REVIEW – Piece Of Cake: Home Baking Made Simple

Piece of Cake: Home Baking Made Simple

• Author: David Muniz and David Lesniak
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli (September 11, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847838765
• ISBN-13: 978-0847838769
• Cover price $29.95

ABOUT PIECE OF CAKE: HOME BAKING MADE SIMPLE

Rediscover the authentic taste and quality of 120 delightful home-baked classic American treats. A bumper-size celebration of home-style baking, these simple yet deeply satisfying brownies, muffins, cookies, and cakes are the essence of home baking, yet most people only know these as staples of the supermarket bakery aisle.With roots in New Jersey and Mississippi respectively, David Muniz and David Lesniak’s mission is to introduce a new generation of bakers to the genuine taste and authentic quality of these classic American treats when made from scratch and baked at home. They share their irresistible favorites, such as blueberry muffins, chocolate walnut brownies, and peanut butter cookies. They also include new takes on some old standbys, like white chocolate and raspberry cupcakes and red velvet cheesecake. Of course, the book also features an array of variations on the signature item at their acclaimed bakery: the whoopie pie, for which they have single-handedly created a craze in Britain.

About the Author

David Muniz and David Lesniak own and run Outsider Tart, the first American bakery in London. Rachel Allen, author of eight best-selling books, is a popular chef on the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and teaches at Ireland’s prestigious Ballymaloe Cookery School.

MY THOUGHTS

I received a copy of Piece Of Cake: Home Baking Made Simple.

Chapters include:

• Brownies & bars
• Cookies
• Scones & Biscuits
• Quick Breads
• Muffins
• Cupcakes
• Whoopie Pies
• Snack Cakes
• Pound Cakes
• Cheesecakes
• Layer Cakes
• Frostings & Finishes
• Free Spirits

The instructions for recipes in this book are easy to understand as long as you read carefully. A good number of the recipes contain amounts from several measuring systems, so you need to look carefully at what you’re doing. An example is where a recipe calls for butter, it’s listed as 2 oz/60g/ 1/4 cup. I found it a slightly unusual way of listing but as long as you’re careful you should be ok. There are a good number of photos in the book, I didn’t count it out but maybe half of the recipes have one. There’s some background info on each of the recipes, how they came about and some helpful tips too. The big thing missing is cooking and prep time, I find it invaluable when determining what recipes I’m going to try making. This cookbook would be good for anyone that enjoys baking.

The product(s) featured in this review was provided free of cost to me for the sole purpose of product testing and review. This post has not been monetarily compensated and is based on the views and opinions of my family and/or self. Please note that the opinions reflected in this post have not been influenced by the sponsor in any way.