Product Description

Tarek Malouf opened the first Hummingbird Bakery in London's fashionable Notting Hill district in 2004. This cookbook allows you to step inside this unique bakery and bring its trademark butter cream swirls, sprinkles, and layer-cake slices into your own kitchen. The Hummingbird's Cupcakes fly off the shelves faster than any other cake. Who can resist an adorable Vanilla Cupcake topped with candy-colored butter cream frosting and scattered with sprinkles? Take Cakes to the next level with some mouthwatering recipes. Red Velvet and Carrot are both favorites at the Bakery, and the Hummingbird Cake is a sweet, sticky triumph of banana and pineapple. Open Pies, pies with tops on, delicate pies and no-holds-barred pies: There's no shortage of options. Try Lemon Meringue with its mountain of golden fluffy meringue atop a rich, tangy lemon cream. You'll find favorite Pecan Pie here too. When you need a sweet fix, Brownies & Bars hit the spot. Rocky Road and Muesli Bars are always popular and make welcome additions to a packed lunch. There can't be much that beats a homemade Blueberry Muffin with your first cup of coffee in the morning. Finally, there's something childishly satisfying about a big, chewy Cookie studded with chocolate chunks--there's something here for every king of cookie fiend. *Classic bakes are back in vogue and this book provides 50 simple recipes for everyone's favorites--from Vanilla Cupcakes to Key Lime Pie. *"If you haven't tasted a Hummingbird Bakery look-too-good-to-eat cupcake, you've definitely missed out." Marie Claire

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37621 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

Review
Cakes, pies, brownies, bars, cookies and muffins from London's bakery to the stars. Never has baking been so delightfully sweet and stylish. Peaches and cream cupcakes, rocky road bars and blueberry pie - how can you resist? --Sainsbury's Magazine

The Hummingbird Bakery is much beloved by the beautiful people and now the book means you don't have to brave the Circle Line to get your fix. --Buyer's Guide

The book ... features recipes for a variety of cake and dessert recipes; most are wildly indulgent, like the Brooklyn blackout and coconut meringue cakes, and Mississippi mud and key lime pies. The cupcakes come in every creed and colour from vanilla to peaches and cream, lavender, ginger and the cult red velvet, a knockout rich red sponge cake with white cream cheese frosting. --The Independent

About the Author
Tarek Malouf used to work for ABC news in their London bureau before deciding to open the first Hummingbird Bakery in 2004 in London's Notting Hill. There is also a branch in South Kensington with a third to open in Soho soon.

Customer Reviews

A beautiful book with a decent recipe!
There have been a number of mixed reviews about this book - in fact, there're quite a few negative ones that almost put me off trying to make anything from the recipes.

I really wanted to know if this book is worth anything so I decided to prove it to myself. I am a decent baker; that is to say, I taught myself to cook and bake on a regular basis (often with good success!) but have no real culinary skills or knowledge. However, I do spend enough time in the kitchen to notice that the methods for doing various things in this book is quite different from most recipes that are commonly used. For example, the methods for mixing the cake mixture in Vanilla Cupcakes provide that you first combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and a bit of milk in one bowl; and some eggs, milk and vanilla extract in the other. Once thoroughly incorporated, the book tells you to mix the two together. Now, most recipes would ask you to first beat the egg and sugar in one bowl, add the milk and vanilla, follow by the dry ingredients. But I decided to stick closely to the recipes provided - using whatever amount of ingredients (which may seem "ridiculous" to many people) that the book suggests, and have my fingers crossed. The results? Well, the cupcake recipes (vanilla, chocolate and the velvet cupcakes) that I've attempted so far have turned out pretty good! They're all very tasty and do not appear to be "dry" or "inedible" in any way. My guess is that for those of you who are rather experienced would question the validity of the recipes and so instead of sticking to the book, would be tempted to do "what they think is best" - which is probably why there're more experienced bakers complaining about their various failures, etc. So my advice is for you to turn blind eyes and ears and just follow the recipes to the letter, even though your experience and "instinct" is telling you otherwise!

The book itself is simply beautiful. It is well laid-out, divided into several sections like cakes, pies, tarts, cookies, etc. The photographs are all stunning, you get to see exactly what your cakes should look like.

However, I must say that since I own over 50 books on cakes, cookies, ice cream and desserts, this book doesn't give you a very wide range of recipes - hence why I've given it 4 stars. The book is quite thin and it does have "enough" to keep you entertained for a while, but I prefer to have more choices so I usually have several books on very specific subjects. For example, if you're looking for a good book on cookies, I'd recommend "Martha Steward's Cookies", "The Good Cookies" and "Mrs Field's Best Cookie Book"; for cakes, I'd recommend "Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book" and "Southern Cakes"; for cupcakes, I'd recommend "Cupcake Heaven", "The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake" and "Cupcakes: Luscious Bakeshop Favorites"; and for chocolate, I'd recommend "The Essence of Chocolate" and "Maida Heatter;s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts".

Overall, if you're truly passionate about cakes and are NOT looking for "healthy" cakes (whatever that means!), you'll love this book. It'll be a great addition to your cook book collection, although I wouldn't say that this will be the ONLY book you'll need, because the book just simply doesn't offer enough varieties in the long-run. I've never been to the bakeries in London so I cannot comment on the taste (i.e. if they' taste similar, etc), but I can assure you that this book will give you some great ideas and the pictures will be able to keep you coming back to the book time and time again!

Recommended.

P.S. I've also noticed that a few people have been comparing this book with Magnolia Bakery Book. I own all of them (2 by Magnolia, 2 by Buttercup Bakeshop and The Hummingbird Bakery) - and I'd NEVER pick the Buttercup Bakeshop over the other two. In fact, The Hummingbird bakery book actually has MORE cupcakes recipes than those Magnolia books! It should also be noted that none of these books offer "healthy" goodies!

Delicious. Decadant. Easy.
Thats right - Easy.

As a keen home baker I first read through the methods and thought, "Well, I can make them better than that..." and do you know what? I couldn't. I overcomplicated my first attempt at Lemon cupcakes, changing quantities, changing methods, and they ended in disaster.

Since then, I've followed each recipe to the letter and triumphed every time.

In suggesting you follow each recipe "to the letter", I would also recommend you do your best to overlook the amount of sugar in the cake bases - it looks like a lot, but the finished cakes are moist and most definatly not over-sweet. I know, as i've made most of them!

I would stress, however, that the cakes in here are most definatly `sometimes' foods. Ideal for afternoon teas or other special occasions where you want to impress your guests with something that sounds home-made, but looks and tastes store-bought (in a good way).

I can't help thinking, also, that the recipes are so simple they would probably be great for kids to get involved with also.

Good recipes
Just made the lavender cupcake recipe, and it was a hit. I do not know what everyone else is complaining about. I am an experienced baker, and although the recipes run differently than other cake batters I've made they do work and are quite tasty. I do agree with others that those that don't like the book tried reworking the recipes in to "traditional" mixing ways and that probably ended in disaster. Just follow the directions and you will have a delicious treat at the end. Someone mentioned frosting problems, with any homemade frosting recipe the type of climate you live in can change the consistency you come out with. More humid, more sugar needed. Drier or colder weather usually more butter or milk will be needed. That just goes with the territory of baking.