Review: Sugar Baby: Confections, Candies, Cakes, & Other Delicious Recipes for Cooking with Sugar

Title: Sugar Baby: Confections, Candies, Cakes, & Other Delicious Recipes for Cooking with Sugar
Author: Gesine Bullock-Prado, Tina Rupp
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: October 23 2012
Source: Netgalley & Stewart, Tabori and Chang

★★★

Three stars.

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Sugar Baby is a cookbook that centers around, you guessed it, sugar. From candy and sweeties to cakes and mousses, this book explores all the way that the modern cook utilizes sugar in their kitchen.

One huge plus of this book is the amount of instruction. Sugar is complex, but the author of this one breaks it down clearly. Recipes are divided by the stage/temperature of sugar used, and at the beginning there's a brief history and a list of equipment that one ought to possess in order to have the most successful sugary concoctions in their own kitchens.

This book is a little hard to follow at times, from the perspective of one like myself who is unaccustomed to working with sugar as a main medium. I also wish there had been more pictures. I'm a very visual person in the kitchen, and I like knowing exactly how things should look once I'm done. However, the pictures that were included were very well done, and made me want to eat (reading this while wanting dessert may have been a mistake!).

That being said, this collection is a great way to amp up your game. Individual components such as different kinds of fudges, frostings, and fillings are extremely helpful to integrate into your pastry repertoire. However, the back of this book contains recipes for cakes, tarts, and other full desserts that let you add these individual components together into one stunning dessert. A few treats that I'd be happy to make are Parisian Macarons, Candy Corn, and NOLA Praline Custard Bread Pudding.

There's no disputing that these recipes look and sound delicious, but it is not a book that I see myself regularly using. I would however keep it on hand for when I wanted to feel a bit fancy or impress with my handcrafted sweets. Thank you to Stewart, Tabori, and Chang & Netgalley for my chance to read this book.