One of the best facts about London is that you can get almost anything from another part of the world. Wheelcakes are a Taiwanese street food. Essentially, they are pancakes sandwiched together with a creamy filling. Co-founders Felix Tse and Yi-Ting Lin set up the street food business "Wheelcake Island" at the beginning of last year, and they often set up in KERB Camden street food market and Brick Lane market. I got the chance to try a wheelcake recently when I visited Brick Lane.
"Wheelcake Islands" have four flavours to choose from: a traditional red bean, classic vanilla custard, matcha custard, and chocolate with vanilla custard. I tried the chocolate with vanilla cream, and it was delicious, although it was a little messy ozzing with chocolate and vanilla custard. I can see why these are popular.
I arrived just as the last ones were sold with visitors purchasing a few each, so I had to wait about twenty minutes for a new batch to be made. First, two rows of the tins were filled with batter then pushed with a wooden spoon to remove any air. After a couple of minutes, the fillings were placed on the top.
While they baked, more batter was added to the other two sides of the tins to create the other half of the sandwich. Toppings were placed on the tops for the custard-chocolate blends, but the remaining ones were left to cook. Once they were ready, they were 'cut' and lifted out to be pressed on top of their matching half.
While they continued to bake the half that was added later, each flavour was pressed with a different design.
The wheelcake tasted delicious and oozed with flavour. I wished that I had bought two.
"Wheelcake Island" is located at Brick Lane during the week and (at least part of the time) on Saturdays. It is located at KERB Camden on Wednesdays.
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