Violet

She’s officially here. We love her. Perfect for rain or shine. Delivered worldwide.

I’m beyond excited to announce that I’ll be joined by 3 other former Chez Panisse Chefs cooking and pouring wine on the Violet terrace just for you, next Saturday, 14 September.

It’s always been part of my mission with Violet to represent California-style sourcing and cooking in London. This is the culmination of that mission and the determination of those of us chefs to bring you the food and wine that inspires us most.

Sarah Johnson (former Spring pastry chef) is here to celebrate her new book Fruitful and will be joined by Kelly Mariani
of Scribe Winery and my longtime collaborator Siew-Chinn Chin; all of us former Chez Panisse chefs in Hackney for the day, so this is one you can’t miss. 

Tickets include three wines plus savoury and sweet bites from Sarah’s book. Some of Sarah’s bakes will also be in the cabinet if you’re just stopping by, and Kelly’s family wines will be available by the glass or bottle to have in and take away. We are reserving our super gorgeous new tables for ticket holders. We are obsessed with them!

The bakery will be open as usual for all our sweet and savoury treats, and if you are uncertain, you can grab a ticket on the day.

See you there!

F u r n i t u r e S A L E !!!
Our beloved, vintage zinc and powder coated steel garden bistro furniture is for sale! Priced to go fast! We are about to receive all new furniture as part of a new partnership. We are so excited, but it’s bittersweet to say goodbye to these tables and chairs that hold an incredible history from our 14 years here at Violet. Books have been written, film scripts edited, paintings painted, wedding proposals made and accepted, businesses conceived and more creative ideas of all kinds formed. Continue the tradition. Great for your new bakery or for your home. Keen to sell all together so pass along to all your friends! Dm for more measurements and payment details. Collection only.

1. Indian Blue chairs - £100 the pair
2. Vintage French potting table - £400
3. White vintage IKEA chairs - x25. £18 ea
4. Vintage zinc top bistro tables - 54cm: X2 with pink legs, X2 with black legs - £350 ea
5. Vintage zinc top bistro tables - 61cm: x1 w/ pink legs, x3 w/ white legs, x2 w/ green legs - £400 ea

O P E N today!!!!! Welcome back !!!! Can’t wait to see you all today, the last Sunday of summer. Back to School this week! Are you ready?

CLOSED for redecorating Wednesday the 28th August - 31st. Reopening Sunday the 1st September. While we are closed it’s a great time to bake from my cookbooks. Bubble Cake, Profiteroles, Persimmon cookies, Rice pudding, Brown Sugar Victoria sponge, Matcha Blondies, Lemon Meringue Pie Bars, Basque Cheesecake, Pinenut and Basil Scones, Concord/Fragolina Grape Pie and Old Fashioned Donuts. Just some of my favourites from my latest book Love is a Pink Cake. Did you know I’ve written 5? Love is a Pink Cake is my favourite because it’s about the influence of California in my baking and life and how London ingredients and way of life have informed what we do at Violet. These photos here are all from the book or outtakes by and my photographer collaborators xx here are some inspiring images to get you baking. Show me what you make! Book available in any bookshop! If you don’t see it there, just ask! They can usually get in a day or so. Also available through link in bio x sorry we are closed! Have fun baking!

It’s Bank Holiday Monday and we are open until 6! The case is full and ready for you xx and a little reminder we will be closed Wednesday through Saturday to repaint the bakery for a little end of summer refresh. While we are closed the entire team will be visiting our chocolate suppliers in Suffolk to see how they roast the cacao beans and turn them into the delicious silky chocolate pieces that go@into your Egg Yolk Chocolate Chip Cookies™️ and Chocolate Brownies. We are open today and tomorrow then We will be closed from Wednesday 28th August and back open Sunday the 1st September. See you soon!!!

Gold leafed smash cakes and 6 inch cakes are the chicest present. We started making smash cakes for babies (Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was the first recipient in 2022) but now people buy them for children, friends and lovers alike. Fun for two to eat together and perfect to bring as a host gift. We love them. Order them in any flavour from our menu on our website. Link in bio xx

White peaches and white currants with everything for the rest of summer please 🤍🤍🤍

Home in California for less than 24 hours and whipped this up at Mom and Dad’s for a welcome home dinner. I used the cake recipe from my brown sugar roasted plum cake in but put it into my mom’s 15” cake tins and then thinly sliced 4 baskets of strawberries and let them macerate in granulated sugar for about ten minutes before spooning the berries and all the subsequent juices onto the sponge to soak in. I then whipped up heavy cream (double in the UK) with brandy, vanilla, sugar and a pinch of salt. Dolloped it over the berries, topped with the second layer of sponge and dusted with a LOT of icing sugar. Took me an hour. Plus an hour cooling time. Nice to be home 🤍❤️🤍

I’ve tweaked some of our favourite cakes into new cakes with and the team to make the most of our gorgeous Summer fruits.

1 and 2: blackcurrant, jostaberry, and peach rye cake. It’s moist with ground almonds and has the green and slightly bitter flavours of jostaberries and blackcurrants sweetened with ripe peaches.

3 and 4: cinnamon bun bread pudding with roasted gooseberries and lemon verbena

5: almond polenta muffins baked with roasted gooseberries

6: the back counter

7 and 8: apricot and camomile buttercream cupcakes and violet madeleines

9: apricot and camomile buttercream cupcakes

10: Kentish cherry and English strawberry buttercream cupcakes

All fruits from Jane at and

Happy 80th birthday x you single handedly changed my life and I am forever grateful and aware and indebted and in awe. Like so many before and after me, I am working in the industry and thriving in my passion for cooking with proper ingredients because you paved the way. I remember your 60th birthday when I was working at like it was yesterday. I remember thinking then that you were so incredibly youthful and unlike any other 60 year old I had ever met. Same goes for 80. Thank you for your guidance and trust and love. Thank you for your daughter who has become a dearest friend since that crazy job in Vienna over 15 years ago. Thank you for teaching me about mulberries and Domaine Tempier. I love you. Wish I had photos from our many many adventures together but I only seem to have ones of you putting my baby into the pizza oven. Icon of icons. Happy birthday xx

Summer hours today! Weekends are now 9am to 6pm

This weekend ✨ we're selling gift boxes with mini cream scones as a special treat for Mother's Day. Four scones, clotted cream, the best England Preserves jam and a couple of pieces of beautiful fresh seasonal fruit.

Pre order now for collection Saturday or Sunday at the shop in my linktree 🌴

We'll have some available in store too if you want to pop by

Bringing our famous buttermilk biscuits back this weekend!! These are made with wholemeal flour to the recipe in Love is a Pink Cake. Here are the process shots we took during our testing process for rolling them out on a busy weekend. We always bake off a test batch of a recipe before putting it out in the bakery even if it’s one of my published recipes so that we can practice how the flow of it will go in the busy bakery and scale the recipe up for a busy weekend service. See you this weekend xx

Last weekend we make blood orange and lemon meringue pie bars and bringing them back this weekend! These chocolate butterscotch bars were a one off! Should we bring them back?? Then violet vanilla cake, blood orange and rose madeleines, and of course chocolate buttercream on vanilla sponge. I don’t know about you, but this rainy weather makes me want cake and tea soooo bad.

People always ask me what my favourite cake is. The answer is always the same. COCONUT. Hands down my favourite taste, texture, smell, and look. Ours is made with our signature fluffy and moist (!) vanilla sponge, soaked with coconut-rum syrup and filled with our Hawaiian coconut-vanilla pudding. The cake is iced with coconut American buttercream or a coconut Swiss Meringue buttercream and finished with flakes of Snow White coconut. Always available to order year round. 🤍🤍🤍

HIRING an experienced part-time to full-time barista/front of house supervisor with management experience. Must be available at weekends and a team player. Would love to welcome you to our great team. Please email link in bio. ASAP!!

Our helper/trainee today at the bakery!!!

Love is a pink bag with my favourite coconut cupcake. 🧁 or bowling at for our staff party. Thanks Tory and xx 💋

❤️❤️🌹🌹

Recent February offerings at Violet. Come see us 🩷 Forced rhubarb almond polenta and blood orange muffins, citrus meringue pie bars, matcha and white chocolate blondies and chocolate glazed madeleines

Can it get any sweeter than a 3” smash cake? We love this size because it’s perfect for one or two people and it’s attractive, even demure. Available in ever flavour we do, it’s also our wedding cake taster. Just thought I’d let ya know. Have a great weekend everyone 😋🩷

Few valentine hearts left! Order here

Shop is full of beautiful valentines. And we are on if you’re at home sick in bed feeling sorry for your self (like me today) and want to buy yourself some cupcakes. 🧁 🩷

SOLD OUT in two hours! More tomorrow # # # thanks .e and all the Violettes and all of you!! This was fun. We have loads of other beautiful cakes today if you’re already on your way xx

Love our cakes? Consider giving us a glowing review on Google. I know, I forget to do it too. But it does make a huge difference to our business!! And it really means a lot to our whole team to hear from you. Did you know they start baking at 5am? Which means waking up before 4am! But we love it. Get some good karma today. Search us in Google maps and you can leave a review right there. Easy peasy. I’ll put the link in stories too # # # we love you too xx

Love heart smash cakes for Valentine’s Day 🩷 powdered raspberry and chocolate or forced rhubarb and vanilla x order now!

Want to bake with me in S I C I L Y ?? This April i will be joining Chef Dora from THE BEAUTIFUL Rocca della Tre Contrade for a very special culinary retreat. I will be holding several pastry master classes during this culinary week, covering pastry making, baking and gelato making, and tapping into local seasonal ingredients, such as citrus fruit, orange blossom, pistachios, almonds, strawberries, sheep’s milk ricotta and Etna pears. Exploring nearby towns, markets, pastry shops and more.

I’ll be working alongside resident chef Dora from the local town of Giarre. She has been cooking practically ever since she could walk, when she would follow her grandmother into the kitchen to “help”. A few years later, she began working with her mother in the family’s Sicilian rotisserie. Her specialities include exquisite raw seafood dishes, which have been served for generations along these shores, mouthwatering roast vegetable dishes, fish and meat secondi, arancini and cannoli with fresh sweetened ricotta. Book now through there are only a handful of spaces available for this intimate retreat. I met the guys from at a literary festival and over a decade ago and we have been trying to make this happen ever since!!! Look out for more announcements and possibly special appearances. Link in bio xx see you there!

Valentine’s Madeleines from now until the 14th 🩷

Espresso coloured roses and poppies and tulips today 🤎🧡❤️🤍

So many beautiful cakes at the bakery today to suit all tastes, all available online as always. Link in my linktree 💖