I am trying to think of a nice way to say this, but I can’t sugar-coat it – this book sucks.  It is a compilation of average recipes, all very sugary, without any great imagination.  I made the caramel apples recipe – reluctantly using evaporated milk, as it specified – yuk – it should have called for condensed – anyway the apples tasted like old milk.  Phooey.

The Crispie Squares recipe you can get off the  Rice Crispies box.  I don’t understand why most American recipes for marshmallows don’t use egg whites – seems bizarre to me – but I thought I would give it a try from this book.  Blah.  Again supreme suckage.

I really wonder if maybe the writer was researching the Party Drink book simultaneously, or even bothered to make most of these recipes.  Maybe .. just maybe .. if you had a party of undiscerning kids that would be happy just getting over-amped on sugar, this would be useful book.  I most certainly do not recommend it, and will never use it again.

This book doesn’t quite cut it for me – it is not one I would ever turn to, as it isn’t practically useful.  The Wilton series of books (The Wilton Way of Cake Decorating)  – are far more detailed, a much better resource, and staggeringly cheap on Amazon to boot!  Find them instead of this competent, but unnecessary, guidebook.

Served at Sooke Harbour house Friday September 26 2003.

It is easy to be dismissive of things when you don’t understand them, I guess; now -as I get more and more into my cakemaking – books like these prove capable of adding a little something-something to my repertoire, and are a welcome part of my library.

This out-of-print British book, part of the  ‘The Art of Sugarcraft’ series, is a good resource, with step-by-step instructions of dozens of flowers in varied arrangements. Roses, orchids, carnations, fuschia, daisies, in corsages, vases, or bouquets; silk, butter cream, or sugar; piped, pulled, or plunger-cut – all explained carefully.

All in all, a useable reference work for cake designers.

That said, there are quite a few useful bits in this book, that don’t pop up in similar books – templates for cameos, monograms, and baby boots; some good ideas for marzipan models; and lots of different scripts and fonts for letters.  The sugar flower section isn’t very impressive, and overall this isn’t a very strongly themed cake book, as it seems to wander all over the map…

This book has some uses, but not many; and won’t be a ‘must-have’ for any collection; so don’t go out of your way to pick it up.

This was a gift from my mentor, George Wagner, who taught me some of these techniques using poured sugar. Written in German, English, and French, the book is very detailed, with lots of pictures and instructions, yielding phenomenal and inspirational results.  Every time I open this book I just go, ‘Wow!’ – such brilliant advanced work, the result of decades of commitment and practice.  Notter is a ‘natural’, one of those true phenomenae that comes along every few decades, creating beautiful work to dumbfound us all.  I would love to attend his school, but I just can’t afford it.

Here is an example of his masterwork – Madame de Pompadour.  Look at the details of her renaissance-era dress, completely constructed of blown and pulled sugar!

Everything is explained in fastidious detail – this Madame de Pompadour, for example, takes eight full pages of detailed directions, with 17 color photographs.  The book includes a lot of detailed analysis, such as a section on the human face – Notter gives us a grid of how to make a face, then shows lots of easy ways to make the face look different, in very practical fashion.

Absolutely invaluable to anyone interested in the arts of sugar work – my total recommendation!

I haven’t tried the recipes, and possibly never will; they are doubtlessly quite good. It just that this book isn’t about a to-do list, rather it is about imagination, passion, energy, art; a study of one person’s focus, concentration, and inspiration.  We follow along as she envisions her creations, and then manifests them, merging art and pastry to create wonderful presentations, divine cakes, beautiful statements…

Ok, I admit it is total food porn; the photographs are achingly beautiful, and the book is a symphony of design and character.  Still, when I study it clear-eyed, her techniques are really cool, and practical, and inspirational, with great insight.  For any aspiring cake designer, this is a marvelous book by a superb talent, fueled by a great love for her work.  Recommended completely.

Unfortunately most of the designs are hopelessly corny, or outdated.  This book collects dust on my bookshelf – I don’t find it very useful, or inspiring, and of course won’t recommend it to you.