Iconic beigels, dreamy doughnuts, and fairytale cakes – these London bakeries are making waves. Photo / Demi Perera
Iconic beigels, dreamy doughnuts, and fairytale cakes – these London bakeries are making waves. Photo / Demi Perera
If you’re keen to get off-the-beaten track in London, there is a way – and it involves following a trail of the city’s finest breadcrumbs, writes Demi Perera
London is a historic, larger-than-life, cosmopolitan city dating back 2000 years. Royal palaces, Gothic architecture, Victorian parks, museums, galleries and the River Thames drew 20.3 million tourists to the city in 2023. Some of the best chefs in the world, showcasing their skills in 80 Michelin-starred restaurants here, have created a unique and unrivaled culinary landscape that adds to the allure.
In addition, between Borough Market, at the heart of the city, Broadway Market and Old Spitalfields Market, London’s foodie trail takes visitors on a historic journey that is as credible as any visit to a museum.
London's best foodie trail may be via its trending bakeries. Photo / Reiseuhu on Unsplash
However, it is lesser-known that London is also home to a crop of bakeries making waves on social media. Family or female-owned, these micro-bakeries have garnered a fandom through distinct, niche treats created with passion, grit and vision. Customers queue in rain or shine to enjoy their products causing them to sell out in a few hours.
Whilst many of these independent businesses are off the regular tourist trail, the city’s exceptional public transport service will get you to them in no time. For a chance to experience London off-the-beaten-path, here are four unmissable micro-bakeries to visit:
Beigel Bake
Address: 159 Brick Lane, London
Before the gentrification of East London, street signs in Spitalfields were written in Yiddish and there were more than 40 synagogues in the area. Beigel Bake and its neighbour Beigel Shop are the last remaining vestiges of that 19th-century Jewish community that lived here.
Beigel Bake, therefore, is a London landmark, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Even with 2000-3000 beigels baked on the premises each day, no matter what time of day, the queue outside stretches along Brick Lane. The beigels, sold in brown paper bags (as famous as the beigels themselves), are always fresh but it’s what goes inside that has built a cult following. Generous chunks of pinky salt beef with blow-your-mind hot mustard and green pickles is the most popular. A close second is smoked salmon packed on top of the creamiest cream cheese. If you find yourself lining up outside, keep an eye out for famous faces; they’re regularly spotted in the queue.
Beigel Bake and its neighbour Beigel Shop are London landmarks. Photo / Getty Images
Greedy Cow Bakes
Address: 395 Hackney Rd, London
Nazia Yasmin has a simple mission; to turn every dessert she loves into a doughnut. Whether apple crumble, tiramisu, strawberry cheesecake – you get the idea – there’s a doughnut version of it in the window of her bakery, Greedy Cow Bakes, on Hackney Rd. The runaway success of Yasmin’s humble venture began with just six doughnuts made at home during a lockdown that she shared with her family.
Now, an endless queue snakes along a busy main road, when the bakery opens Friday to Sunday, for a taste of her pina colada doughnuts or the latest combination she dreamed up while we slept. Trayfuls disappear in minutes from the window and staff cannot replace them quickly enough. The most coveted and sold, is the Korean milk doughnut garnished with a slice of fresh strawberry.
Not bad going for a self-taught baker who, wisely, chose making doughnuts over baking sourdough bread during a global pandemic.
Greedy Cow’s Korean milk doughnut garnished with fresh strawberries is its best-seller. Photo / Demi Perera
Lily Vanilli
Address: The Courtyard, 18 Ezra St, London
Tucked away in a tiny courtyard, on Ezra St, in London’s Columbia Road Market, Lily Vanilli bakes fantasies to life. Lily Jones, the artisan baker behind the name, is London’s most sought-after A-list baker. Out of Jones’ kitchen comes swoon-worthy, fairytale cakes; sorbet pink icing over a three-tier cake piped with white buttercream shells finished with red ribbons or cherry-topped, spinning, red carousel cakes or giant single-tier Italian wedding-style cakes covered in every fresh fruit imaginable.
The cafe on Columbia Road Market, open Thursdays to Sundays, is a destination; orderly queues are the norm where the faithful wait their turn patiently. As well as the cakes, you can enjoy Jones’ savoury sausage rolls and deliciously gooey chocolate brownies served with coffee.
Lily Vanilli’s courtyard cafe is located in the heart of Columbia Road Market, surrounded by florists. Photo / Demi Perera
Violet
Address: 47 Wilton Way, London
Claire Ptak’s California-style baking blessed London with a fruitful bakery – Violet. Step into her small kitchen and cafe, in London Fields, and you might wonder if there’s a portal at the back that opens out to a magical orchard.
Trays of tempting delights sit in glass cabinets. Pastel frosting is heaped on fruit-flavoured cakes, baked berries ooze out of muffins and the maddening aroma of cinnamon rises from pastries. Think elderflower, lemon and peaches in summer, figs, and apples in autumn and grapefruit and oranges in winter.
Mainly organic, an additional savoury and vegan menu has Londoners queuing outside Violet. It opens seven days a week but on weekends you’ll need to get there before 10am for a seat under the trees outside.
Violet earned the royal seal of approval in 2018, when Claire Ptak was the baker of choice for the nuptials of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. In case you’re wondering, elderflower and Sicilian lemon cake has remained popular ever since, in honour of the essence of that very special royal wedding cake.
For more things to see, do and eat in London, check out visitbritain.com/en
Violet gained royal recognition when Claire Ptak baked Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding cake in 2018. Photo / Demi Perera
