Saturday, July 7, 2012

Cookbook Review: Vintage Cakes: Timeless Recipes for Cupcakes, Flips, Rolls, Layer, Angel, Bundt, Chiffon, and Icebox Cakes for Today's Sweet Tooth by Julie Richardson









  • Hardcover: 176 pages
  • Publisher: Ten Speed Press (July 31, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1607741024
  • ISBN-13: 978-1607741022




Book Description

A charming collection of updated recipes for both classic and forgotten cakes, from a timeless yellow birthday cake with chocolate buttercream frosting, to the Christmas standard, Bûche de Noël, written by a master baker and coauthor of Rustic Fruit Desserts.

  Make every occasion—the annual bake sale, a birthday party, or even a simple Sunday supper—a celebration with this charming collection of more than 50 remastered classics.

Each recipe in Vintage Cakes is a confectionary stroll down memory lane. After sifting through her treasure trove of cookbooks and recipe cards, master baker and author Julie Richardson selected the most inventive, surprising, and just plain delicious cakes she could find. The result is a delightful and delectable time capsule of American baking, with recipes spanning a century.

Each cake has been expertly tested and retooled using the best ingredients and most up-to-date techniques. With precise and careful guidance, Richardson guides home bakers—whether total beginners or seasoned cooks—toward picture-perfect meringues, extra-creamy frostings, and lighter-than-air chiffons.

A few of the dreamy cakes that await: a chocolatey Texas Sheet Cake as large and abundant as its namesake state, the boozy Not for Children Gingerbread Bundt cake, and the sublime Lovelight Chocolate Chiffon Cake with Chocolate Whipped Cream. With recipes to make Betty Crocker proud, these nostalgic and foolproof sweets rekindle our love affair with cakes.

About The Author

JULIE RICHARDSON is the owner and head baker of Baker & Spice, a small-batch bakery and café in Portland, Oregon. She is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and the coauthor of Rustic Fruit Desserts. Her sweet tooth led her to open her first bakery, Good Earth, in Ketchum, Idaho. Upon moving to Portland, she fell in love with the farms and fruits of the Pacific Northwest and launched Baker & Spice from a stall at the farmers’ market in 1999. Julie spends most days baking cakes, croissants, and pies or teaching classes at SweetWares, her retail bakeware shop. When Julie is not baking, she can be found digging in her garden. She lives in Portland with her husband, Matt, and their many four-legged friends.

http://www.bakerandspicebakery.com/ 

My Review

Yum,yum,yum....I want the Pink Cake on Page 121 and I want it now!  Chocolate cake with a raspberry butter cream icing...looks and sounds divine. In fact every cake in this delightful new cookbook is divine.

The cookbook is divided into several sections:


  • Hasty Cakes
  • Everyday Cakes
  • Little Cakes and Light Cakes
  • Flips and Rolls
  • Layer Cakes
  • Fillings, Frostings and Icings

The book starts off basic tips and techniques for cakes which will be helpful for every baker, new or old.  The first recipe in the book, Berry Long Cake with Ginger Crumb sounds amazing as well as easy to make.  This would be amazing for breakfast (for those of us who are known to eat pie or cake for breakfast!)  How about some Wacky Cake!  Or the Harvey Wallbanger!  I know my better half would adore this Maple Pecan Chiffon Cake with Brown Butter Icing.

In these busy days when few people take the time to bake, it is wonderful to discover this ode to baking days of old...when time was slower and people took the time to sit back and appreciate a wonderful piece of a homemade cake!  If you collect cookbooks like I do, are a baker, or just love drooling over beautiful photos of cakes then this book is a must for you!






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