Cupcake decorating and a gift from the Fairy Hobmother

I've been a bit lax at blogging lately, sorry, but as some of you may know I've been busy setting up a business to sell my own cupcakes. I've finally tired of buying bad cupcakes and have decided to give it a go myself. More details about it will follow soon..

As mentioned in a previous blog, my first stall is going to be at Going for a Song Vintage jumble at the Amersham Arms next Saturday, June 4th. I aim to have 5 or so flavours there so hope some of you can come along and taste them! There is an offer available for the event via my website so please check out the events section if you plan to come along. It's free entry and is in a pub, so you can enjoy a pint or a coffee/tea with your cake, and from the other vendors I've seen it will include some fabulous clothes and jewellery.

Anyhow, in anticipation of baking for others, including a wedding I've been asked to do, I thought I'd do a course at one of my favourite cupcake bakers, The Gourmet Cupcake Company. Originally I was just going to do the wedding and fondant masterclass course, however I thought I'd do the original course as well and I'm so glad I did. Eloise is a great teacher, the classes were really informal but very informative. We baked cakes, learning some insider secrets, and then got to decorating. Although this is perhaps more for a beginner, even as an experienced baker I learned some new techniques and I really recommend her courses for everyone. I can't wait for my wedding course next month - just looking at the lovely cupcakes Eloise has made for previous weddings has me all excited as to what I'm going to make!

As well as making exciting cupcakes, and business planning, I've also been lucky enough to be visited by the Appliances Online Fairy Hobmother. Appliances Online offer everything from cookers to my ultimate want for my kitchen, the pink Smeg fridge, and after I'd left a comment on Eat Like A Girl's blog post the Fairy Hobmother visited me with a prize. I didn't win an appliance (boo!) but I was chosen to carry on the gifting chain and was awarded some Amazon vouchers (yay!) - something I will always use.  Never mind shoes, I can never have too many cookbooks.

As I'm carrying on the chain, the Fairy Hobmother is offering a lucky commenter on this blog a prize so please leave a comment below to be in with a chance to win a lovely gift from him. Perhaps you could share with us your favourite item in your kitchen -  I'm going with my gorgeous pink Kitchenaid.

Leave a comment by Friday June 3rd to win. Good luck.

Peggy Porschen's Parlour

Isn't it the most gorgeous cake shop you've ever seen? That shade of pink is enough to turn me into the girliest girl ever. I adore it.

Peggy Porschen's Parlour opened in Belgravia last autumn and today we finally got round to visiting. The location is rather odd - walk past perhaps the grimmest place in London, Victoria Coach Station, and you can see this gorgeous vision of pastel pink on the horizon. Like an oasis calling to you in the desert of scummyness.

As were were stomping towards it I had everything crossed we could get a seat inside, as although there were a couple of outdoor tables, it was freezing.

Inside the Parlour is small but perfectly formed. There are two smaller tables for two, and a larger one for about 5 or 6. Photography of the store wasn't allowed, but we could take photos of our gorgeous cakes. There was a choice of approximately 6 cupcakes, some layer cakes, macarons and some other baked goods. Of course we opted for cupcakes. I had a vanilla chiffon and Manny went for a chocolate heaven.

They also offer a selection of house blend teas, including a lovely sounding gingerbread one, but I was tempted by the lovely smelling coffee, and opted for a cappuccino. Manny had a divine smelling hot chocolate.

The vanilla cupcake was lush! The frosting was cream cheese vanilla which is quite unusual but it was absolutely delicious. The cake was moist and tasty, and incredibly fresh, the frosting was, well the icing on the cake. Really well flavoured and really moreish.

Manny's eyes lit up when he spotted the chocolate heaven cupcake. Look at the amount of frosting on there! Wow. And it was incredible. Seriously, delicious! I tried some, and the frosting was a velvety ganache and absolutely delicious. If ever there was a frosting I could have in shot form, this is it! The cake was, again, incredibly moist (I hate to harp on about moist cakes but a moist, fresh cupcake is so important - there are a couple of well known bakers out there I've sampled recently that could do with some lessons in injecting flavour into their cupcakes and about them  being fresh but that's a whole other blog post!). There were no such worries here, the cakes were simply magnificent.

As you can see we thoroughly enjoyed them, one of us ensuring we scraped off every last crumb of cake!

I had a little peruse around the shop before paying. As well as cakes and delicious iced cookies, there are Peggy Porschen homewares,  lovely home made preserves (including lemon and lemoncello, which I may have to return to buy), and Peggy's blends of teas. We decided we couldn't leave without trying one of her beautiful black forest cupcakes so got one to go, which was lovingly boxed up by the staff. Oh and the staff in the Parlour were really nice - checking we enjoyed everything and ensuring we didn't have any complaints.

Alas disaster struck as we had a long walk through a very windy Hyde Park after our scoffing, and the cake alas was a casualty of the elements.

Even though it was slightly squished, and way less pretty than when it had left the Parlour it still tasted lovely.  The rich, delicious chocolate cake cake is filled with some Griottine cherries inside and topped with a kirsch and vanilla frosting. I wished I'd bought two as I had to share it with Manny. Hurumpf.

I highly recommend popping along to Peggy's Parlour for tea and cupcakes. They also do afternoon tea and obviously takeaway. The cupcakes would make perfect little gifts for friends, if you don't want to make your own, and although slightly more than you would pay in other cupcake stores in London, they are worth every penny! I must go back to try the banana toffee asap! And a carrot one! Or I could dig out my copy of the Sainsbury's Magazine with her recipes in and make my own. That's next weekends baking taken care of!

Finally, you can see some photographs of inside the parlour here.

A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise

The Love Bakery book is fast becoming my favourite cupcake book. If I fancy baking something different it is definitely my go to book at the moment. The recipes are incredibly easy to follow, don't require lots of strange ingredients (well buttermilk but I don't consider that strange anymore) and the cakes I've made from it have all been a success, which I can't say for many other cookbooks I have!

I first made these cupcakes last week on a whim after work when I'd had a bit of a shitty day and needed cheering up. They were very tasty, however not quite right as I was missing one vital ingredient, honey for the frosting, so decided to re-bake them yesterday to see how they tasted when made properly. There is only once word to describe them - DELICIOUS.

All pretty in it's gingham case (from Sainsburys)

gasp...naked! 

The cake is a pretty basic cupcake with two apples (peeled and grated) added to the batter, which makes the cake incredibly moist. I used some plump Pink Lady apples as they're my favourite but you could use any apple you like. It also has a generous amount of cinnamon and this really brings out the apple in the cake.

I'm not a great fan of honey (even though my husband insists I should be because I love Winnie the Pooh so much) so when I tried the honey cinnamon frosting yesterday I was a little disappointed in it as it tasted a bit too honey-ish for me (go figure - it had 2 x tbsp of honey in it!) and had decided that if I were to make these again, I'd frost with custard frosting instead. However, when I came back from work today I had one with a cup of tea and the honey-taste had mellowed a bit and was much nicer. Or maybe I'm just growing to like it? In fact I much preferred this, the proper frosting, to my vanilla version I did it with the first time. Also the cake is still very fresh and moist. This recipe is definitely one I'd recommend -  an all round fabulous cupcake for the colder months of the year.

 First attempt with a vanilla frosting

naked vanilla frosted cupcake

You can get the Love Bakery book from The Book People for the bargain price of £4.99. 

As wonderful as these cupcakes are, before you bake a batch and sit down with a pot of tea to scoff them all remember the wise words of Pooh “When having a smackerel of something with a friend, don't eat so much that you get stuck in the doorway trying to get out.”

Cox, Cookies and (cup)Cake

I've mentioned before I love Twitter right? So today's Twitter find was a new bakery. Cox, Cookies & Cake is a joint venture between shoe maker Patrick Cox and our favourite French Pâtissier Eric Lanlard, of Cake Boy.


Cox, Cookies & Cake have developed an indulgent and deliciously quirky repertoire of cookies, cakes and bars and will have an emphasis on quality rather than novelty. There will also be a range of goodies inspired by Patrick's mothers recipes - including her fabulous (and delicious sounding) Nanaimo Bars made from coconut chocolate biscuit with a layer of custard vanilla butter cream coated in melted dark chocolate.

I love the idea behind Patrick's creative vision for Cox, Cookies and Cake - a sexy amalgam of honourable London traditions: the corner cake shop and the Soho hotspot with black glossy floor and disco inspired walls - sound perfect to me!

I've still to taste any of Eric's cakes, despite saying years ago I was going to Cake Boy :( but I cannot wait to try them - his cakes always look so tasty. Wonder if I can persuade Manny to venture over to Battersea soon?

“I am really excited to be working in partnership with Patrick. We are both obsessed with great

food and style and of course we both share a great sense of fun. Together we are going to be

creating a range of yummy cakes and cookies designed to match the style of this up-and coming,

vibrant part of London that is Soho! “

From the press release pictures above, and below, I can already see that the cupcakes are going to be innovative (hello skulls \m/), so lets hope it's not a case of style over substance and they looks as good as they taste! I plan to go on opening day to check them out so of course will let you know! I'm sure they're going to be (absolutely) fabulous!

Cox Cookies & Cake, opens September 1st at 13 Brewer Street, London W1, opening hours 11am - 11pm (perfect for late night cupcake cravings!).

Finally, Eric Lanlard fans will be pleased to know that his new book Home Bake is also due out at the beginning of September, and is available for pre-order on Amazon. It features recipes for cupcakes and other yummy looking home baked treats.

Making Whoopie in Brighton

After our trip to Swallow Bakery we had planned a stop in Worthing to visit the awesome Parklife but time was not on our side so we headed directly to Brighton as we were aiming to end our mini tour there with a trip to our favourite pub, with a stop at Angel Food Bakery first for a second bit of lunch (two cupcakes = lunch!).

Luck was on our side as we managed to secure a table in the usually v.busy Angel Food and Manny managed to get the last of their chocolate whoopie pies.

Manny's whoopie was HUGE and the filling was amazing - I tried a little smidge and it was ever so tasty. I opted for a banana cupcake which came with a white chocolate and cream cheese frosting. The cake was incredibly moist and tasty and the frosting was divine. I occasionally find cream cheese frosting a bit cloying but this combination was fantastic. I really like Angel Food Bakery, it's a lovely little cafe with fabulous coffee and even better cakes - everything is incredibly fresh, and you can see the kitchen staff preparing your cakes through the window at the back. And it seems I'm not the only one who loves it - the place was constantly busy, people popping in for a cupcake or to pick up or place orders. It's nice to see an small retailer doing so well!





Again we grabbed some take away - this time opting for four as we just couldn't decide and we needed some cake when we'd finished drinking! I had a toffee apple (with a Toffifee on top - one of my favourite sweets ever!), and a vanilla. Manny opted for a chocolate orange (with piece of chocolate orange on top) and a devils food with honeycomb on top of coffee frosting.

All of the cupcakes were lovely, except the vanilla which was unfortunately inedible and ended up in my bin. The frosting tasted of nothing but butter, not a hint of vanilla, and the cake itself tasted days old (we tried to eat it on the Saturday - about 16 hours after buying it), and again tasted of really flavourless sponge, again not a smidge of vanilla flavour. The other cupcakes made up for it though and were incredibly flavoursome - and really different from the usual cupcake flavours you get! I highly recommend a trip to Brighton for these cakes, especially the toffee apple which I adored and Manny recommends the whoopies and devils food cupcake!

We shall be doing the tour again, perhaps this time with less takeaway (I was stuffed of cake by the time my birthday was over!) and next time we're definitely going to Parklife - especially now they've started doing macarons!

Lashings of cupcakes in Chichester

My birthday cupcake tour of the South East has taken me a while to write up but I still wanted to share with you this wonderful little bakery in the lovely town of Chichester - it is a definite must visit.

I have wanted to visit Swallow Bakery for some time, and finally got round to it 3 weeks ago and it was worth the wait.

Getting off the train in Chichester after being in London is like another world. We left Victoria Station on a day when a famous Dutch activist was in town so we spent our wait at the Station listening to bone head idiots who seemed to think they were the creme de la creme of Englishness shouting abuse at everyone, and surrounded by the usual fragrant part of the population that seems to be loiter in London stations. Chichester is lovely and I'm not just saying that because we found cupcakes, a great little food market, a fab kitchenware shop and a store where I found the cutest Hello Kitty purse all within 3 mins of each other. And they have a Lakeland which we didn't visit but it kinda adds to me wanting to live somewhere like this! It's a really picturesque little town - I loved it!

Anyways, to the cupcakes. Swallow Bakery is a cute little cafe, with about 4 tables and lots of lovely goodies to purchase. And the cupcakes - rows and rows of lovely looking, perfectly frosted cupcakes. I opted for a pink vanilla (my usual to test a bakery) and Manny had a double chocolate. Manny secured a table and I waited for the coffees and cake. This is where my first little problem with Swallow Bakery occurs - there were 2 tables free, however both were swarming with dirty crockery. The girl serving noticed and did nothing, fair enough she was serving. However there was another girl sitting down just near the counter reading The Sun who I did think could have perhaps gotten up and cleared the tables (sorry but even if she was on a break it's a cafe so tables need clearing, you can take a break later). We got our coffees etc and ended up clearing the tables ourselves, even when the girl behind the counter spotted this she just left them piled up on the table we'd put them on.

Anyways back to what we travelled two hours out of London for - the cupcakes. They were AMAZING. Really, really flavoursome, moist and yummy. Both were engulfed in a thick layer of really lovely frosting - some of the nicest cupcakes we've had. The coffee was great too - the perfect little cafe!

We decided to get a couple of cupcakes to take away and went back to the counter -where my second problem occurs (part of which we didn't realise till the next day). By going back and asking for takeaway we seemed to interrupt the staff chatting which seemed to perturb the girl serving to the point of putting one of our cupcakes upside down in the box. If you look at the pic above there isn't really any way just one could've ended up the wrong way up unless it was done purposely. They still tasted great though - Manny had a black and white (the upside down one) and I had an apple and fudge (I think it was a daily special). Both were still really fresh tasting and moist the day after purchase and really tasty - mine was full of lovely bits of fresh apple and the fudge on top was lovely. Manny loved the chocolate base of both his cupcakes declaring them some of the best he'd had. And again the frosting was just superb - some of the tastiest frosting I've ever had!

Staffing issues aside I highly recommend a visit to Chichester - next time we'll go back and explore a little more. If you do fancy a day out Southern Trains do a Daysave ticket which means you can explore all over the Southern network for a tenner!

Cupcakes and Peonies Mother's Day

Based in the Midlands, Cupcakes and Peonies were born out of love of truly delicious cupcakes, and if they taste as good as they look I can well believe it :) I personally love the grass frosting - it looks amazing, as do the flowers - perfect for a garden loving mum.

Their Mother's Day selection comes in a selection of box sizes (minimum of 6) and can be personalised with a message of your choice. More info can be found on their blog, and you can enter a competition to win a lovely box of Mother's Day cupcakes, further details here.

Star Bakery comes up roses for Mother's Day

Star Bakery, a self confessed cupcake loving bakery in Nottingham, have produced these gorgeous rose frosted cupcakes for Mother's day. I love the colours of the frosting, so bright and different than your usual pastels, and I cannot believe how pretty the rose shaped frosting is - I dream of having the patience and expertise to do that kind of thing, but I'm much more a slap it on kinda girl :)

A box of 9 gorgeous cupcakes, which can be any flavour you choose, as long as they're all one flavour, is only £22 delivered to any NG postcode. All ordering details can be found here.

It's time to meet the muppets...

I've been meaning to post these since I first saw them on Cirencester Cupcake's Twitter - aren't they beautiful! You can read all about them, and see more photos, here.

Louise is definitely one of the most talented cake decorators I've seen and the good news is she's opening a shop in Cirencester so all of you lucky enough to live nearby can visit soon - I wish I lived nearer! I have had a peek at train info to get there and it doesn't seem that difficult so I may be popping over for a visit in the Summer to get my hands on some cupcakes.

You can keep up to date with the shop's progress, and read about/order cupcakes on her website and blog.

Also today on Twitter Louise posted some gorgeous photos of her mother's day cupcakes - I think I may send some to my mum as they're really pretty. You can see them on flickr. Once ordering info etc is online I shall post it on here.

Thanks to Louise for use of her lovely photographs.