"The Prairie Girl Cupcake Cookbook" by Jean Blacklock | Book Review

The Prairie Girl Cupcake Cookbook by Jean Blacklock

Publishing Date: January 12, 2016
Pages: 128
Publisher: Appetite by Random House
Links: Goodreads | Indigo | Kobo

Jean Blacklock, owner of Prairie Girl Bakery (now with multiple locations in downtown Toronto), grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan baking everything from bread to cookies to cupcakes, watching people's faces light up when they took a bite. Baking had always been a passion of hers, but she decided to pursue a career in law. About twenty five years later, she opened the first Prairie Girl Bakery.

I love making cupcakes and I pretty much take every opportunity to make them. Like Jean, I love seeing people's reactions to the little delectable treats. So when I found out that this cookbook was going to be released soon, I had to get it!

Most of the ingredients involved in these recipes are pretty simple household items you can get at the grocery store, although there are a few exceptions. Jean is very honest about the ingredients they use, including their (not-so) secret to delicious fruity icing - powdered freeze-dried fruits. Quite a few recipes involve these ingredients and as far as I know, they're not available in stores so you'll have to order them online at places like Nuts.com, where Prairie Girl Bakery gets theirs. I was a little disappointed to not be immediately able to make some of the delicious-sounding recipes like Blueberries 'n' Cream Cupcakes and Strawberry Daiquiri Cupcakes, but I'll probably be ordering the freeze-dried fruits at some point...or visiting the bakery. There are also vegan and gluten-free options for those of you with dietary restrictions!

Irish Cream Cupcakes...mmm!

And now, onto the recipes I made!

First up, I made Irish Cream Cupcakes...if you know me in real life, you know I love me some Irish Cream. Let me start off by saying, the chocolate cupcake is delicious. I tried making "Prairie Girl-size" cupcakes, which are essentially 1.5x the size of a regular cupcake, but they didn't rise properly in my pans, I'm not sure why. The icing recipe makes a whole lot of icing (I was able to ice them all, then ice them all a second time). Now, I'm not a huge icing person because they're generally too sweet for me, this one included, but it's all subjective and really depends on how much icing you like! Next time I make these (and there will be a next time!), I'll be using more Irish Cream because I couldn't really taste it. The technical things like chemistry were a little off for me on this one, but they were quite yummy so I'm still going to be making them again.

Lemon Cheesecake Cupcakes - with a lemon curd surprise!

The other recipe I made was for Lemon Cheesecake Cupcakes...these are SO good. With four recipes involved in making these, they're also a LOT of work. It sounds daunting and it is, but these are so freaking delicious that I think they were definitely worth all the effort. I found all of these recipes pretty easy to follow and they mostly involve household items, although you might need to go egg-shopping afterward as in total, the lemon cheesecake cupcakes require 11 eggs (mostly the yolks to make lemon curd). The only trouble I had with these is that the Classic Cream Cheese Icing (which is so delicious!) was a bit soft even after chilling it for about 30 minutes, so it was sliding off the cupcakes a little. These cupcakes are definitely my favourite of the two I made, because the lemon is so refreshing and heavenly - and I love the little lemon curd surprise in the middle!

All in all, I enjoyed making and eating these cupcakes and there are a ton of other recipes I want to try. When I'm able to order some freeze-dried fruit, I'll definitely be making a few more recipes! There are recipes for a variety of skill levels, so whether you're a beginner or an experienced baker, there's something in here for all cupcake-lovers alike.

*This book was sent to me by Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review.

"The Sweetapolita Bakebook" by Rosie Alyea | Book Review

The Sweetapolita Bakebook by Rosie Alyea

I absolutely love decorating cakes and desserts, so I was very excited to hear about this, The Sweetapolita Bakebook: 75 Fanciful Cakes, Cookies, and More to Decorate, written by Rosie Alyea.

Rosie has loved cakes for a long time, but she fell in love with designing them when she attended the acclaimed Bonnie Gordon School in Toronto. She started the Sweetapolita blog in 2010, and it has been gaining in popularity ever since.

Many of the recipes in this book are interactive, meaning if you make a cake or some cookies for a kids' party, they can decorate the desserts however they want to. This encourages creativity which I think is so important, valuable, and thrilling for children big and small (I'm included in that statement!).

I can't comment too much on the colour photography because I have an uncorrected proof that's mostly black and white, but the few colour photos at the front are stunning - there's so much colour involved in these recipes, it makes me happy just to look at them!

As you may know, I like to make a few recipes out of the cook/bakebooks I review, and this time was no different. I made three recipes in one day, with the help of my best friend Christine over at Padfoot's Library, and we were exhausted by the end of it. Making these pretty things gives you an appreciation for what professional bakers do!

No exaggeration, this is probably the best chocolate cake I've ever had. The icing involves a lot of steps, but it's absolutely worth it in my opinion. I like the nearly-naked look of the cake too! The cake itself is so moist (it's an icky word, but it's a great thing when you're talking about cake) and together with the icing, it's a rich and decadent cake.

Sugar cookies are always complicated, but they're also delicious. The watercolour painting requires some artistic skill to achieve the loveliness pictured in the book, but I imagine it would be a great and fun thing to have kids do at a party - they'd love the opportunity to decorate their own cookies! And that's part of the draw of this book - the interactive nature.

In my opinion, the two baked goods recipes I made are geared toward people with some home baking experience, as opposed to novice bakers: the cake icing is complicated because it begins as a meringue, which is easy to mess up, so thankfully my mom (who bakes up a delicious storm) was around to answer my questions and help out; and sugar cookies always involve a lot of steps, so that's no fault of this recipe.

Rest assured, there are some simple recipes in this book, it's just that my eyes were immediately drawn to the more complicated ones because of how pretty they are.

If you don't have a pantry stocked with a lot of cake decorating things, it might be a little pricey for you at first because food colouring and cake decorating tools can be expensive - so stock up on coupons. For me, it pretty much always ends up being worth buying the tools because I love seeing people's reactions to nicely-decorated baked goodies - in fact, I'm planning on making another cake from Sweetapolita this weekend for a family friend's birthday!

If you love making unique desserts or are interested in learning, this is a great book for you. It'll give you an appreciation for the hard work that goes into these beautiful creations, and you'll end up with pretty, delicious treats you'll love!


The Sweetapolita Bakebook is now available in paperback (see Chapters/Indigo and Amazon) and eBook (see Kobo and Amazon Kindle) formats.

*This book was sent to me by Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review.

1 and 2. Photos by nikkitheknack. 3. Photo courtesy Penguin Random House Canada.