Any dessert book by Tish Boyle, and she must have a dozen now, is tempting. You have a New Year’s Resolution about dieting that you have not broken yet? Then for God’s sake stay away from The Cake Book. It’s filled with butter and sugar and chocolate. And fruit, too. It’s not all bad!
Since it was published in 2006, for many of us this has been a go to book for cake baking. It’s one of a handful of the cake books in the past twenty years that truly deserves the label classic. It is a one-stop cookbook if cake is on your mind. There’s sixty pages of information before you hit the first recipe: ingredients, equipment, techniques, tips, troubleshooting, and cake décor in detail.
Then come the chapters:
- Angel Food, Chiffon and Sponge Cakes
- Pound Cakes and Coffee Cakes
- Butter and Oil-Based Cakes
- Fruit-Based Cakes
- Flourless Cakes
- Cheesecakes
- Mousse and Ice Cream Cakes
- Meringue Cakes [aka Pavlovas]
- Filling and Frostings
- Basic Recipe and Accompaniments
It’s all here for you, a perfectly self-contained cake tome. Now, there are some chapters that do shine with unexpected intensity. Tish exposes her favorite cake types. The Cheesecakes almost ooze from the pages. And those Mousse cakes are in abundance. Consider these ideas:
Creamy Pumpkin Cheesecake with Ginger-Pecan Crust
Lemon Soufflé Cheesecake with Blueberry Topping
Lemon Mousse Cake with Fresh Raspberries
Goat Cheese Cheesecake with Fig Topping
Yoghurt Mousse Cake with Honeyed Raspberries and Mint Syrup
White Chocolate Eggnog Mousse Cake
Banana Walnut Chiffon Cake with Maple Mouse
You will find your favorites here, too, those standards that you need week in and week out [okay, month in and month out if you are very busy]. A Brooklyn Blackout and a Gingerbread of distinction. But The Cake Book is almost two books in one for there are these gem ideas that are scattered in every chapter. Ideas to give you pause and a rush of saliva:
Apple Cake with Maple Frosting
Banana Cake with Caramel Espresso Frosting
Brioche Cake with Caramel Custard Sauce
Buttermilk Peach Coffee Cake
Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Pound Cake
Date Fig and Golden Raisin Cake with Bourbon
And then there is that chapter on Filling and Frostings that will have you licking the bowl:
Caramel Espresso Buttercream
Cream Cheese Spice Frosting
Fudgy Chocolate Frosting
Rich Chocolate Espresso Frosting
Whipped Cream Cheese Filling
Tish’s recipes read like an architect’s perfect plans. Each recipe is broken into sections like “Make the Filling” and “Assemble the Cake.” Each section is one or two short paragraphs, flawlessly written, easy to follow. You won’t get lost anywhere. And, soon, quite, soon, you’ll take a bite and wish you’d been cooking from The Cake Book right from 2006. Okay, you lost a decade. Don’t lose another day.
Which cake to sart with? Easy. The Orange Grove Cake with orange filling, orange soaking syrup, and orange buttercream. See, I told you the book was not all chocolate. Despite the cover. That one is good, too.