Fantastic Party Cakes: A Step-by-step Guide to Designing and Decorating Spectacular Party Cakes (Hardcover)

~ Mich Turner (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This book helps you make exquisitely decorated and presented sweet cakes which can be used as the central focal point for celebratory occasions, from children's parties to weddings - to beautiful presents for giving. These cakes can be personalised for someone special or tiered together to stunning visual effects. The ideas, designs and presentation of these individual cakes can be influenced by the recipient, theme of the event, type of celebratory occasion with numerous flavours, colours, styles, shapes and decorative displays to inspire. A single beautifully decorated and presented cake makes for a special gift whereas a chocolate stand filled with mouth-watering ganache bites proves tempting for more social gatherings.

About the Author

Mich Turner trained as a food scientist. She worked as a buyer at Harvey Nichols prior to founding Little Venice Cake Company in 1999, and together with her team has designed and produced numerous special cakes for celebrity, private and corporate occasions, including party cakes for Big Brother, X factor and GMTV as well as wedding cakes for a host of celebrities including Madonna and Pierce Brosnan. LVCC supplies M&S and Harrods as well as the UK's most prestigious hotels with special occasion cakes.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Jacqui Small LLP (October 15, 2007)
• ISBN-10: 1903221897
• ISBN-13: 978-1903221891
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #918,722 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book. Great Recipes. Great Instructions. Great Ideas, December 2, 2007

By	Shredbetty (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

I bought this book about two weeks ago and i think it's a terrific efforts on all counts.


The photographs are not only beautiful but useful. That is, the pictures of the finished product give you a real idea of what you are getting, and the technique pictures are helpful in putting an image to her instructions. Since some of the instructions might be a bit ambiguous without the pictures, the pictures really help.

The book is broken down in a nice way. The front of the book is where she gives the assembly methods for each of the cakes. The back of the book provides the recipes and the basic techniques. I like this for a couple of reasons. First, by separating the "process" from the recipes, you can substitute your own recipes if you like, without having to figure out what portion of the instruction is dedicated to preparation. For cooks who have a trusted repertoire of recipes they like to use and who buy these books for decorating ideas, this is a great format. The other reason it's nice is that the recipes are clearly not depending upon her decorating ideas, so if you have your own thoughts, you can snag her recipe only and run with it.

The cake recipes in the back of the book are really very good and can stand on their own. For instance, her sticky date cake works as well under a fondant covering as it does baked in a bundt pan and dusted with powdered sugar. Since generally I do not expect a decorating book to have good recipes in it, this is a nice perk. Personally, I don't care for her buttercream frosting (it's butter and 10X sugar); I prefer a swiss meringue buttercream, but otherwise, I thought the recipes were pretty darn good.

A couple of comments that may not be apparent from the book's overview. Many (if not most) of the cakes call for a layer of marzipan on the cake before dressing it with fondant. She recommends it to keep in the moisture of a cake and give it smooth finish. I cannot stand marzipan, so I prefer substitute with a thicker layer of buttercream. If you don't like marzipan and can't work with buttercream, then your cakes won't look quite as smooth. You can also put a layer of chocolate plastique on then, the recipe for which she puts in the back of the book, where she professes her own affinity for marzipan.

Second, many of her cakes are only 1 to 2 inches big. On the positive side, this makes them look like little gifts (in fact, for most of the cakes, she affixes actual ribbon to the bottom of them as a finishing touch). Putting 6 or so in a box as a gift or decorating individual plates with them really adds something to the presentation. Also, these are so much more sophisticated than cupcakes, because they have straight sides and are filled, just like a large cake. The downside is that you will have to leave considerably more time to complete them and you'll need to buy square cake pans and various sizes of round cookie cutters to cut out the cakes. The other downside is the waste. While you can use the leftover cake pieces to make little truffle balls or bread pudding, it's tough to use the leftover fondant once it touches frosting. An old Berkeley hippie like me really bristles at having to get rid of so much food, even if it is mostly sugar. Obviously, it has not stopped me from making the cakes in the book (you get addicted to people "OOOOHing" when you walk into a room), but it's something to consider. In some cases, you can simply make a bigger cake, but in others, where you are pouring warm ganache, for instance, you're not going to get as smooth a finish.

From a simplicity level, the cakes are not difficult, but all of them are time-consuming. An average cake requires you to (1) bake the cake; (2) fill the cake with buttercream or ganache; (3) cut out the cakes to make bite-sized pieces (4) cover the cakes with a glaze or buttercream (5) cover the cakes with marzipan (or chocolate plastique); (6) cover the cakes with a layer of fondant; (7) affix ribbon to each of them; (8) decorate the cake with royal icing; (9) embellish the royal icing or cakes with extras (edible metallic luster dust, roses, etc.).

I would buy the book again and I refer to it all the time. I think she did a great job (even if I don't like marzipan).

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Party Cakes, February 28, 2009

By	DianeSanDiego (San Diego) - See all my reviews

Mich Turner has two books 1) Fantastic party cakes and 2) Party cakes. Don't be riped off, they are the same book, just different covers. Though the book is wonderful, it seems like it should be illegal to sell the same book under two different names.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ugly cover, June 7, 2009

By	C. Douglas (The Netherlands) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I only hope that the content of this book is better than the cover. What a boring greyish messy picture. The cakes themselve look boring as well. Sorry, that's just what I think.