Flea markets are fun! Colourful stalls, unique products and best of all, the enterprising owners of the stalls. The flea market scene in Hyderabad is still new. They usually happen in the club houses of gated communities or for charity events. N convention, a seven acre farm house converted into a purpose built convention centre, organised the second edition of the one day pop-up bazaar on September 14th, 2013 . Though their pop-up bazaars are not yet as established and popular as the ones I've seen and heard of in Bangalore, I was still curious to see what kind of stalls will be set up during the second edition. And I was especially interested to see how many food stalls will be there since the last time only one baker had a stall. This time there were three stalls selling delicious baked goods, and I give you my take on them. My day at the pop-up bazaar definitely ended on a happy sugar rush!
Dusk Miller had the widest range of baked goodies on display. The owner, Namratha Vippala, is a quiet and shy talented baker. She sold cookies, cupcakes, cakepops, cheesecakes and simple cakes. We tried four of her baked goodies. The marble cake was slightly on the drier side (probably because it was a simple stall with just basic equipment to display cakes) but got full scores for taste. It was a pretty cake too with swirls of chocolate merged with sponge cake. Her chocolate cheesecake didn't have a strong chocolate flavor and was not as smooth as other cheesecakes I've eaten. But her best products were the cakepop and her speciality, Vienna cookies. The cakepop has a beautiful chocolate ganache covering a moist, chocolatey cake. The sprinkles provided a fun and colorful feel to the delicious sweet. Her Vienna cookies were out of this world! They were melt-in-your-mouth butter cookies designed like swirls. And instead of having icing on top, she coated the bottom of the cookie with chocolate ganache. I had two of these and between me and my friends we finished half of her stock! We also sampled her shortbread cookies which were equally melt-in-your-mouth good!
Visit her Facebook page for more details on how to contact her and find out what other mouth-watering goodies she can bake for you!
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Dulche was my next stop. This was Ratika's second time at the Pop-up Bazaar. I'd recognized her from the first edition and was excited to see what she had to offer this time. Dulche specializes in brownies and cookies. Their brownies are to die for, I must say! They are rich chocolatey and moist brownies. Her cookies have a very home-made taste to it - tasty, little soft and on the thinner side with chocolate chips. But the winner of her goodies on offer at that day were her tarts. The tart pastry was crumbly and buttery which held the beautiful chocolate ganache. The ganache was simple yet delicious. I had to resist being shameless and take multiple pieces from her sample tray. I managed three. But you must order these some day to treat yourself with tiny bites of heaven.
I was particularly inspired by her enterprising nature. Ratika started by baking for her friends and family, who loved her cakes and brownies. When she got to know of the first pop-up bazaar she decided to set up a stall to gauge the market. She didn't even let her friends and family know about the stallto get a more realistic picture of the demand for and market for custom-made baked goods. . Pop-up bazaar helped her know that her baked goods had a market. People loved her products and now she has a good, steady business.
If you want to try some of her decadent brownies or tarts, you can reach her at 9985766389. Dulche also bakes birthday cakes on order.
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CupCart was a cupcake and brownie stall set up by 3 enterprising college friends. Having just finished their 12th standard in school and were in middle of their summer vacation. One of the friends had baked 200 cupcakes for her friend's birthday and they were a big hit. So instead of wasting their vacations doing nothing, they decided to set up a stall at the pop-up bazaar to further their cupcake business. I tried their vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. The vanilla cupcake was moist with a very sweet buttercream frosting. The chocolate cupcake was a very light chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache icing. I loved the chocolate ganache. It is such a beautiful and decadent icing but so simple to make!
They didn't have a business card but I hope they set up a stall next time the pop-up bazaar happens.
Here's to more such flea markets and much more enterprising ladies setting up stalls to feed delicious food to hungry shoppers!
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