Product Description

If you have a creative spirit and want to try your hand at cake and cupcake decorating, Cake Art is for you. Chefs from the CIA's prestigious Baking and Pastry faculty describe the various techniques and provide easy-to-follow instructions so the home baker can create beautiful cakes and cupcakes. Cake decorating is an activity that can be enjoyed by everyone and children can help with 8 of the 27 projects included in Cake Art.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45602 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780867309225
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

Great reference for bakers with some experience
The Culinary Institute of America has come out with yet another beautiful and useful book: Cake Art. If you've ever had an interest in interest in creating dramatic desserts, this is a volume for you, although I wouldn't call this a book for beginners. It starts with an overview of tools and components that I found myself wishing had a bit more to it: more individual photos of each item rather than trying to discern elements in group photos, more explanation of what to do and how to do it, and more tips.

However, it's not a paralyzing shortcoming, as you can get some of that from browsing online retailers, stores, and catalogs. Where the book really shines is in the techniques and instructions. For example, on page 31 there is a photo with three spoons of meringue, one stiff, one medium, and one soft-peaked. There are formulas for both hard and soft ganaches (Books often don't explicitly set the two side-by-side, and there's a big difference in the resulting texture and use.) as well as modeling chocolate. You can learn to make ribbons and coverings of fondant. Pipe a flower from buttercream (with a tip on how to reconstitute the mixture if it separates) or mold it from molding chocolate, marzipan, or fondant. In short, there is a lot to learn.

And that might be the big problem for many would-be cake decorators. Some of these techniques require practice, and a lot of it. If you go directly to the projects and try to work your way backward into the techniques, the results are going to be disappointing. If you want to undertake a given project (each, smartly, tells you how far in advance - weeks in some cases - to start different parts), then read through, write down the techniques that are necessary, and practice well in advance. You don't really think that pastry chefs start on this level of work their first day of class, do you? However, if you are willing to spend some time, this book should be well worth your while.

Check It Out from the Library!
I'll admit that this book has interested me enough to check it out from the library about three times, but after trying two projects, I am now convinced more than ever that I would not buy it.

Pros:
--pretty pictures
--some good projects ideas which inspired me to try new things
--good selection of basic recipes
--some good tips
--the time-line details about the projects

Cons:
--lack of pictures to better show how to do things
--pictures that are there often don't really show what you need to see
--pictures and directions for mums and begonias switched, maybe other mistakes, too
--directions printed above and then in one mass lump next to the pictures below--not the least bit any further enlightening
--the description of how to make a rose seems rather wrong to me--using a #5 tube for the base and making the base 1" tall?? And the pictures wouldn't help a beginner much at all!
--the directions for making rosebuds are supposed to be there, but I couldn't find them anywhere
--there isn't any info about how long a project can be kept at room temp or refrigerated
--the info about coloring the buttercream is rather confusing
--the actual directions for the projects are too short and lacking info, such as which color did they actually use and how much buttercream do I need to make

These are just the things I noticed from making two projects. I wrote to one of the authors about the mixed up mum/begonia pictures and never received an answer. (I wrote to Nick Malgieri recently and received an answer as well as a follow-up!)

I've noticed that there is a DVD that goes with this book and I wonder if the lack of information is intentional to "encourage" you to buy the DVD. I admit that I'd be very curious to see it, esp. since it was described as lasting 1+ hours. They fit the whole book into little over an hour?!

If you like to look at pictures and dream of doing things, this is a good book for you, but if you actually want to make one of the projects, do yourself a favor and just check it out from the library!

Cover doesn't do it justice
I personally don't like the pic on the cover of the book, it looks a little old school. The book is very good and has some excellent cakes in it with easy to follow instructions. If you have the patience to bake, then I would recommend this book.