Little Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse: Cupcakes, Small Cakes, Muffins, and Other Mini Treats
The Riviera Bakehouse in Westchester, New York, offers dozens of whimsically decorated little cakes--cupcakes, mini-Bundts, bite-size cheesecakes, and more. In the appropriately titledLittle Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse, its proprietors, the mother-daughter team of Kaye and Liv Hanson, provide more than 60 recipes for these cakes, some adorned with fetching bows, others made to look like animals and insects, flowers, and so on, with detailed decorating instructions. Included also are notes on ingredients and equipment (which will, in most cases, require jaunts to local baking emporia or online shopping).Falling somewhere between a hip hobbyist's manual and a straightforward baking book, with excellent formulas for many traditional baked goods like pound and carrots cakes and various icings, the book will appeal immediately to those who relish cake decorating projects. What is new here is the focus on "mini," innovative techniques like The Chocolate Method (painting with icing to create carton-like designs), and  a fanciful sensibility that eschews the usual roses-and-garlands kitsch of traditional cake decor.--Arthur Boehm