I popped into Selfridges on Saturday and ignoring the gorgeous looking Lola's cupcakes opted to try one by a baker I'd never heard of - Lorraine Pascale. It turns out Lorraine is a rather famous supermodel (I recognise her face now I've seen it), however she has turned her back on modelling to become a patisserie chef. Dubbed the next Jane Asher of the cake world by Selfridges' food director Ewan Venters, Pascale (who enrolled on fulltime Diploma of Food and Wine course at Leiths, the renowned cookery school, and has worked in the kitchens of The Wolseley and The Mandarin Oriental to name but just a few)
I got a chocolate, for Manny and a vanilla for me. They both looked cute, however as soon as I went to eat it I realised it was STALE....like 4 day old stale...gross. It's now at the point where I will never buy fresh food from Selfridges again as they obviously do not care what state their food is sold in (I had a similar experience with Lola's - which was sad as their fresh cupcakes are utterly gorgeous). The cake was so hard I fear I'd have broken my tooth on it if I bit it and the frosting was off. I should've kept it and taken it back but I'd already endured the Saturday crowds once so I didn't fancy another trip to the West End. Manny fared slightly better with his chocolate cake which he said was ok but not the freshest.
It's a pity as Lorraine's cakes do look lovely and I love her slogan "there's always room for cake" unfortunately in Selfridges case it seems to be stale cake :(
Btw in the background of the cupcakes you can just see the St George's biscuits by Artisan Biscuits I bought for Manny - I highly recommend them, utterly cute and gorgeous - if you like lemon curd (and who doesn't!!?) you'll love these! Also the bottom pic shows the window of River Island on Oxford Street, I kept meaning to take a pic to share but never had my camera when I passed by!
