Learn to COOK - The Art of the Cake: Modern French Baking and Decorating
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List Price: $40.00
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Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.8653
EAN: 9780688141998
ISBN: 0688141994
Label: William Morrow Cookbooks
Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 608
Publication Date: 1999-10-06
Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks
Release Date: 1999-09-22
Studio: William Morrow Cookbooks
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Editorial Reviews:
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French cakes are among the most luscious and spectacular in the pantheon of cake baking. In The Art of the Cake, authors Healy and Bugat simplify the art form and bring together more than 100 classic cakes, from the Marquis (kirsch-soaked chocolate genoise cake rounds stuffed with ripe peaches and whipped cream) to the Moka, made from vanilla genoise brushed with espresso, filled with coffee buttercream, and topped with chopped roasted almonds. There are recipes for poundcake-, spongecake-, and meringue-based gbteaux,in addition to bavarians, charlottes, mousse cakes, and loaf and log cakes (like the classic Chocolate Yule Log). There are also over 40 recipes for frostings, glazes, sauces, and fillings. In addition, there are detailed ingredient and equipment sections, and comprehensive instructions on general baking techniques--everything from separating and whipping eggs to working with a pastry tube to the correct way to temper chocolate. The more than 400 step-by-step illustrations (penned by Paul Bugat) that accompany the recipes and the 32 pages of color photographs of these magnificent cakes will be enough to tempt any baker, amateur or pro, into the kitchen.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Art Of The Cake
Comment: A very infromative and user friendly book giving ingredient measurements in volume, imperial and metric quantities.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Not Just for Serious & Dedicated Bakers
Comment: This is a book about creating French and European cakes. The recipes have virtually no resemblance to American Layer Cakes, Bundt Cakes, or the "Wilton School of Cake Decorating". Most French cakes are made with a base sponge cake known as a Genoise. This is NOT an American sponge cake. A Genoise contains far less fat than American cakes and is, therefore, drier. A Genoise is typically brushed with a simple syrup which is often augmented with liqueurs or other flavorings. The cake is usually embellished with Buttercream, Marzipan, Meringue, Nut Pastes, Chocolate, Fruit, Bavarian Cream, Glaceed Chestnuts, Mousse, and Praline, among other components. There are some simple recipes in this book, including pound cakes, that can be executed without much difficulty, but most present some challenges and require patience. They are also time consuming. Once you have completed one of these beauties, you will either feel a great sense of accomplishment or tell your family and friends that henceforth, you will be using recipes off the back of a box of cocoa or tin of baking powder. The authors assume that you are at least somewhat experienced, that you and your stand mixer are old friends, and you own a pastry brush.
NEVERTHELESS, THIS BOOK IS STILL A WONDERFUL REFERENCE TOOL EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT A SEMIPRO IN THE KITCHEN! The reference section is full of recommendations and useful information for and about ingredients and techniques. For example, I have always used Grand Mariner when I wanted an orange flavor in desserts. The authors suggest a less-expensive Curacao, saying it has a more intense orange flavor, "making it ideal for flavoring fillings and frostings." Moreover, learning to prepare some of the basic components - buttercreams, pastry creams, rolled fondant, Creme Anglaise, and so forth - are helpful, if not indispensable, in the preparation of American style cakes, as well. Some of the methods for decorating with chocolate are not at all difficult and employ equipment that can be inexpensively purchased at the hardware store! If you're a serious cookbook collector and enjoy reading them as much as gleaning recipes from them, this book should be an acquisition. It is as much cultural enrichment as a compilation of recipes. One of the authors, Bruce Healy, is a former theoretical physicist - one of the main reasons I initially borrowed the book from the library! Such a fascinating integration of careers was too delicious (no pun intended) to ignore.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Become a pastry chef the french way
Comment: Excellent book, teaches all the fundamentals of making french cakes. You can learn the basics and then select what filling you wish to use with a particular cake. There is a chapter on making simple cakes but most of the recipes are for cakes that require a bit of effort.
Customer Rating:
Summary: When You Are Bored by the Cake Bible...
Comment: This is a wonderful book. No, it's not for the very beginner, but as with any "real" cooking, it does takes time. The steps may be numerous, but they are not difficult. If you are game for for an all day process, you can make the most delicious cakes you've ever tasted. Recipes range from the superb and simple Croix de Lorraine, a one layer almond cake dusted with powdered sugar, to the incomparable Pave aux Pruneaux, a challenging genoise with cognac-soaked dried plums layered with custard and topped with marzipan. Hands down, some the the best cakes I have ever eaten in or out of a restaurant.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best French buttercream recipes ever!
Comment: I'm a French cake enthusiast & home baker. I've been spending a lot of time trying to find the perfect French cake & buttercream recipes, and after reading & trying recipes from several books on the subject, I have to say "The Art of the Cake" is the best.
The book does not have lots of pretty pictures, but trust me, the taste of your first successful "Moka" or "Clichy" would give you enough inspiration to go on.
It took me several tries to perfect the genoise recipes, just because I didn't follow the recipe to the letter. The genoise is drier than the American sponge cake, but it's exactly this dryness that makes it go so well with the heavy syrup & buttercream. I also like the fact that all of the cake recipes call for regular flour, NOT that cake flour that can give such an artificial (or cake-mix-like) taste to the finished cake. However it would have been nice if the author had provided a "white genoise" recipe as well. The coffee & praline buttercream recipes are easy to make and taste just as good as the buttercream from the best local French bakery here. Some of the layered cakes in the book are pretty time-consuming to make, but the end results are well worth it.
One thing about the instructions that I don't like is that they don't give you a time estimate on most of the steps, for example, how long to beat the eggs, how long to stir the egg/milk mixture on the burner, etc. Granted that they tell you the mixture would look a certain way when it's done, but still it would be nice to know how long it usually takes to achieve such state so you don't have to wonder if you're there yet all the time. Also giving a time estimate for every step, or even just a single estimate for the entire recipe, would help you to plan much better.
Still, this is the most usable French cake baking book I've ever owned. It's too bad that the authors do not have more books on cakes, must be because that all of their best recipes are already here!
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