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.

Unless I’m standing in a donut shop staring into a pastry case, I don’t think all that much about donuts. But some people do. Donuts are not just a brief pitstop of the mind, but a destination. The analogy might seem a bit silly, but companies like Dunkin’ Donuts are extremely popular for a reason and that is because people love their donuts. Donuts: An American Passion is a book that is all about the love of donuts. It’s not a cookbook, although it does contain several donut recipes. It’s a narrative that discusses the history of the public interest in donuts.

This may seem like an unusual topic for a book at first. Why not write about the straight history of the pastry? A straight history book would certainly be appealing to donut lovers. I think that the reason is in the fact that the love of donuts is a kind of social phenomenon, and sociological trends and interests tend to have a much bigger audience - not just those who obsess over the best donuts. But more to the point, the topic is just plain fun to read about! From stories about how donuts were marketed as a good energy source (and therefore, a health food) in the 1940s, to tales of the post-Krispy Kreme backlash of artisan donut makers, it’s amazing to hear all the different trends that come and go that are all based around one little food.

This is a quick read, as the book is divided up into short chapters with bits of actual history, personal stories of and interviews with donut entrepreneurs and, of course, notes about tasting different donuts from all over the country.It will probably make you want a donut by the time you finish it, and it just might make you wonder why you want that donut, too.

When you first hear the title, you might think that Elizabeth Falkner’s Demolition Desserts is about smashing desserts, not making them. This isn’t true, of course. The book is a collection of recipes from the well-known San Francisco chef and pastry chef and seems to get the name from the fact that Falkner likes to take some traditional ideas of what dessert should be and demolish them, whether by introducing new flavors, new forms or taking the desserts completely over the top with a combination of the two. This is the woman who created a dessert that was so messy it had to be eaten with gloved hands, after all!

The recipes range from the basic to the complex, from relatively simple chocolate chip cookies to a dessert that includes chocolate chip cookies, blondies, ice cream and two different chocolate sauces (appropriately named Chocolate Chip Mania) all combined into a completely decadent dessert experience. The recipes themselves are easy to follow, with clear instructions and very enthusiastic intros that make you want to start baking. Even more interesting is the way that the recipes are laid out, with notes as to what can be made in advance, how long things will keep and what order the elements of the more composed desserts are needed for plating. The layout really helps you to think more creatively about the process of making a dessert, especially for a home cook who usually makes and serves dishes on the same day. You’ll find yourself thinking things like “what else can I do with this?” and “maybe I should save that to combine it with something else!”

The book is fun and playful, as are the photos throughout. The advice given in the book about the baking process is solid and well worth taking note of for future projects, as well as for the recipes found in this book.

The Field Guide to Candy is a handy little guidebook to, as the subtitle says, make and identify virtually every candy imaginable. Not having a master list of all the candies out there, I can’t confirm this statement, but there are 113 recipes in the book as well as a number of variations - and that is a lot of candy! The book is written by Anita Chu, who is also the author of the Field Guide to Cookies and the blog Dessert First.

The book is set up like field reference guides you might use for bird watching or star gazing, only with some detailed recipe instructions thrown in. Each entry starts with a description of the candy, followed by the history and general notes about working your way through the candy-making process for that particular piece. The recipe is next, followed by a yield estimate and storage notes. Storage for candy is even more important than for other baked goods because candies can be very sensitive to changes in the humidity levels in the air. There is a full-color section in the center of the book with photos to illustrate each of the recipes, and towards the beginning you’ll find an overview of materials and ingredients you’ll need to get started with candy making.

The approach of this book is good considering that candy making requires a fairly scientific approach. The instructions are clear and direct, and you shouldn’t have any trouble following along with them and making candies similar to store-bought favorites at home, whether you want to make Simple Truffles or your own Candy Corn. The only thing that I really wish the book had done differently is to have included the page number of the recipe on the same page as the photo in the inset of the book, but only because I like to look at the pictures before the recipes and it would make that process a tiny bit easier.