Hi, I want to buy some baking books with various recipes on cupcakes, cakes, brownies, cream puffs and any other variety of baked goods.
Do you guys have any good recomendations of baking cook books that I should consider purchasing? How about ones specifically focusing on cupcakes?
I prefer something not too complicated, since I'm a newb. Nothing that requires measuring with a scale or with complicated ingredients. Just fairly basic stuff.
Thanks!
I highly, highly recommend 'Baking 911' by Sarah Phillips. It has extremely good basic information in it for a beginner (or someone more experienced), and every single recipe I've tried in it is so good it's now my "standard", especially the thick-with-a-chew chocolate chip cookies and the double fudge brownies. Sarah explains WHY you use the ingredients you do, and how they affect the result. You can use the information from this book in all your baking. I just love it (and my copy has the oil stains and batter stains to prove it! 
)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743246829/?tag=cakecentral-20
Not cupcakes per se, but there are cake recipes, and any cake can be turned into cupcakes. 
'More from Magnolia' is another one of my favorites. She doesn't like chocolate, and tells you so up front, so there are very few chocolate recipes. But everything I've tried is simply wonderful. She includes the recipe for her 'Famous' cupcakes (pictured on the cover).
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743246616/?tag=cakecentral-20
I was tired of having shelves full of cookbooks, so I gave them all away. Now, I have a favorites on-line with every recipe site I can find-100 things to do with a cake mix, Food Network, crockpot, leftovers, copy cats, etc.. There are literally thousands of them out there. I look through them about once a week and print recipes I want to try. If they're bad I throw them away, if they're good, I take a picture for my recipe page, write down any notes I can think of-who tried it & who liked or didn't like it, what I would do different, ingredient changes, how long it cooked-and keep it in a binder.
I've made some excellent meals like this, and it's easy to have people over for dinner, I know who likes what, how much time I need, and what I need to make it. Taking pictures worked better than I thought it wouldl. When smaller kids (or my husband) want something, they can look through the book & show me a picture. Friends & family will also come over and look through the book to find appealing ideas for thier own famlies. Surprizingly enough, several people want to pay me to make books for them!! Instead, I've been making them as gifts. Just a few examples are:
http://www.cookingcache.com/cat/crockpot_recipes
http://www.meals.com/Recipes/Top10FavoriteRecipes.aspx
http://www.campbellkitchen.com/ttlanding.aspx
http://www.verybestbaking.com/promotions/programs/magazine_04/thankyou_reg.aspx
http://www.kitchenlink.com/
http://www.recipes4cakes.com/cakemixcakes/
http://www.foodnetwork.com/
The sites usually have baking tips, cooking tips, substitutions, glossaries and pictures, which I love. Everything at your fingertips, neatly organized and you don't have to clutter anything up if you don't have the space.
Good Luck,
Gail
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