Review: Fine Cooking Cakes & Cupcakes: 100 Best Ever Recipes

Title: Fine Cooking Cakes & Cupcakes: 100 Best Ever Recipes
Author: Fine Cooking
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: February 4th 2014
Source: Netgalley & Taunton Press

★★★★

Four stars.

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Fine Cooking Cakes & Cupcakes: 100 Best Ever Recipes is a collection of cake recipes that ensure that you won't ever have to use a boxed mix for cakes again. Whether you're looking for classic recipes or something new, there's a recipe in the 100+ contained within this cookbook that is sure to suit your needs.

I'm a huge fan of baking cakes, and I admit I get a bit snobby sometimes about it. When people call a boxed cake homemade, it grinds my gears, so to speak. This book makes sure that, for the most part, that temptation isn't there to go to the grocery store for a mix. I really liked that almost all of the recipes had pictures, though they were kind of small. I also really liked the tips on decoration, storage, and picking out fruits that were sprinkled throughout the book.

What I wasn't so crazy about was that the flavors were fairly basic and repetitive. There's a lot of chocolate/coffee combinations, for example. I was also kind of surprised that some of my favorite cakes that I thought were fairly common, weren't included, like red velvet cake and peanut butter cake.

However, the pros of this book far outweigh the cons. Out of one hundred recipes, there are only a few that I wasn't interested in trying. Plus, a few of the recipes come wit a blurb of variations on how you can better tailor the dessert to your own personal tastes. The instructions are easy to follow, and the ingredient list is fairly standard (from a US reader). Some of the recipes that I'm most excited to try include Strawberries and Corn Cream Layer Cake with White Chocolate Cap'n Crunch Crumbs, Chocolate Souffle Layer Cake with Mascarpone Cream and Raspberries, and Peaches & Cream Shortcakes. This is a book I'd love to keep on hand for any occasion. Thanks to Netgalley & Taunton Press for my copy of this book.