Violet is a small bakery based in East London. Best known for American-style baked goods, Violet sells out nearly every Saturday at its stall on Broadway Market. The cakes are made with limited edition buttercream icings that change with the seasons. Chocolate or vanilla sponge cakes are baked with organic flour, sugar, milk and eggs. Many of the other ingredients are organic as well, like our Madagascan vanilla pods and pure cane molasses. The icings that top the moist little sponge cakes, are made by whipping up butter and sugar then gently folding in fresh fruit purees, melted Valrhona dark chocolate, freshly brewed espresso, home-made flower cordials or dark caramel made with sea salt.
Spring brings Elderflowers, gooseberries, rhubarb and Alphonso Mango icings; in the Summer we use Kentish cherries and strawberries, raspberries and blackberries from Suffolk and Dorset blueberries. In the Autumn we puree figs, Fragola grapes from Italy, and local apples and quinces. Winter is the time for oranges, lemons, clementines, and grapefruit. We can’t live without coconut, so we always offer it and occasionally we make passion fruit and honey and lavender icings when fruits are sparse.
Other favourites include a fresh ginger and molasses cake adapted from a Chez Panisse recipe, flourless chocolate cake, oatmeal-raisin cookies, chocolate chip cookies, coconut macaroons, and chocolate-vanilla sandwich cookies. Mince pies, Christmas cakes and Christmas puddings are available from November, and during Easter we have sticky hot cross buns, all made using our own candied citrus peels. Originally from California, Claire Ptak worked as a pastry cook and later pastry chef for Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley before moving to London with her husband where she started Violet which has been selling cakes at Broadway Market since late 2005 to a very loyal following.
Violet is a small bakery based in East London. Best known for American-style baked goods, Violet sells out nearly every Saturday at its stall on Broadway Market. The cakes are made with limited edition buttercream icings that change with the seasons. Chocolate or vanilla sponge cakes are baked with organic flour, sugar, milk and eggs. Many of the other ingredients are organic as well, like our Madagascan vanilla pods and pure cane molasses. The icings that top the moist little sponge cakes, are made by whipping up butter and sugar then gently folding in fresh fruit purees, melted Valrhona dark chocolate, freshly brewed espresso, home-made flower cordials or dark caramel made with sea salt.
Spring brings Elderflowers, gooseberries, rhubarb and Alphonso Mango icings; in the Summer we use Kentish cherries and strawberries, raspberries and blackberries from Suffolk and Dorset blueberries. In the Autumn we puree figs, Fragola grapes from Italy, and local apples and quinces. Winter is the time for oranges, lemons, clementines, and grapefruit. We can’t live without coconut, so we always offer it and occasionally we make passion fruit and honey and lavender icings when fruits are sparse.
Other favourites include a fresh ginger and molasses cake adapted from a Chez Panisse recipe, flourless chocolate cake, oatmeal-raisin cookies, chocolate chip cookies, coconut macaroons, and chocolate-vanilla sandwich cookies. Mince pies, Christmas cakes and Christmas puddings are available from November, and during Easter we have sticky hot cross buns, all made using our own candied citrus peels. Originally from California, Claire Ptak worked as a pastry cook and later pastry chef for Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley before moving to London with her husband where she started Violet which has been selling cakes at Broadway Market since late 2005 to a very loyal following.
