Book Review: Peggy Favourite Cakes and Cookies

By guest blogger Victoria of http://whatboodid.blogspot.com blog

You may not have heard of Peggy Porschen unless you are interested in cake decorating like me.  Peggy is an expert in decorating cakes in a beautiful girly way.  Peggy has released several books full of gorgeous cakey projects. 

Peggy’s Favourite Cakes and Cookies is Peggy’s latest book.

 This is a lovely book packed with beautifully decorated cakes and some simple recipes.  The victoria sponge recipe is the best I have come across, lovely and moist and full of flavour.  The best tip being the sugar syrup you brush on after baking which locks in moisture and adds flavour. 

The book has instructions for cupcakes, wedding cakes, cookies and fondant fancies.  I made the fondant fancies, they tasted delicious and looked pretty. 

I have also made sugar cookies from Peggy’s recipe for a hen party, I decorated them in sugarpaste, everyone loved them. 

Peggy is obviously a practised and expert cake decorator and therefore she makes everything look easy.  For those of us who aren’t experts some of these projects can be quite technical and time consuming.    

This usability of the book could be improved by the recipes being printed and laminated and being separate to the projects.  It was very time consuming keep flicking through the pages for the cake recipe, buttercream, royal icing and then back to the project.  I love keeping my books looking immaculate and that’s quite difficult when you’re covered in sticky icing!  I also wish publishers would spiral bind recipe books so they sit open properly. 

If you do already have some of Peggy’s books you should be aware that this is an amalgamation of her other books.  If you are new to Peggy’s books this is the perfect one for you. 

I would give this book 5/5 for girly prettiness and 3/5 for ease of use.

Peggy’s website Peggy Porschen

Last month we had a blogger’s outing to Peggy’s Parlour in Belgravia, the cakes were divine and the parlour is so pretty.  Peggy has also opened an academy that is running a diploma in cake decorating, how I’d love to do that!

I was lucky enough to be able to ask Peggy some questions:

  

When did you decide you wanted to be a professional cake decorator?

I was always given a fabulous cake every year on my birthday as a child growing up in Germany which is a nation that loves cake! The cake was always the highlight for me and even then I was incredibly passionate about both the taste and the look.

When I was 14 yrs. old I decided to make my own and it really just started from there. I moved from home in Germany to London in 1998 to study at the internationally renowned cookery school Le Cordon Bleu. After successfully completing ‘The Grand Diploma of Cuisine & Patisserie’, I worked as a pastry chef at London's Lanesborough Hotel and celebrated caterer Rhubarb Food Design, followed by a position as cake decorator for German master-baker Gerhard Jenne, proprietor of Konditor & Cook. I set up my
business in 2003 from my home in Battersea.

Where do you get your inspiration from?
I’m a really typical girl! I love anything pretty, dainty or feminine. Anything can inspire me from fashion to vintage tea cups or stationary – just whatever catches my eye.

What is your favourite type of cake to make?
It would be absolutely beautiful, elegant and incredibly pretty, intricate without being over the top, the classic and traditional softened with a satin bow perhaps and plenty of my signature sugar flowers.

What is your top cake decorating tip?
My tip would be to attend my academy and take a 3 day professional wedding cake class which I run regularly. My students not only go away with a cake made under my supervision, but also with the skills and techniques to recreate for friends and family again and again in future.

What is your favourite recipe?
My cravings change with the seasons but at the moment I am obsessing over my sticky toffee cupcakes which are sold in the Parlour, they are incredibly comforting, with a gooey toffee centre and nutty sponge - I just can’t resist.

                                   

Everyone Loved Peggy's Cakes....

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I ♥ Pinterest

 

When I looked up the word 'Addiction' in the dictionary, I found the following definitions: 

  1. ‘Being abnormally tolerant to and dependant on something this is psychologically or physically habit-forming'   

And I can relate to the both... That's right I'm an addict and everyday I need my Pinterest fix!

The guys at Pinterest describe their website as "Pinterest lets you organise and share all of the beautiful things on the web. People use pin boards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes and organise their favourite recipes" In essence, they sum up the function of the website nicely, but excitedly I know there is much more to it. The best way to describe it is as a digital mood board, we look at websites all day long and instead of printing off the shade of green which matches your latest colour scheme, or the shorts you just have to have, but have to wait until pay day, pin them and be inspired by other people's pins, like facebook you can follow people's boards and they can follow your boards.

Currently we're created 11 boards:

Crafts in South London - so we can share some of the great things which are happening local to you.
Things that make SW HQ smile - We're hoping if it makes up smile it will make you smile too
Inspiration - There are so many things in the world which inspire us and we're on a mission to pin them, whether it's the colour of a birds feather, an interesting use of a colander or amazing illustration, the list is endless.....
Crafts from everywhere else - finger on the pulse, we like to know what is going on, everywhere else and not miss a thing
Our home cooking - Okay this board will take a little longer to grow, not because we don't cook, far from it, it's more the fact that taking pictures whilst cooking, is really time consuming especially when we're hungry. ~But, we're on it and we be sure to show you our wares or you could email yours to us and we'll be happy to pin them
We'd love to be this organised - Ummmm it is what it says on the tin
Book Club - Did you know craft books are the fastest selling in 2011? We'll pinning lots of the latest books to inspire you.
Sweet tooth - We love cake!
Hunter gatherer - Just stuff, nik bits we've picked up along the way
East London – Oooh we do love east London too

Watch out for more - You'll find our images here, Pinterest

Anyhow don't just take our word for it, here are 10 of our pins