If you have a sweet tooth you don’t have to go all the way to bourgeoisie West London bakeries. This cute little Monmouth Street cafe and coffee shop is home to the best cupcakes in Covent Garden.

The Venue
Candy Cakes, formerly known as C'est Ici, is a tiny cafe with only a few tables inside and a couple more outside in nice weather. Sea green walls and shelves and the packed interior give it more of a feel of someone’s kitchen than a Central London coffee shop.

The Atmosphere
It’s mostly a fast crowd that pops by for a quick coffee and cake whilst on their lunch break, and if you’re struggling to find a table the turnover’s pretty fast. The service is fast as well, no matter how busy it gets, and the staff are friendly.

The Food
Typical lunchtime fare include sandwiches and salads, which are heavy on ingredients like pesto, sun-dried tomatoes and avocados. It’s slightly more expensive to eat in then to take away, although either option is so cheap that there’s not much of a difference.

What pulls most people into Candy Cakes is the colourful cupcakes cheerfully displayed in the windows. Besides the general vanilla cake ones (covered in pastel-coloured icing and sprinkled with sweets) there’s also loads of more original and creative flavours. Try the apple, topped with yellow icing and cinnamon, the blueberry cheesecake, with blueberry-flavoured icing and a hunk of creamy cheesecake in the middle, and or the lemon, which has a crystalised lemon slice popped on the top. The cupcakes are so enormous that they’re practically muffin-sized; you could eat one for lunch and not want anything else.

The Drink
Like all decent cafes Candy Cakes brews a strong cup of coffee and tea as well. There’s no fancy flavours listed, but underneath the menu up on the wall it’s cheerfully inscribed that if you want anything different, just ask. When it’s too hot for coffee or tea try one of their smoothies, which come in cutesy-named flavours like Berry-Go-Round (with raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and orange juice) and Pash N Shoot (made with passion fruit, mango, pineapple and orange juice).

The Last Word
Cupcakes for lunch? Why not? Pass on the sandwiches and treat yourself to a cupcake – or two, if you’re hungry.

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