She’s my ‘cake idol’, one of my favorite inspirations, she’s Peggy Porschen and she’s got a new book out!
I am thrilled to announce that I had the opportunity to interview Peggy and will be sharing that interview with you here. I’m also happy to announce that I will be giving away one signed copy of Cake Chic, also named Simply Spectacular Cakes.
You may have already noticed that I’ve mentioned Ms. Porschen and her books on numerous occasions. It’s because my journey on this sweet adventure began due to the inspiration of Pretty Party Cakes… not only pretty to look at, but resourceful as well.
Many cake book authors seem not to want to share their secrets and Peggy’s books stand out as ones which share them all.
Her new book, Cake Chic, doesn’t disappoint. As usual, it’s a feast for the eyes and includes some new ways of helping the reader understand how to create her gorgeous treats.
As someone new to making cakes, I also appreciate the range in complexity of projects available – decorating for people at all levels.
You might just find Peggy on one of the pages of your favorite magazines – she has been featured in Glamour, Marie Claire, Delicious and Brides wedding magazine {and so many more!} and has designed cakes for celebrities such as Elton John, Stella McCartney, Madonna and Anthony Hopkins. Her first book, Pretty Party Cakes, won the 2005 Gourmand Award for the Best Entertaining Book in the Word.
Curious about her yet? Here’s the interview followed by the Cake Chic giveaway details:
Interview with Peggy Porschen:
Marian: Peggy, I’m so excited to be speaking with you! I love all your books and the sugar masterpieces you create.
People associate you with cake decorating and baking, of course; but actually I kind think of you also as a style person too. You’re not really just about baking cakes, cookies and cupcakes… you have a style all your own. You have this beautiful balance between traditional and modern; I think it’s one of the secrets of your success.
Where do you find your inspiration, may I ask?
Peggy: Yes, sure; to be honest, there isn’t anything specific. Personally I love sort of girly things. I like to look at fabrics, fashion accessories, wallpapers; you know those kinds of things. Generally, I always felt I had a really good eye for color, so when I find beautiful color combinations I keep samples or just memorize them really well.
Also, when I mix colors I don’t just use plain colors or just one color to mix my icing; I always tend to mix.
Part of that is also from working at Konditor & Cook which is a cake shop here in London. They have sort of crazy, wacky cakes and one thing the owner, Gerhardt Jenne, told me right from the start was, “Forget about tradition, just let your imagination go and go wild, and do what you want to do.” So it really made me less scared of working with colors.
M: I notice that every recipe I try from your books turns out really well. May I ask, are they from Cordon Bleu where you studied, or are they a derivative of the recipes you tried there?
P: I think mostly, the best experience in terms of recipes I made are probably from Konditor & Cook because they are sponge and are much more usable for decorated cakes. Basically my recipes are based on a simple Victoria sponge cake. I just worked with it myself and adapted flavours and added syrups to find out what works best.
The best or biggest advice I could give is really don’t be stingy on your ingredients. You know if you don’t use good stuff you can really taste it.
M: What new cake decorating tools or equipment are you excited about lately?
P: Something new that came out over here is the PME lustre spray. I don’t know if it’s in Canada or America but over here it’s a fairly new thing.
It just makes adding lustre to your petals quick and easy. It saves you literally hours of work. You could also alternatively use an airbrush, but setting up the airbrush, if you don’t have it all ready to constantly use, can be a bit annoying.
M: Do you see yourself as a cake artist first or a baker?
P: Cake artist.
M: What inspired you to write your first book?
P: Oh actually I was asked; never in my wildest dreams would I have thought to write a book. It was a lucky coincidence really because I was selling cakes at a Christmas fair and a publisher saw my cookies, and just said we want to make a cake book with somebody; would you be interested? I was absolutely amazed!
At the time I wouldn’t say I had a signature style, so I then was in the lucky position to be able to go part-time and slow down with my job, so that I could focus completely on the book. It just really helped me to come up with ideas and sort of create my own designs. Some of them were designs I already had in my head for a long time; like the rose tower in Romantic Cakes – it was a cake I was dreaming about making for so long and just never got around to it.
M: It is beautiful! And I love how you use charming accessories like the birdcage with the white butterflies. How do you get inspired for your photo shoots?
P: Some ideas are inspired by working with bridal magazines. I find things are always a team effort. Sometimes the magazines will come and say for example, “We’ve got a scene with birdcages – they’re big right now”, so I have to admit it’s not always completely my idea.
M: I think we all get ideas from everywhere.
P: Exactly; I think if you wouldn’t work with other people and exchange ideas you just wouldn’t evolve.
M: I also have to say, you’re one of my inspirations and you are my cake hero. Do you have any ‘cake heros’?
P: Thank you! I guess you can probably tell I find Wendy Kromer incredibly inspiring. But also Ron Ben Israel; actually there are quite a few. I mean I guess Ron Ben Israel for his flowers and Wendy Kromer in general. I find she’s really innovative. I don’t like all of her designs I have to admit, but sometimes she’s got such genius ideas. You know, just so beautiful and aesthetically new and different.
I also like Cheryl Kleinman from New York very much. Unfortunately she hasn’t got a website, which makes it harder for all the other cake makers to look at her cakes. She features a lot in American wedding magazines and if you google her you’ll find her cakes.
I think these are sort of the main ones that have inspired me to get where I am, and there are many more whose styles I love and admire.
M: Who are your favourite cookbook authors?
P: I think what I really like are all these sort of new, scrumptious-looking recipe books about the cupcake trends. The Magnolia Bakery started it all off, and now over here we’ve got the Primrose Bakery and Hummingbird Bakery. They have just recently released books and I’m quite keen to try out some of their recipes but I haven’t had a chance yet.
M: You alluded to trends a little with the cupcakes. What, if any, are your cake trend predictions for 2010?
P: I noticed about 4 years ago it was all sort of fairly colourful and minis and cupcakes were popular. For weddings I find it’s going back to traditional cakes but with a contemporary approach.
I think people generally like a traditional, classic, white, stacked tier cake, but then they like contemporary touches like swags and pearl piping which looks sort of like the crystal chandelier design or damask. Lace is still quite big but I think it’s slowing down a bit. And sugar flowers. Back to sugar flowers.
M: Would you be able to pick your favourite cake, cupcake or cookie from your new book?
P: Well, yes, if you put me on the spot, I’ve got a couple actually (laughing). Out of the cookies, I think that the Scotty dogs and the Silhoutte cookies are pretty – they’re my favourites. Out of minis and cupcakes, I’d say, the cherry blossom fancies…
M: Oh that’s on the cover?
P: Yes, exactly. And then out of the cakes, button flowers is my favourite; also the style of photography is so pretty, and the Summer Symphony.
M: Do you have any plans to write more books, may I ask?
P: I surely do. I do generally like to have a creative break because I sometimes feel otherwise you start repeating yourself. You want to come up with fresh ideas, so it would probably take another year before I start thinking about new ideas. I’ve got some concepts in my head, but I guess I’ll be careful to say anything because I don’t know where it’s going to go.
M: I noticed in your books that you make the instructions easy to follow and include a range of projects in terms of complexity. You have some which are easier for beginners and some for those who have been doing it for a while. Do you have a target audience in mind with your books?
P: I do, because generally, first of all, I think that it’s really nice that I’ve managed to motivate so many people who’ve never done cakes before to actually get started. So I feel it’s important that there’s something in there for beginners. That’s what it’s all about really. You know when I started my training, I also just learned about basic sugar craft and I taught myself most of the skills through books. I find books are really important for people who want learn about making cakes.
And the more tricky ones, the thing is that it’s also for my name and my reputation… I feel that I need to have some challenging projects in there in order to be ahead of things, if you know what I mean. Also for myself, I just like to come up with something that’s different.
M: I like the fact that you have some more challenging things because it gives people something to aspire to.
Peggy I would like to thank you for taking the time out to do this interview; I appreciate it!
For anyone interested in taking classes with Peggy, she is focussing now on holding more of them. The information is on her site under Masterclasses (Shop) here: http://www.peggyporschen.com/shop/
She also recently flew to Malaysia and is coming to Toronto, Canada this November, to the Bonnie Gordon School of Cake Design. I know I’m completely thrilled to be signed up for the 3-day course. I’ll keep you posted on that!
Her book, Cake Chic, has been released on Amazon in England, France, Germany and Japan, but not yet in Canada or the United States. It will be released here in April 2010. I’ve checked Ebay periodically and have seen it there and on other on-line book sites, however it’s often being shipped from England or Australia.
If you’d like to order or pre-order her new book, they’re available at bookstores everywhere and on line. Specifically through the following Amazon links in:
Cake Chic Giveaway! CLOSED
Now on to the giveaway! One lucky winner will receive a signed copy of Peggy’s book, Cake Chic. How do you enter? It’s easy. Just leave a comment answering either of the following questions before 7pm on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009:
- What is one question you would ask your ‘hero’ (if you have one), in an interview?
OR
- What or who would you like to see featured on Sweetopia next?
The contest is international and the winner will be chosen randomly at www.random.org.
Another way of entering the draw is to retweet this post on twitter. Tweets will be added to the draw! (One per twitter user please).
Hope you enjoyed the interview and good luck with the giveaway! 😉
xo,
Marian
Erin R says
I would love to see more tutorials also – perhaps a how-to using non-fondant cake decorating methods? I always have trouble when I use marzipan to make little decorations – and honestly, i’ve never had much luck with modeling chocolate. Maybe some hints and tips?
Alya says
Hey, good interview.
Why don’t you interview Bakerella 😉
Rene says
I’d love to see snowflake shaped sugar cookies! (maybe a how to)
babskitchen says
I would love to see more “how-to” tutorials on how you make some of your awesome cookies and definitely show us some of your gingerbread houses. I’m dying to tackle that one myself and with Christmas coming up, it would be the perfect time. 🙂
Jenny says
Bronwyn Weber —
And I’d like more how to tutorials too!
Delia says
I would love to see Elisa Strauss featured.
rogine says
I would have 1000000 of those. You arean artist
LOVE ROGINE
bubble&squeak says
Hi Marian,
I saw the Simply Spectacular Cakes book on Book Depository US for a good discount. It’s coming out in April 2010 (this month!) and I was also going to get Cake Chic or Pretty Party Cakes but after reading this post I am confused. Is this new book the essentially the same as Cake Chic?
Following your recommendations, I’m really interested in picking up one or two of Peggy Porschen’s books but I find many of her covers look the same. Does this mean that they are the same book but adjusted for different markets? I would really hate to double up.
I’m originally from Australia so I prefer metric measurements.
BTW, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your piping work.
P.S. I’m always buying books especially cookbooks and this Aussie website helps me compare book prices within Oz and around the world. Not sure if it might be useful to you and your readers. It’s good for all types of books.
http://www.booko.com.au/
Marian says
Hi bubble&squeak,
Thanks for your indepth input!
Simply Spectacular Cakes is also known as Cake Chic.
Romantic Cakes is also known as Beautiful Cakes.
Pretty Party Cakes is known only by that name.
Happy shopping!
Marian
bubble&squeak says
Thank so much, Marian!
You’ve certainly cleared things up for me.
Happy Easter!