The Cupcake Collection, Christchurch

You might have thought you'd already read about all my possible food escapades from last weekend's trip to Christchurch - well, you thought wrong. ;-) The dinner at Cook 'N' With Gas, Michelle's awesome well-digging cupcakes, brunch at Drexels, the Denheath custard square - not enough for me!

This was actually the long-awaited and hoped-for foodie destination of the day - The Cupcake Collection, in Beckenham. I have tried their cupcakes before - they've had a store frontage in Beckenham for a couple of years and have been at the Canterbury A&P Show - but have recently moved into a newly built store (the old row of shops it used to be in was bowled over) and now have room to sit and enjoy your sweet treats.

It's ridiculously adorable:

The tables all have spotted cloths on them, and doilies on top, then a glass top so the doilies stay pristine (annoying things normally, doilies - under a sheet of glass seems a good place for them!).

First we had to choose our cupcakes from the array of delicious-sounding options - made a bit easier by going at the end of the day when some choices were sold out but still a tough choice!

I got the very last chocolate cupcake with white chocolate icing. It was delicious! Especially the icing, mmm. And a lovely little puddle of berry-y goodness nestled on top to cut through the rich, sweet, chocolatey flavours. This is a perfect cupcake for me - and Mr Cake thinks this is ridiculous - but I think milk chocolate and white chocolate, in the same mouthful, is one of the best food combinations around. It's tricky, though - because it makes me want to buy two chocolate bars at a time, so I can mix - but I don't want to eat two whole chocolate bars. Also, as Mr Cake can attest, there's a finely tuned ratio which must be adhered to - about 1.5 squares of white chocolate to 1 of milk choc - creates havoc when I've counted out the pieces and he nicks one! Anyway, this cupcake was great because the icing has a richer flavour than the cake (as you'd expect), so even though volumetrically the proportions were wrong in taste they were just right.

Is Mr Cake right that I'm weird, or are there others out there like me, who mix their chocolates?

Mr Cake chose this fruity-delicious creation - a tangy passionfruit cupcake. The fruity topping was zingy and well-approved by Mr Cake, and the cake was moist and tasty - a great afternoon tea. It was gobbled down very quickly.

I also had an iced chocolate, and it was delicious, though I would call this a thickshake rather than an iced chocolate. I'm not sure of the technical definition but to me an iced chocolate either has to be super, super thick, or be reasonably thick with a scoop of ice-cream in it (not blended through, that = thickshake). I guess this could be controversial, though - does anybody have a clearer definition? Anyway, the drink was delicious, whatever it was.

Mr Cake had a chai latte, which also went down well - especially since it was pouring down outside - a lovely warming, cheering drink for a miserable afternoon.

My one complaint was that we were given the cupcakes when we ordered, but the drinks didn't come for a while, so we had all demolished our cupcakes completely by the time the drinks came - I'd prefer to have them together. I guess it's my own fault for not being able to wait to dig into that delicious cupcake, though. ;-)

All in all it was a lovely experience - a great little place to sit and watch the world go by, armed with cupcake. I highly recommend it!

The Cupcake Collection is located at 140 Colombo Street (on the corner of Tennyson Streets),  Christchurch. It's open 10.30am-5.30pm weekdays and 10.30am-3.30pm weekends, ph 03 332 8432.