Hello People
I hope your all having a good day.
What is the best cake, cookie, chocolate, or candy book that you own. I'm looking for expanding my techniques, and just learing more. I want to get a book that tells me how/why they did something... I'm not sure where to go. I have gotten a few from the library but are any out there that i should own?
Thanks
Carley
THis should be interesting. I don't have a favorite book I use, but I'm curios to know what everyone else use!
I love the Wilton Yearbooks. And I just recently bought Thw Whimsical Bakehouse on suggestionh from here. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet but am thinking about baking today. I love The Step-By-Step Guide to Cake Decorating by Carol Deacon, too bad it has to go back to the library in about a week. Think I'm going to keep checking it out until I buy a copy for myself.
TAB
Just for cake recipes, I really really love the Cake Mix Doctor. It's a real time saver to add stuff to a cake mix when you work full time and you want to put lots more energy into the decorating part! Also Debbie Brown has great character books with good instructions.
I would also say the debbie brown character books are pretty neat but they are not something that I can do!! Getting ready to list them on ebay-maybe someone else can give them a try!!
Both Toba Garrett's cookie and cake books, a must. They cover most of the decorating techniques for both beginner and advanced. BTW, her cookie recipe is very, very tasty, packed with flavor.
My other favorite which is a nice bookend to Toba's fondant creations and sugar decorating instructions is Dede Wilson's Wedding Cakes You Can Make. She creates only buttercream cakes, no fondant, because her ultimate goal is a great tasting cake, and they are. Great tips and secrets, plus her recipes are some of the best (look at the Amazon reviews.)
Hope that helps...
I think I would like the Enchanted Cakes book. I love cakes like that and Wedding cakes those are my favorite...I think it is because I never had a real wedding or a wedding cake. I am such a dork because I always say I am going to go to the wedding dress store so I can look but I am afraid that the people in there won't want someone there who is just looking and wishing not intending on buying. I was one of those little girls who couldn't wait to have a beautiful wedding..........maybe someday 
For Chocolate it would be Alice Medrich'w Cocolate. She has a few others too. This is not for candy. It is baking from scratch. She uses one or 2 basic cakes and then they morph into different cake. If you haven't learned how to make a genoise or hot milk spong cake then her book is a place to start. They look complicated but they are all done in very definite steps. Dede Wilson's book are fab. Not heavily decorated but good recipes. WBH for recipes and The Cake Bible is a must read and anything by Flo Braker, Martha's Baking Handbook as well as King Arthur's baking books and newsletters. Carol Bloom has wonderful books too. I can be pretty opinionated when it comes to food and baking. But I do think if you learn from scratch first it helps to boost your baking confidence and you can turn out better scratch cakes.
For Inspiration, Colette's books, Debbie Brown's, Margaret Braun. There are a host of others but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
Thanks for all the great ideas, I'll be sending these to my son's for their Mother's Day shopping list!
I tried the chocolate butter cake in the Whinsical Bakehouse book, with a little modifications of my own. SOOO GOOD!!!!
Instead of using one cup of cocoa powder, I used 6 packets of Nestle Choco bake and three of four squares of almond bark chocolate. I also added a bit more flour and sugar.I didn't measure, just added because I was afraid it would have too much liquid not having the cocoa powder. It was so moist and delicious.
I took a small bundt cake to church last night and came home w/ none, and there were only five of us. I first spread a little ganache and melted almond bark chocolate over the top, then added fresh strawberries and drizzled more melted almond bark choc over the strawberries. YUM!!
I recommend this recipe. The only thing, I used pan spray instead of greasing and flowering. That was a big mistake, all my cakes stuck.
I plan on trying some more of the recipes in that book and will let you know how they go.
I also recommend this book because they believe everything on a cake should be edible. So it is either buttercream or chocolate that they use.
TAB
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