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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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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
197 of 205 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.
62 of 65 people found the following review helpful
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
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 5 months ago by MED
Take Head of the warnings!!!
I have to agree with the very first, well written review. This book is beautiful and if you already know what you're doing, it can offer some helpful ideas for the cakes that she... Read more
Published 7 months ago by CVBuzz
Incredible!!
What an amazing book!! Not only is the photography incredible, she makes attempting to make these cakes doable!! Read more
Published 10 months ago by WendyzNest
Cake catalog only.
There is very little explaining, no step by step instructions nor photos for the whole construction process. Mediocre baker who needs more help with the technical side.
Published 11 months ago by lorena t legaspy
Good book for experienced cake decorators
This is a great book for experienced cake decorators. If you are a novice, I wouldn't recommend it. Read more
Published 15 months ago by RPH
Not What I thought
I borrowed this from the library before I bought it. Thank Goodness. If is no way a learning book and way to much money for what is taught. I think the cakes are way to gaudy. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Sugar all Over
Great product.
I ordered this product to give as a present and wasn't sure it would arrive on time. I was plesantly surprised when it did. Read more
Published 20 months ago by B. Thompson
Fantastic!
This book is my day by day Cake decorating book!
Any doubt that I have I can find the answer inside.
I totally recommend....
Any doubt that I have I can find the answer inside.
I totally recommend....
Published 22 months ago by Patricia Nunes
Amazingly accomplished, awfully tacky
To be fair, I am not the target audience for this book, ie. a cake pro. I am an experienced home cake baker and avid reader of cookbooks on baking and decorating. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mme Verdurin
Amazing!
This book is amazing! So many great ideas. I love the included recipes. I highly recommend this book.
Published 22 months ago by Melisse Leitzke
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Knowing the number of servings is the first thing that determines the size of the cake. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
round foamcore board, fondant cutouts, royal icing dots, luster dust, square foamcore board, crooked cake, white modeling chocolate, cake carving, fondant pieces, luster paint, green fondant, yellow fondant, sharpened dowel, white fondant, brush embroidery, rolled fondant, sugar mold, veining tool, clay gun, pipe dots, tracing wheel, powdered colors, foamcore boards, piping bag, fantasy flowers Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Carve the Styrofoam New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Knowing the number of servings is the first thing that determines the size of the cake. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
round foamcore board, fondant cutouts, royal icing dots, luster dust, square foamcore board, crooked cake, white modeling chocolate, cake carving, fondant pieces, luster paint, green fondant, yellow fondant, sharpened dowel, white fondant, brush embroidery, rolled fondant, sugar mold, veining tool, clay gun, pipe dots, tracing wheel, powdered colors, foamcore boards, piping bag, fantasy flowers Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Carve the Styrofoam New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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