Tag Archives: Cake

Oushe

Posted on December 15, 2012 | 2 Comments

oushe1-150x150I recently got an invite to go sample some Christmas goodies at Oushe.  Oushe is a gourmet bakeshop in Al Barsha which opened 3 months ago.  I was intrigued to visit, I have heard plenty of good things about Oushe from @geordiearmani, and was sad to miss the opening event which happened whilst I was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

There are three specific products which have been developed specifically for Christmas :

IMG_1803A rich fruit and nut cake topped with candied fruit and pecans which retails at 140 for a medium cake and 180 for a large one.  Though not a lover of Christmas cake this rich fruit cake was really moist and tasty and the candied fruits not only make it look special, they taste great too.

Rich chocolate brownies with cranberries at 11 AED each.  These are deliciously moist and rich and a real treat.

IMG_1811Decorate yourself Gingerbread people – specifically for children, or your own inner child, Oushe have developed soft baked gingerbread which come with ready made icing so that they can be iced at home.  Am sure this is going to be a big hit.  The gingerbread are soft and moist rather than the hard baked biscuits which you might have tasted in other shops and are delicately spiced and I have to say particularly yummy.

Outside of the Christmas product range, Oushe have both sweet and savoury treats to suit all palates ranging from Sandwiches, Salads and Quiches for savoury lovers through to Cookies and Cakes for sweet treats along with a great range of hot and cold beverages.  They also do a range of freshly baked Manaeesh including Sfiha – it seems I need to go back just to order these.

I was gifted a few treats to take home and sample,  three of the top sellers,  Carrot Cake – which was moist and rich, New York Cheesecake which was rich and indulgent and Celestial Chocolate Cake – this was a real surprise as it came with a lavender cream filling which really lifted the cake to a new level and is on my list to try again.   They also sell some amazing olive oil and jams as well as a range of packaged cookies and other sweet treats, which make great gifts.

Oushe is a lovely find, owned by a  passionate foodie, the food is imaginative, creative and tasty with inspiration from the Middle East and further afield.

oushe1-150x150Oushe are located in Al Barsha quite close to Lulu supermarket and Mall of the Emirates, you can find a map on their website.  You can like them on Facebook and also follow them on Twitter. 

You can also read about them on an article here written by @geordiearmani

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Metropolitan Costa Coffee – Marina Walk

Posted on October 10, 2012 | 3 Comments

A few days ago I received an invite via twitter to attend an event called #COSTApolitanDubai from the Costa Coffee twitter account. The event was to be held at the newly opened Costa shop in Marina Walk in Dubai Marina. I had seen a few tweets about the new store, but to be honest I hadn’t as yet made it to check it out, after all, there is a Costa shop near to where I live, so why would I drive past this one to visit another one?

Intrigued by the invite and the new mysterious twitter hashtag of #COSTApolitan, and as you will know, a big coffee fan, I immediately signed up for the event and visited the new store in the Marina.

Located in Marina Walk, in the same block as Spinneys and close to the fountains, I was in for an extremely pleasant surprise for this is a Costa Coffee Store with a difference ! Serving the usual variety of hot and cold beverages as well as an assortment of sandwiches, snacks and sweet treats which I am familiar with from other Costa stores, the decor, layout and whole vibe of the store is significantly different. Different in a good way, I loved it ! The store has a kind of New York Loft meets Business Hub type of feel to it, along with a bright, spacious and airy interior.

What do I mean by this ? By now you are probably guessing, correctly, that I’m no interior designer when it comes to my descriptions !  Costa describe the new look Metropolitan store as contemporary with an urban atmosphere.

From the offset, I loved what I saw. The shop is separated into two areas – the front area contains the counter and barista  area which is a familiar sight.   With a mixture of traditional seating areas and larger tables a place where I can imagine would suit a variety of uses from family dining, individuals as well as group meetings college students etc. The rear portion of the shop is partitioned and offers more comfortable chairs often arranged in pairs with smaller seating comfortable areas which might suit informal meetings, cosy chats or an hour or two whiling away the time over a good coffee and reading the paper or surfing the web etc.

Throughout the store, there are plenty of easy to access electric sockets and free WiFi is provided upon purchase of a drink, so it would be a convenient place to work or to relax.  Costa will even pay for your parking whilst you are there.

As a bonus to all of the above, the store is home to two award winning Barista’s, the Costa worldwide champion in 2007 and Gerald, the MENA winner for 2012 who will attend the Costa    Coffee worldwide Barista competition in the UK shortly.  Good luck Gerald !!  I’m a sucker for good coffee art, so look forward to hearing how he does.

The event was the official opening of the first Metropolitan store in the UAE and also which also marked the opening of their 90th store in the UAE !  Costa Coffee have significant growth plans in the UAE and are currently working on the second Metropolitan shop which will open at Dubai Airport’s new terminal which will be dedicated to serving the fleet of A380′s.

I loved the feel of the new store and will be returning soon, in fact, I’ve already discussed meeting up with some of the other attendees to discuss food photography, blogging and of course, to do this whilst relaxing over a good coffee (or two) and maybe, just maybe something sweet on the side – I have to live up to the name of my blog right ?? OK – I guess if I do that, I have to run as well :-) *or maybe it’s time for a blog renaming……. LOL

The Metropolitan Costa Coffee shop in Marina Walk is open every day of the week from 7am till 12pm.

You can follow Costa Coffee on Twitter, or on their website.

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Hummingbird Bakery – Dubai Mall

Posted on October 7, 2012 | 2 Comments

I was recently invited to visit the newly opened Hummingbird Bakery which is located on the lower ground floor of Dubai Mall.  I visited the Hummingbird Bakery in South Kensington when I was in the UK earlier this year so was keen to see how it’s Dubai shop would compare.

Initial impressions were good, the shop has a good location and the shop front is bright and welcoming.  A significant part of the shop is a counter display of beautiful looking cakes and other baked goods in all sorts of shapes and sizes, so it’s visually appealing.  The interior of the shop is also decorated with cupcakes which are arranged as window decoration which adds a novelty factor to the shop.

We took a seat in the intimate seating area, there is only seating for about twenty people, as the owners anticipate that majority of visitors will be for takeaway orders  which appears to be the case when I’ve walked past the shop since opening.

Attending as a small group of foodies from Fooderati Arabia, we were provided with a tasting plate containing 3 different cupcakes.  We also requested a Whoopie Pie and a Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie to sample as these had caught our eye as we perused the goodies on offer.

First we tried the signature cup cake from Hummingbird, the Black Bottom Cupcake which consisted of a rich moist sponge bottom topped with vanilla butter cream topping – it was good and will definitely be of appeal to the chocolate lovers out there.  Our second cupcake was a Red Velvet cupcake – with a beautiful light red velvet sponge and a rich butter cream topping this was a great cupcake and definitely something for the red velvet fans.  My favourite of the three was a more simple but beautiful to look at Vanilla cupcake – light most vanilla sponge topped with a delicate coloured pastel coloured vanilla frosting this was my favorite of the cupcakes.

Moving onto the Whoopee Pie – there was a choice of Red Velvet or Brownie – we tasted the Red Velvet Whoopee Pie which consisted of two disks of Red Velvet Sponge sandwiched together with a cream cheese and marshmallow.  I have to admit to having never sampled a Whoopee Pie before, so not knowing what to expect I had expected a light sponge – this was not the case as the cake is more dense and certainly more filling than the light cupcakes.  I enjoyed the taste of this cupcake but found the texture of little too heavy for my taste.

Finally, we sampled the Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie which for me was the highlight of our tasting.  Consisting of a rich chocolate brownie topped with a layer of raspberry cheesecake mousse this was a winner – the richness of the brownie was beautifully offset by the slightly tart, creamy, light yet indulgent raspberry cheesecake on top of the brownie – I will definitely be back for another taste of that one.

As a takeout treat – I took home a piece of carrot cake which looked similar to those served at the Lime Tree.  I was interested to see how it compared since I’m a big fan of Lime Tree carrot cake and haven’t found many that can live up to the Lime Tree’s one.  I was not disappointed, the sponge was suitably light and most and had the same depth of flavour and carrot cake texture that I like.  The main difference was that the Hummingbird Bakery cake is  covered in a rich butter cream frosting compared to a more cream cheese frosting at the Lime Tree.  Another great find – so I now have two favourite cakes to return to the Hummingbird Bakery for.

There are plenty of other cakes and baked goods on offer at the Hummingbird Bakery including some rather indulgent looking rich chocolate brownies and a very rich looking chocolate cake which will certainly appeal to the chocolate fans out there.

In terms of selection, it’s not as large as available in the UK, I’m told that this will increase over time as the owner is passionate about the quality of the goods on offer, even shipping in some ingredients which were unavailable in Dubai.

You can find out more about the Hummingbird Bakery by visiting their Website, Facebook Page or following them on Twitter you can also call them : 800-HBIRD; 971-4-3882023; 971-4-3882025

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