Jamie's Food Tube: The Cake Book

I love this book. Having been introduced to cupcake Gemma by my daughter via You tube and followed her film instructions for Hot Toddy cupcakes and PB&J cupcakes I was eager to get my hands on this book and it did not disappoint. I liked the layout, with a little bit of background to Gemma's cake shop in Soho and then a seasonal layout for the many great recipes. I know that many recipes are available to watch on her You tube channel but believe me, its much easier to follow from the book and you don't have to write down the ingredients. I have made the red velvet cupcakes twice and have spent many moments drooling over the photos and planning what to make next. Green tea and sesame brittle and banoffi sound utterly delicious. Recipes are clearly set out and simple to follow. I have not had one disaster and my cupcakes have risen to perfection, something that hasn't always happened when I have used other cake shop owner books. It is a small book and has a wipeable cover so be prepared for it not being quite as big and glossy as others but lets face it if the recipes work and taste this good who needs a glossy hardback edition?

I am an experienced baker, although my forte has been bread making and the odd cookie. There has been sponge cakes and such, but nothing elaborate. I have watched every single Cupcake Jemma video, and I have baked from her book. I can vouch 100% that the recipes work and that they are foolproof. I've even adapted the cupcake recipes to make cakes, which has been successful. The fears of the cakes being too sweet and that there is too much icing is hogwash. It's a cake, it's supposed to be insanely decadent! Also, you are able to adjust how much frosting you want on your cakes, so it isn't that hard to personalise. The recipes are for 24 cupcakes, or large cakes that can easily serve 12. The recipes can easily be halved as its all in metric, but I wouldn't recommend this to the cakes, because they are glorious in their full sizes. I've baked so much from this book and given copies as presents. Every single person that has eaten the cakes have been blown away. Cupcake Jemma, I salute you. This little book is epic!

This book looks mouth-wateringly delicious, I'm supposed to be trying to lose weight so part of me wishes I'd never ordered this but if I'm being honest I can't wait to get started. This, like the BBQ book has the recipe on one page with a full colour photo of the finished item on the opposite page, there's also a page of hints & tips. I spotted this book while looking around for a BBQ book for my husband, I can't remember the last time I bought myself a cookery book I generally get them as presents so I have a really good selection but I really liked the look of this. As with the BBQ book I noticed a complete content list wasn't given so I've added one at the end for you. I don't generally review cookery books since by the time I've tried enough of the recipes to give a fair review I forget, yes, every single time, I always have good intentions but somehow I never get round to it but I'm making an exception since I thought it would be helpful to give a list of the recipes included and I'll add to the review as I try them out. One tip I picked up from a friend years ago and I've followed ever since is to make little notes at the side of the recipes, I was horrified the first time I looked through one of her baking books to notice notes scribbled at the side of the recipes I couldn't believe anyone would write in a book, but she explained that you have a cookery book for life and you can forget so she wrote a little review at the side of each one. Turned out to be an excellent idea and one I've followed ever since, it really helps me because I've got a memory like a sieve so thank you Karen. Here's the list of recipes, hope this helps: THE BASICS: Vanilla Cupcakes, Vanilla Buttercream Icing Really Easy Chocolate Cupcakes, Chocolate Buttercream Icing Red Velvet Cupcakes, Cream Cheese Icing Chocolate Ganache Meringues Marshmallowy Meringue Icing Salted Caramel Brittle Infused Milk Fruit Goo SPRING: Earl Grey Breakfast Cupcakes Pistachio & Rose Cupcakes Raspberry Ripple Layer Cake Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes Green Tea Cupcakes with Sesame Brittle Lemon & Poppy Seed Cupcakes Cookie Dough Cupcakes Pistachio, Lime & Cardamom Cake Hot Cross Bun Cupcakes Vegan Vanilla Fudge Cupcakes SUMMER: Lemon Mess Cupcakes Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcakes Rosemary, Honey & Yoghurt Loaf Eton Mess Cupcakes Super-Lemony Meringue Cake Lavender Caramel Cupcakes Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes Cardamom & White Chocolate Cupcakes Raspberry & Coconut Cupcakes AUTUMN: Banoffee Pie Cupcakes Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes PB & J Cupcakes Malteser Cupcakes Jamaican Ginger Cake Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes Buttered Popcorn Cupcakes Bonfire Cupcakes Toffee Apple Cupcakes Caramel Mudslide Cupcakes WINTER: Hot Toddy Cupcakes Jaffa Cake Chai-Spiced Cupcakes Cookies & Cream Cupcakes Ridiculous Chocolate Cake Cinnamon Toast Cupcakes Banana, Maple & Pecan Cupcakes Velvet Volcano Cupcakes Christmas Cupcakes Mini Christmas Puds As a lover of Lemon, Coconut, Raspberries, Eton mess (my all time favourite) Maltesers oh the list goes on and on and I think this review is long enough already but I really don't know where to start, Super-Lemony Meringue Cake I think....or the Raspberry Ripple Layer Cake...decisions, decisions I can almost feel the weight settling on my hips just from thinking about them. ## Yes, I know as if this review isn't long enough already but I did promise updates I'll try to keep it short. We've made a selection of these cupcakes we use large muffin cases so the mixture when cooked only half fill them which turned out to be ideal once topped. One thing we found is that the topping recipes, all the ones we tried anyway made too much in fact we made the cheesecake topping and topped all the blueberry cupcakes and had so much left we added lemon juice and meringues and used it to cover the Lemon Mess ones as well. The Blueberry Cheesecake were my favourite and everyone else's as well, the biscuit base, sponge and then cheesecake with blueberry fruit goo topping was heaven. The Lemon Mess were very good even if we did change the topping. Raspberry and Coconut Cupcakes again were good but very sweet, maybe a little too much topping for me. We made our own Cookie Monster and Oreo cupcakes using the chocolate cupcake recipe from page 18, I loved it but my daughter felt it was too dry, luckily once they were decorated everyone loved them. If anyone's interested or even reading this far, for the Oreo ones we place a full Oreo cookie in the muffin case then we place mixture on top, bake and when cool we add broken Oreo cookies to the buttercream and mix well, we pipe this, using either a very large nozzle or just a plain piping bag made from grease proof, it has to be large obviously due to the chunks of biscuit, then place a mini Oreo at one side. For the Cookie Monster we top with buttercream then dip it in desiccated coconut mixed with some blue food colouring then we slice half way across horizontally and slide a chocolate chip cookie in, this makes the mouth then for the eyes we stand two white chocolate buttons on the top and paint the pupils on with black food colouring.

Have purchased this book for myself and for family members as it is so good, the recipes are simple and the results are delicious

As the owner of a LOT of cookbooks (too many to admit to!), I was reluctant to order another but after watching Jemma's YouTube Channel, and given the low price of this one, I thought I'd add it to my collection and I was not disappointed. I have been on a quest to find the perfect vanilla cupcake recipe and have been disappointed with recipes from Hummingbird, Primrose etc, but I think the quest is finally over with this book! A great selection of cake recipes, not just cupcakes, divided up by season, all easy to follow with lovely photography. Everything I have made from the cookbook so far has turned out beautifully and I thoroughly recommend this book if you are looking for light, fluffy cakes.

Great

I have now tried several of Gemma's recipes from here. Yesterday I made her Toffee Apple Cupcakes and they have been deemed the best cupcakes ever!! They actually did taste like the one I bought from her Crumbs & Doilies shop in Soho last week. Gemma is such a refreshing baker - I love all her videos on YouTube ... they actually become quite compulsive viewing. I find the recipes accurate - in fact, when I thought I knew better yesterday and made less buttercream than she recommended, I was a little short to finish the batch. The cupcake recipes can always be adapted to larger cakes or, indeed, vice versa. Super little book and well worth buying.

Great book Oliver capitalising on Gemma’s cup cakes