Product Description

Cupcakes are everyone's favorite little indulgences. They're loved by kids and adults alike because they're playfully sweet as well as utterly charming. These days, cupcakes can be found in bakeries everywhere, but with just a little know-how, you can easily bake your own tempting boutique-bakery cupcakes at home and decorate them with flair.

Cupcakes contains recipes for every palate: Here you'll find classic Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream for the traditionalist, Triple Chocolate Cupcakes for the chocaholic, PB & J Cupcakes for the kids, Salted Caramel Cupcakes for the epicurean, as well as seasonal holiday cupcakes, and dozens more. Whether you are a novice or experienced baker, inside these pages you'll find friendly advice about ingredients and equipment, cupcake-making and baking tips, and a collection of ideas for decorating your cupcakes with either elegant minimalism or grand flourishes.

With this book as your guide, cupcakes have never tasted -- or looked -- so good!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21041 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 128 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781416589006
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Customer Reviews

A Welcome Addition to My Bookshelf
I have a lot of dessert cookbooks already including a few specifically on cupcakes (500 Cupcakes; Cupcakes from the Cake Doctor) so I wasn't looking for another. But once I flipped thru Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski, I knew I wanted it. It is organized intuitively and has many beautiful, full-page photos. Best of all, it includes recipes for tasty creations I had not imagined such as chai & honey cupcakes with honey whipped cream, grapefruit & buttermilk cupcakes, lime meringue cupcakes, banana caramel cupcakes, hazelnut- brown butter cupcakes, and MANY more.

Chapters include All About Cupcakes (baking basics); Basic Cupcakes (vanilla, chocolate, yellow, mocha, gingerbread, etc.); Fruit & Nut Cupcakes (triple berry, lemon blueberry crunch, sour cherry-almond, rum raisin, banana caramel, etc.); Chocolate Cupcakes (black forest, mexican chocolate, red velvet, black & white, etc.); Special Occasion Cupcakes (tres leches, tiramisu, jumbo malted chocolate chip, Christmas peppermint, Easter egg nest, etc.); Frostings, Fillings & Finishes (buttercream, cream cheese with variations, meringue, marshmallow, vanilla glaze, caramel drizzle, etc.), and Creative Cupcaking (2 pages of additional suggestions for combining cupcakes, frostings and garnishes).

30 finished cupcakes are pictured in full page color photos. Additional smaller color photos are included in the All About Cupcakes chapter to demonstrate techniques as well as garnishes.

Since this book covers the basics as well as many original creations, it would be an excellent gift for a beginning baker or someone with more baking experience.

I can't wait to start baking!

More Than an Elementary School Birthday Treat
Cupcakes are single serving treats, already prepared and fun to eat. Specialty cupcake bakeries have been springing up, turning a former elementary-school birthday treat into high-end indulgences. Kaldunski was a contributor to /Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook/ and a food editor at /Martha Stuart Living/, and has collected more than 60 cupcake recipes and organized them into five categories: Basic Cupcakes, Fruit & Nut, Chocolate, Special-Occasion and Frostings, Fillings & Finishes. The recipes themselves are all easy to follow, with enough variation that no one in your house will say "Cupcakes again???" Some of the finishing work may require familiarity around cake decorating techniques and skills, though there is a small primer on them in the introduction. In addition, the variety of options included lends itself to mixing and matching cakes, toppings, and garnishes (Kaldunski included a chart with some helpful suggestions about that as well. For the home baker, /Cupcakes/ will provide fun and entertaining alternatives to your dessert repertoire.

Frostings Fantastic, Cakes Need Work
My review is based on the the 3 recipes I've tried so far. The frostings in particular were 5 stars in taste & texture, probably from all the butter. The Malt- flavored buttercream was so exceptional I was sampling the last bits off the spatula. The cakes, on other hand while tasty, were all a little dry & disappointing--I'm going to try them again later with some modifications.
If you're into easy & simple, the ones I made weren't and used a lot of utencils, pots and bowls when, maybe the cupcake or frosting could have been put together with fewer if you thought about what you are doing.
I plan to try out a couple more, but watch the moisture content, so they don't come out dry.