Gorgeous Cakes by Annie Bell (Book Review)

Introduction

I want this to be the first book I review because it was the first cake book I was given as a gift by my older sister.  This was about seven years ago.  I then bought another copy about four years ago due to my younger sister claiming it and keeping it for her own!

In that time this book has been used many times by all members of the family and I can safely say that it is probably the book that has been most used in baking by me in the past.  It has also been the most influential in teaching me about baking cakes, simply through the fact that I have made a lot of cakes from this book, made a lot of mistakes (my own – not from the recipes) and have learned from all of them. 

About

As per the description this book is primarily about cakes although the few odd biscuit recipes do get included.  The chapters are divided into; Introduction, Techniques and Tips, Cupcakes and Mini Cakes, Good Old-Fashioned Cakes, Dream Cakes, Festive Baking, Chocolate Cakes, Meringues and Patisserie, Cheesecakes, Other Teatime Treats and No Such Word as Can’t.  Most of these chapters speak for themselves as to what they contain, although some might not be so obvious from the titles.  Dream Cakes is a chapter that contains mostly layered cakes and a lot of these are ground nut based (such as almonds, hazelnuts etc) rather than flour based and most of them have icings, fillings and toppings.  I would say that it contains some of the most advanced recipes of the book, but still these creations are not that hard to achieve.  The Kiddies’ dream traybake and Ice-cream cake are the only two non-layered cakes in this chapter.  Other Teatime Treats mainly contain traybake style goodies, including a biscuit recipe.  The No Such Word as Can’t chapter is very interesting in that it’s geared towards ‘alternative’ cakes; those that don’t contain flour or eggs.  For instance her Fig and Orange Cake with campari glaze is gluten-free and a take on Claudia Roden’s Orange and Almond Cake.  The Sour Cherry Yoghurt Cake is eggless and the Raspberry Ricotta Cake is almost fat-free.  This is the only chapter in the book that I have not baked from.  I think because as a young novice baker, I found these a bit too different and just simply stayed away from this chapter.  Reviewing the book now has shown me that I’ve made bakes a lot more complicated and different than these and they don’t seem as exotic anymore so will probably be trying them out soon. 

The book is aimed at the beginner and her recipes showcase straightforwardness with delicious taste.  There’s nothing too overtly complicated in ingredients or procedure.

Recipes

It has approximately 88 recipes from my count.  The majority of these are fairly straightforward and easy to do – the subtitle of the book is ‘beautiful baking made easy’.  Bell explains in a clear manner and concise steps without too much padding but with just enough detail.  Sometimes, just sometimes it could do with a little more detail.  For instance, after describing a step Bell says ‘to chill’ the dough.  For a beginner it might have been more helpful to detail whether that should be in the fridge or freezer.  But I’m being picky.  For the most part I feel that the details in the recipe are enough for not very experienced bakers to get a grasp of these recipes easily.  The results are amazing and absolutely delicious.  Bell has selected some great tasting recipes and has included a good variety of them.  Some family favourites are the Layered Espresso Walnut Loaf (made more times than I can count and always turns out great), Coconut Cubes (a big hit at fund-raising events), Rich Lemon Curd Sponge (a personal favourite -  a lovely rich soft sponge which contains double cream in the batter and gives a lovely lemon hit)

Layout

Mostly throughout the book each recipe is given a two page spread with the recipe on one page and a full size picture on the other.  Impressively, every single recipe has a photo or two to go with it.  This kind of spoilt me as it was one of my early baking books and I started looking to it as a standard.  To this day, if a baking book doesn’t have a photo for every recipe then I tend to see that as a negative due to this book.  The photos are beautifully shot and do their job in that they inspire you to make the recipes, not to mention give you an idea of what the recipe should look like – the prime reason, in my opinion, of including photos.

Physical Description

The book is 24cm width by 24cm length and with a depth of about 1.6cm.  The front and back cover is thick, smooth card – easy to wipe.  The pages inside are good quality and thick, and again have a smoothness that would make them easy to wipe if you got spills on them (but not ‘foodproof’ by any means).  The book keeps open when open so is easy to use if you were to take this into the kitchen.  The font is sans serif, practical and a good size to read.

Contents

Introduction 6

Techniques and Tips 8

Cupcakes and Mini Cake 10; Lemon Cupcakes, Banoffee Cupcakes, Truffle Cupcakes, Vanilla Cupcakes, Cappuccino Cupcakes, White Chocolate Butterfly Cupcakes, Pistachio and White Chocolate Buns, Red White and Blue Buns, Gin and Tonic Minis, Orange Sugar Puffs, Angel Mint Cakes, Coconut Cubes.

Good Old-Fashioned Cakes 32; Classic Victoria Sponge Cake, Rich Lemon Curd Sponge, Marble Cake, All Spiced Up (ginger, beer and rhubarb cake), Upside-down Apricot Cake, Iced Lemon Loaf with crystallised rose petals, Layered Espresso Walnut Loaf, Somerset Apple Cake, Cherry Crumble Cake, Polenta Cake with macerated strawberries, Pain d’epice.

Dream Cakes 54; Towering Alaska (ground almond cake topped with meringues), Tangerine Dream (ground hazelnut cake with tangerine filling),  White Chocolate Mousse Cake with red fruits, Banana Passion, Lime and Coconut Delice, Raspberry Mascarpone Layer Cake, Kiddies’ Dream Traybake, Ice-cream Cake.

Festive Baking 72; Christmas Cake, Chocolate Chestnut Log, Orange Marzipan Cake, Italian Currant Cake, Open Mince Pies, Cranberry-Mince Shortcake, Treacle Star Tart, Raspberry Valentine’s Cake, Heart of Gold (orange and marmalade sponge with orange buttercream), Easter Fruit Cake, Easter Egg Brownies, Easter Battenburg, Birthday Angel Smartie Cake, Red Velvet Bonfire Cake.

Chocolate Cakes 102; French and Flourless, Chocolate Sensation, Black Forest Victoria, Sachertorte, Chocolate and Raspberry Cream Pie, Chocolate Prune Cake, Chocolate Gateau with Crème Chantilly, Chocolate Fudge Swiss Roll, Mini Chocolate Mousse Cakes, Guilt-free Chocolate Cake.

Meringues and Patisserie 122; Master recipe, Ginger, Almond and Fig meringue, Lemon Meringue Pie, Pistachio Choc-Chip Meringues, Red Berry Pavlova, Redcurrant and Raspberry Streusel, Fig Streusel, Apple and Almond Tart, Fig Custard Tart, Lemon and Orange Custard Tart.

Cheesecakes 142; Ricotta and Amaretti Cheesecake, My Mum’s Lemon Cheesecake, Old-fashioned Baked Cheesecake, Californian Cheesecake, Poppyseed Cheesecake with vodka sultanas, Mini Strawberry Clotted Cream Cheesecakes.

Other Teatime Treats 156; Iced Fancies, Lemon Drizzle Traybake, Date Madeleines, Raspberry and Almond Traybake, Jammy Dodgers, Pink Macaroons with dark chocolate, Iced Cherry Shortbread, Paradise Slice (consisting of layers of shortbread, jam filling and sponge), Plum Muffins, Scones with Strawberry jam, Perfect Pancakes.

No Such Word as Can’t 176; Fig and Orange Cake with campari glaze, Sour Cherry Yoghurt Cake, Pink Speckled Cake (beetroot cake), Raspberry Ricotta Cake, Tasha’s Apricot and Hazelnut Cake, Raspberry Goat’s Cheese Meringues.

Conclusion

I can honestly say that I have never experienced a dud recipe from this book, even back when I was more an enthusiastic baker rather than an experienced one, there was no recipe that failed on me.  Yes, I did mess up the Lemon Curd Cake the first time, but that was because I tried slicing it in two and filling it while it was still warm from the oven (lesson learned!).  It still tasted fantastic though.  The only time I’ve been less than happy with a recipe from this book is with the Red Velvet Bonfire Cake – the cake itself was ok (I’ve had better Red Velvet and prefer oil-based ones rather than butter) but the cream cheese icing was far too ‘cheesy’ for my liking.  Overall, this is the type of book that if you follow the recipe exactly as written, you should come out with a perfect bake every time.

I’m very glad that it is still in print and going strong but I feel that this book doesn’t get mentioned enough.  It has a picture for every recipe which is very rare nowadays in the cake books I have and is still priced at only £9.99 RRP which is great value for a good quality book (the copy I have, published in 2005, is £14.99 so this must have come down in price).

I’m not sure, but I have a feeling that this won’t be available for too long.  It’s just a feeling but this is now about eight years old and I have seen that Annie Bell has brought a new book out called Annie Bell’s Baking Bible.  This is quite a large book and has over 200 recipes.  From my quick look at the contents page I could name at least 22 recipes from Gorgeous Cakes that have been repeated in the Baking Bible.  So it’s still a worthwhile investment to go for Gorgeous Cakes if you were thinking of only going for her larger collection.  To me Bell has proved herself to be a reliable resource for recipes, I can trust them to turn out well therefore I would not hesitate to buy her other works based on what I have seen from this book.