Pop Bakery by Clare O'Connell

This month I'm reviewing Pop Bakery by Clare O'Connell, from illustrated lifestyle publishers Ryland Peters & Small and CICO Books. Clare O'Connell, along with her daughter, Judith, is the owner of Pop Bakery in West Hampstead, London.

I chose to review this book as I love cake pops. Hailed as the new cupcake, cake pops are small moist cakes coated in candy on lollipop sticks. Claire, too, loves cake pops and wanted to create her own versions. For Claire cake pops were the ideal medium for her to share her creative flair and love of baking. After work experience in a combined bakery and confectioners for a year Claire started her business, Pop Bakery, from her family home in West Hampstead. She supplies Harvey Nichols and boutique hotels across London and was recently commissioned by Top Shop to make cake pops for their Launch Party in Bath, England.

The front cover of this hardback book says "25 recipes for delicious little cakes on sticks". I would argue that it contains one recipe of a chocolate cake pop with 25 different ways of decorating them.

Each beautifully photographed decorated cake pop has clear step by step instructions on how to create the cake pops, from moulding the cake to hand painting them. It contains some great advice on ingredients, tools, equipment and stockists. The book covers a variety of styles, from the funky on-trend leopard print ones to the cute panda & frog heads with varying levels of difficulty. Each gorgeous looking cake pop is beautifully photographed by Nicole Rees.

The only downside to this book is that it only provides one recipe for the cake pops.
At a recommended price of £9.99, I think this hardback book is a good introduction to cake pops and how to decorate them.

Some of my favourite cake pops:

Cute Panda heads

Whimsical toadstools for woodland themed parties!

Fun bright frogs

The stylish leopard print cake pops inspired by nail artists

To summarize, Cake pops is a good decorating book for cake pops with great tips and advice.

Please note that my opinions are my own and I am not paid for these reviews (apart from receiving a free book, of course!).

Have a sweet day!