The Buttercup Bake Shop Cookbook (Hardcover)

My first creation was her Red Velvet Cake with Red Velvet Icing. If you can get over your fear of using 4 tablespoons of red food colouring, you will be rewarded with the most fabulous cake! The layers were lightened by a combination of baking soda and vinegar, giving them almost a bubbled texture. And the icing, made the old-fashioned way with a base of cooked flour and milk, was reminiscent of a buttercream icing (without all of the hard work) and/or whipped cream. I get raves any time that I make this cake.

Why did I give the cookbook three stars then? Well, even though I bake all of the time and have certainly used some "professional" type cookbooks, I do find a lack of instructions in this cookbook. For instance, I made her recipe for caramel for another cake that I was making. The instructions tell you to boil the sugar until it reaches a deep amber colour. For more clarification, it would have been good if she had provided a candy thermometre temperature to reach. My first attempt, I could not decide just how "deep" the amber colour should be and burned my ingredients. On my second attempt, I was much more cautious, went with more of a golden colour and enjoyed a success. As well, the recipe says that it will take about 15 minutes to make, while I found that it had reached it's colour by 10 minutes. In fact, the ingredients burned at around 12 or 13 minutes. Once a mixture has reached the boiling point, no oven can vary in it's temperature, because boiling point is boiling point, it is only how long you boil something after this point that can affect it. For that reason, I felt that her time estimate could have been given much more accurately. As well, she indicates that you will need to stir in 2 cups of heavy cream. Well, for anyone who has never made caramel before, make sure to have your cream at room temperature! Otherwise, your caramel will seize up! Thankfully, I knew this from previous experience, but again, this is something that could easily be shared with the first timer. I noticed that in the Magnolia Bakery cookbook, they did indicate that. Why the difference?

Having made the caramel for her Caramel Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting (mentioned in the amazon.ca review) I was frustrated with the Brown Sugar frosting recipe. Typically, when you boil brown sugar with cream and butter (as you would for caramel popcorn or fudge..things I have made successfully) at the end of the boiling process, you would add in some baking powder to prevent crystallization of the sugar. The recipe did not give any instructions to do this and actually had you cool the brown sugar concoction for 20 minutes before beating in any icing sugar. The reward, was to find a bowl full of crystallized brown sugar! Even worse, when I continued with the recipe and beat in the icing sugar, I was rewarded with a crumbly mass! Did she leave an ingredient out? Having followed the instructions implicity, I do not see how anyone could have success with this recipe.

I also find that my cooking times are at least 5 minutes less than all of the times given, but certainly everyone's oven will vary.

These recipes that Jennifer Appel provides are not cheap to make. I do not like investing in cups and cups of whipping cream, and dozens of eggs and not having anything delicious and creamy to show for it! One major fault I feel the need to point out with any cookbook (when necessary) is when it is not properly tested and retested! When a consumer pays their $25.00 - $65.00 for a cookbook, they want to know that they have bought a quality item.

I am sure that in the future I will attempt another recipe from her cookbook, as it is very prettily displayed and the recipe titles entice you into wanting to make them. Still, I wanted to warn any future purchasers that they are taking a gamble buying this book!