I've been meaning to blog about this since a very disappointing visit to Treacle on Columbia Road on wet and wintery December evening but I think I kept putting it off as I was just v.p'd off about the whole thing.
The original reason we went to the late night shopping event on Columbia Road was to buy my Christmas present - a framed print "Eat Cake and Carry On" that I'd seen previously and liked. However the print was not to be - when we first asked how much they were no-one in the store knew the exact price but we were told "about £40-50". They had to, reluctantly, phone someone to check - they seemed reluctant to actually do any business to be quite honest. As they were shouting down the mobile to the faceless owner of Treacle, I was examining the print further and noticed how cheep and cheerful the frames were, like a painted £3 Ikea one, but I really liked the print and thought £50 wasn't too bad for something I liked, even if a big chunk at the bottom of the print was covered in the Treacle logo. £150 however was too much. The reluctant shop assistant got off her mobile and informed me one of the colours I liked was £150, one was £180 as it "has more glitter". Then she asked should she wrap it for me- I politely declined. I can order a pretty one for much less from Etsy thanks and not be taken for an utter numpty -seriously £30 more for a splash of glitter a 3 year old could apply, and £150 for a paper print (and huge advert for your shop!) in an Ikea frame - seriously? I'm planning making my own - 10 mins on the computer and a trip to the local craft store for glitter and some pretty paper, then Ikea for a frame and I'm set!
Anyways, we took the cupcakes we'd bought (2 chocolate - there was no choice, and very little in the way of stock - and they had no bags, just paper in pissing rain..joy) and headed off to Albion for dinner (highly recommended!). We didn't have a pudding at dinner as we had the cupcakes from Treacle and a some more from the Albion Bakery to have when we got in with a hot cup of tea. BIG mistake. We should've had a pud!
Firstly, the Albion cupcakes - they weren't great to be honest. They looked nothing like the picture of their cupcakes on the website. The base was quite nice but the "frosting" was just pure butter - which Manny loved as he's odd like that. I ate a bit and then threw the rest in the bin - or maybe at Manny's mouth - I can't remember!
Now for possibly the most rancid cupcake I've had in some time, if not ever. As soon as I opened the bag I could tell the Treacle cupcake was off - rotten in fact. Instead of being a brown chocolate colour it had a grey/green tinge to it, and it smelt BAD, like really off butter. I have added the best pic of a bad lot - sorry it was cold and to be honest I was too fuming to fanny about with the camera. In the interests of the blog I tried a bit of the base and a bit of the topping (I refuse to call rancid butter frosting sorry). The base was HARD, so hard I did an experiment - I dropped it from a great height to see if anything happened - it nearly broke my glass cupcake worksurface topper as it fell with a mighty rock like thud onto it! I have a video but I can't upload it - maybe I should youtube it. The topping tasted like off butter and the morsel I tried left a taste in my mouth that toothpaste and mouthwash couldn't remove.
I toyed with taking the cupcake to environmental health as I am pretty certain that cupcake had been sitting out since the Sunday (3 days previously) when the store was last open, if not longer. We've eaten my baked cupcakes 4 days after making and while not 100% fresh they are not rotten, nor are they so obviously off. But in the end I just didn't have time to go through the process of finding where to complain to, due to work issues, but now I kinda regret chucking them in the bin as if someone had eaten those cakes I'm pretty sure they'd have regretted it, and people shouldn't be allowed to get away with such blatant flouting of health and safety when it comes to food.
I have previously enjoyed Treacle cupcakes but the last time I went they were a bit hard and totally flavourless but never have I had a cupcake so disgustingly inedible. Consider my recommendation revoked.
*I'm hoping this will be the worst cupcake I ever try and cupcakes only continue to be yummy from now!
