially East London’s, bakeries, many of which have proliferated in a standard mode of sourdough loaves and, for the most part, viennoiserie. Violet is different. It makes little yeasted dough, if any. Even Ptak’s cinnamon rolls are a quickbread, dense and barely yielding. She makes crumbly U.S.-style scones and serves cupcakes and slices of buttercream-filled and frosted layer cakes that someone like me raised in Chicago wants for their birthday. It was on the merit of those cakes that Ptak came to notoriety: Without the frilly piping, fondant, or stiff sponge of British celebration cakes, hers are neat, intentional messes in the style of the time, with dramatic swoops of icing and arranged with flowers." - Rachel P. Kreiter

"Meanwhile, a bakery like Claire Ptak’s London-based Violet Cakes — which got global attention when Ptak made the cake for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding in 2018 — takes the approach that people generally come to it because they’re fans of what the bakery is already doing or has on its menu." - Bettina Makalintal