Violet Cakes

Get over the fact the 'cafe' space is twee, cute, pretty and typical of hackney design. It's far too expensive, portions are tiny, and the staff are more than unhelpful. Sure the cupcakes are fun and go for your life. But Violet should stick at cupcakes and focus on what they're good at, rather than attempt to diversify and be average. Constantly disappointed after each visit, and will not be going again. Please stop paying these outrageous prices, and ruining the neighbourhood.

I just don't get it. I will say that the bakery itself is BEAUTIFUL and the cupcakes at least look pretty but the cakes taste of nothing. The sponge is always dry and though they claim to use all sorts of natural flavorings in the icing, they all pretty much taste the same - sickly sweet. I guess I'm not a cupcake person so not the best person to be reviewing Violet but the larger cakes also lack flavour and imagination.

I love Violet Cakes - yes - the cakes aren't perfect, I agree that the sponge is sometimes a little dry compared to shop bought cakes, but this is becase these are home made. Proper home made cakes don't have a perfectly smooth moist texture. I also really love the flavourings used - the strawberry cupcakes are gorgeous and the icing is richly infused with a gorgeous English strawberry flavouring. I also love the passionfruit cakes. The cafe itself is adorable, small, intimate and with a lovely little outdoor area where you can enjoy your tea and cake and read the newspaper at leisure. So, sorry previous reviewer, but I wholeheartedly disagree with your review. I like the personal, initmate, home madeness of the food and the place and have always found it a delight. Plus it is local - lucky, lucky me.

Violet is a wonderful experience... their salted caramel cup cake (not to mention full size cake) is just about the most delicious thing I've eaten! I only wish they were available at Maltby Street on a Saturday morning. Red Velvet, chocolate with marshmallow frosting, ginger molasses cake & the sea salt chocolate chop cookies... I could go on. Everything is delicious. The cafe is also the sweetest spot in Hackney!

Last month I was visiting London for an extended stay and happen to (thankfully) be staying in Hackney. I was blown away by Violet’s beautiful, eclectic shop and frequented it so many times that was privileged to taste a multitude of their fresh baked treats. I only wish I had been able to try everything, but I did have many of their cupcakes (salted caramel, red velvet, violet, chocolate, strawberry (thank goodness it was strawberry season!), rhubarb, polenta (I couldn't believe VEGAN could be so moist and tasty), amongst others. Every one of them was perfect. I also had scones, brownies, crumb muffins, delicious granola, fresh sandwiches they make for lunch, not to mention a perfect coffee and lovely little pots of tea. Everything was served by a very friendly and cheerful staff. I’ve been in some of the other cake shops in London and sure, there are the good ones, but Violet has something special. As I sat there catching up on some emails I would look around and the place was continuously full of happy faces coming and going and not a crumb was left on a plate. I even started to recognize the regulars (yes, I was there enough to notice!) Violet is the kind of place you want to keep going back to because you know you can count on a deliciously perfect moment in your day. Just go...

Reading the review below I'm more than a bit surprised... I've been a regular customer of Violet's stall on Broadway Market for several years now - flour-less chocolate sponge with cherries on top, ginger molasses cake are my personal favourites, but also the cup-cakes are top notch. There is also now a Violet coffee/cake shop a short walk away where the staff are the polar opposite of the too-cool-for-school attitude you get in a lot of trendy /foody places. There's a great pub there called the Spurstow if you want to top up on too-cool-for-school East London aloofness, although that comes mainly in the form of the punters rather than the bar-staff..

The ginger molasses cake at Violet is among the best desserts I've had, and the garden at the back of the shop was the ideal place to enjoy it. Highly recommended.

I live in Dublin, and when I visited London last October, I made a special trip out to Wilton Way to Violet Cakes. I can't remember where I first read about Claire and her delicious, delicate cupcakes, but I was determined to find the bakery and try some.

It was a delightful afternoon, and my only regret is that I couldn't bring any home in my suitcase.

Wliton Way may be well out of your way, but Violet Cakes is worth the trip!

I love Violet cakes cakes - especially the whoopee pies (i think they're the best). They're probably the least synthetic tasting cupcakes I've had (most are just too sweet for me). The flavours are usually a bit different from the usual cupcake offerings and she uses things like cornmeal in her sponge (perhaps that's why it seemed dry), which doesn't always work for me, but it's this 'experimentation' I like about Violet's range - it's always interesting as well as tasty.

I can't believe the comment below... seriously, I take everyone who visits London to Violet and ALL of them go crazy for the place, and more importantly, the cakes.

Best in London. Without a shadow of a doubt.

Dear EMS,
Thank you for coming to my cake stall on Broadway Market. I am so sorry to hear that you ordered a violet cupcake and received a rhubarb one instead. THat must have been disappointing.
I am also so sorry to hear that you did not like the sponge. I am truly about that. Could I invite you back to try them again? Because we use organic flour, sugar, eggs, dairy, vanilla, spices and fruits and because everything is made fresh and with much care, we have to charge these prices. In fact, our prices are the same as all the major cupcake companies who do NOT use fine and organic ingredients so their profit margins are much much higher. I try to give our customers the best service and best product I possibly can and I am personally dedicated to making this happen. If anyone is ever disappointed I want to make it right. I would love to offer you a free box of cupcakes for you to try again and see if you still feel the same way about our sponge. I personally think it is one of the best I have ever tried. I tested and tweaked the recipe before opening my business in 2005 until I was really proud of it. All of our icings are made in small batches with seasonal buttercreams to compliment the delicate flavour of the vanilla sponge.
Send me an email if you would like to try the cupcakes again.

Our shop hours have now changed as well!
We are open Tuesday- Friday 7:30am to 6 pm
Saturdays 9:30am to 6
Sundays 9:30am to 5
closed Mondays

Hope to see you there!
Claire

Violet Cakes is off the beaten track but well worth visiting. Aside from the brilliant cakes and coffee the atmosphere is really great.

Sounds to me like EMS is out to promote this Lorraine Pascale's Ella's Bakehouse more than anything else... as it happens, I am a bit of a cupcake expert, and while I have not tried Ella's Bakehouse, I certainly have tried Violet Cakes' cupcakes and I can assure you the sponge is far from being dry and tasteless, and the icing everything but synthetic. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I'm lucky enough to live around the corner from Violet. Truly one of my favourite places in London, with welcoming staff and a lovely relaxed vibe. The flourless chocolate cake is my favourite but you should take the time to try a little of everything. A weekend staple.

This looks like a co-ordinated effort to slate Violet in order to promote Ella Bakehouse.
I took my gran, who has been making cakes all her life and has spent and still spends a great deal of her retirement time judging cake competitions up and down the country, to taste the fare at Violet. She was suitably impressed. So if Violet's cakes are good enough to meet her very high standards, they're more than good enough for me. I wonder what credentials the reviewer has in the art of cake-making. Certainly none that match my gran's.

Visited the stall in Broadway Market on Saturday after reading some good things about the cakes and was excited to try them. Tried the large size bergamot and passionfruit cakes, and mini rhubarb and sea salt caramel cakes. I had asked for a violet one as well, but when I got home and opened the box saw that the stall assistant had given me 2 rhubarb instead of a violet. The stall was prettily presented enough but if you look at the sponge, your instinct will tell you they are not good. And they were not: the sponge was dry and tasteless and a sickly pale yellow. The icing flavours - with exception of the passionfruit - tasted synthetic and there was no depth of flavour at all. An extremely disappointing experience, and an expensive one at that (£8 for 2 large and 2 mini cakes). I will not be recommending these to anyone, spend your money at Lorraine Pascale's Ella's Bakehouse whose cakes are very good indeed and you get what you pay for.