The Boozy Baker: 75 Recipes for Spirited Sweets [Paperback]

Lucy Baker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2010

The Boozy Baker is a fun collection of recipes for cakes, pies, tarts, cookies, and more, all of which contain a healthy dose of alcohol. Home bakers will recognize classic treats such as profiteroles, peach cobbler, and spiced Bundt cake, and be delighted by the ways they are reinvented with chocolate stout, almond liqueur, and even Jägermeister. Featuring more than 30 full-color photographs, the book also includes sidebars throughout with instructions for preparing funky cocktails that add a punchy compliment to many of the recipes.

Whether you are a pastry perfectionist or a one-bowl beginner, a bonafide mixologist or just looking for a way to polish off a few dusty bottles, this cookbook is sure to become a favorite, its pages splattered with chocolate, sprinkled with sugar, and garnished with a twist.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Patricia Helding, Founder, Fat Witch Bakery, and author of Fat Witch Brownies
"This gem of a cookbook should be nestled right between your baking canisters and a bottle of your favorite hooch. Don't reach for one without the other."

Rick Rodgers, author of Thanksgiving 101 and many other cookbooks
"Lucy Baker has created a spirited collection of luscious recipes that are likely to make a dedicated teetotaller make an exception when it comes to dessert.  Lucy knows what many pastry chefs have known for years--that a splash of booze can make or break a dessert.  Cheers!"

Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, authors of over seventeen cookbooks, including Ham: An Obsession with the Hindquarter
"Finally, someone has solved that age-old riddle: you can indeed have your cake and drink it, too. Lucy Baker’s concoctions are the perfect brew—sweet, spirited, and downright fun. Our only warning: she doesn’t include a recipe for aspirin."

Pichet Ong, author of The Sweet Spot
“Of the many baking cookbooks in my stack, this one definitely takes the cake. The concept is utterly original, filled with irresistible photos, and inspiring recipes that will surely incite the inner child—and adult—among us dessert lovers and bakers alike.”

 

The Edge- Boston Herald.com, 8/5/10

“Baker has compiled a swoon-worthy collection of 75 original dessert recipes that use alcohol plus 25 cocktail recipes.” 

Pauline Baughman, Multnomah Cty. Lib., Portland, OR for Library Journal’s Xpress Review
“… one part mixology and three parts baking... Featuring drinks and a broad variety of desserts, this grown-up baker's delight is a good choice for libraries with limited budgets.”

Pauline Baughman, Multnomah Cty. Lib., Portland, OR Library Journal’s Xpress Review July 2010
“In her first cookbook, appropriately named food writer and contributing columnist for SeriousEats.com Baker gives lovers of desserts and spirits a book that is one part mixology and three parts baking. She includes 25 recipes for drinks alongside 75 recipes for cakes, pies, cookies, and spoon desserts; each is a classic or original dessert that is infused with an alcohol-spirits, liqueurs, wine, or beer. … Verdict Featuring drinks and a broad variety of desserts, this grown-up baker's delight is a good choice for libraries with limited budgets.”

Wine Enthusiast Magazine, December 2010
“It’s hard to resist a cupcake—nevermind one with alcohol—making the aptly named author’s book a tempting treat. Baker’s cute cookbook offers a combination of 75 booze-fueled recipes (like Pineapple-Tequila Cake and Cuba Libre Brownies), along with 25 bonus cocktail concoctions.”

Arlington Advocate, 11/26/10
“… this lovely little book combines sweets with spirits — an irresistible combination and the perfect way to end a meal… Have fun discovering what a splash of the hard stuff can do to a classic treat.“

IMBIBE magazine, May/June 2011
“An intoxicatingly fun book with dozens of inspiring recipes and adorable photographs.”

About the Author

Lucy Baker is a food writer and recipe tester, and a contributing columnist for SeriousEats.com and the site’s recipes editor. Baker has written articles for numerous publications, both online and in print, including Edible Brooklyn, Publishers Weekly, Popular Mechanics, McSweeney’s, and Time Out New York. She lives in Brooklyn.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Running Press (June 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762438029
• ISBN-13: 978-0762438020
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #55 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Drinks & Beverages > Spirits
  • #69 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking > Desserts

More About the Author

Lucy Baker is a food writer, freelance editor, and recipe tester. She is a contributing columnist for SeriousEats.com, and has written articles for numerous publications including Edible Brooklyn, Publishers Weekly, Popular Mechanics, and Time Out New York. She was the recipe tester for The Veselka Cookbook, and a co-writer for The Fat Witch Brownie Book. For three years, she worked as an assistant cookbook editor at HarperCollins Publishers, and she holds an MFA in creative writing. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars High-Spirited Sweets, July 5, 2010

By 

S. D. Fischer (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Boozy Baker: 75 Recipes for Spirited Sweets (Paperback)

The Boozy Baker: 75 Recipes for Spirited Sweets features 75 recipes for desserts and another 25 for cocktail recipes with a lot of high-spirited commentary in between.

The author provides a description of baking ingredients followed by an introduction to 43 spirits (from amaretto to wine, alphabetically). Many of the liquor descriptions include the prevalent flavor which would be helpful to anyone not familiar with it. For example, amaretto is flavored with almonds and frangelico with hazelnuts. This could help cooks avoid flavors they don't like (and spending money for liqueurs they won't like).

I found it very helpful that the author provides a brief commentary for each recipe, and offers an alternate flavor or two for many of them. For example, you can substitute dark rum or brandy for the bourbon in the Bourbon Apple Crisp or berry-flavored vodka for the tequila in the Pink Elephant Milkshakes.

Most of the desserts require just a tablespoon or two of alcohol, so you could use a mini-bottle to try the dessert before committing to buying a larger bottle. The main exceptions are recipes using beer or wine which tend to call for a larger quantity (since the flavors aren't usually as intense as liqueurs). For instance, the champagne cake calls for 2/3 cup of Champagne plus an additional three tablespoons for the buttercream frosting.

Recipes in the Have Your Cake and Drink It Too chapter include:
* Fig and Orange Cake with Ouzo Glaze
* Green Tea and Banana Cake with Sake Syrup
* Molten Chocolate Orange Cake
* Plum Biercake
* Coffee Maple Walnut Cake
* Devilish Angel Food Cake
* Individual Raspberry-Almond Cheesecakes
* "Bottoms Up" Pineapple-Tequila Cake
* Brandied Pear Cake with White Chocolate Chunks
* Pumpkin Pomegranate Layer Cake
* Jagermeister and Honey Bundt Cake
* Champagne Layer Cake
* Lemon Layer Cake with Campari Frosting
* Southern Comfort Red Velvet Cake
* Sachertorte
* "Can't Say Nocello" Carrot Cake Cupcakes
* Lavender Honey-Nut Cupcakes

Recipes in the next chapter, Pies and Tarts A La Booze, include:
* Hard Cider Apple Pie
* Cherry Pie with Scotch and Walnut Crumble
* Preppy Pink and Green Pie
* Blueberry Rum Pie
* Coconut-Sweet Potato Pie
* Margarita Meringue Pie
* Cranberry, Chocolate, and Pecan Pie
* Irish Cream Pie
* Strawberry-Port Linzertorte
* Nightcap Tart
* Grasshopper Tart with Chocolate Chips
* Red Wine Caramel Tart
* Plum and Hazelnut Tart
* Rustic Fig Galette

The next chapter, Raiding the Bar and the Cookie Jar, includes the following recipes:
* Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Nuts and a Nip
* "Old-Fashioned" Snickerdoodles
* Double Limoncello Poppy Seed Cookies
* Peanut Butter and Port Thumbprints
* Dirty Girl Scout Cookies
* Banana-Chocolate Chip Biscotti
* Black and White Russian Cookies
* Pistachio-Coconut Madeleines
* Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Orange Liqueur Cream
* Dark and Stormy Hermits with Raisins and Rum
* Apricot Brandy Bars
* Sherried Date Crumble Bars with Almonds and Orange
* Oak Bars
* Raspberry Cheesecake Swirl Brownies
* Cuba Libre Brownies

The next chapter, Sticky, Saucy, and Spiked: Spoon Desserts, features recipes for:
* Banana-Rum-Raisin Rice Pudding
* Chocolate Pots de Booze
* Schnappy Butterscotch Pudding with Pretzel Brittle
* Vin Santo-Vanilla Panna Cotta with Apricot Compote
* Muscat and Melon Mousse
* Sidecar Souffle
* Berry Chocolate Mousse
* Hazelnut Tiramisu
* Donut Bread Pudding with Tennessee Whiskey Sauce
* Pink Elephant Milkshakes
* Bourbon-Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies
* Lemon-Cherry Semifreddo with Pistachios
* Port Ice Cream Sundaes
* Beer Profiteroles with Chocolate-Beer Sauce

The following chapter, Lush and Fruity Desserts, includes recipes for:
* Pisco-Roasted Pineapple
* Boozy Baked Apples
* Blackberry Chocolate Romanoff
* Tropical Fruit Foster
* Saucy Prunes with Cinnamon and Honey
* Pear and Red Grape Turnovers
* Nectarine-Raspberry Dutch Baby
* Drunken Pear Crisps
* Bourbon Apple Crisp
* Rhubarb-Rose Crisp
* Winter Berry Gratin
* Blueberry-Port Slump with Almond Dumplings
* Gingery Peach Cobbler
* Strawberry and Honey Shortcake
* Chocolate Pavlova with Cranberry-Orange Sauce

Drink recipes are featured throughout the book with the desserts they would compliment. For example, the recipe for "Orange Up" is featured with Molten Chocolate Orange Cake. Drink recipes include:
* Orange Up
* Brandied Pear Belinis
* Honey Bear Cocktail
* Southern Peach
* Lemon Campari Fizz
* Almond Iced Tea
* Cherry Swizzle
* Spiced Blueberry Mojito
* Beer Margaritas
* Nightcap
* Double Mint Fizz
* Cinnamon Old Fashioned
* Ruby Flip
* Dirty Girl Scout
* Clearly Cosmo
* Dark and Stormy Punch
* Butterscotch Hot Chocolate
* Orange Sidecar
* Brown Velvet
* Pisco Punch
* Pete's Hot Buttered Rum
* Tropical Hurricanes
* White Wine Sangria
* Maple Leaf
* Ginger Highball

The index includes the liqueurs and other booze so if you have leftover rum and want to use it in a dessert, you can quickly determine your options (there are 11, including beverages). You can also look up the type of dessert (such as pies or puddings).

The author includes the formulas for metric conversions (ounces to grams, pounds to grams, cups to liters, and Farenheit to Centigrade). She also provides quick reference charts of metric equivalents for volume (from 1/8 teaspoon to 1 gallon), oven temperatures, length (1/4 inch to 15 inches), and weight (1 ounce to 1 pound) as well as for butter (2 teaspoons to ½ pound).

My only suggestion for improvement would have been to include more photos of the finished desserts. Only 28 of the 75 dessert recipes (and 5 of the 25 drink recipes) included photos (which were full page, color and well-styled).

This was a fun read and I am looking forward to baking several of the treats to liven up my next office potluck.

If you like this book, you might want to check out Booze Cakes: Confections Spiked With Spirits, Wine, and Beer which has a similar fun tone and concentrates on cakes infused with liquor.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Already tried one recipe. Can't wait to try more., June 8, 2010

By 

Sanford Jopek "Sandy" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Boozy Baker: 75 Recipes for Spirited Sweets (Paperback)

I always have trouble thinking of new things to bring to parties and pot lucks (coleslaw?) (pirates booty?), and The Boozy Baker will be my savior. It's a beautiful new paperback with tons of creative desserts all laced with the Good Stuff. Let me say I am not an experienced baker (experienced drinker, yes), but the author provides really clear, specific instructions so it was much easier than I thought. So far, since it's strawberry season here on the East coast, I made the Strawberry Port Linzertorte and brought it to my friend's backyard bbq. That thing was gone in 5 minutes! Port seems to be such a random thing to put into sweets, especially a summery fruit tart, but it really works. Added a depth of flavor without overwhelming or tasting alcoholic at all. I'm really excited to try a few more, especially the Gingery Peach Cobbler (provided I can save some of my Domaine de Canton until peach season.) I highly recommend this book to both experienced bakers and people like me who just love to eat and drink.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not exactly common ingredients, November 19, 2010

By 

obscuringritchie - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Boozy Baker: 75 Recipes for Spirited Sweets (Paperback)

I bought this book shortly after I had started used the cook book "Booze Cakes." I really love Booze Cakes, but have found that some of the portions were suggest on ingredients (particularly the booze) can be somewhat exaggerated. However, I liked the idea of the book so much that I thought I would try this one and see if I faired better.

While I have to say that the few recipe's I've done have turned out extremely well, I do have one major issue with this book. A lot of the liquor that they include in their recipes are not exactly common things to have on hand. They tend more towards flavoring alcohols like schnapps or creme de menthe.

The recipes that call for what I consider to be the standards like rum, vodka, or whiskey, seem to be few and far between. This means that you might get stuck with a lot of leftovers in the liquor cabinet if you chose to make something from it.