A Baker's Field Guide to Cupcakes: Deliciously Decorated Crowd Pleasers for Parties and Holidays (Spiral-bound)

by Dede Wilson (Author)
Key Phrases: glazed cupcakes, fondant glaze, white paper liners, Cupcake Tips, Italian Meringue Buttercream, Poured Fondant Glaze (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
From kid-friendly recipes, such as Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes (Fourth of July) and Hairy Spider Cupcakes (Halloween), to more sophisticated adult recipes, such as Champagne Cupcakes (New Year’s Eve) and Irish Coffee Cupcakes (St. Patrick’s Day), A Baker’s Field Guide to Cupcakes has the perfect recipe for every occasion. Each of the 60 easy-to-make recipes is accompanied by a beautiful photograph and organized by holiday in calendar order, including recipes for special occasions such as weddings, birthdays, graduations, baby showers, office parties, picnics, and more. And with 15 master recipes for batters and frostings on which the recipes are built, each batch of perfectly delectable cupcakes can be personalized according to taste.

About the Author
Dede Wilson has written several cookbooks including Truffles and the Baker’s Field Guide series, which includes Holiday Candy & Confections, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Christmas Cookies. A contributing editor to Bon Appetit, Wilson has worked professionally for more than 20 years as a restaurant chef, bakery owner, caterer, recipe developer, spokesperson, and frequent television guest. She is a host of The Holiday Table, a PBS cooking show.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 164 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Common Press (August 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558323236
• ISBN-13: 978-1558323230
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #72,047 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for the beginner, February 12, 2008

By	ThomasJ - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Baker's Field Guide to Cupcakes: Deliciously Decorated Crowd Pleasers for Parties and Holidays (Spiral-bound)

I don't know what that one-star reviewer is talking about. I had never baked cupcakes before. Bought this book and immediately began baking cupcakes and they turned out wonderful. It's not going to make you an expert decorator overnight, but the basic master recipes are solid, and the methodology is top notch. Very light, fluffy batter. Very tasty. Highly recommended to anyone just starting out and looking for a solid foundation.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy ideas!, August 23, 2007

By	Melissa Baxter (Mesa, AZ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of fun in a little package, March 28, 2008

By	Chellie (Phoenixville, PA, USA) - See all my reviews

This small book is packed with a fantastic assortment of cupcake decorating ideas. I found that a couple were way too involved and time consuming for most home bakers, but for the vast majority of the recipes this book is perfect to dress up a holiday or birthday (or just a rainy weekend!). Overall this is a great addition to any baker's bookshelf!