C&D Alternative Village Fete

A big hello to everyone who popped down to the South Bank over the weekend to check out the Alternative Village Fete, and an extra big hello to everyone who came by our little stall to say hi and grab a cupcake or two.

I managed to escape for a couple of minutes, missing most of the good stuff but snapping a couple of pics with my trusty camera. Check some of the shots out below...



Sorry to anyone left cakeless and confused in Chelsea last Saturday - but fret not, we'll be back again this Saturday in our usual spot on the Kings Road.

See y'all there!


Ken
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C&D @ the South Bank!

Hi all. I think grammatically that should be on the South Bank, but I couldn't find the on sign button on my little keyboard. Anywho, just a quick post with the exciting news that the gang and I will be setting up shop on London's glittering South Bank this coming Saturday to bring the magic of cupcakes to the National Theatre's Alternative Village Fete. As well as our little cakes there'll be a tonne of other fun stuff to see and do, including (but not limited to) live music and dance, ethical bear baiting, modern takes on classic fairground games, giant sheep knitting (huh?) and lots, lots more.

The event starts at 1pm just outside the National Theatre, and runs until 7:30pm, though as always our advice is to come along early for the best shot at bagging yourself some sweet sweet cupcake action.

Because of the South Bank stall there'll be no C&D on Duke of York Square this weekend, but don't sweat it - we'll be back on the Kings Road on the 12th July.

See you by the river!


Ken
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Chelsea Festival this weekend!

Hi all, just wanted to interrupt my Friday sprinkling to let you know that this weekend (and next) sees the start (and continuation) of the Chelsea Festival. There's a tonne of stuff to see and do (see their website for details), and for anyone visiting the C&D stall on Duke of York Square there'll be music and street theatre from 12pm including stilt walkers, live bands, storytelling and much more.

See y'all there!

Ken
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Easter Market

Hi all. And an extra specially big hi to everyone who came down to the market on Saturday to say hi and pick up their Easter cupcakes. We had a great time (in between the snow storms) and it was a pleasure to spread the bunny-y goodness amongst the good people of Chelsea.

See you next year!

Ken
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Easter Market special this weekend!

See you Saturday!


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Easter cupcakes!

That's right - everyone's second-favourite Christian festival is just around the corner, and we'll be celebrating in style by holding an Easter Eggstravaganza (I'm contractually obliged to call it that apparently) at our market stall on Duke of York Square, Kings Road, on Saturday 22nd March.

Because we tend to sell out pretty quickly at these types of things we'll be giving everyone the chance to reserve their Easter cupcakes ahead of time for collection on the day. There's two great offers to choose from - our Easter Box (15 mini cupcakes in a nice box with ribbon and stuff) and our Easter Eggbox (6 mini cupcakes in a cute coloured egg carton).

You can place and pay for your order over on the main site (here), and then all you have to do is make your way to the Kings Road on Saturday 22nd (10am-3pm) to collect.

See you there!

Ken
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We're back!

Happy 2008 everyone! Hope Father Christmas brought you everything you ever wanted, and that 2008's working out ok for you so far. We've been enjoying a brief rest, but the ovens are now well and truly fired up and my sprinkle vault is full-to-bursting. In other words, we're back baby!

Ahem. Anyway, before we launch into the 0-0-8 properly, there's just time to tie up a few loose ends from last year...

Here's some edgy winter wonderland mini cupcakes we did for the good folks at Camron PR:

And here is a joint box of cupcakes for Carlyn, one set for her son's Winnie the Pooh party and another for her Sex in the City soirée:



Here is a glimpse of some of the seaside-themed cupcakes we did for Zoe's wedding:



Here are some white, golden, plum, peach, chocolate, mocha and pistachio (phew!) mini cupcakes for our friends at QVC.




Here's a few corporate-colour-co-ordinated combo boxes we dropped off to some of the lucky people at Investec:



And finally a big Christmas thank-you to everyone who came along to the market on the Saturday before Christmas to pick up a box of Christmas cupcakes. We brought along a tonne of cakes (under the stall was wall-to-wall boxes!) but still sold out early, so sorry to anyone who arrived too late to get theirs. We'll be back at the market from this weekend, so if you're in the area do pop along and kick off 2008 right with your first C&D cupcakes of the year!




See you soon everyone!

Ken
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Christmas Market Special!

Hi Everyone. It's very nearly Christmas, and this Saturday we'll be running a Christmas Special at the market.

For the not-very-princely sum of £10 you'll be able to buy one of our great gift boxes of 15 mini cupcakes, all wrapped up and complete with a little card for you to write on. They're perfect for last-minute Christmas gifts, parties, or just lazing on the sofa with a cuppa watching Raiders of the Lost Arc for the fifteenth time.

We'll be bringing as many boxes along with us as we can, but availability is going to be limited, so we're not taking any pre-orders or reservations. The market opens at 10am, and is a 3min walk down the Kings Road from Sloane Square tube. You can find full details on our site by clicking here.

See you Saturday!

Ken
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Halloween @ Partridges!

A big hello to everyone who came along to our stall last weekend to sample some of our Halloween wares. A special "Hallow" (ho ho!) to Cheryl, owner of Eden's Pantry and proud possessor of the greatest hand-painted Halloween nails ever!

C&D @ Partridges Market!

Ok, ok, I'm a little late on this one, but I've been really busy lately, and my dog ate it, and, er... Anyway, for anyone who hasn't heard, hot news of the week - possibly even the month - is that Crumbs and Doilies is expanding its weekend market reach from this Saturday thanks to the launch of our new C&D stall at Partridges Fine Foods Market!

The market runs every Saturday from 10am-4pm in Duke of York Square, which is on the Kings Road, a 2 minute walk from Sloane Square tube station. We'll be there from this weekend (8th September), selling our yummy cupcakes to anyone and everyone who happens by, and there's also loads of other great foodie stuff to see and taste too.

More details, along with a map, can be found on our main site, here. If you're in the area, or fancy a trip to sunny Chelsea, drop by and say hi!

Ken
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No Sunday UpMarket this week

Bad news for cupcake devotees in and around London's East End I'm afraid - Crumbs and Doilies won't be at our usual spot in Sunday UpMarket this week. It's the biggest wedding weekend ever and we've just got so many orders on that there's not enough time to make the cakes.

Don't worry though, we're not slacking off. We'll be back at Sunday UpMarket real soon, and we're working on new plans to bring our yummy cupcakes to more of London (stay tuned for further news).

Ken
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Cupcakes Take the Cake

A big hi to Rachel and everyone else over at Cupcakes Take The Cake, a great blog based in the US, who were kind enough to feature the Crumbs and Doilies Nu-Rave cupcakes we made a while back last week. CCTTC (as I like to call it) is definitely worth a look for anyone with a passing interest in all things cupcakey, and the lovely Rachel even described my little blog as "fabulous". Well, shucks, y'know, er, I try, but really I... phew - I've gone bright pink. Anyway, be sure to head over and check them out, add them to your RSS feed list and so on.

Incidentally, keen observers may have noticed that I'm sat at C&D HQ typing this rather than taking up my usual position on the Sunday UpMarket stall - we're so busy this weekend with weddings and other big orders that we're having to take the week off. Don't worry though, we'll be back soon - check back here on my fabulous (ahem) blog for the latest market movements.

See you soon!

Ken
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New flyers in action!

Hi all.

I've got a bit of time between sprinkle stock-taking and blog posts, so I thought you might like to see a few 'action shots' of our new flyers making their debut at Sunday UpMarket last weekend.

Enjoy!

Ken
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C&D @ Whitecross Street Market

We won't be at our usual Sunday UpMarket pitch this weekend, but we will instead be plying our perfectly iced wares just up the road at the Whitecross Market Food Festival. It's a three-day event - although we're only there on the Saturday and Sunday - packed with all that's great about British food, including great producers, top stalls and no doubt some nice olives and stuff. For a map of the location, click here.

Anyway, if you're in the area, or fancy making the trip, be sure to come by, say hello and grab a cupcake or two. We'll also be rolling out our C&D Loyalty Cards, so anyone buying a box can start saving their way towards more free cupcakes.

Free cupcakes!

The C&D competition is obviously the go-to place for free cupcakes, even if it does require a bit of skill and good fortune. But for anyone who visits us at the market, we've introduced a whole new way to get your paws on some of our sweet sweet cupcakes for free.

Any and every time you buy a box of cakes - whether that's 12 mini or 4 big, we'll give you one of our special C&D Loyalty Cards. You get two cupcake stamps to start you off, and once you make it to 7 stamps (one for every box bought) we give you a free box of cupcakes!

The offer applies to our stall at Sunday UpMarket and anywhere else you find us out on the street selling cupcakes.

Party on!

Ken
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No Sunday UpMarket this week

Afternoon all. Just a quick note to say that we won't be at Sunday UpMarket this week - C&D has some important stuff to do over the weekend and I'm off on a sprinkle scouting expedition. All the usual great food and fashion stuff will be there though, so do pop along if you're in the area, but don't come down specially for little old us, 'cos we won't be about.

We'll not be in attendance next weekend either, in fact, as we'll be at the Whitecross Street Food Festival, but more on that later...

Ken
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Absolute Vintage cupcakes!

Here's some great green and gold mini cupcakes we did for Absolute Vintage's boutique shop Blondie, which is celebrating its first birthday. Both the stores are situated in the East End, so if you're popping down on a Sunday be sure to drop by the C&D stall and say hi!

Weekend favourites

Another busy weekend at Crumbs and Doilies HQ. Sunday UpMarket was especially busy, because of the Baishakhi Mela, which turned out to be a great success despite the best efforts of the British weather.

As well as the usual market tomfoolery, there was also a tonne of orders over the weekend. Here's a run-down of some of my faves:

30 assorted cupcakes decorated in a Snow White/fantasy style for a Talent Magazine photoshoot:
Cupcakes for Lucy's 1977/Wonder Woman-themed party:

A combination box for Nick's birthday, complete with purposefully embarrassing piping, from Fi:

Cupcakes for a surprise baby shower (me neither), from Pam for her daughter:

And a box of a dozen big cupcakes for Yeppi:

Baishakhi Mela

Not that you'd need another reason to come see us at Sunday UpMarket, but this week should be extra fun, as it's the Baishakhi Mela festival. The festival's held every year in Brick Lane to celebrate the the Bengali New Year, and there'll be a precession, music, stalls and much general merriment. Plus, of course, you'll be within grabbing distance of some sweet sweet Crumbs and Doilies cupcakes!

It all kicks off with the grand parade at about 11am, and there'll be music performances, fashion shows, kabadi and other fun stuff late into the night.

See you Sunday!

Ken
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No Sunday UpMarket this week

Hi cakefans.

Following our inclusion in a couple of Sunday supplements recently, as well as the mighty Daily Candy, things have been pretty hectic up here at C&D HQ. A big thank you to everyone who's called or emailed us to say hi or order cupcakes - we've been swamped. So much so that we're having to take this week off from our usual Sunday UpMarket cupcake fest to catch up with orders and get the sprinkle stocks in order.

Don't worry too much though, because Crumbs and Doilies will be back in our usual spot next Sunday, and you can keep up with all that's new and exciting in my world here on the blog til then. Plus, of course, we'll still be taking orders for next week in the usual way.

See you next Sunday!

Ken
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