The Cake Bible

The author has a graduate degree in food science and could tell you the molecular make-up of different flours. This is probably the most detailed book on baking cakes you'll find, but it's also the best. When I worked in an upscale bakery making pastries, we used The Cake Bible for many recipes. My favorite detail was the “Understanding” paragraph after a recipe letting the cook know exactly why things were supposed to done a certain way, what you can and cannot change about a recipe, some history on the cake, and how best to display the cake. This is way beyond a basic cookbook. It has everything anyone ever wanted to know about baking, decorating, storing, and serving a cake. It’s called The Cake BIBLE for a reason.

Honestly, I never really understand why some people don't want all the information that Ms. Beranbaum imparts along the way. What becomes true is that as one learns WHY stuff happens with cakes, one begins to have a freer hand baking them and inventing on one's own. This book is the next best thing to taking a pastry class at a culinary college

Obsessive cooks and bakers will love this one. Ms. Beranbaum gives explicit directions including weighing ingredients; her decorating skills match her baking skills. The rest of us can dream over the beautiful photos of cakes.

Part 1 of the cookbook contains recipes that range from easy to difficult within several categories. The categories are recipes using all egg yolks, recipes using all egg whites, recipes with no cholesterol, cakes better made ahead, cakes for Passover, and quick to mix cakes. Part 2 has recipes for frostings, fillings, icings and embellishments. Part 3 discusses ingrediants distributors and Part 4 is for cake professionals as it discusses wedding cakes.

I found my favorite yellow cake recipe in The Cake Bible. It is called the All Occasion Downey Yellow Butter Cake on page 39 and I love using the Classic Lemon Buttercream Frosting on page 234. I have tried several cake recipes and loved most of them. Rose uses unsalted butter show more exclusively. If you have ever tried to leave it on the counter to soften you know it takes most of the day. Then you are too tired to bake. Ingrediant measurements are given in both pounds and kilograms so both Americans and Europeans can use the book.

Rose has written anecdotes before each recipe which makes you feel like she is talking to you personally. If you are not a baker but like to read cookbooks, The Cake Bible will keep you reading because her writing style is so personable. The science surrounding baking is also discussed in the book. You will feel like a graduate of a cooking school when you finish it. The Cake Bible is a treatise on cake baking that all bakers should have in their library . . . And the cakes aren't bad either! show less

This truly is a cake 'bible', the ultimate resource for bakers. Just about any cake you could hope to make is covered here and some of the science behind it, too. Rose has made me a believer in weighing ingredients rather than just measuring. I give it only four stars for two reasons: one, the directions are clear and precise, but if you stray from them at all, disaster follows. These are not forgiving recipes. So you really have to be on your toes. Second, there are not enough pictures. But despite these two things, I highly recommend this book.

The single best cake cookbook ever. Follow the instructions and you can't fail. And if you're picking it up, get a scale at the same time. Once you weigh your ingredients, you'll never go back to measuring by volume.

Awesome. Has never failed me, from waffles to carrot cake. My mother has made flawless wedding cakes. Pay attention. She's not giving you all that detail for no reason.