My birthday cupcake tour of the South East has taken me a while to write up but I still wanted to share with you this wonderful little bakery in the lovely town of Chichester - it is a definite must visit.
I have wanted to visit Swallow Bakery for some time, and finally got round to it 3 weeks ago and it was worth the wait.
Getting off the train in Chichester after being in London is like another world. We left Victoria Station on a day when a famous Dutch activist was in town so we spent our wait at the Station listening to bone head idiots who seemed to think they were the creme de la creme of Englishness shouting abuse at everyone, and surrounded by the usual fragrant part of the population that seems to be loiter in London stations. Chichester is lovely and I'm not just saying that because we found cupcakes, a great little food market, a fab kitchenware shop and a store where I found the cutest Hello Kitty purse all within 3 mins of each other. And they have a Lakeland which we didn't visit but it kinda adds to me wanting to live somewhere like this! It's a really picturesque little town - I loved it!
Anyways, to the cupcakes. Swallow Bakery is a cute little cafe, with about 4 tables and lots of lovely goodies to purchase. And the cupcakes - rows and rows of lovely looking, perfectly frosted cupcakes. I opted for a pink vanilla (my usual to test a bakery) and Manny had a double chocolate. Manny secured a table and I waited for the coffees and cake. This is where my first little problem with Swallow Bakery occurs - there were 2 tables free, however both were swarming with dirty crockery. The girl serving noticed and did nothing, fair enough she was serving. However there was another girl sitting down just near the counter reading The Sun who I did think could have perhaps gotten up and cleared the tables (sorry but even if she was on a break it's a cafe so tables need clearing, you can take a break later). We got our coffees etc and ended up clearing the tables ourselves, even when the girl behind the counter spotted this she just left them piled up on the table we'd put them on.
Anyways back to what we travelled two hours out of London for - the cupcakes. They were AMAZING. Really, really flavoursome, moist and yummy. Both were engulfed in a thick layer of really lovely frosting - some of the nicest cupcakes we've had. The coffee was great too - the perfect little cafe!
We decided to get a couple of cupcakes to take away and went back to the counter -where my second problem occurs (part of which we didn't realise till the next day). By going back and asking for takeaway we seemed to interrupt the staff chatting which seemed to perturb the girl serving to the point of putting one of our cupcakes upside down in the box. If you look at the pic above there isn't really any way just one could've ended up the wrong way up unless it was done purposely. They still tasted great though - Manny had a black and white (the upside down one) and I had an apple and fudge (I think it was a daily special). Both were still really fresh tasting and moist the day after purchase and really tasty - mine was full of lovely bits of fresh apple and the fudge on top was lovely. Manny loved the chocolate base of both his cupcakes declaring them some of the best he'd had. And again the frosting was just superb - some of the tastiest frosting I've ever had!Staffing issues aside I highly recommend a visit to Chichester - next time we'll go back and explore a little more. If you do fancy a day out Southern Trains do a Daysave ticket which means you can explore all over the Southern network for a tenner!
