owling's Full Review: Rose Levy Beranbaum, Maria Guarnaschelli, Vincent ...
The cakes in this book truly are divine. Every year for the past several years we've made the white chocolate whisper cake for my fiancee's birthday. It truly melts in your mouth, but holds together for icing and cutting better than most cakes. The author explains that this is because white chocolate melts at a different temperature than butter.
The sauces are also wonderful. I found that the fresh blueberry sauce went perfectly on top of a white chocolate cheesecake from a different cookbook. The raspberry sauces go wonderfully with the white chocolate whisper cake, and helps to keep it from being too sweet.
The author gives precise measurements for ingredients - very precise. Even eggs are measured by weight and volume rather than number. In my experience, this is the mark of a truly professional pastry chef. She explains a number of her recipes (such as the above comment about the white chocolate). Her directions are clear.
If you want to create the complex creations from her pictures you'll want some experience, and you may need certain equipment. Even without that experience you may find this book to be worth it for the basic recipes.
My only problem with this book was the icing recipes. I've found three kinds of buttercream icing recipes in my experience. The first are ones that use too much shortening - ick. The second are ones that use too much butter - they taste so much of butter that it makes the cake beneath taste wrong, and leaves an unpleasant aftertaste. The third are heavier on sugar, not too heavy on shortening or butter, and are my favorite buttercream icing recipes.
Unfortunately the buttercream icing recipes in this cookbook are of the second type - too much butter. I would instead use icing recipes from a different cookbook.
That's really the only thing that brings down the rating of this cookbook. Otherwise as a cake cookbook I would give it a five. This brings it down to a three, however, as icing is a very important part of fabulous cakes.
Beranbaum has written the classic cake cookbook. A chapter devoted to the master baker offers clear, precise instructions for making special-occasion ...More at CHEFS Catalog
Beranbaum has written the classic cake cookbook. A chapter devoted to the master baker offers clear, precise instructions for making special-occasion ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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