Welcome to The Hummingbird Bakery

I first thought about opening The Hummingbird Bakery after spending Thanksgiving with cousins in North Carolina. After eating too much pecan pie, banana cream pie, and apple pie, I wondered why there wasn’t a place in London that made these types of desserts to a high standard. On subsequent trips to the USA, and New York in particular, I visited various bakeries that made all the goodies that I enjoyed eating, especially cupcakes. And at that point, cupcakes seemed to be unknown in London—at least, they were hard to buy.

I started planning the bakery in 2002. First, I attended baking classes in New York so that I would understand the ingredients and techniques used in American baking. Then came the fun task of devising recipes and testing them on friends and family. I always had an idea of which core cakes I wanted to sell—and for these I tested and tweaked many, many recipes until I found what I thought tasted the most authentic. I even held parties for friends so that they could test the recipes and tell me if I was getting them right.

The next important step was finding the perfect site for the first shop. I felt it should be a place that was relatively busy, with a bohemian feel. A unit in Portobello Road in London’s Notting Hill came up by chance and I immediately jumped on it. It proved to be heaven-sent because as soon as the shop opened, a lot of high-profile customers began to write and speak about it. On Saturdays, when the famous market is on, tourists flock to Portobello and they were soon queueing up to try our cupcakes. During the quieter weekdays, the publicity surrounding the Bakery kept it busy. Soon, recommendations were appearing on blogs, and friends were being urged to try our cupcakes when they visited London. Now, thanks to the success of our first branch, we also have a shop in South Kensington.

It will probably come as no surprise that we sell far more cupcakes than anything else. They seem to be popular because of their cute size, the childhood memories they evoke, and their sheer versatility. Our best-selling cupcakes are vanilla with pink frosting, which reflects our female-dominated customer base, and red velvet, simply because they look and taste so distinctive. For many people, layer-cakes are essential for birthdays. Besides the red velvet and vanilla, our carrot cake is extremely popular. Decorating a three-layer cake takes time but the result is worth the effort! Pies are such an American tradition, especially for festive occasions. Our customers love lemon meringue and Key lime pies the most—the fluffy meringue and whipped cream toppings are so beautiful and mouthwatering that they never last long in the shop. Other treats such as muffins, cookies, and bars were always favorites in school lunchboxes when I was at school. Our brownies are extremely popular, so we developed three versions: plain (no nuts), frosted (more cakey with nuts and frosting), and my favorite, brownies topped with baked cheesecake and raspberry whipped cream!

I’m so pleased to share my favorite cakes with you in this book. I hope you enjoy baking them as much we all do at The Hummingbird Bakery.

Tarek Malouf