Cake Decorating for the first time [Hardcover]

Jaynie Maxfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 2003 | Series: For The First Time

Delight family and friends with exquisitely decorated cakes for birthdays, dinner parties, or just a special treat for everyday. Through a simple question and answer format, with every procedure shown in color photographs, beginners will find out how to decorate without icing (just use a powdered sugar design); how to make chocolate curls and gumpaste lilies, roses, and other buds; how to prepare the drizzled chocolate icing known as ganache; and how to embellish tiered, bundt, and raspberry-filled cakes. Whip up fondant and see how to ice petit fours, and adorn them with coconut, nuts, and flowers. Instructions for using a pastry bag show how to write a greeting and create leaves, borders, and flowers. And, of course, the all-important wedding cake is here, too. While the focus is specifically on decoration, there are also basic cake and icing recipes to get you started.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

For 30 years Jaynie Maxfield has been testing recipes, experimenting with colours and textures, and delighting clients in America with her stunning, imaginative, often whimsical, and always delicious creations. Maxfieled's fine cakes and her company, Ambrosia Exquisite Wedding Cakes, have been featured in American Bride magazines.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Sterling/Chapelle (September 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402705387
• ISBN-13: 978-1402705380
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,372,599 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just like the title says., January 9, 2008

By 

B. Walsh (Selma, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cake Decorating for the first time (Paperback)

Cake Decorating for the 1st Time, is a neatly and creatively pieced together book. While the last few pages contains a colorful catalog of some of Jaynie's work, be aware this book's focus is far from wowing you with many pictures of cakes that are far beyond your skill level or with no instructions. Jaynie goes into detailed, step by step instructions in each chapter telling the novice just how to decorate a cake with simple and short, yet precise directions. Each step comes with near flawless color photography guiding the reader along. The meat of the book covers many tips and tricks used by the pros that can easily be mastered by us mere mortals; such as how to make fondant, ganache, how to decorate a bundt cake, or how to make gum paste as well as some suggestions as to what to do with each; while the first bit of the book goes over tools of the trade, again accompanied with photographs.

At the start of each chapter, the reader is provided with a list of ingredients and other supplies that will be needed to complete the chapter's project, which is what each chapter basically is.

Quite simple and concise, yet wonderfully decorative Cake Decorating really does make decorating your cake like the pro's a breeze. At this low price (at least at the time of this review) I'd recommend purchasing Cake Decorating for the 1st Time if you are new to cake decorating and looking to go the next mile.

Here's wishing you well on your baking endeavors.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good but needs some proofing, February 13, 2006

By 

Julie (PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cake Decorating for the first time (Paperback)

For most things, the instructions are clear and easy to follow- great for learning the basics. However, something is wrong with the chocolate cake recipe. It tells you add 1/4 CUP cinnamon (although the picture shows what looks like a 1 tsp) and no where in the directions does it tell you to add sugar. This is the only mistake I've found so far, but I haven't tried everything yet.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Cake Decorating for the first time, April 3, 2011

By 

Jauquetta ""bookaholic"" (San Jose, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cake Decorating for the first time (Paperback)

This book is grim! Well, I own all kinds of cake books and teach it as well. I am always on the look out for books to help my students. THIS IS A WASTE OF YOUR MONEY! It is as though it were done by several people. The cover photo is lovely, inside is very amaturish. The second cake picture in the book looks good; at first, then upon inspection, you see the sides are bowed. Fourth cake has real daisies just stuck into the cake willy-nilly. We all know how funky daisies smell (even though they are charming), do you want that taste in your frosting, do you really want to eat them? Yuck! The cake used in the table of contents is another grim job. It has these blobs with protruding points all over it. Her topsy-turvy cake is just plain awkward looking. Her cholate dipped strawberries are sad and awful. Then you see the cake on 103 and again, it's done by someone else; too well done to be hers! Never have I ever seen anyone spraying down a table and loading it up with powdered sugar to facilitate rolling out fondant. A great way to dry it out in a hurry. Buy Toba Garret's books or Nicolas Lodge's books, you will get real help and not learn bad habits.