Peggy Porschen cupcakes {book review}

Cupcakes never will go out of style. My theory is based on the fact that when I need to take a bake somewhere I always think of cupcakes first. Here are my top 5 reasons for loving cupcakes:

1. They can be easily or simply decorated and still look cute.
2. They are individually wrapped.
3. They are the perfect amount of cake without being too greedy.
4. The flavor combinations are endless.
5. They are great for kid’s parties & fancy adult parties.

When I saw that Peggy Porschen was releasing a book titled Cupcakes I knew I was going to get a copy as soon as possible! I loved Boutique Baking and had great success baking from it I knew I couldn't go wrong with this new addition.

It’s only a little book, you can fit it in a handbag easily, but it has 25 great looking cupcake recipes! Each one is paired with a frosting and decorating tips, but feel free to mix and match to your tastes!

Here are the cupcake flavors included: Chocolate Heaven, Sticky Toffee, Red Velvet, Chocolate Raspberry Heart, Strawberry & Champagne, Lemon & Raspberry, Black Forest, Vanilla Chiffon, Strawberries & Cream, Banoffee, Pecan Pie, Carrot & Walnut, Eton Mess, Apple Strudel, Gianduja, Salted Caramel, Tiramisu, Toffee Apple, Mulled Wine, Lemon Meringue, Sugar Plum, Spiced Pumpkin, Cosmo, Pink Marshmallow, and Gingerbread.

Several of these have appeared in Boutique Baking and I have made the Chocolate Heaven and Sticky Toffee cupcakes before and they were both amazing. I can’t wait to try out the other recipes.

I am mostly looking forward to the Apple Strudel, Salted Caramel, Toffee Apple, Mulled Wine, Spiced Pumpkin, and Gingerbread. Can you tell that I am prepped for autumn and winter?? This little book would make a great stocking stuffer or a just because present!

It’s books like this that will insure the cupcakes’ place in the baking world. Thank you Peggy for keeping cupcakes stylish!

Chocolate Heave Cupcakes 

notes: Peggy Porschen cupcakes can be found in Peggy Porschen Parlour in London or in the online store, Amazon UK, and major book retailers. My copy was provided for me by the publishers please see the contact/policy tab above for further information. My review of Boutique Baking & my visit to Peggy’sParlour! 

Golden Snitch Bomb Cake {Happy Birthday Harry!}

Today is the big day! It's Harry's Birthday! It's also JK Rowling's birthday!

Happy Birthday Jo!!!

For Harry's big day I made him a snitch cake, like Mrs Weasley does in book 7. I played around with different ideas. But finally decided I wanted to use sugar paste as I concluded it would give me the look I wanted. Then I used a gold spray to make it golden! Candy melts for the wings and an edible black marker to outline. For the inside I choose a bomb cake recipe from Peggy's Boutique Baking. Make any full or half circle cake you want and decorate! 

I'm not sharing the recipe for this bomb cake is because I followed every ingredient and step to a T and it comes from  Peggy’s Boutique Baking. It’s very in-depth and has step-by-step photos on how to assemble this cake. However, this isn't how she suggested to decorate it.... 

I used pre-made aka store bought marzipan and yellow fondant to cover it. I first rolled out the marzipan (I didn't take photos of that) before covering with the fondant as seen below. I made sure I had enough of the fondant to create the lines of the Snitch. To finish off I sprayed it with edible gold spay paint to give it the shimmer and gold feel. I also used a black edible pen to line some of the lines to try and give it some depth.

The wings were the hardest part to make. I first traced the size and shape of the wings on a piece of baking paper. I melted down yellow candy melts and using a butter knife filled in my drawings... I used a bit of the melted candy melts to attach the wings on.

assembling 

The actual cake is a light sponge cake baked in a shallow cake pan and then shoved or layered inside a bowl then filled with butter-cream patisserie cream and alternated with fresh raspberries. It was delicious!! Anything for Harry! ;0) It's one of my first ever attempts at using fondant and making a bomb cake. It's probably not up to professional standards, but I am happy with the outcome. The first time I tried doing the wings it hadn't worked out so well. They were the toughest part of the whole cake. My daughter ate them off shortly afterwards. It was whole lot of fuss and worry, on my part, for nothing!

I hope you have enjoyed this weekend of yummy treats based on the world of Harry Potter! I know I had a lot of fun making and eating them!

If you have made Harry inspired anything (food, crafts, and so on) I’d love to see it!

Leave a comment with a link.

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Pink Lemonade!!

Summer has finally arrived here on the island commonly known as Great Britain!

It's about time if you ask me!!

The only downer is that it's not really baking weather so to chill out I made some luscious pink lemonade from Peggy Porschen's Baking Boutique book!

lemons!

so refreshing

Spring London Bakery Tour!!

Today my friends and I travelled to London to see Wicked at The Apollo Theatre and of course I dragged them along to a couple of bakeries!!

First stop was Lola's Cupcakes:

blackberry with cream cheese frosting

peanut butter

custard and cream

Lola's in Selfridges

It was hard to choose just one and in theory I didn't have to just choose one, but cupcakes unless you eat them right away don't really keep. So, peanut butter was the flavour of the day. I stole a bite of the other cupcakes, they were all very good too! I like the flavours and the cakes weren't cloggy or cloying. Really enjoyed it!

Wicked at the Apollo Victoria

After the show (my second time seeing it and it was just as good as the first time) we walked for about five minutes to Peggy Porchen's Parlour!! 

luscious lemon

jam cookie

vanilla chiffon

cherry macaroon

Me in front of Peggy's!

Peggy's was beautiful exactly what you expect a bakery to look like! Very pink, simple designs, and yummy cakes on display! I chose a slice of cake and the macaroon. The lemon cake was good not overly lemony, had just the right amount of tang to go with the sweetness of cake. The macaroon was good too!

Over all a very successful day if I do say so myself! It was nice to have a day out with the girls and no kids! We did spend a lot of time talking about our kids as that's what us mothers do, but it was good to be out and feel human again!! :0)

Check out my last London Bakery Tour where I visited Bea's of Bloomsbury, Hummingbird Bakery, and Outsider Tart on the Southbank market!

I still need to share my birthday cupcakes...they didn't turn out exactly how I had planned! That story will be coming soon....