Can anyone recommend a book that has great scratch cake recipes and or fillings. I'm seriously thinking of just going scratch this year and want to work on nice cakes for my portfolio. Please let me know of any books or even great recipes you might have you don't mind sharing.
Thanks for all your help.

You must be kidding right, there are thousands of people on this site and so far 21 have read and not one has anything to say whether yes or no, look here or there. I know there are ton of scratch bakers can anyone give me little insight....anyone.

I try to find good books all the time too. I have a few books, but honestly I haven't had a chance to try any of the recipes yet (school and work). But I have seen a book I want, it's call The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It seems pretty good and not only has recipes but lots of tips and explanations. You can look up books on ebay too

I just had another idea, why dont you go to thrift stores or used book stores? You could end up finding some old books that have good recipes and at a great price I love goodwill! I always buy childrens books for my nieces and nephews and for like .29 a piece. Good luck!

Thanks so much for that info, I haven't been in a Goodwill in ages but it's worth a try.

i have used this recipe for yellow cake with great success... i did make some minor changed to suit what i had on hand but i have also made it as is and it was fine...

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Davids-Yellow-Cake/Detail.aspx

as for books... Rose's Heavenly cakes has gotten good reviews... i have but i haven't made anything with it yet. Same goes for the Cake Bible... both by Rose Levy Beranbaum. I have a large collection and every once in a while i will try out something new on family.


Also it will take a lot of trial and error to get a recipe you're happy with... get a few books and do some testing, see what works for you and for your clients. Try some recipes that have been posted on this site. Just play around in small batches of batter until you find something you like. That's probably what a lot of us have done. You will find that you are learning along the way. You might even creat something new.

The Cake Bible is awesome!! Quite frankly I have found most of the recipes I use right on this site! My favorite is the White Almond Sour Cream - there are several versions here.

I use a lot of the recipes on here too I print the ones I like and put them in my binder.

I agree that you should try some of the recipes here. Look for the ones with the highest ratings and start there. And they're free!!

I love the Magnolia Bakery books - most of my cakes come from there and people love them!

I love The Cake Bible's banana cake and wholewheat and honey carrot cake. My favourite carrot cake is from Jamie Oliver's "Cook with Jamie". For a "spongy" chocolate cake I go to The Confetti Cakes book. For chocolate mud cake I use the Planet Cake recipe. My favourite buttercake is a sourcream pound-type cake by a New Zealand chef called Anabelle White - I do lemon, orange, lime and vanilla versions of this one. My favourite coconut cake recipe is from the Barefoot Contessa. My favourite almond cake is from Nigella Lawson, the one that uses almond paste in the batter.

So from me, no one particular book to recommend. I bake from scratch only and have a huge collection of books. Although I make it a point to regularly go through them and pick something new to try I do find that each ends up becoming a favourite for a particular recipe or two.

If you don't have a huge budget I recoommend seeking out some of people's favourite recipes online. I would expect that you will find most are available.