Anyone who has ever set foot in a diner knows that nothing looks better than a big slice of mile-high strawberry shortcake, with layers of fluffy cake, whipped cream frosting and bright red, ripe berries. It’s a classic and it is one of the many recipes inside Retro Desserts: Totally Hip, Updated Classic Desserts from the ‘40S, ‘50S, 60s and ’70s. The cookbook, by Wayne Harley Brachman, is full of recipes that are either classics in and of themselves, or are inspired by, classics. Run and Cherry Cola Marble Cake, Grasshopper Pie and even a Fruit Cocktail Gelatin Ring (much better looking and tasting than it may sound at first) are just a few of the recipes, and there are also recipes for homemade versions of perennial favorites, such as Oreo cookies.

This is one cookbook that I go back to again and again even if I don’t bake anything from it, because the recipes are very well presented, with clear and easy-to-follow instructions and full-color illustrations of almost every item in the book. If you’re not baking from it, it’s fun to see how once-popular cocktails inspired cakes and pies, and it’s easy to get inspired to do some baking of your own. All of the chapters come with an introduction of the topic, with baking tips as well as quick facts as to why the included desserts were hits the first time around. All of the recipes also come with similar notes, baking instructions and factoids.

It might not be for someone who likes utility, but many of the recipes have cute names and the chapters have even cuter ones, such as “For Whom the Ice Cream Bell Tolls” and “I Tawt I Taw A Pudding Tat.” If you are going for utility, don’t worry that this book is just fluff. There is a very useful section at the back with recipes for sauces that is a great reference point, especially if you’re interested in making your own hot fudge ice cream sauce or creamy marshmallow fluff (among other things!).

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to win a cooking contest? I would guess that this is not something that most of us think about on a daily basis, but it is a thought that might have popped into your head after reading about the last Pillsbury Bake Off or watching it on the Food Network. The Bake Off is the biggest cooking contest in the country and offers a $1 million dollar prize to the creator of the winning recipe - and that is a prize big enough to pique anyone’s curiosity. The Ungarnished Truth is a memoir written by Ellie Mathews, the winner of the 1998 Bake Off. The book gives some of her cooking contest history, beginning with the first local contest that she ordered for the fun of it, right up through the whirlwind of activity that occurs in the aftermath of winning the Bake-Off, such as interviews and TV appearances.

Attending the contest, I would hope that I would win it, even while I remind myself that the odds are slim. If I were to win, I would probably jump for joy and otherwise try to express my happiness - I doubt I would be able to speak coherently from the shock and excitement - at winning such a well-known prize. Matthews was not this type of person. She was much more reserved about the whole process and, while she certainly felt the shock of winning, jumping around just wasn’t in the cards. This might be one of the things that makes the book so interesting: Matthews is not so caught up in the emotion of the event and is able to paint a very clear picture of what she saw, felt and experienced. Even if it’s not how you would react, it is certainly an interesting story to read!

It’s also a good place to find inspiration, whether for everyday cooking  or contest cooking, as Matthews explains how she came up with some of her contest recipes and theorizes on why they did, or didn’t, win. The recipe for her winning recipe, Salsa Couscous Chicken, is included in the book.

For all those of you who haven’t ordered  The Baking Bites Cookbook yet, the book is now on Amazon.com! This means that it’s even easier to order. There is still a slight discount over the Amazon price if you order it directly thorough my site, but it does qualify for Free Super Saver Shipping, which is great if you’re planning on ordering a few things from the Amazon website already. The book makes a great holiday gift, and is nice to have around the kitchen before the season starts so you’ll be prepared for all that holiday baking there is to do! You can get a sneak peek of some of the recipes here:

• Chai Spiced Coffee Cake, tested by Tartelette
• White Chocolate Oatmeal Crunch Brownies, tested by Cookie Madness

I’m in the process of making an official feedback page for the cookbook on this site, but in the meantime feel free to leave comments here, leave a review on Amazon or just send me an e-mail. I’d just like to send out a huge thank you to everyone who has ordered a book already and another huge thank you to everyone who is thinking about getting a copy in the near future.

I first read the title of this book to be “keeper cakes” not “cake keeper cakes,” and while it was my first impression of the title that drew me to it, the overall message is the same. Cake Keeper Cakes is a book about cakes that are simple but delicious, and are the types of recipes that you not only want to make over again, but you might want to make them just to keep around the house. All the cakes in this book are easy to make and not time intensive when you compare them to the cakes in other cake-centric books. There are no layer cakes and no cakes that call for special decorating techniques. Every recipe, however, has tons of flavor and there are lots of wonderful combination used to make these “plain” cakes really stand out. This includes combinations like Chipotle Chocolate Cake, Almond Browned Butter Cake and a Lavender and Lemon cake, in addition to slightly more common flavor combinations.

The book is divided up into six types of cake by the type of pan used to make them: snacking cakes (square), round cakes, loaf cakes, bundt cakes, springform cakes and angel/chiffon cakes (angel food pan). With 100 recipes, it will be easy to find things to make even if you don’t have each type of pan mentioned, but since these are basic pieces of baking equipment, you can use the book as an excuse to pick up any pan types you don’t have.

Overall, this book is easy to work from and something that would not be intimidating to a novice baker, although a baker of any skill level will certainly find recipes that sound appealing in the book. The recipes are laid out simply, with easy to follow directions and clear ingredient lists. There are some tips throughout the book that hint at variations you can make on some of the recipes, too.  Many of the recipes are pictured, and the photos are lovely. Fortunately, unlike some books where you can’t visualize what the finished product will look like, the appearance of these cakes is plain enough that you actually can picture them on your own before you try them out.

Sometimes, you’ll look at a cake and just say “wow.” And I’m talking about the good kind of “wow,” not the kind that is uttered when perusing Cake Wrecks. I’m talking about the kinds of cakes that might make you stop in a bakery window and stare, and these are the kinds of cakes that The Whimsical Bakehouse: Fun-to-Make Cakes That Taste as Good as They Look! teaches you to put together, from basic single-layer cakes to towering three-layer creations.

The book starts out with the basics, so it is good for all levels of would-be cake decorators, there is no need to have extensive experience working with piped frostings and fondants before you get started. First, it goes through a list of all the tools that you’ll need, both edible and inedible, and describes how they should be used. Then, the book goes on to discuss coloring, so you’ll be able to get brightly-colored finished products, and cake assembly, so your layers will stack up neatly and be stable enough to decorate and transport.

After all this, the book gets into the recipes and the decorating techniques themselves. There are lots of recipes in the book, both for cakes, fillings and frostings. The instructions are very well-explained so, like the decorations on top of the cake, you also have a cake that tastes like it was designed by a professional. The decorations are the main focus of the book, however, and you will not be disappointed with the guidance given by the authors. They explain everything from the specific process used to make and work with the frostings/decorations, to the different types of dyes and food colorings that you might want to work with to achieve your desired result. There are lots of excellent photos in the book to inspire you and to help guide you through the cake-decorating process with confidence, too.

I am often asked questions about using sugar alternatives in baking, or how to eliminate the sugar from a recipe. I think that it is much easier to start out with a recipe that is closer to what you want, rather than try to take a “regular” recipe and convert it using various substitutions (often with less-than-perfect results) and maintain the original texture and flavor of a baked good. Fortunately, there are lots of good places to start out and Baking with Agave Nectar is one of them. It is a cookbook dedicated to using this all natural sweetener that is known for having a very low glycemic index in various baked goods that you would normally find sugar in.

It’s rarely a simple 1:1 substitution when going from a solid, granulated sweetener to a liquid because sweeteners of different types act differently in recipes. The best thing about a book like this is that all the experimentation has been done for you and you can make the recipes with confidence, without wondering if that substitution ratio you found on Google was the “right” one for this particular recipe. The recipes in this book are designed to work with the extra liquid of agave sweetener right off the bat, and have their baking times, other ingredients and the overall sweetness of the baked good already adjusted. As you might expect from a book with one healthy aspect to it, many of the recipes also call for other healthy elements. For instance, some suggest that you use low fat soy milk, vegetable oil instead of butter or try using either alternative flours or whole wheat flours in the recipes.

The recipes are easy to follow and very user-friendly, with plenty of photos that showcase the recipes. There are short descriptions to go along with each of the recipes, and it is always noted at the top of the page if a recipe is vegan or gluten free - and many of them are. It covers a wide range of baked goods and desserts, from muffins and cakes to pies and ice creams. There is even a section for frostings using agave. There is enough versatility that, even if you don’t completely switch to baking with agave, you can definitely find some recipes to add to your repertoire if you’re looking to experiment with it.