Peggy Porschen - A Year in Cake

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

• * Some of the designs in the book refer to recipes and techniques in .
• * Baking times vary from oven to oven. Always check your bake two-thirds of the way through the suggested cooking time and turn your tray or cake tin if the bake seems to be browning unevenly; many ovens have hotspots.
• * While caster sugar is widely available in the UK, readers in the US can substitute granulated sugar.
• * The eggs in the recipes are given in UK sizes. Readers in the US should go up a size, so a medium egg in the book will be a large egg in the US.

Contents

The warming scent of sugar and spice, and the gravitational pull of natures flora and fauna have always been in my life. As a child growing up in a small village near Cologne in Germany, I simply adored baking cakes. It was a love that was passed to me, along with timeless recipes and know-how, by both my mother and my grandmother. Added to this, my mother was a florist. What could be more idyllic than a beautifully laid table, set with exquisite flowers and rounded off with a lovingly homemade treat? This to me is happiness. In fact, nearly all of my most treasured childhood memories involve a mix of delectable cakes and beautifully themed get-togethers. No matter what else is going on in life, I can still always find solace and a moment of peace in the beauty of the four seasons, played out through something deliciously sweet to taste and equally pleasing to the eye. And sharing this feeling with others is a pursuit I have taken great pleasure from my whole life.

It came as no surprise to my family when I announced my dream to become a cake designer. However, my path to success wasnt mapped out for me. My father, believing that I would find stability in a more traditional profession, encouraged me to keep my passion as a hobby and focus my career efforts elsewhere. It was during this period of soul-searching that I became an air stewardess having always hugely enjoyed travel and happened to discover the art of British sugarcraft when on regular trips to London. When I shared my discovery with my father, he said, Go for it, but challenge yourself to become one of the best. Propelled by my longing for a life in ptisserie, and determined to prove myself, I secured a place on Le Cordon Bleus The Grand Diploma of Cuisine and Ptisserie and was overjoyed to graduate in 1999.

Being on the cusp of a new millennium, there was a palpable buzz of excitement and energy in the air. I really believed that anything was possible and threw myself into a prestigious pastry chef role at The Lanesborough hotel, followed by a cake decorating position at celebrated bakers Konditor & Cook. Despite not yet being engaged (that came later, to my husband and business partner Bryn), I was obsessed with wedding magazines and used to buy all the new editions each month. I fell in love with the whimsical themes and was, of course, always desperate to see the cake choice. I happened to stumble across one of the most beautiful cakes I had ever seen, which had been made for Lucy Gemmell, who was founder and director of high-end caterers Rhubarb Food Design. I thought, I have to work for this company, and, luckily for me, I did.

Not long after, my first big break came when Rhubarb was hired to cater for Sir Elton Johns annual White Tie and Tiara Ball. The creative brief was for an edible Faberg egg and I took the challenge and ran with it. After days of experimenting, it finally took a team of eight to handmake 14,000 miniature blossoms to decorate 550 eggs, in pearlescent pink and blue. The result was an edible Faberg egg for each guest, who simply had to pop the gold-crowned lid off and enjoy the pudding inside. The media went wild for the eggs and they featured everywhere. It wasnt long before wedding cake briefs started arriving from A-list celebrities, royals and VIPs, providing me with such incredible experiences that I will never forget.

Riding on the crest of a wave, it was in 2003 that I made the leap to launch my own bespoke cake company. I used everything that I had learnt and threw my heart and soul into making the business work. I ate, slept and breathed cakes and followed my gut instinct to really push boundaries in cake design. However, I always had an underlying longing to share my love of cake more widely, and it was after the 2008 recession that I took my chance to follow a change in direction.

Finally opening the doors to my picture-perfect Peggy Porschen Parlour in Londons Belgravia in 2010 was the icing on my cake. I really felt that I had found a home within this quaint neighbourhood made up of independent, artisan boutiques and craftsmen. I couldnt think of a better place to begin sharing my own craft with the world. Finding an identity for the Parlour came naturally, as it was finally an opportunity to share my love of fairy-tale pinks, modern romance and whimsical cake art on a daily basis. The Parlour has represented my pursuit of prettiness since day one and it is instinct that led me to paint the shop front an icing-sugar pink. This hadnt been done before and it could have been polarising, but instead it was magnetic. The Parlour elevated traditional favourites with a grown-up twist and allowed so many local customers and visitors to the area to connect with their inner child. Much like many of the recipes that feature in this book.

Having made the decision to step back from bespoke cake design following the birth of our son Max in 2013, Bryn and I evolved the business to allow a much greater focus on the ready-to-eat Parlour collections and customer experience, whilst also balancing our roles as parents. It was in 2015, in celebration of the RHS Chelsea Flower show, that we created our first floral installation covering the arches of the Parlour. It was such a success and catapulted us onto travel magazine covers, airline advertisement campaigns and social media platforms all over the world. Our pretty pink corner of London became a travel destination in its own right, and it really felt that we had officially taken off as the place to go for cake and design lovers from all over the world.

Seeing the Parlour in this new light, we had the idea of creatively aligning our edible collections with our seasonal installations and from this, one of the most inspiring creative processes was born. In partnership with the wonderful florist and stylist Mathew Dickinson, we carefully select a new creative angle for each season. Working approximately six months ahead, hours and hours of creative planning take place before finally revealing the Parlours latest installation and cake collection which is why for this book, it felt so important to share this insight alongside the recipes.