Your Favorite Baking And Decorating Books

Decorating By Vanaya Updated 18 Sep 2010 , 2:45am by neecerator

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Vanaya Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 3:26am
post #1 of 18

Hey everyone,

I tried searching for topics related to favorite books, cause I know I have seen them before on here, but I cant seem to find any.

I would love to know what books are your favorites, which ones really help you or inspire you.

If anyone has the link to any previous posts like this feel free to share.

I am on amazon.ca right now shopping, I already have The Cake Bible in my cart and wondering what else I should get.


Thanks!!!!
Caroline
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17 replies
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cutthecake Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 3:42am
post #2 of 18

One of my favorites is The Whimsical Bakehouse Fun to Make Cakes. I love the House Buttercream and Kaye's Buttercream recipes.

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dm321 Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 4:12am
post #3 of 18

OK - I have a lot of books... LOVE THEM!!! So here's a few:

*Wedding Cake Art and Design - by Toba Garrett (love her!!!)
*The Well Decorated Cake - also by Toba
*Planet Cake - by Paris Cutler
*Simply Spectacular Cakes - by Peggy Porschen
*The Essential Cake Decorating Guide - by ?
*Confetti Cakes - by Elisa Strauss
*Ace of Cakes - by Duff & his brother, Willie
*Sweet and Simple Party Cakes - by May Clee-Cadman (I know of at least one other Maisie Fantaisie book that I don't have and REALLY WANT... saw it at a bookstore in another town but didn't buy it, thinking I'd get it when I got back home... but it's not on the shelves at the bookstores I frequent here... so you just gave me a great idea - duh - get it on line! Thanks! that's what I'm going to do after this post!)
*Glamour Cakes - by Eric Lanlard
*Cake Decorating - by Rachel Brown
*Cake Decorating for the first time - by Jaynie Maxfield
*Int'l School of Sugarcraft, #1 Beginners - by Nicholas Lodge
*Essential Guide to Cake Decorating - by Alex Barker
*The Wilton School, Decorating Cakes - by several writers & Wilton Decorators

....AND, I actually have several more... these are just the one's that are put up right now and I can see them from here... I love books and I love cakes, so naturally I have lots of books about cakes! icon_lol.gif

Now, of the one's I have listed, some of my faves include the Toba Garrett ones, the Elisa Strauss one, the Peggy Porschen one, and the Maisie Fantaisie one. So... that should give you somewhere to start! icon_lol.gif Hope you finde something you like! Enjoy!

~diem

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soph917 Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 4:29am
post #4 of 18

A few of my favorites are Professional Cake Decorating by Toba Garrett and The Essential Cake Decorating Guide. Although Toba's book is written more for professionals (or at least those who are aspiring to be pros icon_wink.gif ), not so much for hobbyists, although I don't know what you are looking for, just a heads up.

I also LOVE LOVE LOVE Cookie Craft. Not sure if you are looking strictly for cake decorating or what, but that is an awesome cookie book.

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Vanaya Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 4:53am
post #5 of 18

Thank you so much for the ideas cutthecake , dm321, soph917. They all sound like great books. Its so hard to choose lol.

Im looking for more professional books than for hobyists. I aspire to have my own bakery/cake shop one day. Im currently taking part time classes at a local college to obtain their "patissier" certificate. Only 4 courses left. Then Im thinking of enrolling at Le Cordon Bleu to take some of their pastry courses. So I am not looking for strictly cake decorating books. Other topics interest me as well as long as sugar is involved.

Oh, I almost forgot... I would like to know your favorite gumpaste flowers book. All I have is the Wilton one that came with the cutter kit.

Thanks!!!
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dm321 Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 5:11am
post #6 of 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vanaya

Im looking for more professional books than for hobyists. I aspire to have my own bakery/cake shop one day. Im currently taking part time classes at a local college to obtain their "patissier" certificate. Only 4 courses left. Then Im thinking of enrolling at Le Cordon Bleu to take some of their pastry courses. So I am not looking for strictly cake decorating books. Other topics interest me as well as long as sugar is involved. icon_biggrin.gif




Wow, Vanaya - so cool that you are taking the patissier courses and then moving onto Le Cordon Bleu! I'm so jealous! I'd love to take courses like this! Too little time & too little money! icon_rolleyes.gif

Good luck & keep us posted on how it all goes!
~diem

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imagenthatnj Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 5:31am
post #7 of 18

Vanaya, I have the same recommendations as dm321 when it comes to decorating books. Like her, I think I have them all. I love books!

I also have lots of pastry books; I'm interested in all other desserts and bread making. I'm not going to make a list of my bread/pastry books (one of my favorites is the Baking with Julia Childs book), but I wanted to tell you (if you didn't know) that at one point the Pastry & Baking magazines for professionals were set online to download for FREE.

Here's the link:
http://pastryna.com/

They're all downloadable one way or another (different systems as technology advances). Let me know if you get stuck. I have them downloaded in a folder just in case one day they decide to charge again and take them away!

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shanney54 Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 5:47am
post #8 of 18

dm321 were you talking about May Clee-Cadman's Cakes For Romantic Occasions? I really want that book! Another book that I looked at at Barnes & Noble is Mitch Turner's Spectacular Cakes and Maisie Parrish's Fun & Original Character Cakes. I'm thing about getting Vi Whittington's Cooked Sugar Art but can't find it at the bookstore, does anyone have this one? I've found it a lot better for me to find books at the stores and order them online since they're cheaper.

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dm321 Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 5:56am
post #9 of 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by shanney54

dm321 were you talking about May Clee-Cadman's Cakes For Romantic Occasions? I really want that book! Another book that I looked at at Barnes & Noble is Mitch Turner's Spectacular Cakes and Maisie Parrish's Fun & Original Character Cakes. I'm thing about getting Vi Whittington's Cooked Sugar Art but can't find it at the bookstore, does anyone have this one? I've found it a lot better for me to find books at the stores and order them online since they're cheaper.




Yes! Romantic Occasions! I never really want to order online if I haven't seen the books in person. Needless to say, this limits the amount of books I order online... I usually use a borders coupon so I can get 33% off, but I can obviously only use one at a time, so that also puts a damper on things... like shipping - I refuse to pay for it! icon_wink.gif I know the Mitch Turner book, but I don't know the other two you mentioned - can't wait to check them out! Thanks for the tips!

~diem

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katev17 Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 1:19pm
post #10 of 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vanaya

Oh, I almost forgot... I would like to know your favorite gumpaste flowers book. All I have is the Wilton one that came with the cutter kit.




Anything by Alan Dunn!!! You won't regret it =)

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mmdiez10 Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 1:51pm
post #11 of 18

Anything by Nicholas Lodge (ISAC).

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SparkleKat Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 2:17pm
post #12 of 18

I have borrowed many of these books from my local library. If there's one in particular that I really like, then I will buy it. The library also allows you to suggest books/dvd's that should be bought. So, check out your local library!

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PumpkinTart Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 3:46pm
post #13 of 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vanaya


Im looking for more professional books than for hobyists. I aspire to have my own bakery/cake shop one day. Im currently taking part time classes at a local college to obtain their "patissier" certificate. Only 4 courses left. Then Im thinking of enrolling at Le Cordon Bleu to take some of their pastry courses. So I am not looking for strictly cake decorating books. Other topics interest me as well as long as sugar is involved.

icon_biggrin.gif




I would think very carefully before enrolling at Le Cordon Bleu if you will already have a certificate. Typically, all of the baking and pastry programs are very similar. Once you learn the basics, it's all about applying what you've learned through practice. Taking the same or similar program at LCB to get another shot to practice, even if the teaching style is slightly different is a huge economic waste.

I loved my baking and pastry program and my tuition was about 60% less than the LCB program. Had friends that went through LCB and honestly, they didn't learn any more than I did except more stringent policies on keeping your uniforms clean and ironed. You can be very succesful with the certiificate your earning now and sepnd the same time you would have enrolled at LCB doing pracxtice at home.

By the way, a good book to "work through" to develop overall pastry skills is Bo Friberg's The Professional Pastry Chef.

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Joyfull4444 Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 6:01pm
post #14 of 18

Pastry by Michel Roux

Roses Heavenly cakes. Chose it over the cake bible as theres not been a new edition of the cake bible in ages. If you don't know to check Roses blog, you'd never know about the corrections to the older editions.

The Fannie Farmer Baking Book. An oldie but always a goodie.

Joseph Axendola Bakers Manual, and his Understanding Baking books. Hard to find the second book though.

A Neoclassic View of Plated Desserts by Tish Byle & Timothy Moriari. They have other plated dessert books too. Grand Finales, and A Modernistic View of plated desserts. I've only got the first one but do hope to buy the Modernistic plated desserts soon. Maybe Santa will bring me a copy if I'm a good girl!

Don't buy Working the Plate if you happen to be looking for plated food books. Only has a few desserts, one I really liked too, but no info on the ingredients needed, just a picture of the dessert. Very bummed over that purchase.

The Art of Royal Icing by Eddie Spence. Huge sugar artist/instructor in the UK. Very popular with members of the British Sugar Guild.

Sugar Flowers for Beginners by Paddi Clark. A lovely book and certainly not a beginners book to me!

Ratio- The Simple Codes Behind The Craft of Everyday Cooking, by Michael Ruhlman.

Just ordered The Professional Pasty Chef by Bo Friberg so can't rate it yet but its got good reviews. He also has available The Advanced Pastry Chef.

Chocolate by Nick Malgieri.

Death By Chocolate Cookies by Marcel Desaulniers is quite good but wish I'd ordered his Death by Chocolate instead.

Just got Sky High, Irresistible Triple layer cakes, by Alisa Huntsman And Peter Wynne, so haven't baked from it yet. Had great reviews on baking blogs so decided to go for it.

Writing in Icing by Mary Ford. An old book but still good to have on hand.


Ditto to any books by Alan Dunn as mentioned. Can't go wrong there.

I've got a lot of cake decorationg books but most have already been added here. Just had to add I love all Toba Garretts books and Maisie Parrish's books too. I have most off Maisie Parrish's books and am waiting for her book "The cakes New Dress" to be available on Amazon. I just about fell of my chair when I saw what Her books Cakes with Character and Sugar Dough Magic are selling for now. Especially Cakes with Character! icon_eek.gif
I bought them both when they were first released so not expensive at all. I was going to order Cakes with Character to put in my friends Xmas parcel, but now that its going for the lovely sum of $650 to $811, I decided to look for something a little less dear!

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Joyfull4444 Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 6:14pm
post #15 of 18

Oh total DUH moment on not rembering whos who author, correction. The profession pastry chef is by Bo Friberg NOT Michael Rhulman. Geez, talk about getting my books mixed up! icon_confused.gif

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Joyfull4444 Posted 13 Sep 2010 , 6:26pm
post #16 of 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joyfull4444

Oh total DUH moment on not rembering whos who author, correction. The profession pastry chef is by Bo Friberg NOT Michael Rhulman. Geez, talk about getting my books mixed up! icon_confused.gif




I fixed the author error in my last post. How cool, I just found out I could actually do that!

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Vanaya Posted 14 Sep 2010 , 1:31am
post #17 of 18

Thanks everyone, Now to pick which ones to get lol

I stopped in my local Chapters today and picked up their last copy of Cake Wrecks (based on the cakewrecks.com blog). This book is awesome and its all different material from the website.

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neecerator Posted 18 Sep 2010 , 2:45am
post #18 of 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by mseif

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vanaya


Im looking for more professional books than for hobyists. I aspire to have my own bakery/cake shop one day. Im currently taking part time classes at a local college to obtain their "patissier" certificate. Only 4 courses left. Then Im thinking of enrolling at Le Cordon Bleu to take some of their pastry courses. So I am not looking for strictly cake decorating books. Other topics interest me as well as long as sugar is involved.

icon_biggrin.gif



I would think very carefully before enrolling at Le Cordon Bleu if you will already have a certificate. Typically, all of the baking and pastry programs are very similar. Once you learn the basics, it's all about applying what you've learned through practice. Taking the same or similar program at LCB to get another shot to practice, even if the teaching style is slightly different is a huge economic waste.

I loved my baking and pastry program and my tuition was about 60% less than the LCB program. Had friends that went through LCB and honestly, they didn't learn any more than I did except more stringent policies on keeping your uniforms clean and ironed. You can be very succesful with the certiificate your earning now and sepnd the same time you would have enrolled at LCB doing pracxtice at home.

By the way, a good book to "work through" to develop overall pastry skills is Bo Friberg's The Professional Pastry Chef.




Where did you take your program/course that is was less than LCB? I'm researching options right now. Thanks.

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