Free Royal Icing by Sheryl Berk Page B

into each cupcake wrapper until it is two-thirds full. You can use a toothpick to lightly swirl the colors around.
    7. Bake for eighteen to twenty-two minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for approximately fifteen minutes before frosting.
    8. Feel free to frost your masterpieces with any flavor icing you like!

When I was in London I had to try Hummingbird Bakery! I had heard amazing things about their “American style” cupcakes, and I love their cookbooks! So I went to their shop in Soho and I wasn’t disappointed. There were a lot of fun flavors to choose from, everything from Carrot, Red Velvet, and Chocolate Malt (with malt-ball crumbles on top), to my personal fave, Black Bottom. The cake is rich and chocolatey, and in the center is a delicious surprise: cheesecake! The frosting is cream cheese too, and it’s topped with chocolate cake crumbs. In a word: yum !
    Since Royal Icing was inspired by my London trip, I asked Hummingbird Bakery’s founder Tarek Malouf to answer some questions. He’s sold millions of cupcakes in his stores, so I figured he was the perfect London cupcake expert to ask!
    Carrie: When and why did you decide to open Hummingbird Bakery in the United Kingdom?
    Tarek: I opened the first bakery on Portobello Road in Notting Hill in 2004, but the decision to open an American-style bakery was a while in the making. The idea of setting up a bakery came to me in early 2002. I was visiting my aunt in North Carolina, and she took me to several traditional American bakeries that served pies and homemade cakes. The smell of fresh baking in these places was amazing. During that time, my sister was living in New York, and we used to go and eat lots of cupcakes and traditional American goodies every time I’d visit her. Taste buds awakened, it was then that I realized I wanted to open my own bakery in London.
    Carrie: How did you come up with the name?
    Tarek: The hummingbird is native to the Americas, and it feasts on the sweet nectar of flowers. This image of a beautiful bird with a love of sweet things just seemed to fit the bakery I wanted to create.
    Carrie: How many bakeries do you have now? I heard you’re in Dubai!
    Tarek: We have six bakeries in London located in Notting Hill, South Kensington, Soho, Spitalfields, Islington, and Richmond. In addition to this, we have an international franchise with two (very soon to be three) stores open in Dubai.
    Carrie: What is the difference between a cupcake in the United States and a cupcake in the UK?
    Tarek: Well, the cupcakes we bake at the Hummingbird Bakery should be very familiar to anyone from the United States! Moist cake with a generous amount of frosting. Other cupcakes in the UK tend to be a bit smaller, with a thicker, pastier icing instead of buttercream or cream cheese frosting. That’s why ours at Hummingbird have been received so well!
    Carrie: I think my favorite flavor at Hummingbird was the Black Bottom or the Salted Caramel. What’s yours?
    Tarek: I have to say, although we’re probably best known for our Red Velvet, I also love the Black Bottom cupcake the most! For anyone who hasn’t tried it, this is a rich chocolate sponge with a spoonful of chocolate-chip cheesecake baked into it, topped with cream cheese frosting.
    Carrie: What are your most popular cupcakes?
    Tarek: Red Velvet cupcakes are our bestsellers, followed closely by Black Bottom cupcakes.
    Carrie: What are some of the most unique cupcakes Hummingbird Bakery has created? Who comes up with the ideas?
    Tarek: We are lucky enough to have a product development team that experiments with sponges and frostings to create the cupcakes that eventually reach our counters. We always try to bake cupcakes that we know our customers will love, so we haven’t made too many crazy flavors, but, that said, we have created themed cupcake collections that take their inspiration from things as diverse as