Sunday, October 9, 2016

How to Bake Everything by Mark Bittman


Being a fan of a couple of Mark Bittman's other books How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything 10th Anniversary Edition I pre-ordered How to Bake Everything.

I'm extremely pleased with this book because it's good for beginners to the working baker (such as myself). It has everything from the basics, ingredient breakdown, equipment uses, techniques to recipes.

The recipes are great and come with different variations to please damn near every pallet. This book is very thorough and informative.  However if you like lots of pictures and graphs this book doesn't have that. It does have illustrations though.  This book was well worth the wait and right now I'm using it a lot to test out the recipes.




Tuesday, August 30, 2016

101 One-Dish Dinners Cookbook



I had the pleasure of previewing the One-Dish Dinners Cookbook by Andrea Chesman. I'm a big foodie and baker/cake designer who loves cookbooks.  I love them to be simple, to the point without a lot of babbling and all the technical terms, especially if you're just cooking for yourself and the family.

This cookbook is broken down into 4 sections.
1 - Soups and Stews
2 - Skillet and Other Stovetop Suppers
3 - Oven-Baked Suppers
4 - Salad Suppers

Fall is coming and comfort foods are my favorites, this cookbook is all about comfort food.  Me being from the South, I found a lot of old favorites I'd never thought putting into one dish. There's a lot of variety in the cookbook, from Southern favs, Asian favs and I notice several Mediterranean favs. She has broth recipes that are simple and well explained.  Also information on cast iron skillets, dutch ovens and other tools you'll need. I thoroughly enjoyed this cookbook and even prepared the Skillet Lasagna pictured below.


I would recommend this book to everyone, It's really easy to read, recipes aren't overly complicated and who doesn't want a book that maps out the recipes clear and concise. 




Sunday, August 28, 2016

The Cake Book




`The Cake Book' by chocolate guru Tish Boyle evokes in me the exclamation ... `Holy butter crème, Batman, yet another book on cakes! What with several recent and classic big books on cakes, including those from great teachers such as `Perfect Cakes' by Nick Malgieri, those from dessert icons such as `Cakes' by Maida Heatter and those from baking expert explains such `The Cake Bible' from Rose Levy Beranbaum, one wonders, does the world really need another book on cakes? Well, I bought it, and I'm glad I did. Beranbaum does a somewhat better job of explaining the reasons why cakes work or don't work, and Heatter covers more of the classic European types of cakes, and Malgieri covers some pedagogical matters a bit better, but if you like baking cakes, then this book will not be intimidated by sitting alongside these other volumes on your shelf. 

One thing which did surprise me (and which actually increases the value of the book) is that Ms. Boyle actually covers a lot more than cakes understood in a narrow sense as those confections generally done in layers, with icing in the middle and leavened primarily with eggs. The first and most interesting `out of spec' chapter covers cheesecakes, and I believe she has done us a major service by pointing out that cheesecakes, and the cream cheese from which they are made, are one of our great American originals. Her second great service is to give us a recipe for the classic New York cheesecake. I was quite surprised to find that these are not baked in water baths and a little crack or two is considered quite acceptable. This is totally understandable, as I'm sure Juniors in Brooklyn doesn't roll out their thousands of cakes a day by baking in water baths. The other major straying from topic is a chapter on Ice Cream cakes. With these detours, I'm really surprised Ms. Boyle didn't do a chapter on cupcakes. There are only two references to cupcakes in the index, and one of these is a cheesecake (and therefore not a real cake at all). 

The book most similar to Ms. Boyle's effort is Nick Malgieri's `Perfect Cakes', so I compared the two to get some impression of which was the better. My ultimate opinion is that you loose nothing by having both books. Both volumes cover, for example, cheesecakes, and Malgieri is just a little better at giving you tips on general cheesecake expertise. And, both include the Italian specialty, pizza dolce di ricotta, but with markedly different recipes. Like Heatter, Malgieri leans towards European classics, especially Jewish and Italian classics, while Ms. Boyle leans to American standards. Regarding these standards, her recipe for `solid gold Carrot Cake' particularly took me. It does not include the pineapple from my favorite Malgieri recipe, but it includes lots of other yummy things such as ginger, orange zest, and the cookie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves). It is also illuminating to see her take on strawberry shortcake, since (unlike everyone from James Beard to M).

The Cake Mix Doctor ( Baking Beginners)


I used to pride myself on my baked goods and for years made all my cakes and cookies from scratch - in fact, I turned up my nose at cake mixes. But then, I became a wife and mother, cake mix cakes were all  that I started making!  

I purchased the first The Cake Mix Doctor book that was published and it helped me tremendously in all my baking endeavors. Now I'm a baker/cake designer who does everything from scratch but a few months ago I came across the original again and decided to find all of the books in the series and share recipe preparation on my YouTube channel. However this post in me talking about each of the books in case someone wants to try them out. They're a great investment for a novice who is afraid to step into the from scratch world.


Let's start with the original Cake Mix Doctor.  You'll find many delicious recipes in this book, and most can be whipped up and in the oven in under 30 minutes. I found it easiest and quickest to bake the cakes in a tube pan, and make a simple glaze to drizzle on top. Most also freeze well, so sometimes I'll bake a cake in two loaf pans and store one in the freezer to have available later. I probably bake several cakes a month - to give as thank-you's, to welcome new neighbors, to bring to dinners at friends', for my husband to take to work. You'll also find that once you get the hang of making these cakes, you'll come up with your own combinations. Don't be afraid to deviate from the cake mix and pudding flavors suggested in the recipes. My favorite combination, one that I use in many of the recipes, involves Duncan Hines Golden Butter Recipe and Butterscotch pudding mix. One recipe that took me by surprise was the biscotti - so easy, and so delicious! My only complaint about the book is that Anne offers helpful hints (e.g., substituting pan sizes, add-ins for cakes, loaf pan ideas) that are sprinkled rather haphazardly throughout the book. I find myself marking these pages with little stickies so that I can find them easily. Have fun! 


Next was Cupcake by The Cake Mix Doctor.  I don't often give cookbooks a 5 star, just because many of them have only a few new recipes that I would try, or because the format is poor. Oftentimes, I check out cookbooks from my local library, pick out the recipes that I want to try, and jot them down. When I started to do that with this book, however, I noticed that I was marking several pages in a row, and pretty soon had most of the pages bookmarked! I stopped marking, returned the book to the library, and purchased my own copy. 

What makes this seemingly simple concept so special? Well, as the author points out, most people love cupcakes. They are versatile, portable, and easy to create. You can make cupcakes as simple or as creative as you would like. And this great book of over 135 recipes can help in any situation. Need 2 dozen cupcakes for the class bake sale and want the cupcakes to look incredible? Want to impress your dinner guests but not spend hours in the kitchen? Want to wow your kids with a special treat after school? You can make up a batch of cupcakes that will accomplish all of these tasks. I loved the fact that most of the recipes start with a box of cake mix, and ingredients that I keep in my pantry and refrigerator. 



I love this book. The recipes are simple, delicious and fun to make. I particularly liked the explanation of ingredients used and a list of substitutions. There is such a variety of baked goods and frostings that you can make a different one every week. Several customers who are gluten-free and they have loved the ones I have tried and have requested repeats. Even those who are not gluten- free have enjoyed themselves and commented on the delicious flavor.




The Cake Mix Doctor Returns is a compendium of over 160 mouth-watering recipes that turn ordinary cake mixes into extraordinarily scrumptious desserts. Author Ann Byrn has appeared on dozens of television and radio shows such as "Good Morning America" and "All Things Considered" to share her delicacies; now she brings the straight scoop on everything from layer cakes to bundt and pound cakes to sheet cakes, cupcakes, brownies, bars, cookies and more. Many recipes include a space on the left of the page especially for inventive chefs to jot down notes! An absolute "must" for the cookbook collection of any cake lover, highly recommended. 




So this is my favored that's why I saved it for last.  This is a terrific follow-up to The Cake Mix Doctor. This time around though, the recipes focus on a broader variety of desserts that can be made from chocolate cake and brownie mixes. Making a few simple substitutions and/or additions to a basic chocolate cake or brownie mix can give you a dessert that will silence most "cake mix doubters". No one will believe the Triple Decker Chocolate Raspberry Cake began with a mix! This time, Chocolate From the Cake Mix Doctor adds more variety than just chocolate cakes with a larger number of brownies, muffins, bars and little cakes than seen in the previous book. As in her first CMD book, Byrn gives recipes for terrific scratch frostings which are what really set these cakes apart. There are clear tips and suggestions in a thoroughly updated first section and great ideas in neat boxes at nearly every recipe. My favorite thing about the book is the website that goes along with it, where bakers can ask questions about a recipe in the book and get reviews and suggestions from other bakers.If you are a fan of chocolate, bake a lot or are looking for a way to make your chocolate cakes a bit less ordinary--this book will not disappoint you.