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.

Spelt and Formosa Oolong Bread

This is a very simple bread to make.  I mentioned before that bread is a great medium to try out flavour combinations in.  This is because once you have the basic recipe for bread (800g loaf) which is:

·         500g bread flour

·         5g fast action dried yeast (1 tsp)

·         10g salt

·         300ml water

You can experiment to your heart’s content.  As long as the basic percentage (known as the baker’s percentage) is stuck to you can begin to infuse all kinds of flavours and ingredients.

For instance the 300ml of water I used in this recipe was brewed with Formosa Oolong tea leaves and left to cool until it was lukewarm before being added to the recipe. The 300ml of water required is basically 300ml of any liquid (except oils or fats) so you can add in tea, coffee, juice, milk, yoghurt etc.  As long as the quantity is for the most part kept to the recipe should work (although some bakers increase the liquid amount ever so slightly for a stickier dough and therefore softer crumb).

For the flour I used 300g wholegrain spelt and 200g strong white flour to make up the 500g of flour required.  Again you can use most bread flours, as long as the quantity is made up.  However, not all flours will act in the same manner, such as rye, which doesn’t really rise up in the proving stage the way strong bread flour does and gives a denser, but still very tasty, bread.

The more I work with bread the more and more I’m enjoying it immensely.  I say this because I’ve been in the routine for a while now producing bread weekly for family consumption.  I’ve even started my own sourdough starter which is something I had been thinking of doing for a very long time but was afraid of the commitment.  Because it is a big commitment.  At least it is from what I’ve read about cultivating one anyway.

I decided in investing in Bread (River Cottage Handbook No.3) by Daniel Stevens.  Actually I bought the whole River Cottage Handbook set (there’s ten books altogether) which I managed to get my hands on at a bargain price.  The first book I went for was Bread (I’ve not gone through the others yet) and it’s highly recommended.

The author’s writing style is very easy to follow, he doesn’t use any confusing or unfamiliar jargon and any he does use is fully introduced to the reader first.  His explanations on mixing, kneading, shaping etc is excellent and for someone like me, who has made bread before but is basically self-taught, so much fell into place and things just made a lot more sense.  Much of the information I’ve reiterated above is from this book.  You do feel like you are getting a personal tutorial from Stevens as he calmly walks you through how to bake good bread.

It is because of this book that I took the plunge to start my sourdough starter.  He didn’t make it seem as daunting as having a child to look after although he didn’t gloss over the fact that it is still a commitment to start as once it has begun then it will need to be ‘fed’ regularly.  He did mention ways of slowing the fermentation so that the feedings don’t have to be so often.  This is done by increasing the flour ratio until it becomes a dough (this type of pre-ferment is called a levain) and also keeping it in the fridge or even doing both.  If you have to go away for a while or you can’t keep up with the feedings for whatever reason, you can always freeze it for a while.

All this information was very useful to know and the encouragement I needed to get started.  At the time of writing it’s been about 20 hours with no signs of activity from my starter although this isn’t unusual.  It’s silly but I’m so excited about my new starter.  I really do feel like it’s something that is my own and I will need to care for and nurture, although I will draw the line at talking to it.  In public that is.

The one thing that I have stuck to from the very start of my baking bread is starting the dough at night.  I just find it easier to make the dough at night-time and leave it in the fridge to prove slowly overnight.  I’m pretty sure I watched that on a TV programme once and have done it ever since for convenience sake.  It means that when you get up in the morning you can knock-back the dough, shape it, leave it to prove for an hour, and then place it in the oven.  Although you won’t get your bread first thing in the morning, you will get it in the morning rather than the afternoon.

The flavour of spelt in bread is really showcased unlike in cake where it is masked to some extent by the amount of sugar and other ingredients.  This bread had a beautiful rounded nutty flavour that was infused with a mellow smokiness.  I thought the mild smokiness must have come from the oolong tea although it doesn’t quite taste like that when brewed, more between a black tea and a green tea but not as harsh as the former nor as ‘green’ as the latter.  However, I wasn’t sure if it was coming from the tea or the spelt or a combination of both.  So I set out to make this again replacing the spelt with wholemeal flour and leaving the oolong tea in the recipe.

Wholemeal Version

I used fresh yeast for the first time in the wholemeal version (made with 200g strong wholemeal and 300g strong white flour), and except for the crust, which was slightly thicker and chewier than I prefer, the crumb was incredibly soft and tasty.   

Wholemeal Version

The smoky taste was there but more muted in the wholemeal version, although this too worked very well with the oolong tea. 

The combination of the spelt flour and oolong brings almost dusky-smoky-nutty notes to the bread.  The complexity, such few and simple ingredients can achieve in bread baking, is simply fascinating.  I have been making this, in variations of spelt flour and strong wholemeal, constantly for the past few weeks as the perfect morning bread for toast.

Spelt and Formosa Oolong Bread

·         300g spelt flour

·         200g strong white bread flour

·         5g fast action dried yeast

·         10g salt

·         300ml Formosa oolong tea

Begin to make your dough at night.  In a large bowl, mix the ingredients together into a dough form.  Tip the dough out onto a floured or oiled (either/or not both) work surface and knead for at least 10 minutes until the dough is elastic and smooth.  You will feel the texture changing and the dough becoming easier (and more pleasurable) to work with.

Knead the dough into a round shape and place it into an oiled bowl (just scrape clean the one you mixed the ingredients in).  Cover it with a damp tea towel or with loose clingfilm (Stevens recommends covering it with a black bin liner) and leave it in the fridge to rise slowly overnight.

In the morning, take it out of the bowl and knock back the dough to diffuse it slightly.  Knead into your desired shape by bringing the outer edges into the middle and always placing the bread to prove seam side down.  Cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for its final proving, about an hour (it should rise to, almost but not quite, double its size).  Wet the top of the dough with some water (use a pastry brush or your fingers) and sprinkle or push on some sunflower seeds.  Slash the top of the dough with a very sharp serrated knife (I always forget to do this!).

Preheat the oven to 250C with a baking sheet inside.  When you are ready to place the dough into the oven, take the baking sheet from the oven and close the oven immediately to retain heat inside.  Generously sprinkle some flour (plain flour will do) on the baking sheet and place the dough on top of this.  Sprinkle some flour on top of the dough (and/or seeds of choice - I used some sunflower seeds on the spelt and some sesame on the wholemeal) and place it into the oven.  Bake for about 20 minutes at the high temperature then lower the heat to about 200C and bake for another 30 minutes.  In total my bread took about 55 minutes in the oven.  Err on the side of over baking rather than under baking with bread.

Ganache Filled Red Velvet Cupcakes

I am not a cupcake person at all.  I am very much a cake person; the hearty, sturdy type cakes flavoured with lemon, orange, coconut, ginger etc.  I just don’t find the same satisfaction from making cupcakes as I do with making large cakes.  I also don’t like the cake to icing ratio as usually you get more icing on a cupcake than you would on a slice of big cake, unless it’s been scarcely iced but let’s face it, the decorative icing is what lures most people towards cupcakes and which is why it will have oodles of it piped prettily on top.

That’s not to say I didn’t make my fair share of cupcakes in the past, especially when the craze started a good few years ago now.  I remember I bought almost all my cake decoration supplies due to my cupcake activities.  I was so happy when I found the Wilton 1M piping tube to create those big thick decorative curls on top.  Seems a bit excessive looking back on it, since I don’t use them as much now.  But my interests are cyclical so maybe I will come back to the more decorative side of baking at some point.

Saying that, I don’t mind making cupcakes and very occasionally do since there are a few recipes I made in the past that went straight into my favourite’s folder online (everyone has one right?).  And for me, they are good for giving as gifts too. This is partly due to the visual appeal (I can always make a cupcake look prettier than a cake) and partly because I find cupcake boxes from supermarkets very easily now, much more easier than finding large cake boxes and because I don’t have to go online to order packaging from specialist retailers then cupcakes for gifts it is.   Also, six cupcakes for a small family makes a lovely present and will always get exclamations of delight.

So when my sister requested I make something for her driving instructor (long story but he’s a great guy), the first thing I thought of was cupcakes.  Actually that was the second thing I thought of – the first was what flavour of cake.  I get very tense when asked to bake for someone I don’t know very well.  It’s not the same as baking for a stall or a family, or group of people.  This is a specific someone and people can be very particular about what they like.  Like my dad, for instance, who doesn’t like chocolate cake for no reason at all but that he doesn’t like chocolate cake.  It’s difficult to comprehend for people like me who pretty much like most things as long as it’s cooked/baked well.  

I settled on red velvet because of the looks factor and because I think most people like the taste.  Even people who don’t like chocolate cake like red velvet since it’s strictly not a proper chocolate cake.  Red velvet always has this tang to it and funny as it seems a velvet feel in the mouth – or maybe that’s just in my head because the name suggests it so?  I don’t know.  But I wouldn’t define red velvet as chocolate flavoured, especially the recipe I use which contains very little cocoa and tastes just as much of vanilla as it does of chocolate.

One thing I don’t like is cream cheese icing or rather the amount of cream cheese that a lot of recipes contain.  For a long time, I would pair my red velvets with a light white chocolate icing instead but then I devised a cream cheese icing that worked for me and have been using that ever since.  It just contains a lot less of the stuff than in most recipes so has that cream cheese tang that cuts into the sweetness of the icing but without the feeling that I’m eating sickly sweet cheese which I just can’t stand.  I also don’t heap a huge amount of it on my cupcakes.  This icing goes very well with carrot cakes too, I’ve found.

This is a red velvet recipe I found a long time ago online and have been making ever since.  It’s originally from Cakeman Raven and I have adapted very little by increasing the cocoa powder from 1 tsp to 1 tbsp, decreasing the salt from 1 tsp to ¼ tsp, using red wine vinegar instead of white wine vinegar (it just seems more appropriate) and increasing the vanilla extract from 1 tsp to ½ tsp vanilla paste (which is equivalent to 2 tsp vanilla extract). 

I’ve always been happy with this cake except for one thing.  No matter which brand of liquid red food colouring I use, I can never achieve that lovely red colour of cake that I see on TV and on American websites.  I know a lot of people find it artificial but I want that colour – not the bright neon red but just a red.  I’ve tried Dr Oetker’s, Langdale’s, Tesco brand, Asda brand and a few more whose names I can’t remember and none give me that colour.  It just turns out to be this mid-brown colour with a very slight tinge of red that’s barely noticeable.   

I think it’s the red cases that saved these, giving them the look of red velvet, rather than the cake.  I’ve heard that I might want to use red food colouring paste next time so will try that.

Despite the colour this cake is just incredible tasting.  It causes me problems because every time I make it I get requests for more.  Serious requests, which don’t stop until I’ve made a few batches of this and people have eventually had their fill.  Although I love baking, I love baking different things and don’t usually bake something that I’ve already made recently.  But people obviously need to get this cake out of their system so I have to prepare myself for tedious repetition.

The cake is very moist, fluffy and soft from all that oil.  It has the subtle chocolate flavour mixed with that delicate tang and a rounded sweetness from the vanilla.  This cake feels satisfying in the mouth and tastes exquisite.  The cream cheese icing is the perfect complement and that little bit of chocolate ganache inside (mines hardened up so it felt like biting into a truffle centre – God it was good!) just makes this the type of thing you would have in your top five desert island desserts.  Make it the top three.

Ganache Filled Red Velvet Cupcakes (adapted from Cakeman Raven)

Makes 20

·         300g sugar

·         350g plain flour

·         30g cornflour

·         1tsp bicarbonate of soda

·         1 tbsp cocoa powder

·         ¼ tsp salt

·         2 eggs

·         375ml vegetable oil

·         250ml buttermilk

·         2 tbsp (30ml) red food colouring

·         ½ tsp vanilla paste

·         1 tsp red wine vinegar

Preheat the oven to 180C, prepare a muffin tin with muffin cases.  Mix the sugar, flour, cornflour, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa powder and salt together in a medium bowl. 

In a large bowl beat the eggs, oil, buttermilk, colouring, vanilla and vinegar together until very well combined.  Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix it until fully incorporated (until you get all the flour).  You might want to use an electric whisk as there is a large amount of oil here that tends to sit separate unless you can really whip it into the other ingredients.

Scoop the batter into the cupcake cases and bake for about 20-25 minutes.  Start checking after about 15 minutes though as your oven might run a little hotter than mine.  Once out of the oven, allow to cool on wire racks.

Ganache Filling

·         200g dark chocolate (not more than 60% cocoa)

·         100g extra thick double cream

Make the ganache by breaking up the chocolate into small pieces and placing in a medium bowl.  Heat up the cream in a saucepan until it comes to a simmer and is just bubbling on the edges.  Give it a stir to make sure its heated through then pour on top of the chocolate.  Leave for at least 30 seconds to a minute. 

With a smallish whisk, gently begin to mix the cream into the chocolate until they emulsify and mix in together.  Extra thick cream has a lot of fat in it and the ganache should be quite glossy. 

Cream Cheese Icing

·         100g unsalted butter, softened

·         150g cream cheese, room temp

·         500g icing sugar

·         5 tsp extra thick double cream (or double/single cream, milk)

Make the cream cheese icing by beating the cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy.  Add in half the icing sugar (no need to sift) and beat together until mixed in then add in the other half.

The icing will be quite stiff, so add in tsp of the cream until you get the consistency you are happy with.  I used 5 tsp and this made the icing soft but easily able to hold its shape.

Assembly

When the cupcakes are cool, cut the insides of them with an apple corer so have space to for the ganache.  It’s easiest to use a piping bag to pipe the ganache into the middle but if you don’t have one just do your best with a teaspoon. 

Again if you have a piping bag and nozzle you might want to use it here with the cream cheese.  The amount of cream cheese should be enough to ice all 20 cupcakes if you don’t go overboard (you can hopefully gauge from the pictures the amount I used to ice each cupcake).  Decorate as you will.