Average customer rating:
- I love this book...
- If I could give it ten stars, I would.
- Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World! They really do!
- I COULD EAT THIS BOOK!
- Yum
|
Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule
Isa Chandra Moskowitz , and
Terry Hope Romero
Manufacturer: Marlowe & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Baking
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Healthy
| Special Diet
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Vegetables & Vegetarian
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Natural Foods
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Vegan
| Diets
| Diets & Weight Loss
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Lactose-Free
| Special Conditions
| Diets & Weight Loss
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Food Allergies
| Nutrition
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Vegan with a Vengeance : Over 150 Delicious, Cheap, Animal-Free Recipes That Rock
-
Vegan Italiano: Meat-free, Egg-free, Dairy-free Dishes from Sun-Drenched Italy
-
La Dolce Vegan!: Vegan Livin' Made Easy
-
The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook: Delicious Dairy-Free Cheeses and Classic "Uncheese" Dishes
-
Vive Le Vegan!: Simple, Delectable Recipes For The Everyday Vegan Family
ASIN: 1569242739 |
Book Description
The hosts of the vegan cooking show The Post Punk Kitchen are back with a vengeance — and this time, dessert. A companion volume to Vegan with a Vengeance, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World is a sweet and sassy guide to baking everyone’s favorite treat without using any animal products. This unique cookbook contains over 50 recipes for cupcakes and frostings — some innovative, some classics — with beautiful full color photographs.
Isa and Terry offer delicious, cheap, dairy-free, egg-free and vegan-friendly recipes like Classic Vanilla Cupcakes (with chocolate frosting), Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes (red velvet with creamy white frosting), Linzer Torte Cupcakes (hazelnut with raspberry and chocolate ganache), Chai Latte Cupcakes (with powdered sugar) and Banana Split Cupcakes (banana-chocolate chip-pineapple with fluffy frosting). Included also are gluten-free recipes, decorating tips, baking guidelines, vegan shopping advice, and Isa’s true cupcake anecdotes from the trenches. When Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, no dessert lover can resist.
Customer Reviews:
I love this book..........2007-10-10
This is a wonderful cupcake book. I am so pleased with it. The cupcakes are delicious. The recipes are easy to follow and the directions are precise.
If I could give it ten stars, I would........2007-10-08
The book sold me on the photos alone, but the recipes do not disappoint. Never has vegan baking been so invisibly delicious, so perfectly dressed up as the richest, most indulgent lacto-ovo baking, totally indetectable to those not in the know. I've made the vanilla (vegan cream cheese frosting), chocolate (peanut buttercream), pineapple (pineapple topping), tiramisu (holy crap), pistachio rosewater (with rosewater buttercream), and dulce sin leche cupcakes (with a squirt of my own coconut caramel in the middle, lemony buttercream, toasted coconut, and caramel doodads on top). Every single cupcake has been moaning-aloud-in-obscene-pleasure delicious. The rise is perfect, the crumb is tender and soft without a trace of the gumminess associated with vegan baking, and the frostings are pure sin (or heaven, whatever). I've had to hide this book from myself to stay focused on school and stop making cupcakes already.
Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World! They really do!.......2007-10-07
AWESOME book!
The recipes were very easy and I loved that for the few rare ingredients that were needed, easy to find alternatives were suggested. As for the taste? Several of these recipes beat normal cupcakes hands down anyday! If you're vegan, (even if you're not!) and are looking for some sweet treats, this is one sweet book you have to buy.
Very satisfied! Thank you!
I COULD EAT THIS BOOK!.......2007-10-05
Buy this book now! DO NOT HESITATE! It is perfect! I even have a cupcake tattoo of one of the cupcakes! The coconut lime! It's to die for! The chocolate stout cupcakes amazed everyone, and they are perfect if you are in a pinch and don't have time to make frosting! My kids flipped over the cookies & cream cupcakes! I am anxious to try the pumpkin choc. chip for fall. The green tea cupcake would be so perfect for a bridal, or baby shower, they're so elegant. The next one I will try is the Brooklyn vs. Boston cream pie, they have a creamy custard filling! If you LOVE cupcakes YOU WILL LOVE THIS COOKBOOK!!!! It doens't matter if you are vegan or not, that would be a ridiculous reason to shun this book. People CANNOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE!!!! Plus, they are about a million percent HEALTHIER!
Yum.......2007-10-05
This book is fabulous! So far I've only made the basic chocolate cupcakes with the chocolate ganache frosting, but they were awesome. I am looking forward to making all of these cupcakes.
Book Description
Go cupcake crazy! With nearly 300 awesome, mouthwatering ideas to choose from, home bakers will find the right recipe for any occasion and every palate. And whether they’re chocolaty, spicy, crunchy, fruity, or creamy, these exquisitely decorated treats look as astounding as they taste—perfect little temptations designed to make adults nostalgic and children happy. All the basics are lovingly explained so anyone can whip up a beautiful batch, and there are varieties for every day (from healthy cupcakes to ice cream indulgences); parties big and small; holidays ranging from Christmas to the Fourth of July; just for kids; and fund-raisers and bake sales. Plus, to make things easy, an entire chart- and template-filled chapter focuses on flavor combinations and design elements.
Customer Reviews:
A fun book!.......2007-08-23
I am on a cupcake kick right now; I love making them for my kids' schools, and for my family and friends. This book has so many great recipes it was hard to pick which one to make first. But I opted for the Pina Colada cupcakes, and they were absolutely delicious. This is the first time I made cupcakes from scratch, and it's a huge difference in taste and texture.
I highly recommend this book if you love to bake.
Cute Cupcakes!.......2007-08-15
I was looking forward to receiving this book and must say that I have been satisfied with my purchase. So far, the recipes are tasty but the decorating instructions are quite vague. I also don't like that the recipe and decorating instructions are not alongside the picture. (You need to find the picture within like 15 pages of the book or use the index) But overall, very nice book.
Doesn't live up to the hype.......2007-07-29
I bought this book based on the positive reviews and was disappointed. The pictures include sloppy looking decorations that appear to be done by a child instead of a professional baker - so consequesntly they were not that enticing to me. I have other cupcakes books that offer are more polished presentation. I made the carrot cake cupcakes and found them to lack flavor - they were not light and cake-like and were somewhat bland. One major drawback - and my biggest complant about this book is that the recipes do not have an amount or expected yield - how frustrating to make a batch of cupcakes and only get 12! You'll be much happier picking another cupcake book - either Cupcakes: From the Cake Mix Doctor or Cupcakes!
Thumbs Up for "Crazy about Cupcakes".......2007-07-05
All the recipes are accompanied by lovely pictures of the cupcakes. I love the cupcake decoration ideas in this book, it's not the usual thick, high creamy frosting that you won't eat, instead, the cupcakes are decorated with yummy toppings which are also nice to look at!
Good one.......2007-06-24
Had this book and have tried some of the recipes. Love the Black bottom cupcake and mousse cupcake recipes and the decoration is quite easy to follow. It's just that I found the icing is a little bit too sweet to my liking, so I have to improvise a little bit. Generally love this book.
Average customer rating:
- Confetti Cakes
- Great book, Great recipes
- Great Shape!
- Wonderful
- Any tired of the 'same old' approach who seeks something different and eye-catching
|
The Confetti Cakes Cookbook: Spectacular Cookies, Cakes, and Cupcakes from New York City's Famed Bakery
Elisa Strauss , and
Christie Matheson
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Cakes
| Baking
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Cookies
| Baking
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Desserts
| Baking
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Baking
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Special Occasions
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Cakes to Inspire & Desire
-
Xtra Naughty Cakes: Step-By-Step Recipes for 19 Cheeky, Fun Cakes
-
Creative Cookies: Delicious Decorating for Any Occasion
-
Pretty Party Cakes: Sweet and Stylish Cakes and Cookies for All Occasions
-
The Flour Pot Cookie Book: Creating Edible Works of Art
ASIN: 0316113077 |
Book Description
When a world-famous shoe designer walked into his surprise birthday party and saw the cake that was waiting for him--a Manolo stiletto perched alluringly next to a tissue-filled shoebox--it was his turn to ogle someone else's talent. The cake, created by Elisa Strauss of Confetti Cakes in New York City, was a sensation. Not only did everyone at the party want to know how it was made, they wanted to know how to create something as dazzling themselves.This unique book contains projects for every skill level: from gorgeous, sugar-dusted heart cookies to delightful billiard-ball cupcakes, to sculpted cakes in the shape of wine bottles and Chinese takeout boxes, to the extravagantly beautiful, threetieredembroidery cake showcased on Sex and the City. With delicious recipes, stunning creations for every occasion, suggestions for time-saving shortcuts, and hot tips for fabulous results, all illustrated with gorgeous photographs and easy-to follow diagrams, THE CONFETTI CAKES COOKBOOK is a must-have for the outrageously chic baker in all of us.
Customer Reviews:
Confetti Cakes.......2007-10-01
I really like this book. I bought it after checking one out at the library. The cakes are adorable. Great recipes and instructions. The cakes are not for a beginner. But you will get great ideas. These cakes are decorated with fondant.
Great book, Great recipes.......2007-09-24
I have really enjoyed this book. The instructions and recipes are easy to follow. I've been looking for a chocolate cake recipe that doesn't taste like devils food, and this one fit the bill. I have made one of her cakes with no problem. Maybe one day I will tackle the georgus purse on the cover!
Great Shape!.......2007-09-23
Thank you for doing as you said you would! Everything was right on time! Love my book!
Wonderful.......2007-09-12
I own many cake/cookie books of fine quality and this one is no exception. While the sugar cookie recipe had a paper correction tucked inside the front cover, using the correction the outcome was wonderful! My family gobbled them down within 24 hours (and it was a double batch) and has been begging for more. The decorating ideas are also wonderful, focusing on more small items like cupcakes and cookies.
Any tired of the 'same old' approach who seeks something different and eye-catching .......2007-08-09
When a famous shoe designer received a surprise birthday cake of a stiletto perched next to a tissue-filled shoe box, he was amazed at the talents of Elisa Strauss of Confetti Cakes in New York - and everyone wanted one of her creations. THE CONFETTI CAKES COOKBOOK would at first glance seem to appeal only to seasoned bakers, but in fact offers up eye-catching projects for every skill level, from novice to expert. Chapters pack in projects and decorations and not just full, large cakes but cookies, cupcakes, and smaller cake choices. Any tired of the 'same old' approach who seeks something different and eye-catching will find THE CONFETTI CAKES COOKBOOK attractive - as will public lending libraries catering to dessert cooks.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Book Description
The cupcake is America’s darling. It’s celebrated in upscale bakeries, on
Sex in the City, on the cover of
Gourmet, and in thou-sands of classrooms—where every day, it seems, a parent has sent in a batch for the kids to share. The very word conjures up whimsy, coziness, pleasure, nostalgia. Not to mention the fact that their diminutive size means you can eat a lot of them.
Once upon a time, a family had only two recipes for cupcakes—chocolate and vanilla. Not anymore. Now Anne Byrn brings them to the next level. And who better? Recognized as the master of cake-mix baking, Anne is the author of
The Cake Mix Doctor and
Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor, which have a total of over 1.8 million copies in print. In
Cupcakes she offers 135 tempting recipes for children and grown-ups, for special days and everyday, lunch bags, holiday festivities, and an unexpected dinner party dessert.
You’ll never believe these artful little cakes started with a mix. Coconut Snowballs, Jelly Doughnut Cupcakes, Kiss Me Cakes, Warm Chocolate Cupcakes with Molten Centers, Red Velvet Cupcakes with White Chocolate Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting. There are surprising additions (tuck a chocolate kiss orpiece of cookie dough into the batter). Creative toppings and easy from-scratch frostings (whipped cream spiked with Kahlua; miniature M&Ms; a creamy malted frosting with crushed malted milk balls).Terrific decorating ideas, from glittering golden dragees or elegant chocolate curls to yellow peeps for an Easter cupcake or—for Groundhog’s Day—a groundhog’s face made out of chocolate frosting and jimmies. Includes a 16-page full-color opening essay.
Customer Reviews:
great cakes.......2007-09-29
I bought this Cake Doctor book as a gift for I have used mine, many times to bake some great cakes and wanted to share the book.
If you like the Cake Doctor, you'll like this.......2007-09-04
I wish this book had more pictures of the finished cupcakes, but it is still a good cookbook. This will give you different cupcakes to make or inspire you to try your own ideas. So far everything I've tried in this book is delicious.
If you bake cupcakes - you NEED this book!.......2007-07-21
I bake cupcakes "all" the time! and I use the recipes in this book - with fantastic results! My family and friends rave about the taste of the cupcakes and because of Anne's recipes I am seen as a great baker (and I love that!). You start with a basic cake mix (stock up when they are on sale) - and add ingredients to make it unique and more flavorful. The ideas are creative and unique - and sometimes old favorites. Did I say that I love this book!? I have also found that when using Anne's "formula" I can successfully create my own recipes when adapting "from scratch" recipes. Thank you Anne!
love this series of books.......2007-07-07
This book has some great ideas and they are all easy and doable! Enjoy!
I LOVE this cookbook.......2007-06-05
This is a wonderful cook book with amazing recipes that take a short amount of time, but look like you were up all night baking. I've made the Oreo Cupcakes, Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes, Peanut Butter Cupcakes with a Hershey's Kiss in the middle, Red Velvet Cupcakes, and the Cookie Dough Cupcakes! I now look for excuses to bake cupcakes and people are talking about my cupcakes MONTHS after trying them. Every single recipe I've tried has been a huge crowd pleaser.
I'm shocked there are negative reviews - yes, there could be more pictures, but I the recipes are so easy to follow; it's not a problem at all. I'm shocked that some people had trouble following the recipes, I thought the recipes were so easy to follow!
This cookbook is the best! You will not regret buying it!
Book Description
There are shelves of memoirs about overcoming the death of a parent, childhood abuse, rape, drug addiction, miscarriage, alcoholism, hustling, gangbanging, near-death injuries, drug dealing, prostitution, or homelessness.
Cupcake Brown survived all these things before she’d even turned twenty.
And that’s when things got interesting….
You have in your hands the strange, heart-wrenching, and exhilarating tale of a woman named Cupcake. It begins as the story of a girl orphaned twice over, once by the death of her mother and then again by a child welfare system that separated her from her stepfather and put her into the hands of an epically sadistic foster parent. But there comes a point in her preteen years—maybe it’s the night she first tries to run away and is exposed to drugs, alcohol, and sex all at once—when Cupcake’s story shifts from a tear-jerking tragedy to a dark comic blues opera. As Cupcake’s troubles grow, so do her voice and spirit. Her gut-punch sense of humor and eye for the absurd, along with her outsized will, carry her through a fateful series of events that could easily have left her dead.
Young Cupcake learned to survive by turning tricks, downing hard liquor, partying like a rock star, and ingesting every drug she could find while hitchhiking up and down the California coast. She stumbled into gangbanging, drug dealing, hustling, prostitution, theft, and, eventually, the best scam of all: a series of 9-to-5 jobs. But Cupcake’s unlikely tour through the cubicle world was paralleled by a quickening descent into the nightmare of crack cocaine use, till she eventually found herself living behind a Dumpster.
Astonishingly, she turned it around. With the help of a cobbled together family of eccentric fellow addicts and “angels”—a series of friends and strangers who came to her aid at pivotalmoments—she slowly transformed her life from the inside out.
A Piece of Cake is unlike any memoir you’ll ever read. Moving and almost transgressive in its frankness, it is a relentlessly gripping tale of a resilient spirit who took on the worst of contem-porary urban life and survived it with a furious wit and unyielding determination. Cupcake Brown is a dynamic and utterly original storyteller who will guide you on the most satisfying, startlingly funny, and genuinely affecting tour through hell you’ll ever take.
When it came time for me to talk, I wasn’t sure which parts of my past to tell, which to keep secret, and which to pretend never happened. Uncle Jr. had already seen the welts on my back, so he wasn’t too surprised when I told them about some of the physical abuse I endured at Diane’s. Everyone else hit the roof, except Daddy. He got really quiet and started balling and unballing his fists.
I continued my update. Experience had taught me that adults have trouble accepting the idea of children having sex. I decided that from then on, that part of my life never happened. I picked up the story by telling them about Fly, the Gangstas, and getting shot.
I was dying for a cigarette. So it seemed a good time to announce that I smoked cigarettes—and weed.
After a moment Sam looked at me, smiled, and handed me one of her Marlboros. I preferred menthols, but beggars can’t be choosers. I kicked back, took a long drag, and closed my eyes.
Daddy and Jr. were silent. They seemed a bit shocked and unsure about how to respond.
“Well, Cup,” Jr. said, “it’s a little too late to be trying to raise you now. But those cigarettes will kill you. And weed will only lead you to stronger drugs.”
He didn’t know how right he was. But for me, it was too late to be worrying about stronger drugs—the only worrying I did was whether I could find a connection to get some. So I just smiled, nodded, and took another hit off my cigarette.
The eerie quiet returned.
—from A Piece of Cake
Also available as a Random House AudioBook and eBook.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Speechless.......2007-10-10
How can you not cry at the end of this book? It is truely amazing. After I finished it I went to the authors website and wrote her myself. I am glad that Cup made something of herself. Through her story you know that you yourself can do anything!
Fabulous.......2007-10-10
this book was riveting- it held your attention and you felt as if you knew the characters. I read 120 pages the first day I received the book. I would recommend it to everyone!
Seemed fabricated.......2007-10-05
The book started off very interesting, however as I continued to read a lot of the story seemed fabricated. It is obvious by the way the book reads, that the author has made a lot of the details up. If you're looking for a good auto-biography this is not the book for you.
Insightful and rewarding.......2007-09-29
I don't normally read memoir's, but the cover caught my attention first followed by the brief description of the book and the author. The history of Ms. Brown's life was riveting, insightful, and surprisingly inspiring. I feel as if she wrote this so the reader wouldn't feel pity, but rather could really understand what she was living through. I gained so much understanding of drug addiction and I was inspired by her recovery. So much so, I am incorporating some of her 12 step lessons into my own life.
Buy the book, you won't be let down.
Wonderful, Just wonderful........2007-09-21
I usually don't pick up a book because of the pretty cover but this one had me intrigued and by the time I read the description and a few pages, a book was purchased. Cupcake's story is the journey of a young girl who through no fault of her own was denied the right to live with the man she knew as her father after her mother died. Her biological father whom she had no relationship with thought there was money to be gained by pettioning the court for custody of Cupcake and her brother. Her biological father was soon to learn that there was no monitary gain to be found. Quickly, Cupcake began a life of foster homes that included sexual, physical and verbal abuse and then the discovery of drugs which escalated to a level not experienced by most people (or who lived to tell about it).
Cupcake went through hell but the one point I must make is that you never felt sorry for her. Cupcake through her sense of humor, sheer will to survive and an extaordinary intellect has the stuff of someone who not only survives but does it amazingly well. I loved this book and everyone whom I lent it to has wanted to lend it to others. I told them "buy your own".
Product Description
Once upon a time, cupcakes were only a kid-friendly party favorite. No longer! Cupcakes are now the treat of the times, at once simple and chic. 500 Cupcakes is just that: a storehouse of recipes, written in clear instructions and appealingly packaged in bright, modern colors. 500 Cupcakes from front to back provides what bakers of all levels need to produce tempting creations. The introduction provides a comprehensive look at equipment and ingredients, plus a description of the cupcake-making process, from getting started to storing and transporting the yummy results. The collection of recipes span from classic flavors and shapes to new favorites for every style and taste including recipes for alternate diets. Each recipe is written in clear language (great for the novice baker), and every one features three variations on the basic recipe (great for the experienced baker seeking new flavors). The page design is attractive, featuring over 200 enticing pictures of cupcakes in the pan and on the serving plate 500 Cupcakes really is the only cupcake compendium you ll ever need !
Customer Reviews:
Meh..........2007-09-12
Like others have said, this book is a bit misleading. I haven't taken time to count, but I would venture to say that there are probably about 50-75 original recipes. Almost every cupcake uses a basic yellow cake recipe with very small changes like extracts or seeds. And there are hundreds of variations, some are good and some have me scratching my head (chocolate and black pepper cupcakes). Also, there are two chapters on muffins. Don't get me wrong, I really like muffins. A lot. Blueberry really rocks my socks, but a muffin does not a cupcake make. It's a quick bread and doesn't deserve to be in this book.
I don't plan on making any recipes verbatim from this book (mainly because most of them call for self-rising flour and superfine sugar). But, this book does have nice pictures and some pretty good ideas that may lead you to other recipes.
It's a nice book to have, it's cheap and there are pretty pictures, but after some deep browsing, I've come to the sad realization that this is not, in fact, the only cupcake compendium I'll ever need.
VERY Dry Cupcakes.......2007-08-15
I was so excited to get this book, and I was very disappointed. So far, I have made 4 different recipes, and they have all come out so dry that they had to be thrown out! The pictures aren't big enough, and there aren't enough to begin with. All it has is one ingredient variations to make it "count" as another of the 500 recipes....Oh...and they aren't all cupcakes....most are muffins....
NOT WHAT I EXPECTED!! .......2007-08-05
Cupcakes are all a rage right now and I've jumped on the band wagon. I was looking for a cookbook full of recipes that I could "show off" with at my many family functions. Needless to say, this book wasn't it. It does have 500 recipes as it states but most of them are recipes that I would not find myself using. Most of the book is recipes for savory muffins, muffins and healthy alternative muffins. I ask you, Who wants to eat a healthy cupcake??? Not I. I wanted ideas to help me create beautiful fancy cupcakes that would impress the hard to impress. I found what I was looking for in the Wilton Cupcake Book. Thanks Wilton
A great cupcake recipe book!.......2007-08-04
I have made 2 sweet cupcakes and 1 savory muffin from this book. They were all very tasty and fun to make! It also has colorful pictures to lend decorating ideas.
I plan to use this book for most of my further cupcake endeavors!
Disappointing results.......2007-08-02
Am I the only one that thinks that the recipes in this book are just way off? I have tried three of the recipes and followed the recipes explicitly. The recipes call for virtually no liquids, so the batters come out to a thick, goopy consistency. The cupcakes are far too dense and chewy. Cakes should be light and moist and spongey. Just by skimming over each recipe, I can tell that the batters are all much too thick.
I give this book 3 stars because I think it has truly great recipe ideas (as far as the different flavors and kinds of cupcakes), the format of the book is very user-friendly, the recipes are concise and easy to follow, and the pictures are great. The recipes and flavors sound delicious and will put you in the right direction, but you'll definitely end up having to adjust each recipe in order to get the right consistency in the batter/cake.
Customer Reviews:
Ok mystery, but relationship with Mike and Norman is getting tedious.......2007-05-26
The mystery in this book starts with the murder of Sheriff Grant and Hannah's pursuit to clear Brother in law, Bill. The mystery was ok.
But, Hannah is a successful 30-ish woman and is being entirely too indecisive with Mike and Norman. She's been 'dating' both men for over a year, thru the first several books of the series, and never gone beyond kissing them. Also, both men are perfectly happy to sit back and 'share' dates with Hannah. Beyond prudish. There is a line between overly-prudish and erotic fiction, and Fluke isn't even beginning to toe at it.
I agree with the review that mentioned that Hannah should actually have a real relationship with either Mike or Norman before hoping that one of them will propose. Not realistic at all.
On the positive side, you will be drooling over the descriptions of the food. The subplots of Moishe and his senior crunchies, as well as the secret ingredient in the fudge cupcakes, were both more intriguing to me than the mystery and the dulling relationship twist.
Hannah should appreciate her SUV despite the faulty heater.......2007-04-08
Hannah parks her cookie truck a few blocks away from a suspect's house, meets Norman to burglarize the home, then rides in his vehicle to visit other sources of information. When Norman finally chauffeurs Hannah to the cookie shop, he parks very carefully next to Hannah's cookie truck. Apparently her vehicle is able to travel intelligently all by itself, or has a secret homing device. Neither Norman or Hannah appear surprised to find her SUV sitting in its regular parking space. One wonders how Hannah is able to put together any clues to solve a murder, if she is not able to remember that she left her vehicle elsewhere.
If you are able to suspend belief and just view the book as an enjoyable piece of fluff, rather than a serious commentary on human nature or a procedural guidebook for solving mysteries, then, by all means, buy this book.
Fudge Cupcake Murder.......2006-11-03
Loved this book! Reading about Hannah's adventure's with "murder" and her love life is so much fun!
Chocolate is Very Very Good for Me.......2006-06-04
One recurring theme in Joanne Fluke's books is the benefits of chocolate. This book has a lot to offer. Hannah's brother becomes a murder suspect. Because of that, he is suspended from his job and has to stay home. Well we all know how well that works! Luckily, Andrea has the patience of Job. I liked this book very much. Hannah never ceases to amaze me on her vocabulary and grammar knowledge. She has a quick mind and figures things out that others cannot. Hannah has inspired me to bake more than I have in years! Read it! You will love it!
Cupcake Murder.......2005-10-08
I like the Hannah Swensen Mysteries, always waiting for the next one out.
Book Description
If you are a beginning baker, this book offers an accessible introduction to essential baking ingredients, equipment, and techniques as well as detailed, step-by-step recipes that make it easy to prepare even the trickiest baked goods. If you are already an accomplished baker, it offers many sophisticated and unusual recipes that will help you refine your knowledge and skills.
The book features a distinctive organization based on six key baking ingredients, from fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and chocolate to dairy products, spices and herbs, and coffee, tea, and liqueurs. Select an ingredient or flavor you love, and you'll find many delicious ways to incorporate it into your baking.
Bloom's recipes encompass every type of baking. You'll find spectacular versions of familiar favorites - Cherry Pie, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, and Double Peanut Butter Cookies - as well as intriguing variations and extravagant indulgences, including Coconut Biscotti, Lemon Verbena and Walnut Tea Cake, and Dark Chocolate Creme Brulee. Her meticulous recipes specify essential gear, offer tips on streamlining the recipe and storing the finished dish, and provide advice on varying ingredients and adding panache.
With in-depth guidance on techniques and ingredients, 225 standout recipes, variations and embellishments for almost every dish, and 32 pages of striking full-color photographs, The Essential Baker is truly the only baking book you'll ever need.
Customer Reviews:
Disappointed.......2007-09-09
The first three reviews all gave "The Essential Baker" top 5-star ratings and, frankly, I was impressed and ordered the book. However, my elation quickly turned to disappointment once I scanned the pages. The first 50 pages on baking essentials had brown text on a light brown background and the remainder of the book, the text remained brown on white rather than black on white. Moreover, the font style and small size in addition to the brown text made reading difficult for a senior citizen as myself. This difficulty was more pronounced since the ingredients listed on the left margin were in bold type whereas the instruction were not, thus I personally would find difficulty in using the book while trying to cook.
One thing the author mentions up front is that all her recipes use Extra-Large eggs and every recipe for making pie dough uses a food processor. Just be aware to adjust your thinking. The book is hefty with 220 pages devoted to fruits, 21 to vegetables, 48 to nuts and seeds, and 125 to chocolate, 29 to dairy, 45 to spices and herbs, and 50 to coffee, tea, and spirits. The way the recipes are formatted, as discussed in prevous comments, are unique and at times it takes three to four pages for a recipe such as Pumpkin Pie or Lemon Meringue Pie.
In comparing the recipe for Anise and Almond Biscotti (Carole Bloom vs Martha Stewart), for example, Bloom calls for 3 extra-large eggs and 3 extra large egg yolks, but no butter and Stewart calls for 4 large eggs and 4 tablespoons of butter (both use 2-1/4 and 2-1/2 cups of flour respectively. I would have to bake each recipe to determine which I preferred, but someone like Alton Brown (author of, "I'm Here Just for the Food") could tell you the pros and cons of eggs vs butter.
If I had to choose an all round baking book, my choice would be, "The Dessert Bible" by Chrisopher Kimball who is also Publisher and Editor of Cooks Illustrated. His recipes include a feature that explains "what could go wrong" explaining things that could go awry whch I found helpful.
Bloom incorporates some innovative features in laying out her baking techniques and no doubt has many excellent recipes, but I downgraded the book primarily on "mechanical" features rather than content and the fact that I personally find the book difficult to use.
Unique & Delicious Recipes.......2007-08-09
"The Essential Baker: The Comprehensive Guide to Baking with Chocolate, Fruit, Nuts, Spices and Other Ingredients" is a new book by Carole Bloom, who is a professional pastry chef and confectioner. As the title promises the contents include an impressive array of recipes that use everything from coffee & tea to vegetables & fruits as their main ingredients. More than this, however, Bloom's recipes are unique, with a dash of sliced almonds adding both flavor and texture to banana muffins and pearl sugar enhancing the visual appeal of apple turnovers. I loved her recipes for coconut biscotti, jasmine tea cakes and spiced sugar coin cookies. Indeed, though I usually give away most of the goodies I bake, I couldn't bring myself to share the biscotti with anyone other than my husband. On a few occasions I wasn't entirely thrilled with the way a recipe turned out, but given my delight with other recipes I have to chalk this up to taste. One cannot expect every single recipe in a book to enthrall, after all, and modifications can always be made to suit your preferences.
Bloom's instructions are clear and easy to follow, though the way ingredients are presented took some getting used to. Instead of listing ingredients before the recipe, as most cookbooks do, recipes are divided into stages with the ingredients for each stage listed beside the instructions. At first I didn't like this aspect of the book, but as I continued to cook with it I realized that this arrangement a) forced me to read through the entire recipe before beginning, I'm a notorious improviser, and b) made it nearly impossible to become confused about which ingredient should be used where. Essential gear is listed along side the recipe, where helpful information is also included: storage tips, variations, and instructions for streamlining the baking process over more than one afternoon (i.e. How to begin cookies one day and finish them the next.) While I'm always appreciative of baking books that have photos for every recipe, the straightforward presentation of Bloom's recipes made it easy to visualize the final result without an image. Photos for twenty recipes are collected in the center of the book, representing the various chapters, which include: fruit & vegetables; nuts & seeds; chocolate; dairy products (milk, cream, cheeses); spices & herbs; and coffee, tea, liqueurs & spirits. The first chapter is devoted entirely to baking techniques, language and an overview of essential baking gear.
Recipes range in difficulty from easy to challenging, so this may not be the best book for a novice baker. Yet those with baking experience and a curiosity for novel recipes may want to check it out. From Key Lime Squares and Raspberry-Blueberry Galettes to Pomegranate Butter Cookies and Triple Vanilla Souffle, there is something in this book to pique everyone's interests.
An excellent general manual for occasional baker. Buy It........2007-05-11
`The Essential Baker' by professional pastry chef and culinary writer, Carole Bloom presents itself as a complete baking manual, with a distinctively different organization, by ingredient. For its size, price, and claims, the book begs us to compare it to the recent `Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook', which is also a comprehensive introductory baking text.
As I first open the book, Bloom's `Essential Baker' does not readily impress me when stacked up against Team Stewart. Like Stewart, the book does not delve into a lot of the more technical explanations of baking science (as one may find in Rose Levy Beranbaum's more advanced `Bibles' on baking technique), but then the average baker really doesn't need most of this, as long as they get the message that with baking, one really needs to follow the recipe closely, even down to the size of the baking pans. Bloom does go into just a bit more detail, and may get herself into a few questionable statements, as when she states that one should not use all purpose flour for baking bread (every book I've ever seen on bread baking uses and condones `all purpose flour', with a preference for the higher protein products such as those from King Arthur.)
Based on their enormous magazine publishing resources, it's no surprise to find Team Stewart's book with wonderful pictures all along the way, especially with good series of tutorials on some basic techniques. Ms. Bloom oddly has virtually no pictures, and all she has are in two middle of the book rotogravure sections, to keep the cost down.
Two more comparisons tend to favor Team Stewart. The first is that their organization is by end product and method rather than by principal ingredient. For an introductory manual, I simply find that more useful and intuitive. Unlike savory cooking, one is much more inclined to begin with `lets bake a cake' or `lets make a pie' or `lets make some cookies' or `lets make some bread'. One of the few cases where this may not be true is with some highly seasonal local ingredients such as rhubarb. Otherwise, my baking choices are largely based on birthdays needing cake, picnics needing pies, and Christmas needing cookies. The second is that Ms. Bloom does not cover yeast breads at all. There are recipes for quick breads such as biscuits and Irish Soda bread (under the subject of buttermilk), but that's it. Team Stewart has a 70 page chapter on yeast breads with 31 recipes, including muffins, bagels, pizza, Danish, croissants, and babkas. If this were the whole story, Team Stewart would have it all over Ms. Bloom. Ms. Bloom, however, has an ace up her sleeve.
Only after reading the long and highly informative (but pictureless) introductory chapters in `The Essential Baker' did I discover that Ms. Bloom is hiding her light under a basket. While celebrating her ordering by ingredient, she neglects to trumpet the fact that her method for writing recipes is really superior. Everything is laid out in exactly the way one may wish to find it. And, on this count, she has Team Stewart beat hands down. But that's not all. I also find her recipes to be more interesting (albeit not necessarily more complicated) than those from Team Stewart. I compared at least a half dozen recipes and in all cases, Ms. Bloom had the more satisfactory recipe for the beginner. Stewart either tended just a bit too much to the simple or overembellished to fit her overriding motif of cooking for entertaining.
I'm still inclined to see Stewart's `Baking Handbook' as the superior book for the beginner, except for the fact that Ms. Bloom does something that is rare in bigger baking books. She does not `divide and conquer' by separating all her utility recipes for crusts and other pastries in a separate section, so that one must constantly be flipping back and forth when doing a pie or an icing. This is really an exceptionally good thing for the occasional baker, who wants `the recipe, the whole recipe, and nothing but the recipe' in one place.
And, although both books retail for $40, Ms. Bloom has about 200 more pages, with a corresponding 30% more recipes. She also has an exceptionally good list of sources, the best I've seen in quite some time (although Miss Martha does a good job here too).
On the arrangement by ingredient, I'm still a bit agnostic about it, and it would have been nice to see a supplementary table of contents by type of recipe, but if you happen to really like books such as Aliza Green's `Starting With Ingredients' or books on vegetable or fish cookery, you will love this book. Otherwise, you may just like it very, very much.
Viva Coconut Biscotti.......2007-04-14
Though I love to cook and entertain, I seldom bake. Somehow, in planning my meals, dessert is often an afterthought. Thus, when a friend gave me Carole Bloom's latest tome, The Essential Baker: The Comprehensive Guide to Baking with Chocolate, Fruit, Nuts, Spices, and other ingredients, I thanked her profusely and thought I would relegate the exhaustive 650 page book to the upper reaches of my kitchen shelf. Last week, in need of an easy dessert recipe, the stunning chocolate madeleines on Bloom's book cover came to mind. What delights might I find within its pages, I wondered? I thumbed through it, looking for something simple to complement a bowl of fresh strawberries. The Coconut Biscotti on page 229 caught my eye.
I followed Bloom's instructions to the letter. The author of Chocolate Lovers' Cookbook for Dummies, among eight other books, made it all the easier thanks to her clever organization: ingredients and their corresponding usage are laid out side by side on the page rather than one following the other as is usually the case. I assembled the dough in minutes, shaped it into two loaves as instructed, and popped them in the oven. I waited for them to cool before slicing them into biscotti, and returned them to the oven a few minutes longer. Twenty minutes later, "my" biscotti looked like those sold by the piece at an extravagant price in upscale coffee shops--sweet and crumbly and ready for dunking. "Those are the best biscotti I have ever tasted," opined my husband, a cookie connoisseur from way back.
The Essential Baker may not turn me into a pro but the clarity of recipes inspire me to try the Cherry Clafouti(page 61) and the Pineapple Tarte Tatin (page 247). I may even read through Bloom's extensive Baking Essentials section to expand my newfound skills!
Book Description
These cupcakes—from the owner of the Cupcake Caboose Company—are the yummiest and best looking ever! They come in sweet chocolate or creamy vanilla, dyed and decorated with dazzling designs. Best of all, every kid can make one. Ambitious little bakers will enlist a parent’s help and start from scratch, using the well-illustrated recipes for both cupcakes and frosting. Or they might want to get creative with store-bought pastries, mixes, and packaged icings. Either way, becoming a “cupcake artist” is easy, especially with the handy “cupcake key” to explain which are simplest and which need a little more practice. It’s delicious fun!
Customer Reviews:
Very cute.......2007-09-03
Not the most sophisticated of cupcake books but very cute for kids. Lots of fun ideas that are easier than decorating with frosting. They use a lot of candy pieces to make bunnies and butterflies. Very cute and fun though and it has a few handy recipes for cupcakes and frostings at the beginning of the book.
Cute Cupcake Ideas.......2007-08-15
This book has a lot of nifty and cute cupcake ideas....but I think it is mainly meant for kids or beginners. It's nice if you want to make fast and easy cupcakes. If you are looking for more intricate cupcakes, or elaborate recipes, don't buy this book.
Simple cupcakes.......2007-05-30
I'm from Australia and we dont get the range of books that appear here on Amazon. I read the reviews to help me purchase items,but I think I just got very excited with my order and shouldnt have purchased this item. I already have several cupcake books. As other reviews have stated this book is great for a kids' cookbook. I was looking for a cupcake book to inspire me - different designs, new things. I think I will shelve this book for when my baby gets a little older. If you are cupcake afficionado looking for more inspiration for yourself, I suggest you skip this purchase, but if you have a child and you'd like to cook together, then this is the book for you.
Childrens and Adults be transported creatively.......2007-01-05
The book is full of surprises and easy recipes to follow and scrumptiously designed. It's like a delicious layer cake you want to display let alone make. It also makes a wonderful gift for the 7 yr. old to 100 yr. old.
Great .......2007-01-03
This is a great cookbook. The pictures make it easy to see how it should turn out.
Book Description
This is the fourth of the successful Baker's Field Guide books. It brings the user-friendly approach of the series to the ever-popular cupcake with 15 master batter and frosting recipes on which the 60 cupcakes in the field guide are built. This book features creative, fun ways to decorate cupcakes for a wide range of special occasions and holidays for children and adults, with a beautiful photograph of every cupcake.
Customer Reviews:
What a great book!.......2007-08-25
I purchased 2 of this title and gave one as a gift. I enjoyed the basic instructions (recipes and types of cup cake pans and icing techniques) as well as all of the recipes and pictures. I will make several items from this book the next time I want to make cupcakes. I may even use the recipes for cakes; they sound so good.
Easy ideas!.......2007-08-24
I want to preface my review with a little information about myself. I'm a working mom that is also a Girl Scout leader. I initially bought the book to do easy cupcakes with my Girl Scouts because they like to bake, and sometimes I'm just not organized enough to come up with a project on my own and make sure I have all of the ingredients for it. I also stay at home with my kids (and half the neighborhood kids) all summer. And I live in Arizona where kids play indoors all summer.
There are so many good and DO-ABLE ideas in this book. I have a stack of cake and cupcake decorating books a foot high, and most of the techniques are too advanced for grade school and middle school aged children. Heck, most of them are a little too advanced for a busy mom that can't put a whole day into cake/cupcake decorating. This book has VISUALLY APPEALING designs that are easy enough for kids to do (well over half of the cupcakes) AND best of all, the kids think they are cool. I'm sorry that one of the reviewers didn't like the sheet of fondant over the cupcake... but guess what... THAT was by and large the favorite around here. Plus, I had never worked with fondant before (I'm an 1980s wilton cake decorating class-trained cake decorator) and this easy introduction gave me Fondant Confidence and now I won't hesitate to try to use fondant on my next large birthday cake.
All of the Halloween designs are favorites here (even in June), and we have made the ones that look like Hostess cupcakes more than once now. In addition to the fun designed ones, there is another whole batch of favorites that are new "flavors" rather than new designs. The Cookies and Cream cupcakes were a big hit with everybody, and so were the Zesty Orange Pound Cake cupcakes. They reminded me of some orange hostess (i think) cupcakes I had as a child.
I have not tried all the cake and frosting recipies since I do have tried and true recipies that I prefer to use. However, everybody here did enjoy the carrot cake recipe, and I found that it didn't really matter what the design was, my kids would eat the carrot cake as long as there was some kind of frosting. (The beach scene cupcake with the umbrella works so well with the carrot cake.) The Fluffy Meringue frosting is also a nice departure from the usual heavy buttercream that I use. It can make a kid cupcake into a grown-up pastry dessert.
One final thing to say, what I ended up doing since there were so many cute designs and I didn't really have a use for 24 of any particular one, was make a few dozen cupcakes ahead of time and freeze them in ziploc bags of 12. Then as my kids begged for cupcakes, I'd pull a dozen out along with frosting that I had made and pre-frozen, and we had a one hour project rather than a whole day project.
All in all I'm very pleased with this book. There is something in there for every age and every preference, and nothing is so difficult that you need formal pastry training to make it look good!
Great Ideas.......2007-05-13
I love the pictures in this book. Awesome ideas! Very clear instructions on what is needed to create top of cupcake. Spiral bound, which stays open while you're working.
But I'm a woman on the move and didn't go for the cupcake recipes themselves, I just used boxed cake mix. Which worked out fine.
Recipes Don't Stand Up.......2007-03-12
You will learn to decorate -- sort of. That is if you want to put a robe of inedible fondant over a cupcake to make a ghost.
The master recipes don't hold up. The "moist, chocolatey" recipe is going to need a lot more than a bunch of sugar and a little cocoa to turn out the way they appear in the book. You'll need a recipe with some coffee and perhaps vinegar in it. But of course that doesn't appear here, although the photos would give you the impression your cupcakes will turn out dark and delicious. They don't. A very mild tan at most.
I feel this book may have been rushed to press to ride the cupcake wave. The finer points in such books are often left out, leaving bewildered home cooks wondering why their work doesn't look like the picture in the book.
If you are going to pay money for something, you deserve better. Take this "field guide" and lose it in the woods.
Great for learning to decorate!.......2007-03-05
I was expecting this book to have more recipes in it, but to me the focus seemed to be on decoration-- which was fine! I like how it explains which tips to use and how to use them. Great for cupcake decorating!
Books:
- Vegan with a Vengeance : Over 150 Delicious, Cheap, Animal-Free Recipes That Rock
- Wedding Cakes You Can Make: Designing, Baking, and Decorating the Perfect Wedding Cake
- Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul
- Wine For Dummies (For Dummies (Cooking))
- Wine For Dummies (For Dummies (Cooking))
- Yum Yum Dim Sum (World Snacks)
- 1000 Sweaters: Mix and Match Patterns for the Perfect, Personalized Sweater
- 21 Things I Wish My Broker Had Told Me: Practical Advice for New Real Estate Professionals.
- 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice, Beans, and Grains
- A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Country Risk Assessment: A Guide to Global Investment Strategy
- The Nature of Animal Healing : The Definitive Holistic Medicine Guide to Caring for Your Dog and Cat
- Los santuarios de la naturaleza : el patrimonio mundial de la Unesco
- Our History Is Still Being Written: The Story of Three Chinese-Cuban Generals in the Cuban Revolutio
- The Audrey Hepburn Treasures
- The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories
- The Complete Book of Knots
- Rule's Book of Business Plans
- Perfecting Corporate Character: Insightful Lessons for 21st Century Organizations
- Mike's Bikes Integrated Business Learning
