the small bakehouse: sisterhood of the travelling cake queens

We spent nearly a year travelling across Europe. We intended to embrace local culture and eat as much as possible like the locals. Every now again we couldn't help but be tempted and enticed by the amazing cake shops we found along the way, often tucked away down a back street.

Family search for fresh chocolate pasta and cake, Italy

Iced nut milks and italian pastries, Lecce, Southern Italy

Enjoying pastries in Paris, France.

Wherever we explored, once the vegetables were in our basket, we went in search of cake....

Choosing pastries in Rome, Italy.

Our love of small cups of thick Spanish hot chocolate was well and truly developed in Barcelona. Never had we tasted anything so delicious that could be called a drink - more like a cup of slightly bitter chocolate creamy custard. Especially delicious to dip churros in, and yes they look like chips but taste more like fresh donuts bought off Brighton Pier, crisp and sugary.

Chocolate con churros, Barcelona.

Chocolate brownies, Amsterdam.

And then we came back to some of our favourite places in Soho, London - Patisserie Valerie in Old Compton Street, who made our parents' wedding cake and Bar Italia in Frith Street where we used to hang out at a pavement table or in the back of the car nibbling at pasteis de nata (custard tarts)