Visiting a friend in Bristol recently, I meandered past a cupcake shop en route to lunch (Lilly and Boo’s Cupcakery, corner of Cotham Hill and Whiteladies Road), and immediately stopped and pressed my face up against the window. Rows of gorgeous cakes winked back at me, definitely insisting that my visit would not be complete without a cake stop.

An hour or so later I was in possession of a Velvet Elvis, for the princely sum of £2.20. The guy behind the counter was wonderfully friendly, and my cake was carefully packaged into a little plastic case shaped to protect its dome of icing.

The photo makes it look insanely huge, but it was a fairly normal chunky cupcake. The Velvet Elvis was a chocolate peanut butter cake (yep, living the dream!) and was topped with a slice of banana, a Minstrel and a swirl of chocolate sauce above the chocolate icing and thick smear of peanut butter.

I wanted to be blown away by it, and the topping was pretty damn awesome. However it totally dominated the cake below, which was too light and crumbly to sustain such a top-heavy load. I felt like it needed a more robust, rich, dense sponge to wear such a luscious hat, and next time would probably opt for a lighter flavour.