I was given dozens of roses by a photographer friend recently after he had completed a Valentine’s Day shoot.

The buckets of them filled the back of my old Mercedes estate and when a friend walked me to my car, she proclaimed, Mrs. Dalloway! I laughed and nodded. It reminded me how much I love that book. Worth a re-read.

What are you reading at the moment?

Also, have you seen that we extended our hours of operation?

mini cupcakes for Quinn and Hansen

This Saturday marks the 6th birthday of Broadway Market and Violet’s 5th year trading there. My shop is now open on Wilton Way as well!!

Please come see us xoxoxo

I love my display case

Have a look at Fanny’s beautiful water coloured map and see how to find us.

How to find us from the market

The new sign is on the wall

We have had two consecutively hot days! Two!

I mean it’s not hot by most standards, but in London when the sun comes out so do the short shorts and micro minis. I love it. People drive with the windows down, blasting out the tunes and people actually smile at each other in the street! It’s amazing.

All of the blossoms are out and the city is restless. London Fields was full of revelers enjoying their BBQ’s and take away food from Broadway Market yesterday, I only wish they would pick up after themselves. It was a sad sight this morning when children attempted to play football/soccer amongst the crushed beer cans and hundreds of plastic bags. I was really upset by that. I sure hope there weren’t any cupcake wrappers out there contributing to the detritus.

Seriously guys, can’t we do better????

On another note, it was a joy to see so many of my customers and friends out at the market yesterday and really can’t wait to open the doors of VIOLET so that we can eat treats and drink delicious filter coffee and delicate leaf teas all week!

The tentative date is May 1st

xxxxxxx

I missed you guys.

I have a very exciting announcement to make…

Violet is going to have a little kitchen on Wilton Way E8 very soon. It will be our factory and HQ. I will let you know more details as we iron them out. The last few weeks have been full of exciting DIY and we have dragged old friends in from far and wide to lend a hand. Banker by day, painter and decorator by night, our dear friend Aidan dusted off his brushes this weekend and helped Damian crash it out. Our old San Francisco friend Peter McKnight took a break from building football pitches to tidy up our back garden. It looks like Tuscany out there! Another good friend, local restauranteur Henry Dimbleby of delicious Leon fame even walked a tray of hot soup and toast down to the boys. Such community spirit!

Peter's tidy tools

See you guys next week. xxxx

A happy (albeit serious) Christmas Cake customer x

So it’s totally freezing out there and I can’t ask the girls to stand outside all day at the market for me in these conditions, now can I? Plus you are all on a cleanse probably. No wheat, no meat, no sweet, right? Follow healthy eating regimes now so you can treat yourselves when we open back up.

VIOLET has gone on a brief hiatus for the first half of January to rest up, warm our tootsies, and contemplate 2010.

We re-open on Saturday the 23rd of January. xx

We would love to see you tomorrow for the last market of the year. At the end of the day on Saturday, we will be closing up the stall until the last week in January so come and get your VIOLET CUPCAKES while you can.

Of course you can also pick up some mince pies tomorrow and if you’re lucky, a Christmas pudding or Christmas cake, but we only have a few left thanks to Hattie Ellis’s brilliant article in the Times. x

Here is a blury photo of a pudding:

's pudding time children!

do you remember PRIMUS? sorry, but with all of this RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE malarkey  i had to remind you x

Get your guitar hero out!!

Merry merry Christmas xx

It was freezing out there though! I was given a leopard print furry jacket for my birthday from Damian but it didn’t fit, so it went back to Zara and I had to resort to the ol’ North Face. There were quite a few cats walking around the market and buying cupcakes yesterday. But this girl, a VIOLET regular, wore hers the best. Plus she had the coolest basket. They were both so sweet to let me take their photo too. Thanks girls! xx

My cute customers x

There is going to be a lot to come so watch this space. A big shout-out to the boys at YES for making my site so beautiful! We aren’t totally finished but I was too excited to share it with the world, so I jumped the gun and launched it. Plus this great piece came out in the Times today so I thought it was only appropriate.

Hope you like it too. let me know x Claire