- Today on Preppy Kitchen, I'm in London,
here with Jemma at her shop Crumbs & Doilies.
We're going on a bakery tour to find some of the most
delicious places in London.
The weather's a bit dodgy today,
so we're gonna head out before it starts raining too hard.
But fear not we'll return to Crumbs & Doilies
at the end to sample all of Jemma's
delicious cupcakes and cookies.
And can I tell you,
people got wind of this and I had so many suggestions
for your place specifically.
You were like the most recommended place out of all of this.
- Well, I should hope so.
I mean, if you're in London,
you have to come to Crumbs & Doilies because,
I mean I am slightly biased,
but it is the best cake shop
- Yeah. - In central London.
- And maybe the world.
- Cannot wait to dig in.
- All right, well, let's get cracking.
- Let's go.
- We've got a lot to eat. - Enough of the small talk.
(Jemma laughs) We're on our way out.
- Bye guys!
- It's locked. - Oh!
- We'll let you out.
(everyone laughs)
- No, you have to stay here forever.
Let's eat.
All right.
Did you just clean your glasses?
- I did, there's some rain on them.
- Oh, no.
Don't say that.
- You know, that happens.
- All right, this is it on the left here.
Oh, they've got my dream.
This is the bench that I want outside my house,
but they're like £800.
- Of course.
- I'll just have to take this one.
- Yeah, does it lift?
I bet it does lift.
- I'll just take this bench.
This is Bafarat.
I've not been here so this is very exciting.
- What are they known for?
- So it's a Middle Eastern coffee shop.
- Ooh.
- But they have a French pastry chef who
I think he came from Callebaut Chocolate.
So he's got credentials.
It's French style pastries.
- Then maybe with like a little saffron rosewater?
- Maybe.
- I don't know.
I hope so right now. - We shall see.
- Well, let's go in and find out (Jemma laughs).
And then we're gonna pull our top selects.
- Okay.
- Pistachio eclair for me. - Yes, let's.
- I think we should just stick with one
since we've got so much to get through today.
- You have to get one too though.
- Do I?
Well, if that's the case.
- Well, cause I wanna share.
So you know, like, you have to taste something.
- Oh okay.
Well, this works for me. - Yeah.
- In that case,
I'm gonna go for the vanilla flan
because it's very different to the pistachio eclair.
- I was literally just talking about vanilla flans with you.
- You were!
- Yeah.
Let's go.
I got the forks. - Oh my God.
- Well, look, we've got a table.
- Oh, I love this.
It's only a little bit wet.
- Yeah, it's just a little bit moist right now
cause we are in London, of course.
So it wouldn't be right if it didn't rain a little bit.
- Look at that in the light.
- [Jemma] So pretty!
- [John] You know, I love pistachio.
Did I tell you that? - [Jemma] Yeah.
- I'll just bite one side and you can bite the other.
- (John laughs) That's a great idea.
- Like we could do it like Lady and the Tramp.
Okay no, we've just met.
It's too soon for that (Jemma laughs).
- Mmmh.
- What are we saying?
- It is chuck full of pistachios.
- Is it? - Just how I like it.
- All right, let's have a go.
- Mmmh.
- That is so nice.
- That is super, super pistachio-y.
I'm actually a little bit like reluctant to...
- Well, I'm gonna...
No, it's soft. - Okay.
- I thought it was gonna be cracking and like, be like
stained glass. - Oh sorry, microphone.
(Jemma laughs)
- So you dig in, I'll dig in.
- Okay, okay, okay.
I'm gonna make a terrible mess of their lovely fridge box,
but you know, doing it for the viewers.
Okay.
This is not as easy our last product.
- It really demands to take a giant bite of it.
- Oh, hang on.
We got it, I got it. - You did so well.
- Mmmh!
Yum.
- I love vanilla.
I love creamy things.
So this looks like it's right up my alley.
- This vanilla flavor is quality.
You can tell.
- Yeah.
- There's some good quality vanilla in there.
I'm gonna have a bit more,
even though I know what's coming today
and there's an awful lot to get through.
But at this point, I'm actually really hungry.
This is the worst time
to be doing dessert. - I know.
(both laughing)
- Oh yeah.
Yummers.
It's got like a really, like,
is this crème pât?
Like, I guess it's like a vanilla custard.
- It's a vanilla custard.
- Mmh.
- [John] Yeah, you can see all those little vanilla seeds.
- [Jemma] Yummy. - [John] In there.
- [John] Beans.
- Okay.
- Yeah, we can't eat all.
- What could you eat five of?
- Five?
- Okay, three... Ten?
- [Brian] John, try the lemon.
- Oh, hang on.
We've got a wild card coming.
- Mmmh!
- This is the signature lemon tart, right?
- Their signature lemon tart.
Brian's actually tagging along for a little bit,
behind the camera.
You try this out.
This is really good. - Is it?
- It's not fair to choose.
- Mmh.
- They are so different flavor-wise.
- They are.
- I'm a sucker for creamy vanilla things.
- Me too.
I could eat that all day.
- So, I could eat that all day long.
- But today though.
(Jemma chuckles)
- I could eat all this.
I could eat all that as well.
- Yeah. - You know?
- Would eat again. - Not a fair fight.
- That's my review.
- Yeah, come over (Jemma chuckles).
Come to London, bring an empty stomach.
Okay. - Off we go.
Why don't we go to Mamasons?
Yes.
I feel like there's more that way, isn't it?
Yeah.
- [Sally] Heading like into Chinatown.
- Yeah.
That little wiggle.
Little wiggle.
Oh lovely.
- Now we're at
Mamasons. - Mamasons.
- So these guys, they started with a bakery,
not bakery, like an ice cream shopping here
in North London.
Actually near where I used to live.
Weirdly, I never went to that one.
I've only ever been to this one.
(John laughs)
But Sally and I discovered it on our last dessert crawl
and they do some really delicious stuff.
Loads of stuff with ube.
Loads of like really interesting stuff,
which like British people are like,
what is this crazy thing?
- Well, ube is like such an interesting thing.
Cause it's like visually striking, has a subtle flavor.
So a lot of times ube things are actually
really disappointing.
You like, get like a visual flash
and you're like, ah!
This is highly recommended. - Yes.
So I bet I'm not gonna be disappointed.
- [Jemma] You're not.
- [John] So I will order something with ube in it.
- [Jemma] Yeah.
- It's so warm.
Like it's just literally come out of the toaster
and it's warm in the outside,
and cold on the inside.
- It's like about to collapse, - Yeah.
which is the perfect temperature for ice cream,
in my humble opinion.
- I agree.
This hot and cold thing is, I love it,
but also I've got incredibly sensitive teeth
so it's also a nightmare.
- Oh, me too.
- Oh!
Same-sies!
- Do you bake as well?
- I know.
- Tell everyone what that's called.
- It's called a bilog and it's got ube ice cream in it.
And ube is this stuff we were talking about.
It's a purple yam.
- Yeah.
- But the bilog is like a milk bread bun,
and it's been split in half.
And it's got the ice cream inside
and they put it in a special toaster,
which is like round and it squished them together.
- [Crosstalk 00;06;16] It's like a dessert hot pocket.
- Yes, exactly that.
And what's this?
It's is basically a donut.
- This is a stuffed donut with like
a ube cream on the inside.
- Are you gonna go blob first?
- I've watched your videos so I know you like the blob.
I'm gonna save it for you.
- I tell you what, why don't I scoop a bit of blob off?
- Scoop some blob.
- I got my bit of blob.
Oh, whoa, nearly lost my blob.
That flavor is so unusual.
- You know what's nice about it?
It's a little bit earthy.
- Yes.
- You have like a flavor that comes on.
It's not just sweet. - Mmh.
It's a nice balance.
You know what it's from?
It reminds me of those black sesame cupcakes.
- No way. - Yeah.
It has like a little bit of a nice earthy balance to it.
- Well, I'm gonna go ahead and have a scoop of ice cream.
Cause as we previously discussed,
with these sensitive teeth,
I can't do the biting of the sandwich thing.
That just won't work. - I know.
- Mmh. - Mmh.
- Oh yum! - It's so good.
- It's so smooth as well, this ice cream.
You know, so it's called Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream.
And in the Philippines, it's called dirty ice cream
cause that's what they call
the ice cream that they make on the street,
which they make with salt.
Like a bowl in the salt.
I've never actually made
ice cream this way. - I made it.
- Have you done it like that?
- If you've been in Boy Scouts.
- Oh.
What, like survival?
I need ice cream in the woods.
I'm gonna die unless I get it.
- It's a project.
(both laughing)
- I wanna go to your Boy Scouts.
Also just Boy Scouts in general.
- Mmmh.
- [Jemma] Oh yummy.
Here we go.
Oh my gosh, watch the shirt.
(Jemma laughs)
Although, if you're gonna get stained with anything,
it should be ube, right?
It's the prettiest color.
Isn't that nice.
- It's really good.
It's like, it's just falling apart and warm and gooey.
Well that's delicious.
- Isn't it?
- Wait, have you had the donut yet?
- I haven't had it.
Oh, hang on.
What's happening here?
- You can't just hold things for me, you have to eat too.
- Oh my God.
Oh yeah.
- That's like a fresh donut too.
- That is a good donut.
- Donuts really have to have a really, really
light, airy structure.
- Yeah.
- So it's just like a beautiful,
like carb-y pillow coated in sugar.
- How do you feel about baked donuts?
- They're fun to make,
but there's something about the frying that's just magical.
- It is, isn't it?
And it just imparts a whole flavor that you can't achieve.
- Cause it's crunchy and gold on the outside,
and steamed on the inside. - Yeah!
- So it's very like, it could be so nice.
- This has got a really nice amount of salt on it.
- Doesn't it?
- I can't work out where it is.
Is it in the dough? - I think it's kind of
all over. - Is it on the outside?
- Maybe it's in the custard,
which is like ube mousse.
- [John] That's really good.
- [Jemma] I used to have hair this color.
- [John] I could see that.
- Actually, I've had all the colors.
This is a good one though.
All right!
Onward and upward (John chuckles).
I'm being mouthed at.
I have no idea (Sally laughs) what are you saying?
- [Sally] Chestnut!
- Oh, we're gonna Chestnut Bakery next.
- Let's go!
- For some light pastry relief.
- Oh, just like a light pastry.
So that bus came so close to me.
- It does feel like that, doesn't it?
- It really does.
I think there was like an appropriate space.
- Don't do it.
You can just as easily get run over by a bicycle.
So this is Chestnut Bakery.
- Okay.
- And they are another bakery that
they have another site as well,
but they only opened up really recently, as well.
And I actually don't know much about this place,
other than Dominique Ansel used to be on this site.
(Jemma laughing)
- Oh.
- Yeah.
And because this is called Floral Street,
and they actually apparently do like a floral flavor
every bake. - Oh!
- I don't know.
- Like lavender?
- I guess so.
How do you feel about violets, the flavor?
- I like violets.
- Cause over here there's a sweet called Parma violets.
Have you heard of it?
- No.
It's like a kind of pastel-y kind of sweet.
Yeah? - Like a chalky pastel.
- Ah-huh?
- Violet flavor. - Not selling it.
- And it's a real dividing,
like you either love it or you hate it.
I love it.
- Oh well.
- But that's just me.
- We have a whole list of candies for you to try out next.
- Oh good. - Yes.
- Find a dry spot.
Here, I'll hold the bag.
- Okay, and I will investigate.
So we got some savory stuff.
We won't bore you with all of that.
- Yeah, no.
- We just need a little bite of something.
- A little salty something.
- Just to keep us going.
- This looked like it was the star inside.
- Yeah, this looked amazing.
- And it's kind of both of our favorite
type of croissant too.
- Yeah, we both love an almond croissant.
- Mmh.
- What I love about almond croissant is
it's great for wastage,
because if you don't sell yesterday's croissants,
you just make them into almond croissants.
- (John laughing) I didn't know that part.
- Yeah.
They should be made with day old croissants.
There you go.
All right, let's break it up.
Oh, do you know what?
That's so nice.
- [John] Why is that so nice?
- Because, I'll tell you why this is nice.
It doesn't have almond extract in it.
So it's really like almond-y, but really subtly.
- You know, I love coconut.
- Mmh-hmm.
- One of my favorite flavors.
Coconut extract is disgusting.
- Most extracts are disgusting.
That's true. - Apart from vanilla.
- Yeah.
So it's really nice.
It's just natural flavors.
- And really crisp, beautiful lamination.
- Mmh-hmm.
- I'd have this for breakfast.
- Coffee?
- Actually like my second breakfast,
cause normally I eat breakfast at home
and then I get one of these on the way to work.
(John chuckles)
- You're a hobbit.
- That's okay, right?
It's actually really raining quite badly now.
So we'll finish this on the road
and we'll see you in a minute.
- Bye-bye!
- Okay.
We're not allowed in yet because there is a thing.
- But we're at Arôme right now.
- We are at Arôme which is a new bakery, again.
And it's owned by a French guy and a Singaporean guy.
And the French chef is married to a Singaporean.
So there's a real French, like Asian thing happening.
So there's like lots of French pastries,
but with loads of Asian flavors.
- Oh, I can't wait.
- Me neither!
I really want the, there's a honey butter toasty thing,
which I actually walked past someone eating it earlier.
And I was going, that's what I want!
- Yes, I remember that now.
- Let's get that.
- [John] Okay, let's go.
- [Jemma] We came out of the entrance.
- Yeah, look at this.
- [Jemma] Shokupan, which is a Japanese milk bread.
I guess they smother it in honey and bake it.
And he said?
- [John] To let it cool for a couple of minutes.
- [Jemma] Don't touch it yet
because it's hotter than the sun.
- [John] It's scalding hot.
- I feel like this deserves a-
- Yeah.
- A mouthful shove. - Yeah, take a mouthful.
- You know?
I dunno, where is the entry point, do you think?
Cause what you don't want...
Oh, it's at the bottom.
- Yeah.
- It went up the bottom.
- So?
- So that's gonna like dribble out.
- No worries, we'll just be watching.
- Mmh.
- Can I try?
- Yeah, I guess so.
- I guess so.
- Mmh!
- Here, have a box.
- I'll take the whole thing.
- Have a box table.
- I'll take these napkins
because feel like there's a lot going on.
Oh, go ahead.
- [Sally] Oh! - Oh!
- I'll get that.
(Jemma laughing)
Mmmh!
Crème diplomate really is the king of the crèmes.
- Oh my God, mmh!
- Yum!
- That's alright.
- Oh, so nice!
That's really great.
- That is amazing, but I will say eat from one end
if you get this, not from both ends.
- Yeah, don't do what just happened here because that was,
that was never gonna work. - That's really good though.
- It's like a very generous amount of cream.
- Yeah, they're not holding it back.
- It's fresh.
It's like nice and fresh ingredients.
Just simple and delicious.
- [Jemma] It's really cold too, in a nice way.
- It's very satisfying.
This smells so good. - Doesn't it?
- It smells really buttery.
- This is your fork, first of all.
- In the window, there is basically
trays full of butter chopped up.
- Yes.
- Which is like my dream.
- Where did it all go?
- I think it went into this one single piece of toast.
- Smell.
Okay, I'm gonna hold it
while you take a while you take a cut.
- What, to see how hot it is and if it burns me?
Thanks (John laughing).
- No, it should be nice.
- Do we need a knife?
- [John] I think you might. - Let's do it.
- [John] We'll see. - [Jemma] Oh my gosh, yes.
- [Jemma] It's crispy, crunchy.
- [John] Okay.
- [Jemma] Hang on!
I need the whole shebang here.
Like fork, knife.
- [John] This could be sold on a stick.
- It probably should be sold on a stick.
Okay, hang on.
Oh!
That smells amazing!
- I feel like a cartoon character doing this.
- Oh wow.
Oh my God.
That is genius.
Cause it's like caramel, caramelized.
It's got like a caramelized skin.
Oh, this might be the best thing we've eaten all day,
in my opinion.
- You know, what's nice about it?
It's so simple.
- Mmh!
- It's just like, just a couple textures
playing off of each other.
- Mmh-hmm.
- Really simple flavors.
- Chewy, fluffy,
crunchy, soft,
buttery.
- This dipped into like an amazing cappuccino.
- Mmh!
- Yes?
- For breakfast, every day, okay.
(Jemma laughing)
And as if by magic.
- By magic, I just so happen to have a cappuccino.
- Oh yeah.
I got a whiff of the coffee there.
- Mmh!
- And I can imagine it.
I've had too much coffee already today,
so I'm not gonna get involved in that.
- So nice.
I'm gonna save some of this for Brian and the kids.
The parts you didn't nibble off of.
- Does that mean I can't have anymore?
Because that's actually devastating.
(Jemma laughing)
Rude.
- No, we'll split it up, we'll split it up.
- (John laughs) Thank you.
That's why I bought the extra bag.
- Oh, I see (Jemma laughs).
I see, okay.
- Right.
Okay, let's go.
- Okay.
- So we are back here at Crumbs and Doilies
cause it's home, you know.
- And it's full of delicious things as well.
- Yeah, like I'm not sure if either of us really need
an extra sweet treat right now,
but just in case, we thought we'd end up here at the shop.
(Jemma laughs)
So we always have a really good range of cupcakes
because that's how I started, I was cupcakes only.
- Right.
- And then we also do our New York style cookies,
which are inspired by Levain's cookies in New York.
- Oh, are they're soft and?
- They are all the things.
They are a little bit crispy,
a little bit gooey,
a little bit oozey, a little bit soft.
And they are the best.
My favorite today is the Bueno.
- What about the cupcakes?
- What about those cupcakes?
So this one is one of my favorites.
This is black sesame and white chocolate.
So white chocolate mud cake with a black sesame,
Swiss meringue buttercream,
and there's like sesame crumb on top.
Mmh!
- I have to try the black sesame one.
It's really piqued my interest.
- You do have to try it.
- May I have a small one?
- I think that's probably wise.
- [John] Okay.
(Jemma chuckling)
- [Jemma] Served on a doily.
- [John] Oh!
- A lot of people don't know what doilies are.
- That's sad.
- It is quite sad.
- Where was your grandmother?
- Well, I actually called Crumbs and Doilies
Crumbs and Doilies because when I set the bakery up,
I was tryna figure out a name,
and people were kind of suggesting all these awful
rubbish ones. - Right.
- Crazy cakes. - Oh right, right, right.
- I was like, oh yeah, great.
And then I was just pottering around in my room
and I found these old silk doilies
that my great, great aunt had made,
that my mom had given me.
And I was like, oh, doilies are cool, aren't they?
- They are.
- And I had this like image of crumbs on a doily.
Oh, hey!
Whoa!
Check this out.
It's gone.
(Jemma laughs)
No time to look.
- [Woman] Did you take half of it?
- Yeah, he did that thing that people,
I've heard of this technique.
- That's so good.
- That's good, isn't it?
- That's so good.
- Oh, Swiss meringue buttercream.
Silky.
- [John] And the sesame seeds are crunchy too.
- [Jemma] Yeah.
- It's really nice.
- Thanks guys.
(woman laughing)
Thanks upstairs.
- I can see why you have a thriving business in London,
for years.
- (both chuckling) That's lucky, isn't it?
- The food's not rubbish.
- Yeah well, gosh, that would've been very awkward.
Popped it in his mouth and he's like-
Mmh, this is really... nice.
(Jemma laughing)
- Thank you so much for the most amazing tour.
I can't believe I've been to London so many times
and I haven't met you.
So that was like, - I know.
it was a really fun day.
And make sure you go to Cupcake Jemma's channel
and check out the other half of this video.
- Yes, because there was just too much to fit into one, so.
- You said I couldn't sandwich this.
I just wanted to prove you wrong.
- Oh yeah.
I was like, it's got a thing on top.
- Anything is possible.
- I feel like I should attempt this new fangled techniques.
- I did not even invent this.
- Oh, well I know, but you know.
I'll give you credit for it.
- Oh. - Oh golly.
- Look at that. - Okay, hang on.
- Now you just pop it all in. - Okay.
- I'm taking a bite.
(John laughing)
- I can't even talk to tell you off
because my mouth is so full.
(Jemma laughs)
But that was really good.
- It was delicious. - Mmh-hmm.
- Make sure you subscribe to Cupcake Jemma,
and to me too. - Yeah.
- And if you like this video,
check out my all time favorite dessert playlist.
- Oh, nice!
- I made it up just now.
(Jemma laughs)
- You've got some work to do then.
- I do.
- And don't forget to head over to Cupcake Jemma
to check out the other half of this tour.