Love Bakery Review

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(More customer reviews)Sent to US as Christmas present - received very favourable response from recipient - arrived well before Christmas, even though delivery date was given as after Christmas, so all in all good purchase at good price for overseas.

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From the sparkles on the cupcakes to the jars of Love Hearts on the dresser, from the postcards on the mirro to the pink Roberts radio, it just makes you smile.Somehow it evokes the Kings Road boutiques of the Seventies, open-top cars cruising in the sunshine, teenage trysts in milk bars, and glitter balls in discos.Now you can bring the sparkle into your home, as Love Bakery captures the sense of fun that has made a community take a shop to its heart.Sam Blears encourages you to let your imagination run riot, and to use her moodboards, just-in-case cupboard, and glittering decorations to create your own versions of her much-loved cakes.You'll discover recipes for cupcakes, love pops, love shots, cuptails and whoopie pies; fabulous hidden flavours such as the Peruvian Bear Cupcake's secret marmalade centre; plus fantastic ideas and templates for co-ordinating party themes and giftwrapping.Take the fear out of baking, replace it with fun and glitter, and you'll find there's nothing as delicious as a cupcake baked from the heart.

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A Sweet Taste of Africa: Sail into a New Recipe Journey Review

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(More customer reviews)Ms. Ivy Newton-Gamble graciously captured many of the sweet recipes from the beautiful continent of Africa in her book entitled: "The Sweet Taste of Africa". She presented these recipes in such a way that made them very easy to understand and follow. In fact, she presented the sweet pastries, beverages, and preserves from Africa in an ideal way for you to enjoy without ever being in Africa. Ms. Gamble was also extraordinarily delightful in her presentation of the countries from which she shared their recipes. I thoroughly enjoyed reading through these mouthwatering recipes and it was indeed a sweet culinary voyage. I owe her a great debt of gratitude.

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The good news is you can find all the ingredients for the recipes in A Sweet Taste of Africa at your local grocery store. Sugar translates into "sweet" on the tongue of almost every human being. Whether sugar is in the form of honey, sugar cane, beets or refined sugar it is a universal and versatile ingredient. The cakes, pies, cookies, brittles, fritters, fruit salads, beverages and preserves in this book will surely satisfy anyone's sweet tooth. A Sweet Taste of Africa takes you on a culinary voyage though the sweet culinary explorations of the entire continent of Africa. You will find that "sweet is sweet" no matter what continent you happen to live on. The thought of Africa's sweet culinary inclinations may raise your eyebrows at first but as you read and prepare the recipes, the tastes are familiar and delicious. Also, learn simple African words with ten African Languages 101 tutorials.

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Roland Mesnier's Basic to Beautiful Cakes Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased this book after attending a cooking class that Mesnier had at a local cooking school I like to occasionaly visit. He was great. This book is just as a great. I'm not the best cook or anywhere near the best cook but the Cherry Trifle cake helped me when a cook-off at work for best Dessert. The American crust-less cheesecake is to die for; it even list sauces to top with -- fresh chunky strawberry sauce is my favorite. All I can say about this book is buy it, buy it, buy it.

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In his twenty-five years as Executive White House Pastry Chef, Roland Mesnier prided himself on creating a unique dessert for every special occasion, from elaborate State Dinners and formal receptions to smaller family gatherings and birthday celebrations. In Roland Mesnier's Basic to Beautiful Cakes, the author of the classic and comprehensive Dessert University shows home cooks how to create desserts that can be beautifully embellished to serve any occasion by using a small set of foolproof cake recipes.Hazelnut Ring Cake, for example, can be served on its own at teatime, as it was in the Reagan White House; or, with the addition of espresso-flavored whipped cream and a crown of caramelized phyllo, can become the memorable culmination of an elegant dinner party. Chocolate Dome Cake (one of the Carters' favorites) can be topped with raspberry glaze, served with Grand Marnier mousse, or spangled with berries. Blueberry Upside-Down Cake with yogurt sauce is a light treat for a long weekend morning; the cherry version, with its lattice of whipped cream, will delight children and adults alike, and the truly grand Peach and Spice Upside-Down Cake with Brioche "Peaches" is a show-stopping confection, elegant enough for the Clintons to serve to the chancellor of Germany and the prime minister of England.Even on the most important ocassions, Chef Mesnier believes that desserts don't have to be filled with butter and cream. Recipes like the wheat-free Carrot Cake, the dairy-free Orange Sherbert Cake with Glazed Oranges, and the low-fat Apricot Souffl -Cake with Apricot Grand Marnier Sauce satisfy guests with special dietary concerns but still meet Roland's exacting standards for taste and presentation. The easy-to-follow instructions for these time-tested recipes anticipate pitfalls and offer sensible suggestions for when it is worth to invest in high-end ingredients and equipment and when you can get by without them, and how to peel and slice fruit for the most attractive results. With Chef Mesnier taking you through every step of each carefully constructed recipe, you can be sure that your cakes will be delicious and spectacular every time.Soon you will have mastered the basic recipes and a few of the more advanced techniques, and you will be able to develop a repertoire of your own. like Chef Mesnier, you'll be able to tailor your desserts to the tastes of your guests or the spirit of a celebration. Whether the table is lit by tapers and laid with your best silver or you are serving a few friends Sunday supper in the kitchen, you will be able to create sophisticated mouthwatering desserts that your guests will remember for weeks to come.

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Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat Review

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(More customer reviews)i *love* Martha Stewart's cupcake book! for years i've been searching her web site for cupcake ideas for baby showers and my kids' birthday parties. this book is chock full of wonderfully creative cupcakes for all seasons, holidays and special occasions! i've already made the shark and beach parasol cupcakes for my son's ocean-themed birthday party and the beautiful buttercream chrysanthemum cupcakes for a baby shower. you may think you need some special talent to pull her creations off, but all you need is a little practice and patience! there is no way you can leaf through this book without getting inspired...and drooling! After 287 pages of pics of and recipes for mouth-watering cupcakes, she includes informative pages on tools for baking, how to prepare a piping bag, working with fondant and marzipan, pastry tips and even how to display your treats. my husband agrees that this was a wonderful investment since he's seen how many of her baking ideas have come to fruition in our home...plus he's hoping i make him those yummy tiramisu or choc. salted-caramel mini cupcakes for his birthday! ;) yummo! ENJOY!

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All Cakes Considered Review

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(More customer reviews)All Cakes Considered is all you need to progress from a beginning baker to an impressive one. Gray starts with a simple recipe for Sour Cream Pound Cake (a cake she calls "The Man Catcher"). She deconstructs the recipe and explains each step in great detail, down to how to properly center a cake in the oven and how to prepare the pan so your cake won't stick.
The recipes then progress in order of increasing complexity, finishing with a cake Gray dubs "The Liberace of Layer Cakes." With seven layers and a chocolate ganache frosting, the cake certainly deserves a spot on the stage. Along the way, Gray introduces each new technique with simple instructions that are easy to follow, so it's easy to pick up difficult techniques.
I'm a fairly experienced baker, but instead of jumping to the more difficult recipes, I decided to follow Gray's advice and to bake the cakes in order of difficulty. I started with the Man Catcher and diligently followed all of Gray's instructions, some of which were very different from my usual baking habits. The cake turned out better than any pound cake I've ever made in the past, so I'm impressed. I'm looking forward to working my way through this entire book.
Interesting anecdotes are interspersed with the recipes. You can skip them if you're only wanting to bake the cakes, but I liked reading about the origins of the Gray's recipes and the other interesting tidbits. Gray's witty, plain-spoken style is confidence-inspiring and fun to read. On top of great recipes and fun-to-read instructions, this cookbook is well designed. The attractive color scheme and the large pictures are inviting. The thick pages rest easily in the open position and stay open on the counter as you're cooking. All in all, this is one of those perfect cookbooks that's beautiful enough for the coffee table but practical enough for the kitchen.

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Melissa Gray is National Public Radio's Cake Lady. Every Monday she brings a cake to the office for her colleagues at NPR to enjoy. Hundreds of Mondays (and cakes) later, Melissa has lots of cake-making tips to share. With more than 50 recipes for the cakes that have been dreamed of and drooled over for a lifetime including Brown Sugar Pound Cake, Peppermint and Chocolate Rum Marble Cake, Lord and Lady Baltimore Cakes, Dark-Chocolate Red Velvet Cake, and Honey Buttercream and Apricot Jam Cake All Cakes Considered is an essential addition to every baker's library.

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Cake Keeper Cakes: 100 Simple Recipes for Extraordinary Bundt Cakes, Pound Cakes, Snacking Cakes and Other Good-To-The-Last-Crumb Treats Review

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(More customer reviews)The author used to keep cookies on hand for her family and guests who showed up unexpectedly. She has since realized that cakes are even easier to make - and just as well-received.
I liked that the cakes are fairly easy to make (and fairly quick, since none are frosted). Glazes are suggested for some cakes, and the author suggests what to serve with some cakes to dress them up (fruit, ice cream, flavored whipped cream, etc).
The ingredients should be in just about any grocery store with only a few exceptions (such as maple extract, coconut extract, fresh lavender leaves, and cream of coconut). Even better, most of the ingredients are likely in your cupboard and refrigerator on a daily basis so if you have only an hour's notice of a friend coming to visit, you'll have your choice of many cakes to whip up and serve warm.
The author covers a wonderful variety of flavors (chocolate, vanilla, coconut, espresso, lemon, nuts, fruit, etc.) without focusing on any single one too often. As I went through the book, I kept thinking of friends who would like one recipe or another.
There are recipes for 100 cakes and 37 are pictured.
Chapters include:
-SNACKING CAKES: Apricot Jam Cake, Blackberry-Pecan Snack Cake, Chipotle-Chocolate Cake (with four variations), Chocolate Cherry Snacking Cake, Chocolate Malted Snacking Cake, Chocolate Gingerbread, Cinnamon Pudding Cake, Fresh Strawberry Cake with White Chocolate Chips, Graham Cracker-Chocolate Chip Snacking Cake, Hummingbird Snacking Cake, Neoclassic Gingerbread, Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cake, Super-Delicious Whole-Wheat Carrot Cake, Maple Syrup Gingerbread, Poppy Seed Cake, Sour Cream and Lemon Cake, Spiced Orange and Cranberry Snacking Cake, Stout and Chocolate Snacking Cake with Chocolate-Stout Glaze, Semolina and Yogurt Cake, and the World's Quickest Yeasted Coffee Cake.
-ROUND CAKES: Almond-Brown Butter Cakes, Apple and Cheddar Cheese Cake, Apricot and Olive Oil Cake, Chocolate Cake with Panforte Spices, Cornmeal-Almond Cake, Cream of Coconut Cake with Chocolate-Coconut Glaze, Everyday Yogurt Cake, Fig and Cornmeal Cake, Pear Cake with Sea Salt-Caramel Sauce, Honey and Walnut Cake, Zebra Cake, Apple-Walnut Upside-Down Cake, Chocolate-Caramel-Banana Upside-Down Cake, Cherry-Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake, Mango Upside-Down Cake, Orange-Almond-Caramel Upside-Down Cake, Peach-Buttermilk Upside-Down Cake, Pineapple-Gingerbread Upside-Down Cake, Classic Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, and Plum-Blueberry Upside-Down Cake/
-LOAF CAKES: Brown Sugar Pound Cake with Raisins, Anise Pound Cake, Chocolate-Raspberry Marble Pound Cake with Chocolate-Raspberry Glaze, Chocolate Cream Pound Cake, Citrus and Black Pepper Pound Cake, Orange Blossom Honey Pound Cake, Clove-Scented Chocolate and Apricot Loaf, Lavender and Lemon Pound Cake, Orange-Chocolate Chip Pound Cake with Sour Cream Glaze, Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Pound Cake, Nutella Swirl Pound Cake, Maple-Pecan Pound Cake, Marble Molasses Pound Cake, Rich Yellow Loaf Cake, Sweet Potato Pound Cake, Sesame Seed Pound Cake, Tea Cake, Triple Ginger Pound Cake, Walnut-Whiskey Pound Cake with Whiskey Glaze and Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Pound Cake.
-BUNDT CAKES: Applesauce Cake with Oatmeal Streusel, Banana-Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake, Black Pepper and Spice Cake with Lemon Glaze, Chocolate-Zucchini Bundt Cake, Dulce de Leche Coffee Cake, Blueberry-Cornmeal Bundt Cake, Chocolate Walnut Prune Cake, Cold-Oven Cream Cheese Pound Cake, Cream Cake, Cranberry-Walnut Bundt Cake with Maple-Espresso Glaze, Espresso-Hazelnut Bundt Cake, Hungarian Coffee Cake, Mississippi Mud Cake with Espresso-Bourbon Glaze, Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake, Orange-Ricotta Pound Cake with Marmalade Glaze, Pumpkin-Sage Ring, Pistachio-Polenta Pound Cake, Pineapple and Toasted Coconut Cake, Whole-Wheat and Honey-Nut Bundt Cake, and Peanut Butter-Sour Cream Bundt Cake with Butterfinger-Ganache Glaze.
-CRUMB CAKES: Blueberry Buckle, Cherry-Almond Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip Crumb Cake, Cranberry Cake, Nectarine Cake with Cinnamon-Nut Topping, Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake, Coffee-Heath Bar Crunch Cake, Peanut Butter and Jelly Crumb Cake, Rhubarb Streusel Snacking Cake, and Red Grape, Polenta and Olive Oil Cake.
-ANGEL FOOD & CHIFFON CAKES: Coffee Angel Food Cake with Hazelnut-Coffee Glaze, Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake, Cocoa-Chip Angel Food Cake, Coconut Angel Food Cake, Lemon Poppy Seed Angel Food Cake with Lemon-Cream Cheese Glaze, Cinnamon-Nut Chiffon Cake, Lime Chiffon Cake, Vanilla Bean Chiffon Cake, Banana-Macadamia Nut Chiffon Cake, and Chocolate Marble Chiffon Cake.
If you like this book, you may also enjoy Coffee Cakes: Simple, Sweet, and Savory by Lou Seibert Pappas as well as Cakes from Scratch in Half the Time: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Bake Cakes Forever by Linda West Eckhardt. I prefer Cake Keeper Cakes over those two, and it is the least expensive.
This book is well-worth the price.

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Few things are as satisfying as a sweet snack that's mouthwateringly moist. So skip the cookie jar and head for the cake keeper. In Cake Keeper Cakes, Lauren Chattman, the author of Dessert Express, presents simple and delicious recipes that stand up to everyday eating. Made from only the most wholesome ingredients, Lauren's heavenly creations include Espresso-Hazelnut Bundt Cake, Banana and Bittersweet Chocolate Cake, Citrus Pound Cake, Raspberry Yellow Cake Squares, and Mississippi Mud Cake. Designed with the busy baker in mind, this intoxicating cookbook shows how to make long-lasting cakes like mom used to, in a lot less time.

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Cake Mix Cookies: More Than 175 Delectable Cookie Recipes That Begin With a Box of Cake Mix Review

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(More customer reviews)I suppose you could call me the cowardly baker, because, though I love to cook, I often take shortcuts with baking. I've made quite a few cake mix cookies over the years, and it's much like the doctored cake mix cakes--the basic ones may taste like a cake mix, but the well-doctored ones don't.
This collection has an inspiring number of flavor combinations and cookie varieties. I was hopeful when I ordered it that it would live up to the promise of containing many options different from the cake mix cookie recipes that are already out there. Well, it does, and then some. The Viennese tea cakes are simply delicious, and so easy--a can of almond filling is the secret ingredient. They took about 3 minutes to whip up. I took the plunge and made the classic madeleines, too--a bit of a stretch for me since I had to whip some egg whites, but that was the only fussy part and they turned out buttery, golden and delicious.
This has fast become a favorite on my cookbook shelf.

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Imagine a kitchen warm witih the smells of sweet vanilla, fragrant cinnamon, and fresh butter. On the kitchen counter is a cooling rack piled high with fresh-from-the-oven delights filled with chocolate chips and crunchy pecans. Ah, the age-old comfort of cookies.Next imagine that each of the yummy treats began with a convenient box of cake mix.That's right, a standard 18.25-ounce box of cake mix is the secret to some of the tastiest, simplest, and most irresistable cookies imaginable. With a few extra ingredients, turns of a spoon, and whirrs of a mixer, cake mix can make anyone a prize cookie baker. Like Cookie Dough Delights and Brownie Mix Bliss, Cake-Mix Cookies is the first cookbook of its kind. Although several cake-mix cookbooks exist, including the bestselling Cake Mix Doctor books and 101 Things to Do with a Cake Mix, they offer only a small number of cookie and bar recipes and overlap one another.By contrast, Cake-Mix Cookies is filled with an array of more than 175 drop, shaped, filled, and bar cookie options for every occasion. Numerous all-American favorites are used as starting points: chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, jam thumbprints, and dark chocolate brownies. There are also new takes on classic European cookies; for example, crunchy Italian biscotti, tender French madeleines, and rich Viennese teacakes. Finally, a healthy dose of new cookies has been created for the book: blackberry-lemon buttermilk bars, triple chocolate chess squares, and chocolate blackout. Cake-Mix Cookies contains the broadest range of new recipes for cookies and bars that is unavailable elsewhere. And while it capitalizes on the popularity of baking with cake mixes, it has its own unique niche on the home cook's shelf.

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DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style Review

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(More customer reviews)A Southern masterpiece exists in David Guas and Raquel Pelzel's DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style. Through the pages of this informative cookbook you will be swept away to discover the true essence of delicious New Orleans cuisine.
The fifty recipes that make up DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style are derived from historic recipes of times past. Each one serves as a tribute to the true New Orleans culture.
Some of my favorite recipes that bring New Orleans to my own kitchen included:
Buttermilk Beignets
King Cake
Red Velvet Cake
Pralines
Just the mention of the above listed recipes puts a smile on my face as I remember the last time I visited New Orleans. Each recipe brings back fond memories of a city that I can't wait to revisit.
What is so unique about this book is the author intertwines the recipes with famous New Orleans landmarks. With the Buttermilk Beignet recipes a history lesson of the French Market and Cafe Du Monde is presented. This historic detail gives a greater appreciation of the recipe and its origin.
DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style is a cookbook that you absolutely will fall in love with. Each recipe captures the magical beauty and radiance of New Orleans. This book will become a priceless addition to your cookbook collection. You will find yourself consulting it when you want to make an extra special dessert.

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Southern Cakes: Sweet and Irresistible Recipes for Everyday Celebrations Review

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(More customer reviews)The receipes in this book are the cakes that my grandmother made when I was a child. I can remember her in the kitchen baking all day and then placing a towel on the counter and displaying all her baked cakes for our family. The photography in this book is awesome. From the coconut cake on the cover to the buttermilk cake is a replicate of the real thing. The receipes are easy to follow and well written. If you love the southern heritage of cakes made by your grandmother or your mom, you'll find them all in this wonderful book. I found the ingredients to be readily available in my pantry and the stories about each recipe add to the interesting reading. A nice addition to my collection.

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Taste the chocolatey goodness of Mississippi Mud or marvel at the extravagant elegance of the Lady Baltimore and there will be no doubt that Southerners know how to bake a cake. Here are 65 recipes for some of the most delicious ever. Jam cakes and jelly rolls; humble pear bread and peanut cake; whole chapters on both chocolate and coconut cakes each moist and delicious forkful represents the spirit of the South. A Baking 101 section offers the cake basics, some finishing touches (that means frosting and lots of it!), and the how-to's of storing each lovely concoction so that the last slice tastes as fresh and delightful as the first.

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Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a compulsive baker with an embarrassingly large collection of dessert/baking cookbooks. For another book to make it onto the crowded shelves it has to stand out with unique recipes and techniques. While there are many excellent recipes in this collection that I am thrilled to have is there anyone out there who is thinking; if only I had another recipe for Mexican Wedding Cookies?
They are stingy with the photographs and it is very disappointing that of the pictures included none are of some of the more elaborate desserts where you would like to see what the final product looks like. Instead there are pictures of chocolate chip cookies, pots de creme, gingersnaps, flan, bread pudding, sorbet and frozen yogurt. That is just plain annoying. I would gladly pay more for a book that is well photographed.
I have a great deal of respect for David Lebovitz and was excited to be one of the first to get a look at his new title. There are some books I can say unequivocally, buy it you will love it. This one I would recommend looking through it first to see if it is something you would enjoy.
*Update: Obviously my comments on the book struck a chord among the obsessive bakers/ cookbook collectors out there. It has been bothering me though that other than my comment on the amount of recipes included that I dismissed as too common most were really complaints the publisher was responsible for. I want to update this review with a response to a question on the quality of the recipes in the discussion section for those who don't usually check in on those...
All recipes I have tried from this book do work, and they are clearly written. Many of the recipes are adaptations of classics with David's spin. I probably did a disservice to David by focusing on the book from my point of view as an accomplished baker comfortable adapting and tweaking recipes to suit my own taste. I think the real strength and value in this book is the amount of tips and advice David provides. It would be great for anyone who would like a book to teach them about baking and dessert making instead of just providing recipes. David's humorous conversational writing style is a big plus too.

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The Cake Mix Doctor Review

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(More customer reviews)As an avid baker as well as cookbook collector, I am always on the lookout for new cookbooks on baking. I was, however, somewhat skeptical about a cake baking cookbook that relies primarily on boxed mixes. What a surprise! I love this book so much I can't stop trying new recipes and have been giving the finished goods away just so I can try a new recipe! The introductory comments are extremely helpful, especially in explaining why one would choose to use a cake mix, rather than bake from scratch. Each recipe's ingredient list is typically short and the prep time is next to nothing, so you can really turn out baked goods on a moment's notice. I have now tried a number of the recipes all of which have turned out fabulous. The only drawback is that this cookbook focuses on basic cakes and doesn't include any fancy type ingredients or frostings that one might find in other baking cookbooks.

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The Cake Mix Doctor is in! And the prescription is simple: By doctoring up packaged cake mix with just the right extras--a touch of sweet butter here, cocoa powder there, or poppy seeds, vanilla yogurt, sherry, eggs, and grated lemon zest for the Charleston Poppy Seed Cake--even the least experienced baker can turn out luscious signature desserts, time after time. The proof is in the taste, and the taste never stops--from Toasted Coconut Sour Cream Cake to Devilishly Good Chocolate Cake; from a to-die-for Caramel Cake and a Holiday Yule Log to cheesecakes, coffee cakes, sheet cakes, pound cakes, bars, brownies, and those all-important frostings, here are 175 fast, foolproof recipes that will transformthe art of home baking in America.Who could believe these cakes came out of a box? Moist, tender, rich, deep, and complexly flavored, without a hint of artificiality, each cake stand up and delivers. But without any of the fuss of baking from scratch. Anne Byrn, an award-wining food writer and self-described purist, creates recipes that employ a cake mix's strengths---convenience, ease-of-use, dependability, and almost imperviousness to overbeating, underbeating, overbaking, and underbaking.In addition to the recipes are the Cake Mix Doctor's Q&A's, extensive "Doctor Says" tips, lists--15 Beautiful Birthday Cakes, 15 Cakes That Will Cash in at a Bake Sale--and more, all illustrated in a full-color photographic insert.

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Baking: From My Home to Yours Review

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(More customer reviews)Now here's a baker after my own heart - Dorie Greenspan writes, "Some woman collect diamonds, I collect mixing bowls." After achieving a Doctorate in Gerontology some thirty years ago, Greenspan decided that she really wanted to bake - and bake, and bake, and bake - and bake she did - and still does, almost every day.
This is a marvelous book (I give it 4.5 stars) - cogently written with great style and clarity. Greenspan walks you through each step as if she were standing with you in the kitchen - and there's not a hint of pretense. So many cookbooks - pastry volumes in particular - have an almost punitive tone: "NEVER do this"; "ALWAYS do that". While the chemistry of baking must be respected, I have never seen the benefits of terrifying the reader or quashing one's creativity. You'll find none of that in this tome (save for the admonishments regarding the purity of butter). Greenspan is friendly, approachable, and forgiving. Her own fearlessness, mistakes, and inventiveness have inevitably led to better results. No knuckle-rapping here! You'll feel as if you're baking with an old friend. If you're a fan of the great Maida Heatter, you'll appreciate Dorie Greenspan.
The recipes are more comfort desserts than elegant showstoppers (although the "Peppermint Cream Puff Ring, based on the famous "Paris-Brest" pastry certainly has the glam factor) - but any of them would be welcome at almost any gathering - from a family picnic to a black-tie celebration. The text fonts are readable, the layout friendly and navigable, and the photographs gorgeous (although some are titled and others are not). The permanent hard cover is identical to the dust cover and can be wiped clean. Many of the recipes contain a handy sidebar entitled "Playing Around", giving alternative presentations and flavor variations, and serving and storing instructions are always included. The page on "Mastering Meringue" will help assure success every time. A "Glossary of Ingredients, Tools, and Techniques" appears at the end of the book that even seasoned bakers will find helpful.
There are a few inconsistencies. The "Table of Contents" is too broad (although the "Index" is easy on the eyes). A book on home baking ought to include at least some basic yeast bread recipes. Outside of "Brioche", "Raisin Bread", "Sticky Buns", and "Kugelhoph", there are none. This is really a "Dessert" book (including recipes for ice cream), not an all-purpose baking book, although there appears to be something for everyone in this collection of more than 300 recipes. No mention is made of the value of Magic-Cake strips, which eliminate the doming problem so often associated with layer cakes. In the instructions for "Lavender Madeleines", Greenspan does not specify whether the tablespoon of edible lavender should be dried or fresh. In her recipe for "Perfect Party Cake", the accompanying Buttercream frosting does not mention the need for the egg whites to reach 160 degrees. Although an explanation is given in the back of the book, redundancy is a plus when food safety is an issue. Overall, this is just nitpicking, however. This is really one nifty book written by a pro who loves to bake - and teach it as well.
With rare exception (edible gold dust, chestnut puree) recipe ingredients are easy-to-find items already in your pantry. Chestnuts and chestnut puree can be had in large metropolitan areas (Whole Foods, Sur la Table, Williams-Sonoma, Trader Joe's, King Arthur Catalogue) at holiday time and edible gold dust (an optional component) can be mail-ordered through the Internet. One obvious miss: there's no "List of Sources" for equipment and ingredients - unusual for a volume of this heft and depth. Greenspan refers to "bakers' supply shops" but doesn't list them.
Whether you're a beginner or an old-hand in the kitchen, you'll love this volume of goodies. My own cookbook collection is substantial, but there are many books and authors I reject. This baby is a keeper and would make a wonderful and much appreciated shower, wedding, birthday, or Christmas gift.
One caveat: This is a big, heavy book. The trend these days is to manufacture books that can double as doorstops. Baby boomers who are developing arthritis don't seem to be a consideration with today's publishers. Gloss and semi-gloss enamel papers are heavy, too. Beautiful as they are, these Goliaths ought to be saved for the coffee table. I like to actually use my cookbooks - and lugging them around is getting to be a chore.

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