Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Review of 'The Cake Bible'
I haven't baked or made any deserts in a while, having some withdrawing symptoms though! :( I should be making more soon though so I will be back with cake posts next time :D
I always see reviews of lots of different things, so I thought that I would do a
reveiw of one of my cake books. I would have tried to review them all however I have not gotten round to trying many of the recipes yet. So the one that I will focus on is The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. I got this two Christmas's ago from my mum and I love it!
This book has over 500 pages so quite a hefty read! There are different sections to this book:
-Foolproof Cakes which go through butter cakes, fruit, vegetable and bread cakes, custard cakes, breakfast cakes and sponge type cakes. I havent managed to even make a dent in all the cakes yet as there is such an extensive amount of them- even including a chocolate mayonnaise one!
-Showcase Cakes; There is a few pages at the start of the book with pictures of some pretty ace looking cakes. In the rest of the book there isn't any other pictures. But the pictures at the front are then linked to the chapter of showcase cakes so that you can learn how to assemble a cake to look like it.
-Fillings and Icings which has sub chapters with the different types of filling and icings: custard cream fillings and sauces, cream frostings and fillings, buttercream frostings and fillings, fruit toppings and purees, and fondant.
-Special Effects and Decorative Techniques which includes piping skills and chocolate techniques.
-Section which explains the uses of certain ingredients and why they are used and also the types of equipment and tools that are useful.
-The end bit is all about professional cakes and has a section for formulas if you are making a cake for a large scale even like a wedding.
As you can see there are a lot of sections, just showing the extensive content that the author has put in to the book. There is even a section in the contents to tell you which cakes are specialized e.g if you are looking for one that has little or no cholestrol or saturated fats, one with no flour or no egg yolks.
Each of the recipes has a small introduction to explain why she has put certain ingredients into it to make it work, why you would use the type of cake or filling and with each cake she recommends fillings for it.
The recipe that I would go back to over and over is the "All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake". It is a basic recipe which can be altered to have different flavours.
As you can see I do like this book alot. If you are after something just for basic recipes to make a cake occassionally then I think that it would be maybe a bit too extensive and you would be overwhelmed by which cakes to make. However if you want to understand cakes a bit more then I think that this book is for you! I can still sit down and read the tips and advice and find the something new to learn!
Hope that this has helped anyone looking for a new cake book!
If anyone has any of her other books or even this one, how would you rate them? Do you have other books that explain cakes a bit better?
I always see reviews of lots of different things, so I thought that I would do a
reveiw of one of my cake books. I would have tried to review them all however I have not gotten round to trying many of the recipes yet. So the one that I will focus on is The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. I got this two Christmas's ago from my mum and I love it!
This book has over 500 pages so quite a hefty read! There are different sections to this book:
-Foolproof Cakes which go through butter cakes, fruit, vegetable and bread cakes, custard cakes, breakfast cakes and sponge type cakes. I havent managed to even make a dent in all the cakes yet as there is such an extensive amount of them- even including a chocolate mayonnaise one!
-Showcase Cakes; There is a few pages at the start of the book with pictures of some pretty ace looking cakes. In the rest of the book there isn't any other pictures. But the pictures at the front are then linked to the chapter of showcase cakes so that you can learn how to assemble a cake to look like it.
-Fillings and Icings which has sub chapters with the different types of filling and icings: custard cream fillings and sauces, cream frostings and fillings, buttercream frostings and fillings, fruit toppings and purees, and fondant.
-Special Effects and Decorative Techniques which includes piping skills and chocolate techniques.
-Section which explains the uses of certain ingredients and why they are used and also the types of equipment and tools that are useful.
-The end bit is all about professional cakes and has a section for formulas if you are making a cake for a large scale even like a wedding.
As you can see there are a lot of sections, just showing the extensive content that the author has put in to the book. There is even a section in the contents to tell you which cakes are specialized e.g if you are looking for one that has little or no cholestrol or saturated fats, one with no flour or no egg yolks.
Each of the recipes has a small introduction to explain why she has put certain ingredients into it to make it work, why you would use the type of cake or filling and with each cake she recommends fillings for it.
The recipe that I would go back to over and over is the "All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake". It is a basic recipe which can be altered to have different flavours.
As you can see I do like this book alot. If you are after something just for basic recipes to make a cake occassionally then I think that it would be maybe a bit too extensive and you would be overwhelmed by which cakes to make. However if you want to understand cakes a bit more then I think that this book is for you! I can still sit down and read the tips and advice and find the something new to learn!
Hope that this has helped anyone looking for a new cake book!
If anyone has any of her other books or even this one, how would you rate them? Do you have other books that explain cakes a bit better?
