I am headed out on vacation and have a library of cake books. Anyway, my question is, which book(s) do you think has the best layer cake recipes? (Best in both taste, sturdiness, moisture, etc) I am sure everyone does like I do and take a recipe from this book and then from this site, etc, but I am wondering if there is a book you hit when you need to start trying to find a new recipe.

Also, which books are good reads? I know they aren't novels, but which do you feel have a lot of good information in them, either from the decorating side or the baking side.

Thanks everyone!

My husband's great aunt just gave me her old copy of the cake bible. it is amazing. everything you need to know.

Thanks SSGirly! I was definately planning on bringing that one! I have heard so many good things about it.

definitely the Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum!!! It's an awesome resource. I know that she's got a new one in response to it called Heavenly Cakes. I cannot wait to pick it up!

Actually if you are going on vacation and want to take books to read and not be full of recipes only, then Cake Bible is definitely a good boo.

Bakewise by Shirley Corriher is another good book to read about the science of baking, as well as I'm just here for the food Baking by Alton Brown.

I also like How Baking Works (can't remember the author's name). Cookwise by Shirley is another good book, but talks about more than baking.

Professional Baking which is a college textbook is another good book also. It talks about all aspects of baking, instead of just cakes and frostings.

If you want to read about cake decorating, then there are way too many to list and there are some that are so specialized that it would be hard to know what part of cake decorating you want to explore.

My three picks when I want vacation books are Cake Bible, Bakewise, and How Baking Works. I am always on the look out on books that talk about the science of baking and these are the best so far. I hope that others are written soon. I can almost recite what is in these three books, I have read them so much.

Have fun.

"Roe's Heavenly Cakes" is well worth the money, "Bakewise", "I'm Just Here For More Food", by Alton Brown, and be sure to check out "Baking" by James Peterson.

The Professional Baking book mentioned above by LindaF144 is a Culinary Institute of America textbook-- it is an awesome book! My daughter bought it on Amazon for a great price (I can't remember how much)

I highly recommend Alton Brown's book.

Looks like I might need to do some shopping too!!

If you want to save money, Amazon will have these books used. Also Borders Rewards sends a coupon every week through email.

I looove the Cake Bible!