Happy Birthday to Me - Cakes from Konditor & Cook

I'm no fan of my own birthday. Really ... do I really need another reminder of how old I'm getting? :) I do, on the hand, enjoy other people's birthdays. Just as long as it's not my own ... However, there are a few out there who very sweetly refuse to to forget (thank you, you know who are:), hence the two slices of cake from Konditor & Cook. And very good cake they were too. Good enough to tempt two colleagues to share them with me one sunny afternoon in the park.

The Curly Whirly came in the form of chocolate sponge with a vanilla bean frosting. Nice, light with a slight tartness, which I think can be owed to the cream cheese in the frosting. The curly whirliness came from bits of pipped chocolate icing .. nothing greatly exciting. It was a good piece of cake. Solidly normal .... as a Victoria Sponge.

The Chocolate Raspberry Fudge Tart on the other hand ... was wholeheartedly chocolate down to it's soul. Rich, deep and broken only by a layer of raspberry puree sitting just above the pastry. The pastry, however, was a bit of a disspointment. It would have been delightful if they had used a buttery pastry crust or crushed chocolate biscuits (think cheesecake here) if we were going for the full chocolate whack. Instead it was lacklustre, boring and verging on tasting like stale pastry.

Konditor & Cook is certainly worth a try. I didn't manage to find that many reviews for them online but I have asked around and they do seem quite well known with five branches across London.