Lovable Character Cakes [Hardcover]

Debbie Brown (Author, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1999

Provides a full colour photograph of each finished cake, step-by-step colour photographs and clear instructions to guarantee that each cake is a complete success. There are amazing designs for all age ranges, including Bananas in pyjamas, Sesame Street, Fireman Sam, Wallace & Gromit, Rugrats, Dennis & Gnasher, and many more.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Merehurst (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853917273
• ISBN-13: 978-1853917271
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #987,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book for sugarcrafters, October 9, 2000

By 

Kimberly Chapman (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lovable Character Cakes (Hardcover)

I'm a novice sugarcrafter, but I really liked this book. The recipes were good (although some of the ingredients are hard to find outside of the UK), the characters are adorable (although I hadn't heard of a few because they're UK characters that haven't made it to North America), and the full-colour pictures are really well done.

Characters included: Fireman Sam, Flower Fairies, Wombles, My Little Pony, Dennis & Gnasher, Kipper, Garfield, Little Miss, Sonic, Brambly Hedge, Bananas in Pyjamas, Super Mario, Wallace and Gromit, Rugrats, Rupert, Babar, Sesame Street, and Barney.

I will give this warning to folks out there: these are not quick cakes. It can take a full day or two to decorate cakes like this, and you do need some sculpting skill (which I happen to have). That's not a fault of the book; that's the nature of detailed sugarcraft. This is an art, not a simple dessert. The cake is incidental.

But if you're willing to put in the time, this book should help you really delight kids and adults alike.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a fun book!, March 22, 2005

By 

Okie in Alaska (Alaska USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lovable Character Cakes (Hardcover)

I love this book! It has so many ideas and characters. I have three other books of Debbie's and enjoy them all.

This year for my daughter's birthday she requested the My Little Pony cake from the this book. I have done a little cake decorating and was not too intimidated by the directions. It does take time to do these and some modeling skill is needed but she does show you how to do it step by step so it's really not that difficult.

Take a look under customer images and I will load a pic of the finished cake. It doesn't look as good as hers but I am very proud of it and more importantly my daughter loved it!

Just an FYI, measurements are in metric for recipes.

20 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars FOR PROFESSIONAL DECORATORS/ ARTISTS ONLY!, March 17, 2000

By 

Jayne Hayden "Mochabeans" (Fennville, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lovable Character Cakes (Hardcover)

This book has some great ideas, but some of the cakes shown and described are actually character scenes, the base of which are the actual cakes, and the decorations are almost all sculptures made of fondant or marzipan. (I didn't even know what those were until lately.) Although I did admire Debbie Brown's talent and expertise, the techniques used and suggested were VERY intimidating. What ever happened to old fashioned butter cream frosting and decorator bags? I guess if you're into modeling clay, though, you could get some good ideas from this book.