Customer Reviews

Chocolate Cakes: 50 Great Cakes for Every Occasion

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is one of the best chocolate cake cookbooks ever. Book says 50 cakes, yet I only counted 48. If you count the Simple Chocolate Buttercream & Ganache and Whipped Ganache Recipes, it totals 50. No biggie, 48 cakes works for me. It's so easy to make the butter cream and chocolate ganache cake from scratch. Great recipes and photos of what the end result may look like. I have not made many, yet can't wait for that special occasion. Great coffee table book. Makes a great gift for the baker friend or family member. Here is the cake lineup:

1) Milk Chocolate Chip Chocolate Loaf
2) Pound of Chocolate Cake
3) Peppermint Patty Cake
4) Hot Chocolate Pudding Cake
5) Raspberries on the Bottom Cake
6) S'mores Cake
7) Chocolate Sheet Cake with Chocolate Truffle Glaze
8) Chocolate Marzipan Crunch Cake
9) Mint Chocolate Crunch Ice Cream Cake
10) Milk Chocolate Haystack Ice Cream Loaf
11) Raspberry and White Chocolate Truffle Cake
12) Double Glazed Espresso and Chocolate Cake
13) Chocolate & Peanut Butter Mousse Cake
14) Chinese Five Spice Chocolate Chiffon Cake
15) Chocolate hazelnut Sour Cream Cake
16) Chocolate Swirl Chocolate Pound Cake
17) Banana Butterscotch Upside Down Chocolate Cake
18 Chocolate Whiskey Cake
19) Chocolate Apricot Pudding Cake with Chocolate Toffee Sauce
20) Pear and Chocolate Crumb Cake
21) Chocolate Pavlova
22) Brandies Chocolate Cheesecake with Chocolate Dipped Figs
23) Chocolate Ganache Cake (My FAVORITE)
24) Mocha Whipped Cream Truffle Cake
25) The New Brooklyn Chocolate Blackout Cake
26) Chocolate Zebra Cake
27) Chocolate Layer Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting and Glazed Orange Peel
28) Chocolate Toffee Crunch Cake
29) Salted Caramel and Pecan Chocolate Cake
30) Ginger Chocolate Cake Roll
31) Chocolate Covered Banana Cake
32) Lemon Coconut White Chocolate Cake
33) Deep Dish White Chocolate Peaches & Cream Cake
34) Hazelnut Crunch & Chocolate Cream Cake
35) Coffee Toffee Ice Cream Sandwich Cake
36) Affogato Ice Cream Cake
37) Fudge on Fudge Raspberry Ice Cream Cake
38) Spicy Cranberry & White Chocolate Cake
39) Strawberry, Orange, and White Chocolate Cake
40) Happy Chocolate Cake
41) Raspberry Forest Cake
42) Milk Chocolate Chip Fudge Cupcakes
43) Triple Chocolate Zuccotto
44) Heart's Desire White Mocha Tiramisu
45) Chocolate Croquembouche
46) Chocolate Yule Log
47) Devil's Food Cake
48) White Chocolate Cake

I have way too many cookbooks and am in the process of getting rid of many of them. This book, with only 50 recipes, had to be really good to make the cut and earn shelf space.

The first thing I noticed was recipes written for both American and British users. Measurements are in cups and grams; temperatures in Fahrenheit, Celsius, and gas mark; and ingredient lists include the British terms.

The instructions are clear and would not be intimidating to a newer baker. Cakes range from the very simple (one that is almost like a cake brownie) to party-worthy (the cover cake, which is actually very easy to make). Most list prep time (mixing, filling, icing) time as 15 minutes or so; the cover recipe shows 30 minutes and I didn't see anything that took longer. There are numerous mouthwatering pictures.

Update: I have made three of the recipes so far: salted caramel and pecan chocolate cake, chocolate blackout cake (the cover recipe), and chocolate and peanut butter mousse cake. All were wonderful. However, what I thought was the prep time is actually called "mixing time". That means you start with everything melted, measured and ready. Adding the time to get everything to this stage doubled the time it took me. They were still easy to make. Reading through any recipe is important so you aren't blindsided like I was when components need to be refrigerated for 5 hours before using (the pudding in the blackout cake). The recipes do not take excessive time and the results are more than worth it.

The accompanying text is neither snooty nor cutesy. The tone is that of an experienced friend teaching you how to make the cake while in your own kitchen. If you liked Julia Child's style, you will like Ms. Klivans'. I appreciated her including how long the cakes can be stored and frequently including options for different baking pan sizes.

Most importantly, the recipes are things that I actually will make. Unlike the cookbooks I am getting rid of, where there may be one or two recipes I am interested in, this book has only a few that I am not. This is not only going on my bookshelf, it is also going on my list of good books for gifts. I have a British friend who I know would love a copy!

Highly recommended.

I really enjoy cookbooks. Not only to cook from, but to read and imagine eating the recipe results even when I don't cook them. I found "Chocolate Cakes" to be satisfying on both counts. It's a nice sized book, about 9" by 8" with 143 glossy pages, it's well-photographed (there isn't a photo of every recipe, but in my view that's not a reason to downgrade) and pleasingly designed. The recipes are delicious too. When I first opened the book I was thinking "how many chocolate cake recipes can there really be?" but each recipe is distinct and not just a variation on the same recipe with a different add-in. The recipes have clear directions, a little on the extensive if you're an experienced baker. I give it four "yums" out of five for the creativity of the recipes. My favorite recipe so far is the Ginger-chocolate cake roll.

One caveat to be aware of... the author calls for cake pans of standard dimensions but with high sides (2-inch) such as ones from gourmet cookshops, NOT the standard bakware most of us have in our kitchens, so if you don't pay attention to that, you're going to have a major mess in your oven!

Another warning, I baked the Milk Chocolate Chip-Chocolate Loaf today, and the recipe called for 3 ounces of unsweetened chocolate in the ingredient list. The first step in the instructions was to melt the chocolate, and after multiple readings, I am sure it isn't me, the directions simply NEVER tell you when to add the melted chocolate to the batter. I guessed, but am pretty certain I guessed wrong because my batter had bits of resolidified chocolate throughout.

The above error calls into question the accuracy of all of the recipes, who knows what else could be missing. So I'm not sure I want to bake from it again, as delicious as the recipes may seem.

Usually with a very specialized cookbook like this, I might end up using it for one or two recipes but then find the rest overly elaborate or otherwise unuseful. How many chocolate cake recipes do you need?

What I liked about this book was that it had a good variety of appealing recipes, ranging from simple to complicated, and with suggestions for varying levels of fancy to suit the occasion. The discussion of various chocolate decorations was especially useful, and the basic Devil's Food layer cake recipe is DEFINITELY a keeper - one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever had, let alone made. I appreciated too that it was provided in two different quantities, to fit different pans.

I also liked that weight equivalents were given for most ingredients. With my digital scale, it made measuring and mixing faster and easier - not so many measuring cups to wash after, either.

The photography of the various cakes was beautiful, and the book is on a lovely heavy paper.

What I didn't like was that the book is beautifully rendered - but the recipe directions are in very tiny print. And since I have excellent close vision and love tiny details, if I find it too small, that is saying something. The tiny print made the book hard to read and it made following a recipe far more challenging, because I'd have to reread the whole thing to find my place again. What's odd is that for the most part there was plenty of space on the page to accommodate a larger font for the procedure.

I also would have liked more discussion about chocolate. I was left wondering why her recipes generally call for both unsweetened chocolate and cocoa powder. I think she would have done her readers a service to explain how you can substitute semi-sweet chocolate for unsweetened in a pinch (by noting the percentage of sugar and adding chocolate and decreasing sugar to compensate).

I am surprised how useful I have found this book. I have made three cakes so far, and have at least 5 more I am excited to try. I have also gotten more comfortable with a classy presentation, rather than just relying on it being delicious. If you buy this book, be prepared to go through a LOT of chocolate.

First and foremost I'm a chocoholic. I'm an avid home baker and enjoy making things from scratch that taste superior AND wind up being less expensive than store-bought prepared foods. I enjoy the process of creating things. I have a collection of over 350 cookbooks. I have been disappointed in the past when a book all about baking desserts has just one or two chocolate cake recipes and just one chocolate frosting recipe. I didn't get that, given that so many bakeries produce fancy chocolate cakes, there is a lot more than Devil's Food Cake out there, and so where were the recipes for the home baker?



I was thrilled to receive a review copy of this cookbook from the Amazon Vine program, sight unseen. However, I was immediately disappointed in the graphical layout of this cookbook. I'm really let down by the publisher's design team. Yes, the full-color photographs by Ann Stratton are gorgeous (they remind me of the photos in Martha Stewart Living). However, the photos are almost too large and take up a full page. It's perfect for skimming as a coffee table book but that's not what I was looking for. It is great that nearly every recipe has a photo and that it's right on the page with the recipe (unlike the older cookbooks with the color photos in the center of the book). These photos tempt us and entice us. Bravo for that.



The page size (8 x 8 inches) combined with full page color photos and 50 recipes in 144 pages means that something has to give, something must suffer, and that is the TEXT SIZE. The text is too small! Is this four point font? This is crazy! And before you accuse me of needing reading glasses, I just had my vision checked and I still do not need even the weakest reading glasses prescription! Six to eight paragraphs of tiny text all jammed in is not easy to read when one is busy whipping up the ingredients! I want this to be a practical book that I can actually use! The introductory paragraph for each cake has useful information but the very slim font style chosen for that and done in (chocolate) brown ink is also not the easiest on my eyes.



These recipes can get pretty complicated which does NOT scare me off but please, if we have to go through six or more 200 word paragraphs with critical steps, we need to be able to read them easily and quickly! First and foremost a cookbook must be practical and usable.



A technical note which some will like to know, all the recipes use standard measurements and also have metric system weight and volume measurements and the cooking temperatures also supply the metric and a gas mark number.



So far I've tried three recipes. I tried the Milk Chocolate Chip-Chocolate Loaf which was easy and fast (although I substituted bittersweet chocolate for the milk so it was super chocolate-y in a delicious way). However that recipe contained an ERROR. We are told to melt unsweetened chocolate but the recipe does not state what to do with it, when to add it, so I used my common sense. I wonder if other errors exist. I made the Simple Chocolate Buttercream frosting (she gives just this one which contains confectioner's sugar and coffee), I prefer a little more complicated recipe using granulated sugar and my family prefers no coffee. It would have been nice to have both the complex and the simple recipe in this book. Lastly I made the Devil's Food Cake which was delicious and moister than other recipes I've tried.



I have a well-stocked pantry so I can whip these up basically at any time with what I have on hand. The only ingredient I don't regularly have at home is heavy cream which is a staple in a good amount of these recipes, all with the ganache frosting and some cakes with fillings. This is unlike some other cookbooks that require buying niche products that are hard to find.



Frugal bakers take note I compared the Devil's Food Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting with the same cake from a local bakery. I estimate my cost was $7-$8 for ingredients bought at retail price versus $35. What a bargain to bake from scratch can be! (The chocolate is the most expensive part.) I recommend American made GHIRADELLI chocolate sold as chips or in baking squares which comes in a variety of types including unsweetened. They are easily found at a local grocery store or are available on Amazon.com. While I'd love to bake with more gourmet chocolate I have some budgetary constraints. Everyone who tastes my baked goods raves about how good they taste: all I do is follow the recipe, use that brand of chocolate and pure vanilla extract. Honestly that's all I do (and following the recipes is not rocket science).



My children and I have flagged many recipes we can't wait to try. Chocolate lovers will be tempted by these lovely photographs. I encourage home bakers to forge ahead with courage, as it's likely that some of these recipes are more complicated than you may be used to baking. It will be worth it, believe me!



About my star rating,I give this 4 stars = I Like It, although I love the many recipes at a low cost I struggled too much with the too-small font to give this book 5 stars (sorry author, blame your publisher's graphic design deparement for the book's shape/size and the font size issues). If I could divide the rating it would be 5 stars ("I Love It") for the recipes and 1 star ("I Hate It") for the font and 5 stars for the photographs. So that averages out to 4 stars.

This chocolate cake cookbook looks better on a coffee table than it performs in the kitchen. The villains here are DC Typography and designer Anne Donnard for producing a cookbook that is as easy to read as a prescription medicine bottle. Recipe titles are in muted colors. Detailed instructions appear to be in 9-point type, arranged in a series of long paragraphs. Striped backgrounds sit behind the ingredient lists, serving only to create a fuzzy look that makes reading a chore.

And don't get me started regarding the editing. I checked my copy twice, wondering if they slipped me an advance reader copy instead of the finished version.

I expected a color photo to accompany each recipe, considering there are only 50 contained within. No luck there either. Few of the photos "pop." For example, the Chocolate Pavola photo on page 74 shows a chocolate meringue lined with chocolate and filled with whipped cream and strawberries. The overhead photo flattens out the cake and a dusting of powdered sugar on the strawberries only dulls the contrast of colors.

I tried using the book in the kitchen. The book can stand on its spine but the awkward layout and small type prevented me from easily referring back to the recipe.

On a positive note, there are enough chocolate cake variations to satisfy everyone. The Chocolate Whiskey Cake on page 66 and the Happy Chocolate Cake on page 123 (Devil's Food cake layers and chocolate buttercream!) are next on my list.

In summary, this book suffers greatly from poor design. Cookbooks should be user friendly and this book is not with small type, muted colors and no step-by-step illustrations. Rating: two stars.

Every time I look through this book, I gain weight. The pictures are so compelling and the recipes are so enticing that I have to have chocolate cake. It is impossible to thumb through pictures of 50 great cakes as beautiful as these cakes without salivating!

This book has every chocolate cake recipe anybody would ever need and almost every kind of chocolate cake I've ever imagined along with a few more. (No collards though!)

As the description says, the chef "guides even the least confident baker to a cocoa-dusted kitchen and full-on chocolate ecstasy."

My only problem with the book is that most of us don't need cake, even though we need chocolate. But the title says "for every occasion." I feel an occasion coming on now!

On the whole, this is a near-perfect cookbook. The recipes are well explained, and the introductory chapter on chocolate and cooking with chocolate. The recipe selection is well balanced in both complexity and variety: some very rich double layered frosted; simpler single layer frosted cakes; loaf, chiffon, or bundt cakes; even a triffle.

There are traditional and comfort recipes as well as more contemporary chocolate creations. White chocolate recipes are included, as well as unusual combinations like chocolate and ginger or chocolate and Chinese spices, and even technically non-cakes such as an ice cream loaf concoction of coconut, chocolate and coffee ice creams. The level of difficulty and time requirements are also varied. The instructions were clearly and sequentially explained in the recipe I selected to try and, as far as I can see, this is the norm for all the recipes I've read. (When it comes to chocolate, I enjoy even reading about it!)

There is really something for everyone and for every occasion, as the title suggests. Best of all, it is totally non-snobbish. Sure, you can cook with imported chocolates if you prefer, but they aren't specifically called for in the recipes. I had all the equipment and ingredients on hand and had made the delicious "Pound of Chocolate" cake (rich but not elaborate) within hours of getting the cookbook. This brings me to my only complaint: not all recipes are photographed.

The recipe I made was one of those that was photographed, and it was the picture rather than the title that tempted me to try it. But not every recipe is pictured and, in an 153-page book with 50 recipes, they could have been, even if not all of them full-page. It isn't economy, the entire book is in color, but lots of pages and space is dedicated to decorative and overly-busy color graphics, sweeps, swirls, and curlicues. It would have been more practical (and equally appealing) to use that space for recipe-related photos or illustrations.

What a tempting title. It's stylishly printed too. The instructions are easy to read through. Fifty cakes are more than you're probably going to make for just yourself in a year, but it's fun to flip through the book and figure out which recipes to try out. I did find it curious that not all the cakes have pictures of them. Isn't it more motivating to see the finished product in a nice colorful picture next to the recipe? Also, it kinda prevents the book from becoming a nice coffee table book. If one goal of the publisher was for the book to end up on a coffee table and not just on a recipe shelf, then the pictures might look better with higher contrast more glossy pages. Bottom line, more pictures needed...

As for the recipes themselves, they're written out in sentences. So, it's easy to read though, but might be harder to go back and forth between baking and reading the next step. This will be your preference. However, I thought the font could've been larger, to make it easier to quickly go back and forth. The text is standard size text like a regular book.

We have tried two recipes so far (couldn't write a review without trying out the actual product!), the pound of chocolate cake (similar to a big brownie) and the Reese's peanut butter Devil's food cake (that thing is huge!). We'd probably give them 3-4 stars overall. My wife is a pretty good cook/baker so I think she's made better. She often will hunt for recipes off of the epicurious website vetted by other bakers in a rating system.

Chocolate Cakes: 50 Great Cakes for Every Occasion focuses primarily on American home style recipes. By this I mean big, soft cakes with frosting, rather than flat or multi-layered European style cakes. Old favorites such as devil's food cake mingle with slightly more complicated and exotic recipes such as coffee-toffee ice cream sandwich cake and chocolate Yule log. Even for the more complicated recipes, however, the baker is spared the professional-chef idea that everyone just happens to have several kinds each of sponge layers, mousses, and butter creams on hand that can quickly be assembled into a cake. The instructions are detailed and most are accompanied by color photos. I wouldn't recommend any of these recipes for dieters or health food enthusiasts, but otherwise, happy baking!