Love Bakery book review

Love Bakery - Cupcakes from the Heart

I found this book whilst on one of my visits to HomeSense a few weeks back for a bargain price of £4.99, RRP £16.99.  I’d heard of Love Bakery but didn’t know much/anything about it.  It also inspired my trip to the store whilst in London last week.

Reading the book is totally inspiring and refreshing – a glittery new view on cupcakes!  Samantha Blears reveals that she started her enterprise off the back of a stall she did for her children’s school Halloween fair and has gone from strength to strength and opened her bakery on “London’s legendary Kings Road”, Chelsea in London in March 2009.  The pictures are great, the layout really works and is really helpful and you can really get into Blear’s mind on how she is inspired to make and design her cakes.  The recipe’s are all very precise, which I really appreciate, I’m sure you will too.  I think this leaves little room for error.  There are great pictures to go with every recipe (this gives you some idea of what can be achieved), and also a list of equipment that you will need – great for the not-so-confident/cautious bakers.  There are also lots more pictures of the bakery and cakes for more inspiration.  There are enough recipes to keep the average home baker going for at least 6 months, and if you haven’t already tried making sugar paste/fondant decorations then this is a great starting point.

Now I’ve visited the bakery and tried the produce I thought it time to try and make one of Blear’s recipes myself – Red Velvet Cupcakes!

I’ve tried many recipe’s for Red Velvet, some work and some don’t, some simply don’t really translate as a cupcake weirdly enough (too dense and dry as a cupcake but OK for a layer cake that is totally smothered in vanilla cream cheese frosting).  I’m not a huge fan of them and funnily enough, I describe them as ‘man cakes’ – guys love Red Velvet!  On baking these though, I think I have found a recipe that I will make again and again and also really enjoy myself!  My cakes were really light, fluffy and moist!  I won’t publish the recipe, I think you should buy this book instead!  You can even have a look through it here: Love Bakery on Amazon

Truly Red Velvet Cupcake

Box of Red Velvet Cupcakes

Tip: When I want to dye cakes, I use liquid food colouring.  The only red food colouring that I’ve found that works really well is Langton’s which I buy from Waitrose for 33p.  No other red that I’ve used seems to really show in the cake. Love the bargain price too!