[Review] Tea at London Tea Exchange

A while ago I discovered London Tea Exchange when I was at Brick Lane so made a mental note to visit it later.
I love tea especially when there are so many blends to choose from.
Brick Lane is an interesting location for a tea house because the rest are smaller coffee shops and curry houses.

I was drawn by the cakes at the window especially the rainbow one which just stood out from the classy wood and brass setting.

As the place was a bit busy I went back an hour later when it was nice and quiet.

The staff were really friendly and showed me the teas so that I could smell them.
There were green, black, white, yellow and other teas to choose from on the menu.
Darjeeling or Breakfast tea is normally my pick with cakes but the chocolate coconut was a must because I always have this whenever I see it.

Ordered the rainbow cake with the chocolate and coconut tea.

The rainbow cake was moist and delicious finished with my favourite chocolate coconut tea which had three types of Belgian chocolate and coconut flakes.
It is hard to explain but I just have an addictive to the taste of cocoa in tea without the sweetness.

To summarize, I really enjoyed my tea moment so I will probably be back for the Fruity blossom tea which has a lovely aroma of cherries and rhubarb.
The staff have a good knowledge of teas which is good but it would have been nice if the cakes were labelled.

[Review] Cakes at Vida Bakery

Vida Bakery is another success story, they started off four years ago with stalls at markets and festivals selling cakes free from dairy gluten and egg.
They became so popular that they opened a permanent shop on Brick Lane in the summer of 2018.
Vida Bakery is hard to miss on Brick Lane with its rainbow cake displays.

Inside, you will find captivating cup cakes and cakes to choose from.
The best day to visit would probably be the weekend as they have more cakes to choose from while on weekdays there are only three.

I decided to try the red velvet cup cake and leave the cake for the weekend when there would be more choices.

The red velvet cup cake was shockingly good, the texture was spot on.
I loved the way it was firm yet moist just like your regular cake but this was eggless!!
The cakes are definitely worth trying because they are unsuspectingly eggless and vegan!

Will definitely be coming back.

[Review] Yummy Cakes at Victoria Yum

I love cakes, but it has been difficult finding a decent cake shop.
Most of the good small bakeries have retired so you have to resort getting cakes from the supermarket which are just frozen cakes or cakes that have a long shelf life.
Some bakeries offer instaworthy cakes which lack substance but Victoria Yum appealed to me in the sense that their cakes are creative as well as delicious and not to mention instagrammable!
The shop owner is probably called Victoria hence the name Victoria Yum but I love the the classic British Victoria Sponge/Sandwich so somehow I just knew I was going to like it.

After browsing their website, the cake choices were exciting so it was hard deciding what to get.

Some of the creative ones include:
Matcha Chai with Cinnamon & Cardamom
Raspberry Rose & Pistachio
Poached Pear & Blueberry
Fresh Peach & Raspberry
Courgette, Pistachio & Lemon

I planned to go there in January but fortunately I found out they were doing some refurbishing as they were closed until Feb 2nd, 2020.
They are only open from Weds to Sat from 9am to 4pm so as soon as it was Wednesday I went to Victoria Yum.

However, when I got there, they didn't have the full collection so went back again on Saturday.

As expected, the cakes were like eye candy so it was hard to choose.
The special cake that day was Parsnip, Apple and Honey which shows her creativity with vegetables in cakes just like the courgette one.

It was a battle to decide which cake to get, I already had red velvet in mind because I wanted something basic to satisfy my simple cake craving.
As well as the red velvet the rhubarb raspberry also looked good, I liked the pink cream in the middle which should have a nice tartness from the rhubarb.

In the end I went for the Ruby Red Velvet which was a big generous slice!
Not only was it big but it had four layers so it was difficult to fit another slice in that day.

Digging in to my cake, the layers were so decadent and the silky vanilla cream cheese in the middle literally melts in your mouth.
Having tea with the tea is a must but then you always have tea with cakes.

Although I couldn't quite finish it, I was already thinking of another slice of cake.
I regretted not getting another cake to take home as it would mean looking forward to another Saturday for cakes!!!!

Went back again and had the Rhubarb and Raspberry which was also just as delicious but that day they had the rainbow cake which made it hard to decide!