Hummingbird Bakery-at last!

After a small lie-in we got up, showered and dressed and headed out to Notting Hill.

We arrived to the hustle and bustle of a thousand people all heading to Portobello Road market, so we joined in the throng and marched there together.

There are hundreds of stalls all selling antiques and bric-a-brac, jewellery and clothing, comic books and crockery. There is so much to choose from we muddled our way through a couple of antiques houses and back out onto the road. We then found a stall that sold silver jewellery and had a tray with tonnes of silver charms. I waded through them all and found a few to choose from for some Disneybound ideas. In the end I bought only one and went for a spinning wheel for Aurora or Maleficent.

We made our way down the road, stopping off at each stall to browse until eventually we came to the famous Hummingbird Bakery. It was packed but we joined the queue and marvelled at the sweet scented cakes before us. Luke chose the rainbow cake; the lady slicing it for him ended up giving him two slices because the first one was too small! I bought a red velvet cupcake and a chocolate brownie whoopie pie with peanut butter filling.

Saving the cakes for later, we continued walking until we began to see the food and more traditional market stalls. I stopped to buy a coconut which the man chopped open for me to drink the milk; it was so refreshing and sweet.
We also saw another stall selling more charms and this time I bought one shaped like Aladdin's magic lamp.

We were on the lookout for somewhere to grab a bite of lunch but nothing looked quite right so on we went. Near the end of the market we turned off onto one of the side streets and happily found another bakery - Biscuiteers. They make the prettiest biscuits all delicately and intricately iced to portray everything from animals to underwear, Notting Hill houses to beach huts! Of course I bought a little blue beach hut biscuit and took a few photos of the other wares as they are so impressive.

On we walked and along another side road we spotted the Notting Hill Bookshop which I immediately recognised as the one from the movie Notting Hill. Sure enough there was a blue plaque over the window that read
'The Notting Hill Bookshop established 2011 The Travel Book Co featured in the film Notting Hill was inspired by a bookshop established on this site in 1981. The original interior and shop from remain today'
It was very cool to see and we went inside for a browse around and found 3 books we want! One is called the American Bar with all different cocktails inspired by the prohibition era and beyond. Another was called Fairytale Food which used fairytales as the basis for recipes and themed dinners. The last one was called Tequila Mockingbird which as you may guess from the title is different cocktails with a literary twist! Other great drinks were called The Pitcher of Dorian Grey Goose, The Last of the Mojitos, Love in a Time of Kahlua, Romeo and Julep and A Rum of One's Own! Hilarious and definitely on the Christmas list!

We headed back up the road and nipped into the last shops on the way to the tube, I bought a peace sign necklace for Filmore Disneybound, and we decided to go to White City for dinner.

Once there we made way for the Southern Terrace where most of the restaurants are based and chose to eat at The Real Greek. We picked several tapas to share including flatbread with dukkah, lamb cutlets, grilled asparagus, grilled halloumi, tzatziki and lamb gyros souvlaki. All very yum yum!

After dinner Katie Sharkey came to meet us and after our usual uber excited greetings we went to Balan's bar for cocktails. A good couple of hours were spent laughing and chatting and enjoying each other's company as we shared two rounds of drinks before we decided to call it a night.

Vowing to meet up again as early as Monday night, we each caught the Tube home and I gave Katie the red velvet cupcake to eat on her journey. I ate my whoopie pie and it was just the most delicious, especially the peanut butter frosting inside!

Today I am grateful for the wonderful baked goodies we bought and am happy that we had the chance to get to the Hummingbird Bakery after we tried last year but they had already closed. The wait was worth it!