Customer Reviews

Special Recipes from the Charleston Cake Lady

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

 

 

I feel as though Mrs. Pregnall is a very good and close friend of mine, as well as a personal mentor. But, I have never met her and wish that I could. Her recipes from both books are used in my endeavors to please my family and friends with the very best confections possible. Anyone can produce these wonderful treats and relish in the compliments. Teresa is an inspiration to me!

I just received this new book on Friday--I also have the first book she wrote--Treasured Recipes--my goal is to make all of the cakes in both books. I currently have the Brown sugar nut in the freezer--we thought it was quite good. So far our favorite is the Chocolate Pound cake--using the Dutch chocolate and sour cream. I have also made the chocolate chip cake--for some reason my chocolate chips tended to settle to the bottom of the pan--not sure if I folded them well enough.

We also made the Charleston chews---you must keep this in an airtight container or they will dry out quickly.

I am going to start making the cakes in the second book this week. I personally prefer a pound cake that is quite heavy--and I have found that all of her cakes are quite light--probably due to the cake mix. All of them are very good and a delight to make.

If you have any experience with the cakes--personal likes and dislikes--I would love to read about them.

I am currently in Charleston and am stunned that not one person that I have asked all over town has ever heard of this dear lady! I just purchased her cookbook and intend to buy the other. She is a dieing breed. I went away to college 20 years ago and never moved back to the south until this year. Thanks to Mrs Pregnall (as she is my senior) I am looking forward to establishing my own group of fans for reproducing her fabulous looking, down-home, gentil and uniquely southern creations. If you are listening Mrs Pregnall, I am earnestly hoping to meet you while here and have you to personally autogragh my book. I am thankful that ladies like you are still around and that you will continue to encourage your craft, which I'm sure has very little to do with the actual ingredients that you put inside the cake....like mostly love. May the Lord bless you and keep you!

This lovely little book is the companion to "Treasured Recipes from the Charleston Cake Lady". I was so intrigued by my sucesses using her first book, that I decided to give this one a try. Good decision! Once again Teresa offers charming commentary on her beloved dessert recipes. I loved the German Chocolate Pound Cake that combines cake ingredients and icing together for a moist, rich, delicious, and easy to make unfrosted bundt cake. Her book also includes recipes for muffins, cookies and other desserts that I'm anxious to try. I recommend this charming book to anyone who loves baking or eating great desserts.

Anyone considering buying this book should be aware that a large number of its recipes call for prepared items such as cake mixes, 7up, canned chocolate syrup, canned frosting, canned pineapple and mandarin oranges, candy bars, frozen whipped topping, pudding mix, and prepared graham cracker pie crust.

I have the first book written by Teresa Pregnall and hesitated to buy this one. I was wrong - this one is filled with wonderful recipes! It has become one of my favorite cookbooks, and is now dogeared and stained. Most of the recipes in this book are more "homemade" than the first book, and Mrs Pregnall's stories are always entertaining. You should buy it now, while it's still in print!

I am an experienced baker and so I tried two recipes that are from scratch (no cake mixes.) Both of them (7-Up cake and Sumama's Buttermilk cake) flopped. Common problem was very dense, gummy texture even after cakes tested "done." Both cakes rose in the oven but then sunk after cooling. Seems to be not enough leavening in the recipes. I didn't try any of the recipes with cake mixes. I would recommend "Cake Mix Doctor" if you want cakes that start with a mix as its base. For cakes completely from scratch I'll stick with "The Cake Bible." They must not have very high standards in Charleston if bakeries can get away with using cake mixes for their "best-selling" recipes! Good thing my sister bought this book at a used book sale (obviously the original owner didn't think much of the book.) Just reading the amounts of sugar in the recipes was enough to make my teeth ache!

Serious bakers and anyone concerned about preservatives and artificial ingredients might be interested to know that many of the recipes in this book call for items such as:

boxed cake mix
packaged frosting
canned chocolate syrup
7UP
brownie mix
prepared pie crust
pudding mix
frozen whipped topping

I wish I'd carefully read the book description, which does mention that "some even use cake mixes as their starting point."

That said, there are some creative combinations and the author does seem like an awfully nice person. It's just not a book for everyone.