Hi. I started my first of 4 total Wilton classes in March 2010. (Three of the "old style" and Fondant and Gum Paste of the "new style"). I'm retired and completely addicted to this new hobby and have spent hundreds of hours researching and buying books, tools, supplies, etc. For recipes, "The Cake Mix Doctor" by Anne Byrn. ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE!!!
The other books I'll recommend are for decorating techniques, NOT recipes. You can get a zillion recipes on line. For a beginner, I absolutely recommend Lampkin's "The Cake Decorator's Motif Bible". If you are serious about caking, you will outgrow this quickly, but it is a superb reference material that ANYBODY can use to create 2-D fondant decorations for your cake tops and sides WITHOUT a bunch of expensive tools. The Whimsical bake house" by Kaye and Liv Hansen. Gives you ideas using chocolate instead of fondant which isn't taught by Wilton. Those are my MUST HAVE FOR NEWBIES recommendations.
Three others if you want to spend the money, but not essential: "Hello Cupcake" by Karen Tack. "Party Animal Cakes" by Lindy Smith.'' If you are going to do cookies, "Bake me I'm yours...cookie" by Lindy Smith. I'll PM you with more specific info.
id suggest you head along to your local (and then not so local) library to see what they have... probably quite a bit, and you can get some quality reading time before deciding if you want to buy it.
or head to your local book shops, and browse the shelves, see what takes your fancy.
xx
I have over 30 cake decorating/cupcake/baking books just because I love to read but the truth is I found that my best resource is not these books but cake central. I tried to come up with an idea and plot how I think I can carry it out. If I get stuck ppl here are more than kind enough to help me out.
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