Reddit mentions: The best cake baking books

Be warned, wedding cakes cost a fortune for a reason, they actually can take up to several days to prepare and are a stressful nightmare! This might be hard on a bride to be days before her wedding... but if you are determined I can offer you what my amateur (albeit serious amateur) hands have learned...


As for flavours, whatever you go with make sure it's palatable to your guests. I think the nicest I had was a dark chocolate moist batter with a handmade sweet black cherry icing in the middle.


Fondant is usually peeled away and tossed out. I have found one brand that is pretty nice though but you will pay through the nose for it -- Fondarific. It's much less fake tasting and has a longer work time than the "industry standard" Satin Ice, and you can roll it pretty thin so the icing isn't overpowering the yummy cake batter. Fondarific will also let you order little samples of all their flavours IIRC so you can try it for yourself! When most people think of nasty fondant they are probably thinking of Wilton but don't ever use that stuff for anything people will actually eat, use it to cover a dummy cake. You can also make your own VERY yummy home made marshmallow fondant, this one takes some practice though so I advise doing a couple cakes with it before the actual wedding cake >.<


As well, if you plan on using fondant, research a good buttercream or marzipan recipe (this is what goes on the cake but underneath the fondant). Marzipan seems to be more commonly used in Europe than over here in North America, and have a couple goes at it first. Buttercream is the safer bet I think but Marzipan can be quite nice (I personally like just plain almonds, caster and confectioner sugar, the egg whites and a few drops of vanilla, nice and simple and none of those crazy extra ingredients I see in marzipan sometimes like Brandy) Pick your adhesive wisely as well, most folks go with piping jelly or strained apricot jelly (need something to stick the marzipan to the cake and then the fondant to the marzipan right?!)


Also with fondant, get some fondant smoothers, you'll get a cleaner edge to your cakes with them. Some people like the pre made 90 degree ones to get the edge but I prefer the plain old flat ones and a little more elbow grease. You can use these on the marzipan too if you go the marzipan route.


Lastly with fondant and marzipan, if you're going to colour it I really advise a good gel paste colouring and not grocery store bought liquid drops. My brand of preference is Americolor - Soft Gel Paste Colours. It's good stuff, add it in small amounts and knead before adding more.


If you plan on doing it in Royal Icing (which can be made at home with a little work and looks just as lovely as fondant for covering the cake) I'd invest in a good flat edged scraper tool to get that nice smoothness, in a pinch I've sterilized a broad plastic ruler and used that >.< ... but something flat with a good edge should do. Also, piping bags, be they greaseproof paper home made ones or store bought plastic + tips, they're good to learn how to use. Piping takes some practice though but if your dream cake doesn't have any piped designs then no worries! Ribbon and some fresh flowers are lovely and enough for a lot of folks.


I REALLY recommend doing a small simple single tier cake before you attempt multiple tiers but when you are ready Annabelle explains covering and stacking wedding cakes best (imho):

1. http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-marzipan-a-wedding-cake
   and
   
   
2. http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-decorate-a-wedding-cake-2
   
   Vids in that order.
   
   
   Also... I would advise googling videos one subject at a time, like... "covering cake in fondant", there's a few ways to do it and you need to find what you think will work best for you and try it. Make notes about it if you have to, and keep notes from the various subjects that you've googled handy as you try your first cake. If you dislike a method, write that in and change it for next time.
   
   A couple last things to remember. Beware temperature. I've seen a buttercream fondant cake just fall apart in the heat before, and sticking fondant covered cake in the fridge can do icky things to it too. Not something you'd think about usually but be careful. As well, don't be hasty to decorate your cake as soon as it's out of the oven. Let it cool on a cooling rack until room temp (I don't remove the greaseproof paper yet either), and then a further chill in the fridge is also a good idea for a lot of cakes (covered of course). You want the darned thing to settle and be firm enough before you start fussing with it.
   
   I am sorry this post is so long, think it might be better for you that it is though? You absolutely can do your own cake! But patience and practice are a must. Practice is also going to cost money which is at a premium for couples getting married.
   
   If you want to try some fun recipes with fondant and royal icing work I highly recommend Peggy Porschen's Simply Spectacular Cakes at http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Spectacular-Cakes-Beautiful-Irresistible/dp/0307464555/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332486603&sr=8-1 . Everything I have done out of here has been GORGEOUS and tasted pretty awesome. Ms. Porschen is qualified seven ways to sunday and this book breaks down beautiful cake making (and cookies) for big and small cakes in a way that almost anyone can learn from.
   
   /endramble and good luck

I have a 5-year old son who has been breast fed/vegan since the womb. You are in some sense lucky it's an allergy, because the social aspects are the hardest. Being able to say "I'm Allergic" is MUCH easier than "I'm vegan".

Some things my son likes:

• Anything made with seitan (Stir fry typically): Fry some seitan in olive oil (Iron pan adds some more taste), then mix with veggies such as bok Choy, Kale, etc., as well as tamari or soy sauce. Once cooked, add toasted sesame oil.
  
• Chinese food in general. Other than egg, if it's vegetarian, it's typically vegan.
  
• Peanut butter and jelly (Though we rotate through various nut butters such as Almond, Hazelnut, Walnut, etc.)
  
• My son loves pancakes and waffles. I have found one way to help make it a little healthier is to substitute flax oil for butter when serving (but NOT when cooking, since flax goes rancid instantly when cooked!)
  
• Easy French Toast: Put bread in toaster - Serve with Earth Balance, Flax oil, nut butters, and maple syrup. Amazingly, my son likes this just as much as something that takes forever to prepare.
  
• Tofu scramble is a hit, and easy. Basically add some oil to a pan, dump in some tofu, pour in about a teaspoon of garlic salt, and another teaspoon of turmeric and you have the base. Add veggies or soysauge, mushrooms, potatoes, etc. to customize to your kids taste.
  
• Baked Sweet Potato - AKA "Spiderman Food".
  
• Amy's Rice Macaroni mixed with hash browns is awesome. By it'self it's pretty good macaroni, but mixed is 100x better. Add some soysauge to add even more flavor.
  
  If you are doing a birthday party, or otherwise need desserts, let me HIGHLY recommend the book, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. You will absolutely not miss dairy from this book, I promise!
  
  

• • Off topic stuff below - -
    
    I didn't pay attention to the OP's question before I started to make a list of non-fresh items. But since I already did so, below are some of my kids favorites anyway:
    
    

• Amy's soups in general are mostly vegan and tasty, and conveniently say "Vegan" in the ingredients making it easy to shop.
  
• Daiya cheese - especially the wedges. Nonvegans even like this cheese.
  
• Gimme Lean Sausage is a hit.
  
• ZenSoy Soy Pudding is another favorite
  
• Hemp Milk - especially vanilla and chocolate is a staple. The Brand Tempt is our favorite, though Manitoba Harvest is also excellent, but maybe harder to find (though you can buy online.)
  
• Tempt also has some awesome ice-cream bars.
  
  Hope this helps.
  

Firstly: Good luck! You're doing well already, and you'll get to where you want to be in time.

Have you got any vegan recipe books? Easy Vegan and 500 Vegan Dishes both have fairly simple but tasty dishes. I don't think they tend to need very exotic ingredients.

Easy Vegan:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegan-Cookery-Ryland-Peters-Small/dp/1845979583

500 Vegan Dishes:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/500-Vegan-Dishes-Deborah-Gray/dp/1845434161

And do you feel that vegan meat alternatives aren't as easy to buy, or maybe aren't as good, as the vegetarian ones? You say that you eat the Linda McCartney pies, so I guess you've seen other products in that range too. But Fry's Vegetarian is great, and I've recently heard really good things about Vegusto meat alternatives - their Farmhouse sausages in particular, but also their burgers (you'll probably have to order off their website though).

Fry's Vegetarian:
http://www.frysvegetarian.co.uk/

Vegusto:
http://vegusto.co.uk/

I guess you probably know about Holland and Barrett stores? They're good for getting some of the more exotic ingredients, but they also have meat alternatives and such. Also, they have a few microwaveable meals - pasties and that sort of thing - which are quite nice. You can also often get microwaveable burritos, and probably other similar things, in the frozen section.

Also here are a couple of easy meals I like:

(1) Buy refried beans (http://www.oldelpaso.co.uk/products/refried-beans/975cedfc-f177-4eda-a689-192c4ec346af/) and put it in tacos (along with corn, lettuce, tomato, and whatever else you like). (The refried beans are seriously good.)

(2) You can make falafel easily (http://www.alfez.com/moroccan_lebanese_cuisine/products/all-products/falafel.html) and eat it with houmous, because everyone likes houmous.

If you're mainly looking for sweeter things:
Co-operative custard donuts and jam donuts are both apparently vegan (and delicious). You can buy vegan ice cream in the frozen section of Holland and Barrett (and maybe at Tesco or other supermarkets) - Swedish Glace is pretty incredible, and most people say it's as good as ordinary ice cream. You can also get vegan cheesecake in Holland and Barrett, again in the frozen section. Also buy Lotus Caramelised Biscuit Spread and put it on Tesco Oaties (well, that's a combination I like, but I guess you could mix it up...).

Or if you wanted to bake, these are three really good books:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegan-Cupcakes-Take-Over-World/dp/1569242739

http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Pie-Sky-Out-This-World/dp/0738212741

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegan-Cookies-Invade-Your-Cookie/dp/160094048X

(The cookie book is by far the easiest, and uses the least exotic ingredients. On the other end of the spectrum is the pie book, which uses things like coconut oil and agar agar - the first of which you can get at Holland and Barrett but the second of which you'd have to order online.)

Also, just by the way: 'What Fat Vegans Eat', a facebook page, gives you a constant stream of delicious-looking vegan food.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/194567900666819/?fref=nf

Cheap but amazing:

The Cake Bible (an amazing recipe book, I have never found a book I like better. Every recipe is amazing, and she'll look forward to trying to get through all of them (she wont) and she'll have a recipe for everyone no matter how obscure their favorites are!) http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0688044026/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1417196517&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40

Piping bags (I like to go to local restaurant shops, like B&W, and get theirs. Personally, I feel the bigger the better for the bags because they make less of a mess, and who cares if you don't fill it all the way?! Just make sure the tips fit the bags (think nuts and bolts fitting each other))

A nice rolling pin (in case she wants to try fondant)

Nice baking mats

Nice cooling racks

All shapes and sizes of cake pans!

Consider a cake stand/travel ware? Something simple and classy so she can use it for everything.

Cute apron

Cute oven mits

Hell, get her a bakers hat. Even if she pretends not to like it she'll wear it when you aren't home!

Stencil cutters are always nice

Sprinkles/food coloring/ingredients

*If you need more ideas I got you!

Expensive gifts:


*Kitchenaid (amazing piece of equipment for everything we do)

Fondant roller

Decorating classes

Huge amount of cake flour (it's not cheap)

*An egg share with a local farm?

If you need more I got you!!


Edit: a pastry blender! http://www.google.com/shopping/product/4899924592550857697?lsf=seller:7815,store:894053743391794104&prds=oid:13439777354151137999&hl=en-US&mcid=PS_googlepla_nonbrand_kitchenfoodprep_&adpos=1o6&creative=39230282269&device=m&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=CjwKEAiA1-CjBRDOhIr_-vPDvQYSJAB48SmEazBJPLQZKYqkB-qNL1ojbaDZ5mYHild4xHPlkHfa0RoCY2Hw_wcB

Hooray! I love cookbooks!

• Forest Feast is great for those veggies & entertaining
  
  
• A subscription to Cook's Illustrated
  
  
• A solid cookbook - Smitten Kitchen
  
  
• Anything by Yotam Ottolenghi but I particularly LOVE Plenty.
  
  
• The god of pastry Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery
  
  
• David Chang's momofuku, his pastry chef Christina Tosi's milk bar,or a subscription to his magazine Lucky Peach
  
  I don't know if they're into making ice cream, but it's really easy and fun:
  Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, The Perfect Scoop, and Ample Hills are all great.

35 grams of salt :)

In baking one should ALWAYS weigh ingredients, the most important tool in a bakeshop is a scale. Your final product will taste the EXACT same every time if everything is weighed. For home use you just need a little scale, I use this little guy at home.

Most home bakers hate weighing eggs and find it ridiculous so just keep this simple rule in mind. 1 large egg = 50g. So 2 large eggs for every 100g needed.

The reason for weighing literally everything over using cups, teaspoons and other volumetric amounts is definitely well worth reading into as well. Pretty much every book worth its weight will be done in with weights instead of volume and will have a section explaining why. But essentially with baking its chemistry, everything is done to cause a specific reaction and that reaction is done to a certain degree in the end product.


EDIT: If you want some cookbooks I made a post previously about what I recommend for people depending on what they are into making, so I'll post that up in here

Bibles

• Baking Bible
  
• Cake Bible
  
• The Pie and Pastry Bible
  
  Bread
  
  
• Beard on Bread
  
• Bread
  
• Bread Baker's Apprentice
  
• Flour Water Salt Yeast
  
• Josey Baker Bread (I just genuinely like this guy tho lol)
  
• All of the Tartine books (just get all of them, Chad is the man when it comes to bread)
  
  Caramels/Candys/Ice Cream
  
  
• Ample hills creamery
  
• Artisan caramels
  
• Chocolates & Confections
  
• The Sweet Book of Candy Making
  
• Sweet Cream And Sugar Cones
  
  Jack of all trades
  
  
• Baked Occasions
  
• Baker's four seasons
  
• Flour
  
• Flour Too
  
• Model Bakery Cookbook
  
• Momofuku Milk Bar
  
• Ovenly
  
  Pastry/Pies
  
  
• The Art of French Pastry (this is one of my all time favorites)
  
• Creative Eclairs (whole set is great for beginners to intermediates)
  
• First Prize Pies
  
  Textbooks
  
  
• Baking and pastry
  
• On Baking
  
  
  I'm sure I am leaving out a bunch of great ones but if I had to suggest just 1 to anyone it would DEFINITELY be The Art of French Pastry. Best for somebody who has done basics already and looking to try a little more. Even as a professional baker I find myself coming back and just reading the little spots like how he burned himself on his caramel. Great, great book!

The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart is my number one recommendation for bread. Im also a big fan of Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. His first book, Tartine is also great btw. I would skip out on Tartine Book No.3 though which seems to have too many errors for my liking. Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish is also one of the better bread baking books out there.

For general baking, im a big fan of Bouchon Bakery. And one book that will surely help you improve as a baker and I highly recommend you cook through is The Art of French Pastry by Jacquy Pfeiffer. Its like a pastry arts class in a book. I am actually cooking my way through this. If you have a serious sweet tooth, Momofoku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi will probably be what you're looking for. And as someone else recommended, the Baked books are all great.

For cakes, it has to be The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Bernanbaum. This is probably the best cake book of all time. I would supplement this with Toba Garrett's Professional Cake Decorating book.

For pies, my favorites are Four and Twenty Blackbirds and Hoosier Mama. One that I haven't tried but am planning to buy is First Prize Pies. If the book lives up to their reputation, it should be an excellent book.

For plated, more ambitious desserts, I like Payard Desserts. I refer to this when I want to impress company.

NTA!!! I'm the best baker in my family (can't cook to save my life, but my macarons are the shit), and I've had a copy of 'The Cake Mix Doctor' on my shelf for literal decades. Sometimes you don't have time for a 3-tiered wedding cake, or you don't have space, or it's a Tuesday, I dunno. But altering a box cake is just taking out the "boring" bits, like the salt, baking soda, etc, and leaving the fun stuff, like what you did. It's still baking, and it's still good, and Kudos on you for winning a prize for it!

​

For the curious out there:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0761117199?tag=amz-mkt-chr-us-20&ascsubtag=1ba00-01000-a0049-win10-other-nomod-us000-pcomp-feature-scomp-wm-5&ref=aa_scomp

One of the best things you can do is to train your palate. This way, when you taste something, you can figure out what's in it, and make it yourself if you want. It will also help you to learn what goes with what. For example, dill goes with salmon, lemon with raspberries, tomato with onion and cilantro or basil, etc. That kind of knowledge will help you to invent your own recipes which are catered directly to your tastes.

If you really want to know what makes food do what it does, I would recommend the following books:

• For general culinary science, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee. It is one of the best books ever written which actually explains why things happen in the kitchen.
  
• I usually buy a copy of Shirley O. Corriher's CookWise for anyone who says they want to learn to cook. It is perfect for beginners and has lots of very useful recipes. If you watch Alton Brown's "Good Eats", you will see Ms. (or is is Dr.?) Corriher explaining some of the science.
  
• If you want to learn how to bake incredible cake, Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible is indispensable, same for her Bread Bible and Pie and Pastry Bible. I rarely fuck up a cake now, and if I do, I know why. And her cake recipes are brilliant. From learning to make her chocolate butter cake, I also discovered the secret to making the BEST cup of chocolate ever. The aforementioned Ms. Corriher's BakeWise is also excellent for beginners.
  
• The Larousse Gastronomique is probably the most famous book on cuisine. It's an encyclopedia which contains pretty much every cooking term. It's a pretty high-level book, but it is the authority.
  
  Have fun with it! =)

My mother bought me this cookbook a few years ago and it teaches the actual science of cooking. She also talk some about baking bread in there and about the different flours, how they interact with their ingredients and so forth.

While I don't have this book, the same woman wrote Bakewise. It will also get into the sciences of it and all the "whys". I would bet that once you have some experience with this book that you would be able to start making up your own recipes as well. Once you know the ratio's, you should be golden. (I didn't even know she had done written this book till I searched for Cookwise. I might have to get this one for myself!)

EDIT: Someone else mentioned The Joy of Cooking. My husband is one heck of a baker and he gets a lot of his recipes from The Joy of Baking. They have all been excellent so far.

EDIT II: (Sorry, I love this kind of thing and keep thinking of more stuff). I have gotten a lot of excellent dessert recipes from Southern Living. Before they changed the layout of their magazine a few years back, I would get their magazine. I poured over it for hours. While the magazine isn't as good, their recipes are still excellent. Type in what you are looking for and it will give you several recipes to choose from (the search engine in the middle of the page, not the one in the upper right corner).

My favorite apple pie comes from there. I get wonderful compliments whenever I make it. Don't leave out the brandy-caramel sauce linked in the ingredients!

So first things first, no baker whose work I respect uses measuring cups. Volume measurement is an anachronistic method of measurement. The reason is that baking is based on ratios of the mass of products to each other, and something like flour can vary by about 50% if you're going by volume. I.e. a cup can weigh between 4 and 6 ounces. What that means is that you need a scale. The good news is that scales are fairly cheap. It's like 30 bucks to get a good one. I like oxo 5 pound scale with the pull out display.

The next thing is that I tend to stay away from all of the cookbooks written by people who don't work in the industry. Chefs have had to stand up to years of criticism and constant learning to get to a place where they can even begin to think about putting out a cookbook. The two pastry cook books that I like the most are Thomas Keller's book, Bouchon bakery, and Christina Tosi's book, milk bar.

Bouchon bakery is a super French book (as is the bakery), so I would recommend getting it if your son is interested in making things like bread, croissants, eclairs, Madelines, macarons, cakes, etc. Things that you would think of coming out of a traditional patisserie. The book is fabulously written and gorgeous. It is incredibly approachable and in my opinion, doesn't require any outside knowledge of baking, although being a good baker certainly helps. If I were to go solely based on what I thought was the best book, I wouldn't go any further than this one

That being said, I love Christina Tosi's milk bar. Her style is more of a traditional American style, so lots of cookies, cupcakes, pies, etc. Her book isn't as well written, not as pretty, and requires a bit more knowledge of baking (but certainly not a ton). It is, however so warm and inviting and reflects her personality so much that you can't help but smile add you read her expositions about some of her recipes and past. Her cookies are so crazy awesome and delicious, that the single method alone is worth the price of admission.

The one caveat I would say is that both books will STRONGLY suggest you get a stand mixer. While neither book requires it, there are some recipes that will be very daunting without one; I sure as hell wouldn't want to do Tosi's creaming method (for making the aforementioned cookies) by hand, that's for sure. That being said, though, people baked for millennia without one, so if you don't have one, you certainly don't have to buy one before making most if not all of the recipes in either book.

NINJA EDIT:
Links to the books
Bouchon Bakery
Milk bar

It does make a difference - baking really is all about chemistry! I too have a family member who is lactose intolorant, and for quite a while I was baking completely vegan. I used recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which is an excellent nondairy recipe book! I didn't tell anyone that the cupcakes I made were vegan and they couldn't "tell" either; the recipes were honestly delicious. Not having any dairy in them was just an added bonus!

The vegan vanilla buttercream frosting in the book is the same as this one, which I highly recommend:
>INGREDIENTS

>1/2 cup nonhydrogenated shortening

>1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine (like Earth Balance)

>3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted if clumpy

>1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

>1/4 cup plain soy milk or soy creamer

>INSTRUCTIONS

>Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes.
Add the vanilla and soy milk, and beat for another 5 to 7 minutes until fluffy.

Just check the labels of the shortening and margarine to make sure they contain no dairy/animal products and you should be good to go. The real trick is to beat it for as long as it states - that's 3 full minutes to combine shortening and margarine, another 3 mins after that, and another 5 to 7 minutes after adding the rest of the ingredients - that's like 12 to 16 minutes total of just mixing alone.

I haven't had a chemistry class in a while but I think the amount of beating has to do with several factors important to buttercream, like it makes it stiffer and gets rid of air bubbles, etc. I skipped out on beating it for the full time once and it was a huge mess - gooey and runny and not as delicious as when I beat it fully.

Hopefully that helps you a bit! Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions or if you try it and it works/doesn't work out for you :) Happy baking!

What an awesome contest! How super nice of you!

Looking Good

This cookbook is pretty awesome 'cause cooking with booze is delightful!

Thanks for the contest!

Oh the Warrior Dash? Awesome! I want to try the zombie run some day. My one friend does the zombie runs and Tough Mudder (he says that the zombie run was actually harder for him cause of all of the "running for your lives" bit lol).

The last thing I made were snickers-caramel cheesecake cookies. So amazing.

I have so many recipes I want to try in my Butch Bakery Cookbook, too lol

I have a faster metabolism than him, so I could honestly eat all of this (though I should really stay fit still and not sit in a chair all day), buut he wants to focus on eating healthy, getting back into a routine, and theeennn rewarding ourselves once we start sticking with it xD

A baking stone, a pizza peel, and My Pizza, by Jim Lahey. That's the guy who came up with the no-knead bread recipe, and now he's extended it to pizza dough. It's a big, clear book with pictures.

A couple more great cookbooks:

Momofuku Milk Bar, by Christina Tosi. Tosi has a fresh, fun take on desserts, and all the recipes are spot on.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond. A fun collection of western living recipes.

Other than that, her own chef's knife might be a good idea, with a sheath for carrying it. I'd recommend a 6" blade rather than the standard 8" blade. And a diamond steel for sharpening.

A pair of Silpat-type silicone baking mats. Nothing will stick, not even broiled, crunchy cheese. They are wonderful.

I just checked out Minimalist Baker's cookbook and the Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give A Fuck Minimalist Baker was meh, but Thug Kitchen is amazing. A lot of the recipes use cheap, simple ingredients and the dishes are pure deliciousness. I'm currently borrowing these books from the library, but I think I definitely need to add Thug Kitchen to my collection.

I also have the Seitanic Spellbook by the Vegan Black Metal Chef. It's ok for some basic stuff, but I don't care for how it's organized. Also, he doesn't use measurements in any of his recipes, which is ok if you like to improvise a lot, but it kinda leaves me in the dark if I'm trying a new recipe.

Then there's Happy, Healthy Vegan Kitchen by Kathy Patalsky which is ok if you can get past her narratives and obscure ingredients. Like, bitch, I'm not getting six different unicorn salts to put on my toast.

I also have The Joys of Vegan Baking (meh), and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (haven't tried it yet).

EDIT: damn amazon links

Oooh. I would suggest some fancy ingredients like some Nielsen Massey vanilla paste (I have the gigantic 1 quart size myself and it's pretty much my favorite thing ever) or some Valrhona cocoa powder or feves (fancy chocolate chips). Some high quality measuring cups like these ones from All Clad would probably make her over the moon (as others have said, you can never have enough measuring cups and spoons, and heavy-weighted ones like those are a delight to use). You can round out your gift with a few cookbooks you think she might like -- some suggestions are the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook (since you mentioned she makes lots of cupcakes), the Tartine Cookbook (I love this one), and Rose Levy Berenbaum's Cake Bible or Heavenly Cakes.

Milk Bar Cookbook
Third cake I’ve made from this cookbook. Many friends said it was the best carrot cake they’ve ever had. I personally like ones that are less sweet and more spiced. However her tip for using fresh rainbow carrots helped the flavor a lot. Her ice cream recipes are AMAZING. You’d never know there aren’t eggs in it. Best ice cream I’ve ever made.

Sure thing! If you want to get further into delicious dairy and egg free baking, check out the PPK's cookbooks. SO good and some vegan cupcakes would be perfect for a birthday party for your daughter! :)

http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Cupcakes-Take-Over-World/dp/1569242739

Okay, you have some great gift ideas there. A photo book of the baking pictures she had sent you is an incredibly sweet and thoughtful gift. It shows you pay attention and value what she does. It should also be fairly cheap, so I of she likes tea and you can throw in the tea from the place you meet it will be a killer gift! The thoughtfulness is off the charts.

If you really want to knock out our of the park, you could include a cheap cookbook, too. Here's one of the highest rated ones on amazon that looks really fun: [Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618829253/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_ZNxLub07WCDCJ). That might not be the best choice because I don't know her or what type of banking she does, but that's an example of something that you could get in time for Christmas if you have amazon prime. There are also kindle versions of very highly rated cookbooks if she has a Kindle or tablet. I find that is sometimes the most convenient way to follow recipes in the kitchen, and the bonus there is they are usually cheaper and you can have it delivered instantly Christmas morning.

She did....but she's a pro and her recipes are trade secrets. I don't even know what they are.

I can tell you how she made it though.

The cake was four layers, so she baked 2 9 inch cakes of each of the three types. One was a dark chocolate cake, one was a white chocolate cake that was dyed bright red, and the third was red velvet.

While her recipes are secret, I can tell you she uses the cake bible as a reference quite frequently. I don't doubt that you would find what you are looking for in there. One of the big tricks is that these cakes are more dense and firm than box mixes, which lets you cut and handle them without them falling appart. She also chills the cakes in the refrigerator before cutting and stacking to help keep them together.

So she baked all 6 cakes, then took a paper template I created of the concentric rings in inkscape and used it to cut each cake apart. Then it was just a matter of reassembling the rings in the right order to get the color pattern right.

For the bark, it's a chocolate butter creme with stout in it. I can't tell you much more than that because I'm not sure what she did. She just gets these ideas, wings it, and good stuff happens.

So she coated the outside with the butter cream, then added chocolate bark she made by tempering chocolate, pouring it onto wax paper, rolling it up and freezing it. It makes these chocolate curls that she broke apart to add the flaky bark texture.

The top was homemade marshmallow made with maple syrup. Again....not sure the process or the recepie. I know you can find general marshmallow recipes online or in candy making books. She started with one of those and modified it to use the maple. Anyway, she smoothed it over the top while it was soft, textured it a little, then torched it to add the color.

It sounds like a lot of work....and it kind of was....but it also wasn't too bad. Mainly just time consuming to make all the cakes, level and cut them. You also wind up with a ton of scraps from this method....enough rings to form into another full cake (but with a more boring pattern). So you will have A LOT of cake.

I hope that was helpful and I hope you have fun making it. And happy early birthday!!!

Martha Stewart, Dorie Greenspan, and Rose Levy Berenbaum are my go-to's for classic recipes with none of the low fat/no sugar/no gluten stuff.

Any classic French basic pastry recipes like for pastry cream, choux, croissants, etc, are always going to be chock-full of butter and sugar and the good stuff, too. Check out Eugenie Kitchen on YouTube for some very easy, classic French recipes (by a very sweet Korean woman).

Here are my favorite baking cookbooks:

Rose Levy Berenbaum - The Baking Bible

Rose Levy Berenbaum - The Cake Bible

Dorie Greenspan - Baking: From My Home To Yours

Martha Stewart - Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

Martha Stewart - Martha Stewart's Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share

Smitten Kitchen is also great for desserts that are a bit fancier, but still classically rich/traditional ingredients.


I LOVE BAKING.

3. 14
   
   
   This cookbook would help me get my current obsession of learning cake decorating off the ground. I can cook and i can bake but now i wasn't my stuff to be really pretty. This book was recommended by another RAOAer (don't remember the username now) who is a cake decorator. They said it'd be the best place to start.
   
   Thank you for the contest!

The frosting is the Italian meringue buttercream frosting from CakeLove (a local bakery here in Maryland) run by Warren Brown. He has a really great cookbook with recipes about baking cakes from scratch that has this really delicious frosting. I used the base frosting lightly flavored with vanilla and then added ancho chile powder, cayenne powder, Dave's 2011 Private Reserve hot sauce (ghost pepper sauce) and some Hangar One chipotle infused vodka. It was mostly sweet, slightly savory and wonderfully spicy. Used a regular plastic frosting bag to pipe the frosting on top. A little bit of ancho chili powder was sprinkled on top for looks. Frosted it immediately after making it so it was the perfect texture and consistency, and I just HAD to snap some photos.

The best carrot cake I've ever had... honestly, no competition from local bakeries, Costco, talented baker friends, etc- came from a recipe featured in this book. Hands down, the best carrot cake. Dense, perfectly balanced spices, soft-cake-with-crispy-carrot-bits texture. At first glance I thought there should be 3x the frosting on top of it but the cake was so moist that it didn't need a mountain of cream cheese. So good!

This is basically the recipe we used for the cookies, it's on a banner in our kitchen with a bunch of other Scottish dishes, haha. Rather than baking them in a pan, we used cookie cutters and a flat cookie sheet.

This is my favorite baking cookbook ever. Like I said, I got it in Reddit Secret Santa 18 months ago and I looove it. This is the recipe for the choco-coco squares or kärleksmums, but I'd invest in the cookbook if you're interested in baking- most of the stuff is pretty simple and there's American and EU measuring guides/temperature guides, which is nice. It's all of Sweden's award-winning dessert recipes in one guide.

The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Probably one of the best cookbooks published of all time. The great part is that she is VERY easy to contact and will respond to anyone that needs help if you go to her website.

Cookbooks! I read so many food blogs, but it's never quite as nice as reading a cookbook, even if it's more practical.

Some I enjoyed this year:

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day - My bread-baking bible

Top with Cinnamon - This girl is 18 and is better at cooking/styling/photography/writing than I will ever be

Joy the Baker's Homemade Decadance - Basically the food blog queen

Sunday Suppers - This one is just beautiful

Thanks for having a contest!
Whenever I read The Gazelle I feel primal and sexy.
I love decorating cupcakes, so I'd enjoy this book. Thanks!

This:

http://www.amazon.com/Martha-Stewarts-Cupcakes-Inspired-Everyones/dp/0307460444/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314239760&sr=8-1

and this:

http://www.amazon.com/Miette-Recipes-Franciscos-Charming-Pastry/dp/0811875040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314239787&sr=1-1

and this:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Magnolia-Bakery-Cookbook-World-Famous/dp/1439175640/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314239811&sr=1-1

are my favorite cupcake recipe books. The Miette one not only has great recipes, but also beautiful pictures. And the other two have amazing cupcake recipes!

This book (well, in swedish called Sju sorters kakor) is very popular in swedish homes and got many/most of the common recipies. One of my best books.

I dont think theres any real good tricks to the desserts you mention. For kladdkaka most people got their own preference on how sticky it should be and cooking time depends on the oven.

For Lussekatter many recipes calls for kvarg (english: quark) and it has been discussions regarding if the kvarg actually does anything to the lussekatter. My stance is that it doesnt, and that recipes without kvarg works just as well. Instead I like to add extra chopped raisins (which has been soaked in water 30mins or so before mixing into the dough), but Im also a fan of dried fruits in bread :)

Here are some vegan baking tips from Isa Chandra Moskowitz of the Post Pink Kitchen: Vegan baking 101 from PPK.

Another good vegan baking primer from the Kitchn.

I'd say Isa and her co-author Terry Hope Romero are the authorities on vegan baking. Check out their baking cookbooks on cupcakes, cookies, and pies.

For a 1-volume comprehensive vegan baking cookbook and traditional recipes, check out Colleen Patrick Goudreau's Joy of Vegan Baking.

For a vegan baking cookbook with unique and creative flavors, try the Cheers to Vegan Sweets cookbook.

Hope this helped! Happy baking!

I use stuff from The Cake Mix Doctor and it seems to work pretty well. Was a birthday gift from a friend one year and have used it several times :)

My own search ended with Shirley Corriher's Deep, Dark Chocolate Cake recipe from BakeWize: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking. The only thing I've changed from her original recipe is an increase in oil.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

2 1/3 cups sugar (463g)
3/4 tsp salt (5.4g)
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder (69g) 
1 tsp baking soda (5g)
1 cup water
1 cup canola oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (218g)
4 large egg yolks (74g)
2 large eggs (99g)
1/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place baking stone in center of oven if you have one.
   
2. Generously spray cake pan(s). Line the bottom of the pan(s) with parchment paper that has been cut to size. Spray top of parchment paper.
   
3. In a heavy saucepan, stir together the sugar, salt, cocoa, and baking soda. In another pan, heat water to boiling. Stirring constantly, pour boiling water a little at a time into cocoa mixture, mixing well. Place on heat and bring back to a boil. Turn off heat and allow to stand in pan for at least 10 minutes.
   
4. Pour cocoa mixture into a mixing bowl. Add the oil and vanilla and beat on low for 10 seconds. On low speed, beat in the flour and then, with minimum of beating, beat in the yolks, eggs, and buttermilk.
    5. Pour batter into prepared pan(s). Place in oven on the stone and bake until the center feels springy to the touch, about 25 minutes for round layers or 35 minutes for a 9x13 sheet cake. (I use an instant read thermometer and call it done when the temp reaches 206F) Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes on a rack. Run a thin knife around the edge and jar the edge of the pan to loosen. Invert onto the serving platter. Cool completely before icing.

I would suggest reading more about the science of baking - this book is helpful and I got it out of my library.

So you can read about the science behind baking in there. But I've found that the best way I've learned is by following recipes from cookbooks/reputable websites and then slowly learning to tweak those recipes to my liking, and then completely creating my own recipes. Don't just jump in and start throwing random things into a bowl, because while you may get lucky once or twice, you don't want to get burnt out on failing.

I'm a big cake/cupcakes/pie/cookies type of gal - so if that's the sort of baking you're interested in, I would look at these cookbooks:

• Vegan Pie in the Sky
  
• Miette
  
• Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
  
  
  PS: Bread is tricky. I have barely gotten into the "follow the recipe" stage. So if you're asking about bread, don't follow the above advice. Because I know shit about bread. From what I can tell, the science is imperative and...I know none of it.
  
  Good luck! Keep us updated!

Because sometimes you gotta treat yourself.

But you can also treat yourself healthfully, and make some fun, fruity popsicles with this.

(Incidentally, I have both the thermometers on your list--candy and digital--and they're excellent. That digital thermometer is the bomb!)

Here's the recipe, from this book. I modified it by adding chocolate pudding to each cake after they had cooled.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes:

1 Cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, softened. (I used margarine)
1 Cup granulated sugar
2 Cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
4 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 Cup peanut butter (you can use crunchy or smooth)

Preheat oven to 350. Place 18 paper baking cups in muffin pans. Combine the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, and buttermilk in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Stir the peanut butter in until well combined. Spoon the batter into the cups. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes. Remove pans from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove cupcakes and cool on wire rack.

Frosting:

1/2 Cup peanut butter
1/2 Cup (1 stick) sweet butter, softened.
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp. milk

Combine peanut butter, butter, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Add the powdered sugar along with the milk, and beat until well combined. Swirl the frosting onto cooled cupcakes

If she likes baking, maybe some cake/cookie decorating supplies? I'm thinking cool cookie cutters, gel food coloring, an awesomely shaped bundt pan, etc. Or a cookbook! Even if she never cooks out of it, she might like just looking through it. (That's what I do with half of mine.)

Joy the Baker has a new cookbook, so maybe that plus this fleur de lis bundt pan?

I have made Isa's chocolate cupcake from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and it was fabulous. Really, you can't tell it's vegan because it's just delicious, with a very soft texture and a moist, fine crumb. Here's the recipe.

Now, I'm not sure this will make a sheet cake though. Can you try making cupcakes instead?

EDIT: Needless to say, the cocoa powder will be key in this recipe. I used Valrhona, and it was wonderful.

Getting her ingredients might be hit or miss. I've been looking for some things for my wife who loves to bake. I ran across this book and read a lot of great things about it.

Roses Heavenly Cakes

My current favorites (I love to bake and cook):
Flour Bakery Cookbook, Flour Too: Savory Recipes from the Bakery, Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook, and my current favorite Chrissy Teigen's Cravings Cookbook

Anything written by Isa Chandra Moskowitz is fantastic, the Veganomicon and Vegan with a Vengeance are already mentioned. Here are her two dessert books as well.

• Vegan Cupcakes Take over the world
  
  
• Vegan Cookies invade your cookie jar
  
  Also, you can buy egg replacer, which is often just tapioca flour, for using in any waffle, pancake, french toast or baked recipe.
  
  Soy Milk can be used in place of cow milk almost 100% of the time, only if whipping the milk does it not work.
  
  Margarine sticks can be used in place of butter in every recipe I've ever seen, I don't want to say its infallible, but the dishes have at least turned out fine, if not identical.
  
  One of my favorite meals, and my own recipe:
  
  
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
  
• take a block of very firm tofu, cut it lengthwise, then cut the lengths into 1/8" slices. Brush with your favorite cooking sauce. I'm a fan of Hoison, but sweet chili, plum sauce, ponzu or even just soy sauce can do.
  
• Bake for 5 minutes, then pull it out, flip the slices, brush the othersides with sauce
  
• repeat flipping and brushing with sauce if needed until both sides get 2 rounds
  
• Broil for 5 minutes to crisp everything up, though not really necessary.
  
• Serve with mashed potatoes and steamed greens

Cooking helps me relax and booze helps everyone relax, why not combined them? ;p

I can't stop procrastinating

Surprise me!

When I don't have the cookbooks with me I've had great success just doing a google search since the book is popular. Also if you just go on the amazon page, click on the "Click to Look Inside" button, then search for the cupcakes, you should find them. It worked when I just tried it for the tiramisu ones.

Modeling chocolate is often used for figures. It's got about the texture of tootsie rolls, can be carved, molded, painted, dyed, etc. The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Berenbaum is highly recommended and your library might have it.

Good luck and have fun!

wow you guys are good. me and my bf love to cook but its nothing like this. more like gourmet college food haha. but you should check out momofuku milk bar's book if you want a challenge

Thank you!!

I just used the one from Mary Berry’s Baking Bible. I find most of the recipes in that book are pretty amateur friendly! (Most...!)

I’ve heard her recipes online are slightly different from what’s in the book, so here a link the cookbook I’m referencing: Mary Berry’s Baking Bible

At 10, most budding cooks are into pastry (AKA dessert type dishes). Given that you have a new kitchen toy - a KitchenAid - I would give a gift of time and play. Buy her The Cake Bible, a classic and pair it with some shelf stable cake baking ingredients/pans/bowls as needed and "coupons" redeemable for the required ingredients and the parental assistance time to make 2 cakes of her choosing from the book. Kids really just want time with their attentive parents, so you can hit all the bases with one gift.

It's a cupcake on its side, decorated to look like a fishbowl. The directions are in the book Hello, Cupcake. bought it for her as a gift and she loves it. here's the amazon link for it: http://www.amazon.com/Hello-Cupcake-Irresistibly-Playful-Creations/dp/0618829253/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290135123&sr=8-1

LOL! I've gone just the opposite direction on frosting. I've starting making it from scratch more often than not (Twin A doesn't mind sifting powdered sugar if it nets him frosting in the end.)

Have you ever tried the recipes in The Cake Mix Doctor? Someone got it for me as a gift and it sat around my house for a couple years before I decided to try it. I have so much fun with it. Snickerdoodle cake with cinnamon buttercream is huge hit here.

Vegan here. If you do want cupcakes then this book is for you:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegan-Cupcakes-Take-Over-World/dp/1569242739/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1463343569&sr=8-2&keywords=vegan+cupcakes

I never found being vegan an issue, as I always cooked most things from scratch, but if you want advice on any recipes or on egg/dairy substitutes that work let me know. Sounds like you have all under control though :)

It's not at all like Kenji's Food Lab, but I really enjoyed the Milk Bar cookbook. It's not terribly complicated but some unique twists on familiar staples. Their birthday cake is also ridiculously good and one of the signature recipes.

I used Bon Apetit's recipe for one pie...I also know folks who have used Momofuku for Two's easy recipe for two pies (so you can totally freeze one for later)! Of course you can also purchase the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook and use the original.

The only difficult part was trying not to snack on the oat cookie crust while it was cooling down. The amounts of butter, sugar, and cream that go into this recipe are pretty unbelievable too...one serving size is a little sliver and guarantees to put you into a holyshitthisissodamngood coma afterward.

#1. Happy Cake Day!

#3. Book

#4. Eating Utensil

#5. Animal

#6. Purple

#7. A Game..all about the poker

#8. A Guilty Pleasure...I hate that I love her

#9. A Tool

#10. Something from my childhood...oh man is it

#11. An organizational item...a stretch but what/who's more organized than ants?!

#12. Hobby

#13. Nerdy/Geeky

#14. Something Natural

#15. Green

#16. Something I wear

#17. Funny

#19. Gardening

#20

Bonus

Thanks for this fun Contest!

yaay! Here's the cake bible: https://www.amazon.com/Cake-Bible-Rose-Levy-Beranbaum/dp/0688044026/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

It's not fancy or new, but it has great baseline recipes and suggestions of variety of flavors. I bought a used one for 5 bux.

Recommendation: https://www.amazon.com/Cake-Bible-Rose-Levy-Beranbaum/dp/0688044026/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522036236&sr=8-1&keywords=the+cake+bible

Seriously, couple bucks, clear instructions, AWESOME cakes.

This is a recipe from Warren Brown's book, Cake Love. It is a chocolate pound cake that you make in a bundt pan and it is soooooooo good! Whenever I make it, there is tons of leftover batter, so I make cupcakes too. I usually make a little glaze to go over top of them. It might just be powdered sugar and milk (can't remember my exact recipe for it), but sometimes I added peppermint extract to give it a minty flavor. Oh my goodness, I haven't made this recipe in years... That needs to change.

I got the recipe from the Milk Bar cookbook, but they have the same one on their website.

It wasn't quite as hard as I thought it was going to be! The only things I skipped from the recipe were 1) glucose (subbed in a little extra corn syrup as suggested) and the cake-ring/acetate strips for building. I simply plopped the layers into a 6" spring-form pan. Maybe didn't come out as clean as their method, but still tasted damn delicious.

luster and sparkle dust for sure, maybe gold leaf if you want to be fancy! (http://www.fancyflours.com/luster-dust-aztec-gold.html, http://www.fancyflours.com/Detailed%20Embellishments/Edible%20Gold%20%26%20Silver%20Leaf) that can get pricey and is a must to get fancy with your decorating. digital scale if she doesn't have one. this cookbook (http://www.amazon.com/Cake-Bible-Rose-Levy-Beranbaum/dp/0688044026/ref=pd_sim_b_1 -- the gold standard) or this one (http://www.amazon.com/Baked-Frontiers-Baking-Matt-Lewis/dp/1584797215 -- hott). fancy linings? http://www.fancyflours.com/Inspired%20Baking/Baking%20Cups

I'm grateful for my kitchenaid mixer. Seriously. It's kinda the right of passage gift for women in my family. I cried when I got mine, we all have one. Baking is something we've all always bonded over, whether it be Me, Nanny, Mom, and my aunts hectically trying to whip up shit tons of desserts for holiday festivities, or just Nanny, teaching me how to make her chocolate chip cookies, or whip cream from scratch. Recently I've been getting back into baking, finding new recipes and trying em out for myself. And nothing beats a kitchenaid mixer to get it done! Here are the

$15ish

$10ish

Mary Berry's baking bible, if she watches The Great British Bake Off and if she doesn't she should!

https://www.amazon.com/Mary-Berrys-Baking-Bible-Classic/dp/1846077850/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481518953&sr=8-1&keywords=mary+berry+baking+bible

CakeLove. It's a baking book by Warren Brown who owns CakeLove in DC. The recipes are easy to follow, some traditional, some out there. It's a staple in my kitchen and changed the way that I bake.

I also like it because you can tell the author really thought about the presentation of his book. It comes in a binder so that it lays out flat if you are reading it off the counter. You can unclip the pages to tape to your cabinets if you need too. It also lists all ingredients by weight...which is the A number one double-plus sign that you have a good baking cook book from someone that knows what they are doing.

He also goes into detail about why he uses certain ingredients (he is big on potato starch for instance) but it reminded me of Alton Brown's approach to recipes.

https://www.amazon.com/CakeLove-How-Bake-Cakes-Scratch/dp/1584796626

Look at Bakewise by Shirley O. Corriher. She explains the science and math to her recipes, and then gives options on how to modify them. Its a great way to learn baking science, and to learn how to construct your own recipes.

Vegan Cupcakes Takes Over The World is awesome.

Here you go. That's not my blog.

I highly reccommend picking up a used copy of the Milk cookbook (I wouldn't do the Kindle version), you can find it for under $15 shipped if you're in the US. Probably a little cheaper if you look around. It goes into detail on technique, ingredient/equipment specifics, and is just totally worth buying. So far, I've made the brownie pie, confetti cookies, chocolate chocolate cookies, peanut butter cookies, and now this cake. Her "All About Cake" book is en route to me, and I will definitely be using some of her recipes for my Christmas dessert spread.

Everything I've made from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World has been amazing.

http://www.amazon.com/Cake-Bible-Rose-Levy-Beranbaum/dp/0688044026

The cakes are amazing.

Check out www.amazon.com/Cake-Bible-Rose-Levy-Beranbaum/dp/0688044026 The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum, I actually haven't read it, but I have her Bread Bible and it is a great bread baking book. She makes the recipes real easy to understand and gives ideas for substitutions as well.

edit: I fail at interneting and link making :(

There is only one place for you to go then, and that's a recipe from this book. I made these during the holidays last winter, Golden Vanilla Cupcakes and Chocolate Buttercream frosting. You can't go wrong!

Hello Cupcake. You'd be amazed at some of the stuff you can do with frosting, food coloring, and a bit of candy.

That is good to know, my fridge is the same way! We've been working our way through the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook and I really wanted to start trying some of the ice cream recipes.

Bakewise is awesome, the author is a chemist and really delves into the science behind ingredients, techniques, etc.

From amazon: "It's not surprising that James Beard Award-winner Corriher (CookWise) once worked as a chemist. Her no-nonsense approach to cakes, muffins, breads and cookies shows her deep knowledge and understanding that baking is, above all things, a science. This hefty collection of more than 200 recipes offers amateur and expert bakers alike clear, numbered steps and a plethora of information on ingredients, equipment and method. Invaluable troubleshooting sections solve pesky problems on everything from pale and crumbly cookies to fallen soufflés."

I'd also like to suggest /u/carissalf because you can't see the daily thread without seeing carissalf talking to everyone. I think she could use some things from her My Babies list. It's for all her animals. Anything off of that list would probably help, or this for making tasty, drunk confections.

Does she have mini (2-bite) muffin pans? That's one of my staples for cupcake making.

On the decorating side, I'd start by buying a cute cupcake cookbook (like this one - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0618829253/) and then sneaking a peak at the recipes and buying all the things she'd need for one that you'd think would appeal to her

Ah - I just learned about these from my new cake book!

You might be interested in this book:
https://www.amazon.com/American-Cake-Colonial-Gingerbread-Best-Loved/dp/1623365430

You should check out Momofuku's Milk Bar cookbook, it might give you some creative ideas on this topic.

I quite liked Bakewise by Shirley O'Corriher. She goes into how ingredients will affect the finished product, how to spot cake recipes that won't turn out well (and how to fix them), and why technique matters.

American Cake by Anne Byrn
It tells all the little stories of how different American cakes came to be popular.

American Cake: From Colonial Gingerbread to Classic Layer, the Stories and Recipes Behind More Than 125 of Our Best-Loved Cakes https://www.amazon.com/dp/1623365430/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fCGEAbN7YXH67

So, I’ve never made this cake before and took note from the American Cake and from a Food Network recipe. It came out tasting like very, very fancy banana bread!

> http://www.amazon.com/BakeWise-Successful-Baking-Magnificent-Recipes/dp/1416560785
This is looks like what I am looking for. Off to see if they have it at the library.

Fluffy banana cupakes (recipe from this book here) with fresh strawberry, whipped cream, and blueberry garnish.

Yep, Amazon link here. It's written by his pastry chef, Christina Tosi.

They are made from white chocolate, the design is from this and this. They are really interesting books but really kinda complex stuff in there.

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

It's worth it.

This can be created in the book "Hello Cupcake!". I bought it at a Michaels, but it's also available on Amazon.

Certainly on the more modern end, but these are recipes from American history.

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

Just because you are vegan doesn't mean you don't want a god damn cupcake every now and then.

Booze Cakes

http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Cupcakes-Take-Over-World/dp/1569242739 buy this book

I've always wanted the Milkbar cookbook!

Bakewise
http://www.amazon.com/BakeWise-Successful-Baking-Magnificent-Recipes/dp/1416560785

Booze Cake

Might I suggest Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World? Contains gluten, obviously, but completely dairy-free.

My wife has that book. It's the cover of the book "Hello, Cupcake!"

You can also get the book from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/BakeWise-Successful-Baking-Magnificent-Recipes/dp/1416560785/ref=cm_rdp_product

I've decided on this book.

My girlfriend has the book that shows how to make those, "Hello, Cupcake"

Also check out "What's New, Cupcake"

Now I suggest you buy this pastry cookbook

Site your sources. Jeeze.

Did you use this book?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0307720497/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1569559142&sr=8-1

Isa can do no wrong. Be sure to check out her two books as well:

Vegan With A Vengeance
http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Vengeance-Delicious-Animal-Free-Recipes/dp/1569243581/

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World
http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Cupcakes-Take-Over-World/dp/1569242739/

My wife and I have cooked with many of her recipes, and we have yet to encounter a bad dish. Even non-vegans I know have really enjoyed her desserts.

Yes, they are vegan. I can only bake 1 thing, and this is it. The recipe is from vegan cupcakes take over the world, which is food porn at its best. The recipe is reproduced here: http://www.chow.com/recipes/10794-basic-vegan-chocolate-cupcake

This was the first time I've made them with almond milk instead of soymilk, because I now totally drink almond milk all the time, and so it's all I had at home today. haha...

Are you vegan? I'm not, but my friend was for 2 years, and this kind of just stuck. I also literally cannot bake or cook anything else.