Rosie Daykin decided a few years ago to open a “little neighborhood bakery” in Vancouver. It’s become a tad bit of an empire with acclaim around the world for her delights.
Rosie has taken classic home recipes, polished them, refined them and now features them in her bakery and this book. And, to be sure, she’s added some inspirations of her own. If you give Rosie some butterscotch chips, she’ll find a way to use them.
Who benefits from this book? If you are a beginner baker, or you have never baked at all, if you don’t own a single baking book, then this is your starting point to sweet delights.
Rosie loves to put a spin on the classics. You like Oreos? Well, there is an extension here. Her Homemade You-Know-What is an Oreo on steroids. I’ll post the recipe and my results right after this cookbook review. [That’s my clever way of saying later today!].
Her Vanilla Butter Cream is something you will want to test. It uses 2 cups of butter, 4 cups of confectioner’s sugar, ½ cup of milk and 2 tablespoons with vanilla. The best frosting I have ever made so far comes from Sprinkles and the proportions there are 2 cups of butter, 6 cups of confectioner’s sugar, ⅕ cup of milk and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. Butter Bakery is famous for being butter-dense and this recipe displays that. I will be testing and I will let you know.
Rosie has tinkered with some classic recipes to achieve delights that her customers flock to. For example, her Classic White Cake is make with pastry flour — not cake flour or regular flour — and uses buttermilk. Of course, she uses only egg white. No yolks at all thus ensuring this cake is really truly white with no yellow tint at all.
Her own recipes here include a Chocolate Espresso Pound Cake, a breakfast treat that will keep you awake even if you skip your morning brew. Canada is famous for its bar cookies. There is a Nanaimo bar here then, of course, but Rosie has added her own creation: The Dunbar made with dulce de leche, oats and coconut.
You’ll find the typical chapters in Butter:
Muffins, Scones, Cinny Bus and Loaves
Drop and Sandwich Cookies
Rolled and Cut Cookies
Bars and Slices
Butter Creams and Frosting
Cakes
Cupcakes and Whoopie Pies
Pastry, Pies and Tarts
Confections
That chapter on butter creams and frostings is an excellent reason alone to put this book in your kitchen. And the confections include a Surprise Mocha Fudge that sounds easy and intense.
Surprise, richness and delights are to be found throughout this book. Buy some butter and do buy Butter Baked Goods.