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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Product Description
"Whether blowing out birthday candles or cutting the first piece at a wedding, there are no cakes better suited to wishing and dreaming than Colette’s enchanting creations."
--Donna Ferrari, Food & Wine Director, BRIDE’S Magazine
"Whether blowing out birthday candles or cutting the first piece at a wedding, there are no cakes better suited to wishing and dreaming than Colette’s enchanting creations."
--Donna Ferrari, Food & Wine Director, BRIDE’S Magazine
"Colette is an inspired artist who follows a road never-before traveled. Her cakes are amusing and loveable, and they defy gravity. Colette’s creations awaken the childlike spirit in all of us."
--Jacques Torres
"Colette’s innovative style and approach are vivid and unique. Her work is an inspiration! This is a brilliant and innovative composition of edible art!"
--Ewald Notter, Notter
International School of Confectionary Arts
Cake Decorating Tips from Cakes to Dream On
 "Comfort Food" Pillow Cake |  Aqua Applique |  Colorful Cloisonné |
Review
“World-famous cake designer, Colette Peters, presents a vibrant collection of distinctive creations to inspire home cake makers of all abilities.” (Cakes & Sugarcraft, Autumn 2007)
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202 of 210 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
`Cakes to Dream On', subtitled `A Master Class in Decorating' by major American pastry artist and teacher, Colette Peters has the ambition to be an advanced class in multi-tiered cake decorating. This ambition is not to be taken lightly, as there is very little in this book for the amateur home / bake sale cook. This is not to say that the book is not chocked full of great ideas, if you already know a lot about how to work with royal icing, fondant, marzipan, and multi-layered cakes. I have made a two and three layered birthday cake in my day, but these creations are entirely out of my league.
The book consists of four general parts. The first part is the first chapter on `How to Make a Decorated Cake', which covers materials to use as the base of a multi-layered cake, who to reinforce the layers, and how to make crooked cakes on purpose. For those few of you out there who actually make tiered cakes, this is one of the more useful topics, although I confess much of it is pretty common sensical.
The second part of the book is the next eight (8) chapters, which are almost all alike in being simply collections of decorated cakes done by the author and her company with instructions on how to make these cakes and their decorations. The instructions assume the person making the cake has access to a lot of specialized tools, materials, and specialized training. One decorated cake chosen at random requires:
Fondant
Tracing Wheel
Gumpaste Ribbon Roses and Leaves
Royal Icing dots on wires (oh my)
Luster dust
Royal Icing
Gumpaste Pearls
Three foamboard circles
Foamboard base
Gumpaste curly hearts
Lemon Extract
Piping bag and #2 tip
Oval shaped dragees
Paintbrush
Descriptions of how to construct several of the cakes include printed templates for preparing some of the designs on the cake. I find these particularly unhelpful, as they require one to have an enlarging photocopier handy to enlarge the diagrams on heavy paper from which they can be cut and used as a template. Now I am certain that a commercial pastry shop would have such a copier, so this reinforces my impression that this book is really meant primarily as an idea source for other pastry professionals.
The third section is recipes for cakes and icings. One is likely to find as good or better recipes for these things in books by Maida Heatter, Nick Malgieri, or Rose Levy Beranbaum. If your primary interest is in baking birthday cakes or bakesale cakes, I strongly suggest you get Beranbaum's `The Cake Bible' (which happened to win best cookbook of the year from the IACP a few years back) instead of investing in this book which works much better as coffee table decoration than as a manual for cake baking. Beranbaum includes such things as candy and nut embellishments, food processor fondant, rolled fondant, chocolate fondant, pastillage, rose modeling paste, crystal flowers, as well as her extensive recipes for cake, fillings, and icings.
The fourth section has a title suggesting that now the `master class' in techniques really begins. This chapter includes short sections on which one could easily write a whole book, such as:
Mixing paste colors into Fondant
Painting with Powdered Colors
Airbrushing a cake
Fondant Decorations
Gumpaste Decorations
Piping Techniques
Run-in Sugar
Brush Embroidery
Making Edible Crystal Beads
Sugar Beads
Basic Techniques
- Dividing a Round Cake evenly for Decorating
- Sculpting a Cake
- Getting Cakes from Here to There
Quick Reference Guide to Tools and Ingredients
Without a doubt, Ms. Peters' cakes are knockouts and her photographs and techniques are chocked full of ideas for professionals. Jacques Torres and Ewald Notter are not going to endorse just anyone's book. It is just that her book is simply not very well organized to teach people with modest skills and objectives.
So, if your objective is to daydream or to open a professional decorated cake store, this book is for you. If you simply want to improve your cake baking and decorating skills a bit, get Beranbaum's book and an inexpensive pamphlet on cake decorating from Wilton at your nearest hobby mart.
The book consists of four general parts. The first part is the first chapter on `How to Make a Decorated Cake', which covers materials to use as the base of a multi-layered cake, who to reinforce the layers, and how to make crooked cakes on purpose. For those few of you out there who actually make tiered cakes, this is one of the more useful topics, although I confess much of it is pretty common sensical.
The second part of the book is the next eight (8) chapters, which are almost all alike in being simply collections of decorated cakes done by the author and her company with instructions on how to make these cakes and their decorations. The instructions assume the person making the cake has access to a lot of specialized tools, materials, and specialized training. One decorated cake chosen at random requires:
Fondant
Tracing Wheel
Gumpaste Ribbon Roses and Leaves
Royal Icing dots on wires (oh my)
Luster dust
Royal Icing
Gumpaste Pearls
Three foamboard circles
Foamboard base
Gumpaste curly hearts
Lemon Extract
Piping bag and #2 tip
Oval shaped dragees
Paintbrush
Descriptions of how to construct several of the cakes include printed templates for preparing some of the designs on the cake. I find these particularly unhelpful, as they require one to have an enlarging photocopier handy to enlarge the diagrams on heavy paper from which they can be cut and used as a template. Now I am certain that a commercial pastry shop would have such a copier, so this reinforces my impression that this book is really meant primarily as an idea source for other pastry professionals.
The third section is recipes for cakes and icings. One is likely to find as good or better recipes for these things in books by Maida Heatter, Nick Malgieri, or Rose Levy Beranbaum. If your primary interest is in baking birthday cakes or bakesale cakes, I strongly suggest you get Beranbaum's `The Cake Bible' (which happened to win best cookbook of the year from the IACP a few years back) instead of investing in this book which works much better as coffee table decoration than as a manual for cake baking. Beranbaum includes such things as candy and nut embellishments, food processor fondant, rolled fondant, chocolate fondant, pastillage, rose modeling paste, crystal flowers, as well as her extensive recipes for cake, fillings, and icings.
The fourth section has a title suggesting that now the `master class' in techniques really begins. This chapter includes short sections on which one could easily write a whole book, such as:
Mixing paste colors into Fondant
Painting with Powdered Colors
Airbrushing a cake
Fondant Decorations
Gumpaste Decorations
Piping Techniques
Run-in Sugar
Brush Embroidery
Making Edible Crystal Beads
Sugar Beads
Basic Techniques
- Dividing a Round Cake evenly for Decorating
- Sculpting a Cake
- Getting Cakes from Here to There
Quick Reference Guide to Tools and Ingredients
Without a doubt, Ms. Peters' cakes are knockouts and her photographs and techniques are chocked full of ideas for professionals. Jacques Torres and Ewald Notter are not going to endorse just anyone's book. It is just that her book is simply not very well organized to teach people with modest skills and objectives.
So, if your objective is to daydream or to open a professional decorated cake store, this book is for you. If you simply want to improve your cake baking and decorating skills a bit, get Beranbaum's book and an inexpensive pamphlet on cake decorating from Wilton at your nearest hobby mart.
63 of 66 people found the following review helpful
By L. Cortesi
Format:Hardcover
I took this class with Colette Peters this summer, and this book now makes sense to me. It is really for those of us who already know how to decorate cakes using fondant and gumpaste. This is much more about the engineering of these crooked cakes, and techniques. Definately not for the beginner.
47 of 49 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I am a (very) amateur cake decorator. I have been using Ms. Peters' books to make cakes for about 5 years, now. I have always been impressed at how she is able to show you in her books exactly how to create one of her cakes. I feel very successful creating cakes that I never could without the help of these books. This latest is no exception. I will never rise to the level of Ms. Peters' artistry, but she gives me something to strive for. And whenever I attempt to recreate one of her cakes, I get raves (I just don't show them the photo of how the cake is SUPPOSED to look).
These books are so much fun, and I have learned a lot from them without ever having taken a class.
These books are so much fun, and I have learned a lot from them without ever having taken a class.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
new take on cakes
can not wait to try to making one of these cakes.they all look so amazing can not pick which one to try first.
Published 22 days ago by Christina Castillo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cakes to Dream on
OH WOW..this has got to been the best ever! Love to bake professionally and this book makes it all so easy
Published 26 days ago by Brendakperkins
5.0 out of 5 stars
Creative to the max!
I bought this and another book for my wife and we all absolutely love the designs and the genius of the author/cake designer
Published 1 month ago by Amjed Shacker
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cakes to Dream on
Love the service and how perfect the book was, no a single page out of place. Would order again if I had too.
Published 1 month ago by Dolores A. Menchaca
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty advanced stuff
The instructions are good, BUT you have to have some idea what you're doing; the instructions aren't great for beginners. The recipes are good but are not my favorite. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Ashley N. Mentlik
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gift for my mom
My mother loves to bake and decorate cakes.
This book help her gain more ideas and techniques for her cakes.
This book help her gain more ideas and techniques for her cakes.
Published 3 months ago by Courtney
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very fancy cakes
The pictures in this book are awesome. There isnt enough detailed instructions on how to support these cakes, or how to make the matching stand stand or were to get the matching... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Kim Holt
5.0 out of 5 stars
artwork
Looking forward to using the ideas inside!! I have some events coming up and this book will come in handy!!
Published 5 months ago by karen plinio
2.0 out of 5 stars
Get Your Masters degree before getting this one....
I was SO excited to find a book that would teach me some more difficult techniques in cake decorating.... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Kathy Meyer
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good for display.
I bought this book for my collection and to display. I have a lot of cookbooks and this is BY FAR the best looking. Read more
Published 17 months ago by MED
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