Violet Cakes in Hackney

It’s a sweet cozy little place, pastries are tasty and coffee is okay. The only downside was the coffee, the order was not done correctly. The coffee was lukewarm despite me insisting to have it made extra hot. Being a barista myself it is quite annoying to not have your coffee rightly made when you pay £4.50 for it. Otherwise, the staff were super sweet and welcoming especially the French guy; merci de m’avoir donné envie de revenir!

Conflicted about this place. Its lovely on a sunny morning and they have some nice options however, their prices are getting outrageous specially considering everything comes in a packaged / single-use / takeaway form. It is not representative of East London whatseover

Conflicted about this place. Lovely obviously, and special. But the prices are outrageous, £15 for a very simple avocado toast is mockery (I only found out the price as I was paying). Coffee is also pricey and does not feel done with care at all, the milk was lukewarm each time I've had it. Please keep the vibe of a true neighbourhood cafe, not an East London caricature ❤️

Cute little bakery! The lemon meringue bars are incredible (sooo good) and the coconut macaroons are just like my mom used to make. Love stopping in this place to see what they have on offer.

Even though the prices keep creeping up, I used to count on this place as a treat. I couldn’t believe that I paid almost 9 pounds for two lattes and then proceeded to see a child with an apron (no older than 12) run our shots and assist with our order. I even asked for a decaf which I didn’t get, because a child was asked to make it??! As an ex barista, this was pretty shocking to watch. If I’m paying upwards of 4.50 for a drink I would really appreciate not letting a child play with my order, it wasn’t cute and isn’t professional at all. What is going on?

I’ve been baking my way through Love Is A Pink Cake, gifted to me for Christmas, and it felt like homecoming to get the chance to visit the author’s bakery. I’m always a sucker for a seasonal dessert.

Still seems a strange place for a Coffee Shop and not worth searching for it

Prices have gone up again and now they are just stupid. Shame, it was a nice local place before. Idk why some counter staff so hostile, like I ate their cake… I will avoid in the future. Expensive (even for Dalston) and unpleasant (even for Dalston). But hey, hipster will continue to flock so whatever really

We stumbled upon this place by accident while looking for somewhere to sit and break fast. The staff was wonderfully kind and easy to talk to — especially Paul — and made us feel super welcome in the area. It’s a bit of a new wave cafe and its prices reflect that, but they have Aesop soap in the bathroom so that checks out. Food was good but wishing we tried more from their confectionery baked goods section since that definitely seems to be their specialty

Big fan of violet! Some feedback from my latest visit. I know the halva brownie is supposed to be gooey but I felt the one I had went too far into raw and overly oily territory. I also loved that violet did a regular sized latte that was nice and milky. I noticed the size has changed to the smaller size which makes for a stronger tasting latte, which personally I think is a shame! Everywhere else does these tiny lattes, I loved going to violet cos I know you did the bigger size. Anyway big love

Unbelievably special place in london. If you are looking for somewhere unique and with independent village vibes. Violet’s is it! They cook their cakes in house and you can watch them baking away while dining on delicious baked goods and wonderful coffee. They have seating outside which is perfect for sunny London days.

Fabulous and successful staple of Hackney however they need to work on a few things! The baked goods are good but their gluten free options are extremely limited and quite unpleasant to eat. They used to have a nice indoor seating area upstairs but they’ve gotten rid of that, which is a real shame. Employees are generally friendly but service can be (in my view) unnecessarily slow. In terms of being a good corporate citizen, I’d like to see Violet put both a BLM and an LGBTQ+ inclusion sticker on their window to show allyship with marginalised communities. I’d also like to know what local charities Violet supports. Can this information be elegantly displayed somewhere inside the bakery for customers to read? Regarding payments, a big problem for me is: when you pay by card, there’s no visible price on the iPad screen to show how much you’re paying; as a result, I always have to ask the cashier to tell me. If Violet isn’t going to put the cost of the transaction on a screen, then the store needs to train cashiers to say out loud “that’ll be £10.50” or whatever the price is. When you are prompted to pay, the only thing that appears on the payment iPad is a prompt to add tip. How can I add a percentage tip if I don’t even know how much my transaction costs? On the note of tipping, why am I being asked to subsidise the Violet employees’ salaries when the business is on record saying that part of the reason why their products are so expensive is because they pay their employees a “proper” wage (alongside their use of premium ingredients, etc)? One last point regarding sustainability: Violet offers free water to its customers (rightly so!) but the disposable cups they use are made from high-specification plastic which is simply a total waste. If Violet wants to use disposable plastic cups (instead of paper), they should use the *thinnest* plastic cups available to ensure minimal plastic waste wis produced. I get that Violet wants to position itself as a ‘designer’ bakery, but not everything needs to be premium. It’s a disposable water cup; it doesn’t need to be “Five Star” glossy/thick plastic. Just get thin plastic cups which are easier to recycle and which take up less space in bins, please!! Also, I think it would be reasonable to keep the disposable cups behind the counter so customers have to ask for them, rather than just having them next to the water dispenser (where overly consumeristic hipsters just end up mindlessly taking cups of water for the “sake of it” and don’t even drink it). On the note of bins, Violet’s bins (outside the patio door) are also very unclear as to which one is for general waste versus recycling waste. Violet needs to step up its game when it comes to sustainability!

Great bakery, specials are always so tasty

The staff there are so cool and nice! It’s always a treat coming to violet ☺️

Tried their chocolate cupcake with violet buttercream. The chocolate devil’s food cupcake was moist with deep chocolate flavor, not too sweet. The buttercream, however, was overly sweet and grainy - evidently an American buttercream with way too much powdered sugar. Shame they don’t use a meringue buttercream.

It’s become a tradition to get one of my BFFs a chocolate bubble cake for her birthday - we all swoon (it’s the best most nostalgic and new at once cake I’ve ever tasted), 23 sing the virtues of Violet and the birthday girl now collects the custom banners - and we do it all again the next year. As long as there are birthdays I hope we always have the option of celebrating this way. This year they brought the cake straight to my door on a particularly busy day, turning up on time, on short notice with a smile and a laugh. Run don’t walk and maybe you’ll find a new tradition of your own!

My family ordered a birthday cake for me from Violet, it was a chocolate sponge with a white buttercream - and the best cake I have ever tasted. Everyone who tried some was amazed! Will definitely order occasion cakes again and can't wait to come in store.

Banana bread and Birthday cake were amazing.

Soft cupcake with the perfect amount of frosting. Love the variety of flavors!

We ordered a small wedding cake for our civil wedding and it was beautiful, probably one of the yummiest cakes we’ve ever had. It was a violet chocolate cake, and the office manager helpfully suggested leaving off fresh flower decorations in case they wilted slightly in the time between me picking up the cake and serving it. So I added a peony myself from my own garden which was perfect. The cake was expensive but worth it for this special occasion. Thank you Violet!

A fancy bakery in the residential neighbourhood near Dalston. Ordered the rose madeleines and espresso cupcakes which were good. They are sweet and flavourful so try and pair them with bitter coffee. The chocolate loaf with rum and salted caramel that I had to take home though. That was heaven in a loaf. Moist and rich chocolate cake topped with a deep, bold, golden cream. Just one day and I have almost finished my loaf.

Your cake we had delivered for our 2 yr old’s birthday this past weekend was just to die for and made his, our’s, and everyone’s day! I have been a fan since day 1, no other bakery comes close. Lots of love to the whole Violet crew. We love everything you do, which is always beautiful and delicious x

Kleines Café mit außergewöhnlichen Kreationen, freundliche Bedienung, hier kann beim Backen und Partisserie Herstellung zugeschaut werden. Sitzplätze sind wenige vorhanden. Rezepte können herunterladen werden zum nach backen. 😉

Always 10/10. Best bakery in east

Best cakes hands down. Mouthwatering, and just tastes like heaven. I was involved in the redesign of the bakery and safe to say that I am now officially converted to their California style cakes. I even go the extra mile and order them via deliveroo when I am feeling lazy.

As a wedding photographer, I’ve tried a lot of cakes. Violets is hands down the best. Their cookies are amazing too. I always buy from them for holidays and birthdays and I will continue to pitch them to the couples I photograph 🤍

Me and my friends were in the area and we thought we would give this cafe a go for a quick coffee and cake (friends are big cake enthusiasts so any opportunity) Really disappointing quality of cake. Everything is just so…dry! Generally underwhelming. Lack of flavour, texture and missing the oomph that you’d expect. Not a patch on some other independent bakeries that are around the area which is where we will be going. Staff seem to look down on you and there seemed to be an awkward atmosphere, as if they didn’t want to be there and we were a nuisance. Coffee tasted alright though.

Rude staff. They feel like they’re entitled 😅 cupcake as decent but nothing special… cute decor tho

We love this local bakery and staff is super cute

Over the top prices for an overated product. Good, sure, but not excellent to justify the bonkers prices. And beware the cake sizes, they are tiny! And the staff feel like they are doing you a favor for serving you or retrieving your order. No thank you.

Expensive but excellent cupcake and cookie

I was really disappointed, me and a friend of mine were going past and thought we’d try Violets. We ordered 2 hot chocolate and 2 cookies, firstly the cookies tasted amazing and would recommend you guys to try it out but the hot chocolate was soo bad it was like hot water mixed with powder no love given to the hot drink in this cold weather.

Amazing cake, incredible scone, lovely bakery and nice cortado

For some reason I prefer the cookbook to the actual cafe! Not sure why. Although Ona nice day, it’s a nice peaceful place to stop for a coffee. Macaroons are good but would be better with a dash of dark chocolate.

Pleasant. Up to the hype? Perhaps not. Service prompt at best.

First time visiting after having baked repeatedly from the first cookbook. Absolutely exceeded expectations - wish I lived in London so I could become a regular. Loved getting a signed edition of the latest cook book!

Disappointing and unprofessional

A very messy wedding cake experience. We began our experience with a positive outlook and left with a bitter taste in our mouths (only half due to the mediocre taste). They are disorganised, will mess up your order and have awful customer service the second something goes wrong. Please do not trust this company with your wedding! Not worth it!

I would strongly advise to avoid adding decorative florals to your cakes here. The florals are of low quality, they’d half died by the time we received them and were completely lifeless and limp the next day. They’re also very expensive for what you get and I guarantee you’d do a better job with flowers from your garden as we had to do in the end. Not good value for money here and standards have really dropped. I’d recommend trying another bakery.

Ordered a birthday cake from here after seeing rave reviews. The lemon and elderflower cake was really good with proper lemon flavour coming through. Would only suggest that they dial back on the buttercream a bit. The thick layer on the outside detracts from the flavour of the cake

I ordered 3 different cakes for a birthday, spent a small fortune and they were such a disappointment. They didn’t taste good (from the sponge to the filling), they certainly weren’t worth the price tag and the way they were decorated was actually a bit insulting (I see someone else here has also commented on the insulting fruit decorations you pay extra for). I would strongly recommend that you go elsewhere. Such a shame.

I’ve been visiting Violet for over a decade and they make the most delicious cakes! The coffee and savoury food is also lovely. My young daughter is a huge fan and we’ve always had great service. I also love that they support their local community - thank you! Photos are a nostalgic throwback from their stall at Broadway Market in 2011, it’s amazing to watch a local business grow x

Great for a treat. I bought a latte & slice of raspberry layer cake.

Just yummiest..... even if you do pay top wack for it.

My daughter was excited to walk to Violet bakery to buy the cakes for tea; a white sheet cake, a raspberry buttercream slice and a cookie. Was super disappointed by the presentation, colored sprinkles? really? all flavors were boring, no taste. The same buttercream on both cakes, All the shops pastries looked like what is sold a school bake sales or at a local supermarket . Violet not worth your visit with so many other good bakeries in the area.

Food was delicious! Our experience was dampend by one of the staff members (person with green hair) who was extremely rude and condescending which is a shame because the rest of the staff were all super friendly.

Good cakes and nice atmosphere outside. A bit overpriced and overhyped.

Paper straws, pretentious vibe and high prices

I have never left a negative review before however I believe this justifies it completely. I had incredibly high expectations for this cake as one would for a bakery that catered for royals, especially for the price point. The cake I ordered was blindly decorated, looks as if a child could have done a better job to be honest. I emailed to discuss the issue, but the reply I received seemed to be quite deluded. I’m not sure how a ‘head chef’ could decorate a cake like this a be proud of his work, or how this looks ‘artistic’. The plum even leaked on the cake too on the top left corner, but apparently this is done on purpose for ‘extra effect’? And in what world does 2 slices of plums and 4 raspberries cost £6? Photos online look a lot nicer that what I received. I ended up decorating the cake myself because I was too embarrassed to surprise my dad with it. Belgique cakes are a lot more appealing evidently.

Me and my partner like this lovely cafe. We especially like the avocado on toast. The quality of ingredients are exceptional and the flavours are well balanced. However, we have a couple of points we wish to improve. 1. Single-use plate and cutlery It looks like they use compostable plates and cutlery, but compostable items are actually NOT compostable. Normally, it's treated as rubbish, not even as recyclables. They need to be collected as single stream and sent to a special facility to be composted. The price of their lovely food and cakes are not cheap, but serving with single-use items is a kind of turn-off. 2. Kimchi menue items I'm Korean, and I was very intrigued by their Kimchi scone and Kimchi blue cheese toast. We tasted the toast and it was disappointing. As Kimchi itself has a quite strong flavour, I think blue cheese is NOT a good combination. I would recommend cooking the kimchi and combining it with milder cheese, such as mozzarella or a young cheddar cheese.

Great bakery with pleasant staff

I love this place but it has gotten more expensive over the years, so I cant justify the cost to eat their goods as often as I like. I have brought the new cook book, can cook the treats at an affordable budget. Faves are the vegan cupcake, salted egg cookie, sour cream and chives scone, pumpkin quiche. I have tried the other cupcakes but they were a bit too sweet for me, so I can understand why they are fairly small in size otherwise it be too sickly! The new cookbook is fab, highly recommend. Thanks.

My husband ordered from here as we’d previously ordered a number of years ago a larger cake. The prices have shot up to a crazy amount- He was charged £5 for a piece of card & £26 for a 3inch smash cake a total of £31 for a pitiful size cake (he should have walked away at that point). The cake was bone dry & is inedible so the rest of this is being chucked. Seriously - how they can a) justify the price & b) send out this shoddy quality dry item us a mystery

Such a lovely place. Really lovely staff. The lady who served me was so nice, happy and polite. The chap took time and care making my coffee. The coffee and cinnamon bun were both great! Thanks guys!

really overrated place. my mom was a huge fan but after she attended the cookbook signing at the bakery and was slighted by the owner while asking for a signature she donated the book and never returned. i went to see what the hype was about and its just highly overpriced & insanely sweet goods. try any other east london establishment & save your money!

Cakes are nice but awful customer service via instagram and phone. I can keep banging on and they never answer my query re cake collection and never pick up their calls.

Best cakes in all London. There's always something new to try and it's worth every bite.

I am definitely not your customer sorry for the following comments. Any cake on offer has more sugar than I normally eat in a month. I really don't understand the culture of Cupcakes. Even on the brownie the sproporzionate amount of sugar takes away the effort to creatively attempt to combine discording flavours. Only one vegan option ( with 1 cm of icing on top ). On the good side though there is a good choice of kombucha and Lovely tea ( the tea bond street shop is lovely too ). The guy behind the counter was very charming and that helped.. Unfortunately I wouldn't queue again , which makes obvious my opinion is definitely not shared by many ( and I am pleased for it as you can see they have made a lot of effort on the business )

The bread and butter and jam is a joke. You get half a slice of bread for £4.50. The worst scam in London. We honestly couldn’t believe it. It’s like fyre festival.

Staff are really lovely 5*, and love the banana bread, coffee and sour cream and chives scone. The new Kimchi and goats cheese scone with poppy seed is a really strange scone. It feels like a whole bar of goats cheese is slammed into the scone with large and thick pieces of Kimchi - it needs to be more subtle to really enjoy it. It's like eating a chunk of goats cheese and then pulling out large, thick pieces of Kimchi leaving no balance and enjoyment to texture and flavour - not my best experience of baked good I'm afraid.

Amalfi lemon and elderflower cake, incredibly disappointing. Some lemon flavour but little elderflower. but the worst of all it is the densest cake I have ever had- like a bag of cement. £84 and ended up in the bin. ☹️

Best coffee ☕️ and cakes 🍰☺️ highly recommend the banana bread when around!

The cinnamon bun is really more of a shortbread or scone dough rolled into a swirl with cinnamon sugar and dusted with sugar. Its different, though not really for the better as it crumbles away and the dense dough really takes away ones enjoyment of the cinnamon sugar. At £3.20 for a small piece, its not quite my cup of tea. Friendly service though!

Love the place! Cute little bakery, with a large variety of pastries. With lot of charm despite being Sunday it was not that busy. Love everything we tried, hope to visit again soon

I paid extra for fresh flowers. But it was very different from the photos on their instagram 😅 The taste wasn’t even good.

Really, really good banana bread. Love the outdoor seatings.

Friendly staff but have to say that the cupcakes are a bit expensive. Nevertheless, I’m not going to lie: the salted caramel cupcakes at Violet are to die for! The only reason for me not giving this place a 5 is because I recently purchased their vegan cake ( a slice of it) and it tasted a bit stale or like sawdust; I can’t decide if the cake was old (since it wasn’t as moist as the rest of their cakes) or if my pallets isn’t made for vegan cakes. Either way, the place is relatively small, but if you’re a foodie like myself or have kids who like learning about cakes, it’s always cool to watch staff decorate cakes from the side window. I love that Violet is run by an American mom and it’s this reason that keeps bringing me back — women must support other business women!

Extremely disappointing - I went to visit this bakery with my sister after hearing so many great things about it. Firstly the staff and service were really good and friendly. My problem was with the food portions in relation to cost. Now, we ordered some cupcakes, a cheese toastie and some toast with butter and jam. We waited to get the hot food and took the cupcakes as a takeaway. The toastie that arrived later was a single slice of sourdough bread with cheese with some pickles and jam. This cost £7.00. The toast was half a slice of buttered bread with a side of jam - at £4.50. Now, the cost I can accept if we get a full order of food to justify it but we just spent over £20 for these items and neither of us left there feeling full or happy. Like I said, the staff and service were great but the food quantity against the prices needs to be seriously addressed.

Sold a kidney for a rather delicious cake. Only marked it down due to the extortionate cost

Great cakes, the lemon cake is exceptional. Also good to just come and sit out as you enjoy some treats on a summer day.

This is my new favourite coffee place! A quaint little spot in busy East London, with incredible customer service - you have to try the feta scone!

Judging by the majority of the responses on here, this is the place for the best cupcakes. I have not visited (yet) but I am going to make the mango buttercream recipe (again) by Claire Ptak for my sons birthday cake this weekend. I give the recipe 5 stars. I finally bought a couple of the raspberry cupcakes today. What a disappointment. They were expensive and had a tiny amount of buttercream on them. For that sort of price a bit of fresh raspberry might have made a difference. Cakes are also left out on the counter all day without any covering and attempt to keep them fresh.

Visited on my partner's birthday as she followed them on social media. We had one of their scones, a kimchi and stilton toastie and some mango cupcakes. The food was all really good, but I ordered some salad that when I asked after it, I was told only comes as an additional side to the quiche. Not a huge deal, but would have preferred to have been told at the counter when ordering.

Really nice coffee and the seating outside is nice if it’s warm. The scones are the best I’ve ever had and I give the 5 stars just for those alone.

Best scone I’ve ever had!!! Cakes were not my preference but I can tell they are good ! Can’t wait to try again!

I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful birthday cake! Absolutely delicious as well - thank you!

Lovely bakery for cakes and coffee

One of our favourite bakeries in London for a reason. Located in a peaceful neighbourhood it’s a go to for an afternoon sweet pickup dessert and coffee. Would totally recommend their egg yolk sea salt cookies and cupcakes too! Need to try more of their warm and savoury dishes.

Had a cup cake with a gorgeous light topping sprinkled with coconut. Divine. Went as part of Kevin's Meetup Walks and Tours. What a treat he gave to all on his walk. A must go bakery store Thank you Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex for your discovery.

Amazing cupcakes and cakes! Friendly and professional service. Best bakery in London :)

Amazing place with the best cakes in London!

Great coffee and cakes. Butterscotch Blondie in particular is amazing.

Ordered a cake for a baby shower, spent £172 for it and it was the worst cake I’ve ever tasted, the sponge tasted like dry salty cardboard. I returned to the shop with a sample, and after weeks of not hearing anything, and a couple trips back to the shop the manager was very rude and told me “he didn’t think it was inedible” but also didn’t say he was happy with the taste. They offered us a 30% off voucher as compensation, but this is worthless considering we are never going back, and would advise people to stay away.

Best cafe in Hackney. Everything they bake is amazing and their coffee is my all time favourite. A little overpriced but definitely worth a visit

맛이 오랫동안 기억에 날 정도로 컵케이크가 아주 맛있었습니다. 컵케이크 위에 올라간 크림이 아주 맛있었는데 식감은 아주 부드러운 크림이 아니고 약간 단단한 느낌의 크림이었습니다. 라떼 맛도 좋은 편이었고 직원들도 아주 친절하였습니다.

The best cake shop in East London. I would really recommend the classic violet cup cake, or the vegan vanilla sponge cake. On occassion, violet bake a wonderful rhubarb cupcake which is 10/10! I also had a birthday cake baked by Violet as a present, and the presentation (and of course flavour), were just brilliant. If you are a fan of cakes or coffee, this is a must try!

Went on a Saturday morning for a sweet treat, but the offer was limited. I got a cupcake and a cookie. The cupcake was ok, while the cookie was a bit disappointing. I heard their cakes are good so I will give them another chance and order one soon.

I hadn’t heard anything about this place, but after walking past the queue going outside the door, thought I’d wait and give it a go. After 15 minutes, we finally got in and the selection they had available was underwhelming, but after such a long wait, we begrudgingly ordered some bits to try. It was all dry, bland, and very generic, like it was from a Tesco express more than a bakery with a queue out the door. I’d like to say, I’m not really a fussy person when it comes to food, let alone someone who would leave a review. Certainly not worth the wait or the price.

Often met with really unfriendly and unhelpful staff here, which is a shame. Especially since I visit fairly frequently, live locally, and always place my order with a smile.

Quasi aucun choix de gateau. 4£ pour un cupcake que j'aurai pu faire moi-même, sans rien de spécial (il n'y avait que des cupcakes et cookies). N'importe quelle bonne patisserie parisienne est largement au dessus du niveau de Violet's Cake. Pas de savon ds les toilettes (sales). J'attendais tellement mieux à la vue de leur page instagram !! Grosse déception. En y faisant un tour, on ne croirait JAMAIS que ce sont eux qui ont fait des gâteaux pour la famille royale britannique. Ce business ne tiendrait pas un an si il était en France...

Very friendly staff great coffee

Amazing, delicious and fresh cakes, best I have had in London from a bakery that has been there for several years. And great coffee too! The cakes ( of which there are variety) can also meet dietary requirements and are well labelled. They also cater for special occasions. All in All recommended!

Underwhelming. The cake I ordered was Salted caramel :: yet no caramel or salted flavours came through. Me and my partner are both foodies and also very good in the kitchen, perhaps our hope & expectations were too high to allow an experienced baker to make the cake for us. I don’t recommend Violet cakes.

I got a coconut macaron to go and it was delicious! Hope to return soon for a more leisurely treat.

Delicious treats in a tucked away street.

Good choice but not my cup of tea

Amazing coffee and always good cake!

I went there with my friends and the coffee and the muffin I ordered were great! If I come back I will visit it again for sure.

A great place with nice coffee and food!

A little pricey but the egg yolk cookie alone will prevent the apocalypse since it unequivocally proves that there is a loving God out there somewhere that wants the best for us. Good coffee too.