Product Description

Cupcakes! By Elinor Klivans Photographs by France Ruffenach"What's short and sweet and cute as a button? Cupcakes! And everyone loves 'em!"Trusted favorites at picnics, potlucks, and bake sales, cupcakes go equally well at relaxed and informal gatherings

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42627 in Books
• Brand: Chronicle Books
• Published on: 2005-04-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Lush, larger-than-life photographs are just the icing on the cupcake that is this delightful contribution to the canon of confectionary cookbooks. Klivans' recipes range from cute Lemon Poppy Seed Butterfly Cupcakes to clever Chocolate-Covered Brownie Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes, which are baked in an ice-cream cone. When tested, the bakery-worthy Sticky Fig Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Glaze looked just like the photograph and the flavor was excellent; fragrant lemon zest, crunchy fig seeds and the sticky syrup glaze (from the result of an unusually slow baking technique) reveal a carefully developed recipe. Unlike several other cupcake books, Klivans' recipes are easy to follow and produce excellent results. Succinct and useful, the first chapter covers the basics: supplies, ingredients and mixing techniques. Other little details, like chapter introductions designed to look like cupcakes, the pastel Fifties color scheme and the use of vintage fabrics in the photographs, make the book a pleasure to browse.
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Review
Lush, larger-than-life photographs are just the icing on the cupcake that is this delightful contribution to the canon of confectionary cookbooks. Klivans' recipes range from cute Lemon Poppy Seed Butterfly Cupcakes to clever Chocolate-Covered Brownie Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes, which are baked in an ice-cream cone. When tested, the bakery-worthy Sticky Fig Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Glaze looked just like the photograph and the flavor was excellent; fragrant lemon zest, crunchy fig seeds and the sticky syrup glaze (from the result of an unusually slow baking technique) reveal a carefully developed recipe. Unlike several other cupcake books, Klivans' recipes are easy to follow and produce excellent results. Succinct and useful, the first chapter covers the basics: supplies, ingredients and mixing techniques. Other little details, like chapter introductions designed to look like cupcakes, the pastel Fifties color scheme and the use of vintage fabrics in the photographs, make the book a pleasure to browse. -Publishers Weekly

About the Author
Elinor Klivans is a notable food writer, publishing articles for Bon App tit , Eating Well , Fine Cooking , and the Washington Post , among others. She is the author of several cookbooks, including Big Fat Cookies . She lives in Camden, Maine.

France Ruffenach's photographs have appeared in Everything Tastes Better with Garlic (0-8118-3816-1) and Christmas Family Gatherings (0-8118-4018-2). A native of Paris, she now lives in San Francisco.

Customer Reviews

Disappointed
I followed the recipe to the t, and yet my chocolate sour cream cupcake fell flat. I was making them for the son's 4th birthday. Luckily I know enough about baking to know to add more flour. My second batch came out perfectly. I returned the book ASAP. I was looking for "new" recipes, but decided to just do my own thing.

Wonderful book!
I was so excited when I received my cookbook because I had seen this book advertised everywhere! It has some wonderful recipes in it; they are very different and creative. I will agree with those who said that there are not enough pictures. I don't see why they could not have shown a picture of each cupcake, as they definitely had the room. Pictures definitely draw you to the recipe more. That is my only complaint. Otherwise, I give it 5 stars, and I can't wait to try my first recipe (the hi hats). Enjoy!

Left wondering?
Like others here, I was disappointed that there are not more pictures in this book. And some of the pictures look delicious but do not tell you what recipe they are. However, over all, the book is presented beautifully.

I'm not sure I want to try the chocolate sour cream cake after all the failures people have mentioned here. Unfortunately my 'easy' yellow cake recipe (followed absolutely to the step) were crispy on the outside, and too dough-ish in the inside. I know I can't pin this on the recipe - so then, tell me, recipe book - what has caused this!?

The cakes that are shown do look delicious and I won't give up yet - but so far I'm not that satisfied. And I was so excited to get started too.
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