Review: This is a great cookbook. I give it six stars (despite the missing Rum).
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 13, 2012
This is not a book you read from cover to cover. When I paged through it and reached the Rich Yellow Cake I stopped the first time and studied the ingredients and baking instructions. Easy, I thought. I have to add, baking cakes is nothing new to me. I started with Pancakes when I was around ten and as the decades went by I progressed to Sachertorte and the Queen Mother's Date and Walnut Cake. I kept paging in Nancy N Wilson's book and soon stopped at the World's Best Cheesecake. Looking delicious! Let me say here: even if you never baked a cake in your life, with the instructions provided in this book you would have to make a real effort to fail. What I also like about this book are the nutritional facts that are stated in the form of a table at the end of each cake recipe.I progressed to the chocolates cakes: Chocolate Cream-Filled Cake, Chocolate Fudge Upside-Down Cake, Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, Chocolate Orange Cake ... I felt like swapping recipes with the author. The recipes and pictures of delicious cakes go on and on. Only with the Black Forest Cake I have a little problem. I grew up not far away from the Black Forest area in Germany and in my book every Black Forest Cake (Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte) must have one important ingredient, which is Rum and which is missing here. (You can substitute Rum with Zwetschgenwasser.)This is a great cookbook. I give it six stars (despite the missing Rum). What? Five stars is the maximum? Five stars it is!! This is a well presented, thoughtfully structured and beautiful book.