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The Cake Bible: member book reviews

(4 reviews)

Before I had this book, I could not bake a cake from scratch. Now I can use recipes other than in this book, and use Rose Levy Beranbaum's techniques to make excellent cakes. That said, I do use cake recipes from other books, but The Cake Bible is my standby.

My son's classmates invariably have birthday parties where the parents buy cakes from the grocery store. I do not have the nerve to rush up to them and say, "You could have had an actually -good- cake for the party if you had taken a few minutes to bake one yourself--it's not hard!" It really isn't difficult, and that's in large part to Ms. Beranbaum's applying the results of her painstaking research, and her excellent way of explaining how to combine everything.

I would recommend every single recipe I have tried, though I have three favorites that I would recommend especially: the Buttermilk Country Cake, the Cordon Rose Banana Cake and the Cordon Rose Cream Cheesecake. I can't bestow enough superlatives on those, and you can see separate recipe reviews for each of those.

One nice touch is that you can correspond with the author, who is on both Twitter (@flourrose) and Facebook.

(edited 3rd February 2010) report

Although this an American book, with all the little problems that can entail, it's a beauty. Godd recipes and a lot of really helpful commentary, tips and advice.

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This is my favorite cookbook. I learned to bake beautiful cakes and silky fillings from this book. All of the recipes are very well tested and they are all delicious. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about baking cakes, everything is explained in detail. There is also a section for professionals and passionate amateurs. My book is well worn and loved.

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I have used many of the recipes in this book. I high recommend any recipe and if you follow the directions the results will be perfect.

I have used the Perfect Pound Cake and the White Spice Pound Cake for filling a rabbit mold for Easter.

It baked beautifully, and with skewers inserted before baking in the ears held up under the "pressure" of icing a standing bunny.

I love the Cordon Rose Banana Cake because of its delicate light texture and the flavor is wonderful.

The Sour Cream Coffee Cake is at once, light yet dense and again, flavor filled.

Her recipes for Neo-Classic Buttercream, Mousseline Buttercream and White Chocolate Butttercream work beautifully every time.

The Cordon Rose Raspberry Conserve is time consuming but SO VERY WORTH IT. It is an intensely FRESH raspberry flavored sauce that is absolutely devine - I used it to flavor chocolate ganache sub. Bonney Doon Vineyard Rasp. Wine for Chambord and also as a sauce for plain cheesecake.

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