Little Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse: Cupcakes, Small Cakes, Muffins, and Other Mini Treats

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Editorial reviews

Product Description
The mania for miniature sweets is gaining momentum–maybe due to happy memories of the magical tea parties of our childhood, or the intimacy of having our own tiny treat in a supersized world, with no need to share!

The mother-daughter team at the Riviera Bakehouse in Westchester, New York, and authors of The Whimsical Bakehouse and Christmas Cookies from the Whimsical Bakehouse now present an abundance of fabulous new recipes for little decorated cakes, cheesecakes, cupcakes, and more–all in fresh flavor combinations, like caramel cake with dulce de leche buttercream or spicy chocolate cake with cinnamon-chocolate whipped cream. This comprehensive introduction to baking in miniature also provides tips on glazing, icing, and making chocolate decorations and offers details on the equipment you need to get started (including a cake pan chart, so that you can use those mini rose pans, heart pans, and other fun shapes to bake unique creations).

The authors are famous for their over-the-top decorations, and they’ll take you step-by-step through the process of creating cakes piped and appliquéd with bumblebees (white chocolate wings and nonpareil stripes make them irresistible!), blooming roses (or, if you prefer, delicate hydrangeas with lifelike shaded petals), wild meringues (dressed with tiger stripes, zebra stripes, or leopard spots), and spiky dragons (right down to the serpentine tail). The recipes in Little Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse are categorized into three levels: one star for easy, two for intermediate, and three for challenging. So whether you want to start with a charming, super-easy star-shaped mini strawberry shortcake or strive for A Day at the Beach pail-shaped cake, complete with cookie-crumb sand, chocolate shovel, and edible seashells, you’ll find a cool confection that fits your skills. If you’re not ready for complicated decorating, this book also provides easy presentation ideas to make simple cakes look grander, ensuring the perfect finish to any occasion.

Little cakes are as fun to make as they are delicious to eat! After all, who’d turn down a bit–and a bite–of joy in their lives?

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Amazon.com Review
The Riviera Bakehouse in Westchester, New York, offers dozens of whimsically decorated little cakes--cupcakes, mini-Bundts, bite-size cheesecakes, and more. In the appropriately titled Little Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse, its proprietors, the mother-daughter team of Kaye and Liv Hanson, provide more than 60 recipes for these cakes, some adorned with fetching bows, others made to look like animals and insects, flowers, and so on, with detailed decorating instructions. Included also are notes on ingredients and equipment (which will, in most cases, require jaunts to local baking emporia or online shopping).

Falling somewhere between a hip hobbyist's manual and a straightforward baking book, with excellent formulas for many traditional baked goods like pound and carrots cakes and various icings, the book will appeal immediately to those who relish cake decorating projects. What is new here is the focus on "mini," innovative techniques like The Chocolate Method (painting with icing to create carton-like designs), and a fanciful sensibility that eschews the usual roses-and-garlands kitsch of traditional cake decor. --Arthur Boehm

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Customer reviews

review by: Julie date: 2008-06-26 rating:
Book cover doesn't do them justice
The cover of this book doesn't do it justice. The cakes on the cover are cute but fairly plain. But what you find in the book is several good recipes -- and some _adorable_ little cakes, from simple and plain to quite fancy -- from little corn muffins to an iced shark cake (shaped like a shark jumping out of the water) to elegant little fondant-decorated cakes. Some of the cakes are geared toward kids, but some of them are quite elegant and appropriate for adults. I hope the publisher will add the "search inside" feature and give folks a better glimpse of what this little gem of a book contains.

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review by: date: 2008-06-04 rating:
not impressed
i had great hopes for this book prior to getting it. I'm sad to say i am disappointed. i recommend Hello, Cupcake as a much much better alternative to this cupcake book.

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review by: date: 2008-05-31 rating:
Yummy recipes!
I haven't made the designs yet from this book, but I have used several of the cupcake recipes. They are delicious! Those of you afraid to try scratch, need this book. They aren't much harder than a mix and come out very moist. The house buttercream is also an amazing noncrusting frosting. Very tasty and easy to smooth. Highly recommend.

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review by: date: 2008-04-28 rating:
Great book
I really want to give this book 4 and 1/2 stars. The technical information was comprehensive and easy to follow. I was also pleasantly surprised with the number of icing recipes provided - 3 kinds of buttercream, fudge icing, peanut butter, whipped cream and 3 kinds of glaze - as well as the fillings and cake recipes. The authors have phenomenal ideas for beautiful little cakes.

There are a few recipes that use shaped pans (ice cream cones, rose, heart) which can be costly. They do provide alternatives if the user doesn't have the pans. I do not like the book's size. It's only 8" x 9 1/2" and the print is smaller than many of my other cookbooks. However, the content is so good that I can overlook both issues.

It is a great book and I would definitely buy it again.



review by: date: 2008-04-14 rating:
best baking book
Hi everyone I am a baker in new york went to school in london and have just about every book on baking a few weeks ago came across little cakes from the whimsical bakehouse all I can say is this book is wonderful every recipe in the book came out great and is very easy to understand putting together the recipes was to say the least a breeze not much can go wrong with this book I would recommend buying this book I plan on buying all her books and visting her bakehouse happy baking all

Antoinette
From brooklyn

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Similar categories

Books . Subjects . Cooking, Food & Wine . Baking . Cakes
Books . Subjects . Cooking, Food & Wine . Baking . Desserts
Books . Subjects . Cooking, Food & Wine . Baking . Muffins
Books . Subjects . Cooking, Food & Wine . General
Books . Subjects . Cooking, Food & Wine . General AAS
Books . Refinements . Binding (binding) . Hardcover
Books . Refinements . Format (feature_browse-bin) . Printed Books

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