THE first few times I went to Violet on Wilton Way in Hackney it was in the dead of winter. My fingers and toes and nose and the tip tops of my ears were red from cold, but when I pushed open the door of the bakery it was like stepping into another world.
The air inside was swollen with cinnamon, the glass-fronted display heaving with blondies and cupcakes and cinnamon morning buns and cookies, and you could order a big, steaming pot of tea and take your slice of coconut sponge or miniature violet-scented chocolate cupcake upstairs to the dining room and sit in a corner, reading The Gentlewoman and a copy of the day’s paper for hours on end.
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Last year I went back and visited for the first time in summer. I was in town for a friend’s wedding but I had a whole week before I needed to be where I needed to be, and I rented an Airbnb on the top floor of an old London townhouse that, in the middle of a very out of character heatwave, became a sweatbox of epic proportions.
Luckily — since I had expressly planned it thusly — it was literally around the corner from Violet. So I ran there whenever the sun started shining too brightly through the big picture windows and sat in Violet’s cool, shaded garden courtyard I could never visit in winter, with a tall glass of salty iced coffee and two pieces of brown toast with fat wedges of avocado, chased down with a feather-light strawberry cupcake for (breakfast) dessert.
Violet is probably one of my favourite places in the world, so yes, I did sort of leap with glee last night when I saw that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have chosen Violet’s owner Claire Ptak to bake their wedding cake. Claire, who is also originally from California like Meghan herself and worked at iconic Californian restaurant Chez Panisse, as all the greatest chefs do, has been charged with making a lemon elderflower cake that incorporates all “the bright flavours of spring”. It will be covered with buttercream and decorated with fresh flowers.
It will be — and I feel confident in sharing this, sight unseen, taste untasted — delicious.
In so many ways this is a completely unexpected, totally wonderful choice. Firstly, the royal wedding cake is traditionally a fruitcake. (William and Kate had one of those and a second cake, Wills’ beloved chocolate biscuit cake, which I made once and is objectively disgusting).
Secondly, Violet is a beloved and adored bakery, but it is also a small little East London shopfront. Yes, people flock to it from far and wide, as far and wide as Australia, and yes, people queue up at Broadway Market in London Fields on a Saturday to buy big chunks of tahini brownies, but a trendy food hybrid purveyor like Dominique Ansel this ain’t.
Violet is just a beautiful little neighbourhood spot where, in Claire’s own words, “people can come for excellent coffee and cakes any time of day they like.”
That’s what makes it so special, and that’s why Violet is such a perfect choice to make Meghan and Harry’s wedding cake.
I could draw a long bow about Meghan and Claire sharing Californian roots, both trading in the US for London — and love — but I’m not. Violet is a perfect choice because it’s quite simply one of the best places in the world. And damn, that cake is gonna taste good.
This story was originally published and reproduced with permission from Whimn.
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