Story Coffee, Battersea

Slowly but surely Battersea and I are becoming friends. My latest South London discovery is a small independent café, with great design and easily the best coffee in the area. Story opened a few months ago and is already a popular neighbourhood spot. I found it to be particularly lovely mid-afternoon when the venue is quiet and calm, with a few customers working, reading and enjoying their warming drinks.

Located on a charming corner of St John’s Hill Road, with a weather-worn historic sign above the door, advertising Peterkin Custard, the modern look of Story is striking and welcoming. Inside the décor is very minimalist and functional, with bespoke wooden furniture and plenty of natural light thanks to the big windows. The thick brown floorboards add a warm homely feel to the small café. I loved the colourful assortment of roses and jars of brown sugar on each table and I decided there and then to recreate these delightful bunches at home.

Story use Square Mile’s Red Brick espresso blend and milk from Goodwood Farm in Sussex, these fine quality components make the ultimate creamy coffee. My flat white was velvety and rich, petite in size and expertly poured. The baristas also offer filter and Aeropress coffee, tea is from Lanani & Co and Chocolate is by Kokoa Collection. Delectable edible treats sit tempting visitors at the bar. I’ve heard they offer avocado on toast for breakfast, so am already planning to return to try that!

The Story crew seem passionate about bringing good coffee to Battersea and they are definitely succeeding in their mission.

More information here: www.storycoffee.co.uk

Afternoon Tea at Cake Boy, Battersea

I originally discovered Eric Lanlard’s cake-making skills through the sad departure of Cox, Cake and Cookies, the eccentric café in Soho selling flamboyantly themed baked treats. Eric helped with the initial set up of this short lived shop, lending his expertise, but has always had his own cake kingdom at Cake Boy.

This man is a baking god, his school and cafe at Cake Boy offers classes and food to satisfy even the craziest of cake cravings. After visiting his venue and spying the shiny mixers, I’m very intrigued to review a class but I know they are booked up months in advance so it is unlikely any time soon.

Instead I experienced the decadent afternoon tea. I was quite taken aback by the array of spectacular hand crafted treats and immediately regretted wearing tight jeans. Bubbling champagne arrived to accompany our tea.

These are the treats on offer:

For savoury… we almost entirely overlooked this as the cakes completely stole the limelight. The sandwiches were light and fresh, I particularly enjoyed the Italian style stuffed croissant.

Mini filled petit pains with chicken caesar and smoked salmon and cream cheese.

Mini filled croissant with parma ham, roasted vegetables and bocconcini mozzarella.

Petit fours:

White chocolate teardrop filled with caramel mousse and roasted pineapple.

Chocolate teardrop filled with dark chocolate mousse and black amarena cherries and chocolate popping candy.

Mini Strawberry tart filled with vanilla cream.

Gourmet shot glass tiramisu.

Gourmet shot glass filled with tropical fruit mousse, mango coulis and pistachio.

Peruvian Dark chocolate mini tart.

Green tea cone filled with passion fruit mousse, raspberries and topped with coconut shavings.

Assorted French macaroons:

GREEN – lime and yuzu.
BLACK/SILVER – liquorice and vanilla.
GOLD – chocolate and praline.
RED – chocolate and raspberry.

So as you can see there was quite a lot to get through, and I thought we did marvellously well managing to both try at least (usually more) a mouthful of everything. My favourites? The whole afternoon merges into a sugary fantasy but a few particular delicacies stand out – the liquorice macaroon was an exquisite mouthful of flavour; the teardrops were very rich but absolutely delicious and the shot glasses were perfect mini desserts with every spoonful bringing out a new exciting ingredient. To sooth our sugar highs we relaxed with cups of fresh mint tea to finish.

The tricky location in Battersea might, I fear, discourage some visitors, but it is so worth the walk… I can’t vouch for the classes but the afternoon tea was certainly a sight to behold, beautiful beyond any cake mastery I’ve experienced before in London, and if that wasn’t enough… it tasted insanely delicious too!

Visit the CAKE BOY website here.