Every cook owes a huge debt of gratitude to those dedicated foodies who have meticulously documented their work with food, giving us the benefit of their mistakes, successes, experiments and flashes of genius.
This slim booklet (32 pages) is very specific – it introduces and explains how to make a celebration cake with a ‘broderie anglaise’ effect. Broderie Anglaise (a french term, which literally means ‘English Embroidery’) is characterized by patterns composed of … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged broderie anglaise, cake decoration, celebration cake | Leave a commentThis slim volume by Nicholas Lodge was loaned to me quite a while ago; at the time I wasn’t impressed, its 70′s appearance fuelling my judgement that it was passe, outdated techniques by old-fashioned pastry artists. It is easy to … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged sugar, sugar flowers, Wedding Cake | Leave a comment‘Sugar Craft’ is one of 3 books about cake decoration written by these two authors; the others are ‘Cake Decorating’ and ’101 Cake Decorating Ideas’. As you can probably guess by those titles, these books are relatively basic in tone … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged cake, cookbook, marzipan, recipes, sugar, Wedding Cake | 1 CommentAny book by Ewald Notter, Swiss Master Confectioner, is the top of the craft – he is one of the world’s greatest sugar artists, with awe-inspiring technique and imagination. This was a gift from my mentor, George Wagner, who taught … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged ewald notter, sugar | 1 CommentThe minute I opened this book, I felt a great affinity for Margaret Braun. It is like we have the same kind of brain, our relationship with the cakes we create is artistic, personal; it is amazing that we sometimes … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged cake decoration, recipes, sugar, Wedding Cake | Leave a commentOk, I must confess – I am not at all objective about Pierre Herme. I am a huge fan – huge huge huge huge! I can read a recipe I have never seen before, and know that it is his … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged chocolate, cookbook, recipes | Leave a commentColette Peters has been around quite a while, and can be credited for starting the trend towards big, crazy, wildly-colored, wacky-shaped cakes – man they are something to behold! Her innovative and amusing gravity-defying cakes are definite attention-grabbers,
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged cake, cookbook, recipes, Wedding Cake | Leave a commentThis is a nice little how-to book for making marzipan figures, with illustrated step-by-step instructions. Amazon dates it as a 1950 printing; I think it is a bit later but the frontispiece doesn’t say. All of the work illustrated has … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged cake decoration, marzipan | Leave a comment‘An inspirational source book for sugarcraft artists’ is the subtitle of this, another excellent book by sugarwork’s most-published author. This is a brilliant technical book, beautiful to browse, with incredibly detailed instructions for almost 50 types of flowers. The contents … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged sugar flowers, Wedding Cake | Leave a commentSpago is an over-the-top Las Vegas restaurant (owned by Wolfgang Puck), so naturally all the desserts in this book are deliciously outrageous as well. I have made quite a few recipes from this book, and don’t have even a minor … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged buttermilk, chocolate, cookbook, lemon, recipes | Leave a comment