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Baking Books, Cake Decorating Books And Wedding Books
Tried and true baking books that are highly recommended. Learn baking science and the history of baking with these great books on baking and decorating. Join in the conversation and share your favorite cake decorating and wedding book reviews here
This baking book has been a staple of mine throughout the years. It is what it says it is "A Complete Book Of Baking". From A-Z you will find pretty much everything you need in this book to bake your favorite cookies, pies, cakes, bread muffins and more. Included are freezing guidelines, equivalents and measures and emergency substitutions. An added plus are the beautiful photographs throughout. This baking book gets a thumbs up.
Le Cordon Bleu
I am so impressed with this beautiful baking book as I love gorgeous photos and this book is loaded with them. They are designed to take you step by step so it makes learning that much easier. With this book you can learn how to make some pretty fancy stuff and it is surprisingly simple to do.
Learn to pipe chocolate into intricate yet simple mesh triangles and circles. Get creative with sauces to decorate your dessert plates. Master the technique of frosting and crystallizing fruits, rinds and flower petals to decorate your cakes and desserts with.
There is also a section on using a piping bag to do your buttercream work. Le Cordon Bleu is a baking book loaded with unusual recipes that you may not find elsewhere. Big thumbs up for this book to anyone who loves baking and cake decorating.
The Simple Art of Perfect Baking is a must for your baking books collection and will help you to understand cakemaking. The book utilizes beautiful drawings to illustrate methods and finished cakes.
There are great recipes overall and a few I use often such as the raspberry mousse recipe, pastry cream and cream puff pastry along with a few others that I personally love. The author Flo Braker is a well established professional in the industry and is a contributor to Bon Apetit. I highly recommend this book for your baking library.
A Piece Of CakeSusan Purdy's baking book is one of the very well used and batter stained books in my collection. You will learn a little about cakes through history which is a fun read. Cake decorating and baking techniques are covered thoroughly and a couple of her recipes have become a permanent part of my cake baking.
Helpful measure and equivalents are covered in this book as well as how to store your cakes, box up and mail a cake.
When doing the first Buche de Noel I used her instructions and recipe for chocolate sponge cake with total success and still do. Her hazelnut torte was perfect for an unusual wedding cake order. The cake was a hit!
My favorite part of this informative baking book is her coffeecakes, cheesecakes, tea cakes and pudding cake recipes. Love it!!!
The Silver Palate and I go back a long way. The carrot cake recipe in this book is THE BEST!!! No competition anywhere in my opinion. And my brides agree. I have had so many brides order the cake after tasting it and then confessing that they don't even like carrot cake.
Years ago I worked in a coffee shop down the street making muffins, cookies, granola and coffeecakes and they used one of The Silver Palate recipes also. The sour cream coffeecake recipe is outstanding!!! It was a huge seller at Gail's Station House in West Redding Connecticut.
The Joy Of Cheesecake
Do you love cheesecake? Then this is the cheesecake baking book you want to get. This book has practical tips and advice on baking cheesecakes of all kinds. Toppings, various crusts even no bake cheesecakes. When ever I have a question about temperature or technique I go to this particular book because I know I will find the answer. There are also some really nice photos throughout.
The Cake Bible was the very first baking book I received as a gift.. If you have been baking and cake decorating for a while you will have heard of this popular book. Believe it or not my favorite all time recipe from her book is a pancake recipe, which we enjoy often. They are, as my husband puts it, "The best pancakes on the planet".
Her rolled fondant recipe was the first one I ever made from scratch and she has a multitude of buttercream recipes that are out of the ordinary. This is, as the title suggests, a bible for bakers and cake decorators. I highly recommend it.
Bakers Manual
I have the old no frills revised edition of the manual written by the late Joseph Amendola who was a beloved instructor at the Culinary Institute since the 1950's. The book is designed for students as well as professionals and is an excellent resource to have in your library. I refer to it often when I have questions or need a basic recipe.
Included in the book are handy charts that are helpful in troubleshooting problems, a chart on cake ingredients and their functions, illustrations on cake cutting, decorating instructions and a bakers dictionary at the end of this classic must have manual.
I made my first gingerbread house using this awesome book, and have since used the patterns and instructions to make a gingerbread bakery (which you can see at my gingerbread recipes page) and Victorian row houses, soon to be added to that page.
There are so many ideas for decorating gingerbread dwellings. Includes patterns for a carousel, Noah's Ark with all of the animals, a church with stained glass windows, a country store, a quilt shop, a woodsman's cabin, a Swiss chalet and many more unique ideas for using gingerbread cookie dough. Really fun book.
Cupcake Books
What's New, Cupcake?
I was given this book recently as a gift. I love it. It has really interesting and unique ideas on how to decorate cupcakes using candies, Dunkin munchkins, Twinkies and other unusual things. Lots of great ideas for kids cupcakes, in fact I made the duckling cupcakes for Easter this year and they were a huge hit. It's a New York Times bestseller as well. Really sweet book.
Review A Cake Decorating, Baking, Or Wedding Related Book Here!
Do you have a favorite book on cake decorating, baking or weddings? Do you want to add to what I have said about any of the books on my list? Share it here!
