Customer Reviews

The Essential Cake Decorating Guide (Thunder Bay Essential Cookbooks)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This would be an essential guide if you work with fondant, mold gumpaste flowers, or model paste figures. There are step-by-step photos about how to make a wide variety of flowers, how to use basic tips for piping, how to model a variety of animals and people, and how to marbelize fondant. There are some gorgeous fondant designs--my favorites are the stacked pastel square packages, a castle, a teddy bear picnic, and a white-on-white Christmas cake. There are also some wedding cake designs that are quite different from anything you'd find in a Wilton yearbook.

This guide also offers a great section on elegant gateaux, from custard meringue to tiramisu, cappuccino truffle, and pears with a spun toffee halo, all with beautiful pictures. It also includes basic cake recipes, as well as decorating tips with pastillage, run-outs or colorflow, and a variety of other techniques.

There are a number of recipes and designs to inspire a baker or any decorator with a flair for fondant. If you'd rather pipe your icing and use molded chocolate accents, it's not an essential guide to cake decorating for you . . . just nice to look through the pictures.

This book has some of everything in it. If you are interested in exploring methods beyond basic buttercream this is your book! Well written for the average beginner to cake decorating it gives you step by step instructions for so many decorating techniques. A great book for anyone attempting a new technique. You will learn enough to know whether or not you want to persue the technique further.

Debbie

I purchased this book as a gift for an aspiring cake decorator at the age of 15 - and, of course, had to browse through it first! Despite the huge collection of cake books I've managed to accumulate in the last few years, and the constant baking and recipe experimentations going on in my kitchen, I was captivated by how accessible, yet professional and versatile it is. Starting with all the basics, it goes in details and techniques, which are clearly explained and easy to follow. Loved it - I'm buying another one for my own cake decorating library.

One thing a beginner may find confusing is the fact that the recipes are listed in weight - read: you need a good kitchen scale. Weighing ingredients produces much more consistent results than using the popular cup/spoon measures, so don't be scared by this. Instead, befriend the kitchen scale to enjoy scrumptious cakes under the masterful decorations - which this book definitely guides through and helps achieve.

I really enjoy this book. It covers a wide range of techniques from basic piping to sculpting to beautiful life-like sugar flowers. Over half the book is devoted to cakes and there are some lovely unique ones as well as more traditional ones. There are cakes for just about every occasion and with difficulty ranging from beginner to professional. Cake chapters include Gateau, Children's Cakes, Christmas Cakes, Wedding Cakes, and Celebration Cakes. It even includes templates. My one complaint is that because it includes so much information, sometimes it doesn't include enough information on a specific technique. I would have liked for some of the instruction to be a little more detailed. Nevertheless, I would definitely recommend this book and would purchase it again. While some of the cakes and techniques may be too difficult for a beginner, there is so much good basic information in this book, that I think anyone would benefit from owning it. For the price, it is a real bargain. I have a lot of cake decorating books and it is one of my favorites.

I normally don't bother leaving reviews but I had to comment on this AWESOME book! It is like the "Bible" of cake decorating, especially for the new decorator. It covers everything and has great recipes too. It is a beautiful book, nice heavy slick pages and feels like you are holding a piece of ART! A great price here at Amazon, much more in the stores. ENJOY!

I have looked through countless cake decorating and sugar craft technique books, and this one is my favorite. It has the best combination of pictures, instructions, and challenges for the beginning to intermediate decorator.

The photos in the book are what make it so great. There are detailed steps from simple to ornate piping as well as beginning to advanced molding. A first chapter of cake recipes add the taste to the beauty. I gave it 4 stars because my talent for fondant/sugar paste renders a good portion of this book beyond my reach, but the photos give me hope of getting there.

I always loved to learn cake decorating techniques and this book is giving me everything I need to start, practice and even go more advance. It starts with the basics but it also has elaborated cake designs once you get more experience.
It give you all the basic cake recipes as well and the different choices for icings and fondants. It shows various techniques and gives you a great variety of cakes to practice. It even recommends what is a good cake to start if you are a beginner.
If you are looking for a book that get you started and moving forward with cake decorations I will definitely recommend it.

The book, while having the information i DID need, isn't the best overall. there's a lot of cake ideas but they're kind of strange. i guess that's just opinion though. It's a european book and all the ingredient directions are ...well they're nt american. not good for someone who doesn't want to take the time to convert.

But like i said, it had the info i needed so im happy!

I took this book out of the library and ended up buying it. I been doing cakes for many years and took at least 5 classes and still learned a lot from this book. I would recommend this to anyone interested in cake decorating.