Cupcakes, Cupcakes & More Cupcakes!

Works Great!

I love this book."Out of the box" recipes!It is hard to find a professional cooking book that doesn't compromise on ingredients, excellent recipes and creative presentation.Yes, yes, the ingredients in few recopies might be less common, but once you taste it, you understand it is gourmet cupcakes book.My daughter and I tried the pistachio cupcakes and they were delicious.The honey and almonds are fabulous and easy to do.I bought it also to couple of friends as holiday gift, and they loved it.The pictures are magnificent and the cover is so colorful and happy, like the cupcakes.......The only thing I would add is the relative difficulties between the recipes.Thank you Lilach.

nice book

I bought this book for the wonderful photos -- sometimes it's hard to create a recipe or decorate a cake/cupcake without seeing what I need to do.But the ingredients are ridiculous.OK. I'll spot youquinoa, tahini, rose water (BUT it has to be FRESH that has not been sprayed with pesticides...???), gluten (I think I could find it, but I'm not sure), mascarpone (which is extremely expensive), dulce de leche (we have hispanic foods here in some grocery stores), I could probably grind some poppy seeds although I don't own and will not buy a spice or coffee grinder, semolina, anise stars...But there is no way I know how to find or would bother to hunt down, just to use a tablespoon or two of:black sesame seeds, dried lavender flowers, tapioca flour, dried lavender leaves, citrus extract (not orange, not lemon), DEMERARA SUGAR???, corn flour (I know what corn MEAL is but I've never heard of corn flour), whole candied chestnuts, liquid cinnamon extract (you're KIDDING, right? why can't I just use cinnamon??), date honey, gooseberries (the author finally admits we call them currants), golden syrup? sugar crystal rose petals??.....Why do people write cookbooks with outrageous ingredients? I'm not going to bother to search high and low for stuff when I only need a teaspoon or a 1/4 cup. Finally on page 92, when the author calls for "apricot neutral glaze," she finally admits that you will have to shop at "stores specializing in pastry making." Oh. Thanks. So I have to mail order most of these ingredients. She doesn't even have a resources page to aid me.The editing errors also really bothered me. In a Hazelnut Cupcake recipe the author talks about the addition of chopped walnuts, in the Toffee Square recipe the author wants you to make your own toffees and pour them into a "small cake pan," (that's NOT helpful at all, give me a SIZE). The Chocolate Mint Cupcakes recipe, when making the ganache topping, calls for cutting the chocolate mint into shavings, but the ingredients call only for regular chocolate and cream, not mint or any explanation of what she means. The Honey Cupcakes call for clove. Clove what? Clove honey? Ground cloves?Admittedly, these recipe are beautiful. But no way am I going to make them.You will want to ignore this foreign tome and go for the MUCH BETTER "Crazy About Cupcakes" by Krystina Castella (with wonderful, rich, decadent recipes and lots of photos too), or the Beautiful "Hello, Cupcake" by Karen Tack or the Fun "Hello There, Cupcake!" by Clare Crespo. Most of these choices are cheaper books, too!

The title says it all - this is an astonishing array of goodies in a perfect form. I think cupcakes are an incredibly versatile treat - perfect to take to school, parties, or on a welcome plate for the neighbors. I love how the chapters are divided: The Classics Cupcake Style, Cupcakes for Kiddies, Cupcake Celebrations, A Cupcake to Your Health and Cupcakes for Connoisseurs. Whatever the occasion, there are several recipes that would fit perfectly.For Valentine's Day, we decided on Mini Chocolate Valentine Cupcakes, which were coated with a smooth dark chocolate frosting and sprinkled with tiny candied hearts. My six year old was positively drooling over the Mini-Me Marshmallow Cupcakes. The directions say to press one mini marshmallow in the center of the cupcake, attaching marshmallows around it to achieve symmetry. It really makes a huge difference in the cupcake's appearance, but I wouldn't have known to do it on my own.There is a great variety of styles and tastes to choose from, and while there isn't a photo on every page, there are enough photos to be satisfying. Some of these cupcakes are classics and others I would never have dreamed of. The Top Hat Cupcakes are simply mesmerizing, while the Gingerbread Cupcakes are just simple. This is a fantastic cupcake compilation.

My roommate got this book for me for Christmas last year. I've tried 3 recipes so far: the chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting (frosting was good, but next time I would add more chocolate to the cupcake recipe), apple cinnamon cupcakes and pumpkin cupcakes. Each time, the consistency of the cupcake was more like a muffin than a cupcake... more dense and heavy. Never too dry, but not fluffy and springy like a cupcake should be. So I've been trying to modify the recipes a little to negate that... most of them call for 3 cups of flour to 1 cup of sugar for 12 cupcakes. That really makes about 24. Seeing that I don't really know what I'm doing at all, I'm surprised they haven't come out awful! People didn't rave about them, but they said they liked them.Overall, the cupcakes are tasty, but are much more substantial than I would usually expect a cupcake to be. The ideas are cute though, even if some of them are a bit complicated for a novice baker like myself. So if you know what you're doing but want more ideas, I would probably buy this book. If not, I would probably start with another one first and graduate to this one, once you master a standard cupcake recipe.Oh, and if you do get this book and make the apple cinnamon, put a good amount of apple on the top. I used Honey Crisp and Granny Smith. I liked both, but think I preferred the Granny Smith for baking.

Brought as Christmas present so not looked at it

Aunque tiene recetas para aburrir, esperaba más fotografías, ya que hay una por cada 4 ó 5 recetas. No aporta nada en cuanto a decoración. Una pena.