Mimi's Bakehouse - Corstorphine

A cake cabinet, then afternoon tea

The counter runs on cakes: traybakes, brownies, cupcakes and tall celebration sponges rather than a technical bread programme. Afternoon tea is the fullest version of it, a savoury-to-sweet run of sandwiches, warm mini handmade sausage rolls and warm scones with Mimi-made jam and thick clotted cream, finishing on whatever cakes and traybakes came out of the bakehouse that day. Vegetarian and gluten-free versions of the tea are made, and the wider cake range includes vegan and made-without-gluten choices, so the cabinet is not a single-track sugar counter. Speciality drinks sit alongside, though the case is the reason to stop.

A second-generation bakehouse with the bakery in view

Corstorphine is one branch of Mimi's Bakehouse, a second-generation Edinburgh family business that started in 2010 and also runs rooms at the City Art Centre, Comely Bank and Lauriston Castle. It is a seated bakery cafe rather than a takeaway hatch, and the baking is not kept out of sight: a window lets guests look through into the bakery where the work happens. Named cakes carry the house style, among them Chocolate Raspberry Cake, Chocolate Fudge Brownie Cake, Ultimate Birthday Cake, Red Velvet Cake, Carrot Cake, Victoria Sponge Cake and the Vintage Heart Cake, alongside the Back to School Traybake and boxed cupcakes. The bakehouse also boxes cupcakes and prints photo traybakes to order, and wedding and celebration cakes come out of the same kitchen, which is why the branch reads as a bakehouse first and a cafe second.

Take the afternoon tea, or just a traybake

Afternoon tea is the clearest first order, since it gathers the branch's strengths into one sitting: sandwiches, warm sausage rolls, scones with jam and clotted cream, then the day's cakes and traybakes. If the visit is shorter, the cabinet does the same job on one plate, and a brownie, a cupcake or a slice of Victoria sponge or carrot cake shows where the bakehouse is strongest. All-day brunch runs beside it for anyone arriving hungry rather than sweet-toothed, which is what makes Corstorphine a daytime neighbourhood room as much as a cake shop.