Show me your cupcakes! Dotty's cafe

Shortly after I started my blog in January this year and went on a self-imposed photographic tour around the city of Nottingham’s cafés I must have encountered the wonderful sight of Dotty’s café at the top end of Mansfield Road. Number 197 to be exact. I certainly archived the image seen here as being a fun and colourful place to visit and vowed to return some day to Dotty's. Today was that day.

I discovered it to be a chill out veggie and vegan café that themes itself in a charming and slightly kitsch 1950’s style. On entering the door the smell of cake baking mixture hit my nostrils and transported me back to my own childhood – 1950s-60s. I don’t normally confess that I’m that old! I had to fight not to ask if I could take a dessert spoon and enjoy the pleasures of eating the raw ingredients in the baking bowl like I did as a child.

I ordered a pot of Earl Grey tea and a lavender cupcake with a glacé cherry on top. Another memory from childhood was when I used to eat glacé cherries like they were going out of fashion. My childhood neighbour used have jars of them and I remember them as cocktail cherries. I took a photo of this cake as my instincts told me it was going to be wondrous. I wasn’t wrong. Anyway, back to 2009.


I tried to explain my blog to Susan at Dotty’s but she was really busy working on her own until the lunchtime staff arrived. From internet references I gather that this unique café offers many great veggie and vegan dishes including; fresh salads, sandwiches, veggie burgers and burritos as well as several varieties of vegan cupcakes, all of which are very good value for money. And they do take away food too.


I wasn’t able to stay too long so I was amused to see this quote from a member of staff on their Facebook site. ‘Come for the vegan cupcakes, stay for the spectacle of us dancing about with tea cosies on our heads...’ Now that would have been fun to see. I noticed that cats were also popular artefacts and wondered if they too danced around with tea cosies on their heads!?


Dotty’s café are based at:

197 Mansfield Road, Mon to Fri 9am to 6pm, Sat 10am to 6pm. Tel: 0115 958 3633

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For more veggie/vegan cafe blogs see my blogs for Crocus Cafe and The Alley Cafe.