Fancy a touch of the Raymond Revue bar in your kitchen? Cox Cookies & Cake is the book based on the Soho cupcake bakery created by UK based French patissier Eric Lanlard and fashion designer Patrick Cox.
The 75 recipes are predominantly cupcakes with two chapters on cookies, bars and biscuits. Reading is like stepping through a narrow alley off Brewer Street, it’s dark with neon graphics. Glitter balls and leather feature as props.
The soft cover gives the impression of shiny PVC, the graphics are reminiscent of Soft Cell’s Non Stop Erotic Cabaret album. Endpapers show pictures from seedy venues and their shop – it’s up to the reader to discern which is which.
This isn’t a book that takes itself seriously. Presumably it’s the first cookery book ever to feature the word “semen” in lights (page 36, it’s actually a cropped photo of sign saying “basement”). I fear to google the phrase “cock rings” but suspect that the adornment on top of “crown cupcakes” looks like one.
Like Marc Almond’s eyeliner and bangles invading a Top of the Pops episode otherwise filled with Shaking Stevens and Buck’s Fizz, Cox Cookies and Cake is an antidote to any notion that baking books need be saccharine.
The styling chapter gets surprisingly involved with sugarcraft; “cheeky” cupcakes present an opportunity to paint a thong on edible paste bottoms; chocolate gets moulded into skulls.
Two cupcakes on the front cover are not featured inside; Andy Warhol Marilyns and bicep curling arms. Presumably the former are printed with edible ink. Having seen a similar technique on Bakerella, I was hoping to see how to make them. The latter look very similar to “man cakes” but this should be spelled out.
Lust list:
Cola cupcakes indented with perkily erect cola bottle sweets, luscious cherry topped Black Forest cupcakes; gluten free Provencal orange cupcakes are oozing with appeal. “Summer Flowers” cupcakes are arty and the Nanaimo bars are positively seductive.
Sex bombed out:
The hedgehog cupcakes forsake cuteness for cartoonish headlamp staring fear. They look really weird. Likewise, bunnies devoid of any Playboy reference, splattered eyeballs and holly seem out of place and shoe horned in to tick boxes of Easter, Hallowe’en and Christmas. The cookies lack the glamour attempted elsewhere. Titty cupcakes look like something out of Benny Hill.
Verdict:
Definitely different but some of the kid focused and healthy options don’t sit comfortably with the concept. There are a number of recipes I’d like to try although the presentation of the book is distractingly similar to a Smash Hits Annual circa 1982. Still, if I ever require a cupcake decorated with someone’s bum I’ll know where to look.
Cox Cookies & Cakes by Eric Lanlard & Patrick Cox is published by Mitchell Beazley, priced 16.99 and available from July 11th 2011. With thanks to Octopus Books for the review copy.
Sound like a fun book to give as a gift! I’ve seen it, its not really my thing, but I think it would appeal to a lot of people.
*kisses* HH
Actually, you’ve nailed it. It’s meant to be fun and not taken too seriously. As something to flick through on the coffee table it’s quite entertaining.
Oh Sarah, what a great review. I received a copy of this and wasn’t quite sure what to make of it or what to say about it! A few of the pages did make me gasp! Well spotted on the Marilyn front. I think you are probably right about some of the recipes being added to ‘tick boxes’ and obviously, it’s not a book I’d happily leave out on the table to cook along to with my young children, but it does have a market and a fasionable and sexy appeal. There are some novel recipes which I would like to try. There’s nothing worse than a book entirely on cakes if the recipes don’t work, as was the case for one book I received for review.
The whole “Easter/Hallowe’en/Christmas” thing is bizarre. It’s like if Madonna had stuck an advent calendar in the middle of her “Sex” book.
I want to go to this store – it looks very fun. But not so sure about the book….
I will definitely visit next time I’m in the area. I just can’t bring myself to eat a cupcake with a fondant tit on it.
I’m afraid I really didn’t like this book – found the food photography awful and the whole concept just badly put together – the cakes did nothing for me at all. And I agree re the hedgehog ones – if you made those for kids I think you’d give them nightmares! Perhaps I’d have liked it more if the cakes in the shop actually tasted good,but knowing how awful the stuff they sell is I can’t imagine the recipes are amazing either. Although having said that, I have a copy of their nanaimo bar recipe as I want to make it for a Canadian friend so hoping it works.
To make the Marilyn cakes you need an edible printer/inks. Or you can send your image to people online and they’ll send you sheets to use.
The hedgehogs were the scariest thing I’d seen since the blank faced monkeys in “Dress Your Cupcake”. Kids do like scary stuff though….
I thought the graphics and photography were technically very good in portraying the interior of a sex shop. Much as I am icked out about branding food as something inherently cheap and dirty, I can see too that it’s not meant to be taken seriously.
I’ve tried to review this book without bringing in a rant about sexual politics and the porn industry as I prefer not to sully my blog with such a topic!
Great review. I’ve always had a mixed feeling about the shop as Ive always felt it looked not only seedy but dirty and not in a good way but an un clean way, which is not what you want from a cake shop! It always smacked slightly of bandwagoning with a gay twist which is never a good look. I guess as long as the cakes taste good and sell well it doesn’t really matter how they package them.
Yeah I agree, the seedy dirty concept does not sit well with food in my opinion. Plus I see far more grime than glamour. Re quality of cake, I haven’t been but I know I Heart Cupcakes definitely has.
I love your honest reviews Sarah……If I ever need bum-shaped cupcakes – I’ll be sure to ask you! LOL and stay well.
Noooo I seriously have better things to do than make bum cupcakes. Unless they’re for you 😉
Really good review Sarah. I’ve been to CC&C many times and bought their (excruciatingly expensive – be warned!) cupcakes as gifts. But aside from the hilarity factor and the ‘wow’ (which, admittedly, is considerable) the actual cakes are not that great in my opinion. Overly sweet & quite ordinary beneath the glitz. Many, many other better cupcakes for sale out there. Thanks for the review though…think I’ll skip the book but will still buy for presents I have no doubt! x Rachel
Thanks. You’re certainly not the first person I’ve heard saying the cakes are not as good as they should be. I imagine a batch made by Eric would be great but the ones in the shop less so. I trust my I Heart Cupcakes blogging pal’s opinion dearly here and she wasn’t impressed at all.
Oh dear, not sure I want to admit to it but spent an evening many moons back in the Raymond Revue bar…took a long while getting the smell of whipped cream and more out of my coat!!
The book sounds fun at least..kinda goes with the ‘crude-ites’ cutters I was given a while back…!
I’m scared to ask more but I probably will next time I see you.
Oh my! Being in Kansas, I’ve never heard of the shop. It does at least sound interesting. You’ve succeeded in reminding me that I need to go download some Soft Cell.
Ha ha, don’t get me reminiscing on my Soft Cell obsession of former years! My stuff was all on vinyl (yes I am that old) so I should probably download a few choice tracks myself.
Great review Sarah! I was looking to see if i should order it. I was surprised to see Patrick Cox’s name on the book which makes me wondered if he is still the designer who’s shoes i was wearing years back..and if i really wanted the book or the fact that i missed my shoes that i had fond memories of.
Thanks! To be honest, I do wonder how much Mr Cox has anything to do with the running of the bakery, I imagine he’s a business partner with a convenient name to brand it with.
I met Patrick and Eric at a launch party, and they do a very very good double act together and were both very entertaiing.
The book looks and sounds – shall I say interesting? Sounds like it is attempting to be butch, glittery and camp all at the same time. Not my thing.
Yes I imagine they are. I’d say it’s 75% glittery and camp, 15% go go dancer and 10% butch.
Sounds hilarious! I imagine this is just as much a coffee table book as something you’d actually cook from, especially as buying all that glitter and making all those bums and bits is probably more effort and money than it’s worth! LOVE the shop itself though – so much fun 🙂
Glad to see you bouncing back Sarah – and what a book review to bounce back with!
I’ve just received this book & I love it! However, I have just tried making the cola cakes & they are rather bland. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the traditional coke & had to use a very well known brand but all the same, I would have expected them to be a little sweeter.. Has anyone else tried them?
I haven’t… although I can highly recommend Nigella’s coca cola cake which I featured on this site in cupcake form back in February 2011!
I absolutely love this cupcake book! Although a bit quirky, the designs are original and certainly make this book stand out from all the others on the shelves! It’s a step away from the country kitchen theme we so frequently associate cupcakes with.
I have also tried the cola cupcakes, and was really surprised to find no sugar featured within the recipe, so would have to agree that they are rather bland. However I’ve also tried the low fat berry cupcakes which were surprisingly fantastic and the Mexican cupcakes certainly pack a punch!