The Perfect Cake

Starred review from February 19, 2018
This cookbook from the staff at America’s Test Kitchen deserves a place on the bookshelf of every cake baker. More than 200 recipes, all written in the confident voice of the Test Kitchen, will inspire home cooks and offer a master class in baking and decorating. Every manner of cake, including microwave mug cakes, cake pops, and ice cream cakes, is included. All-American layer cakes include Wellesley fudge cake, peanut butter and jam cake, and Blum’s Coffee Crunch Cake (a blend of lemony cake, coffee whipped cream, and crunchy coffee candy). There are recipes for basic cakes, such as pound cake and a foolproof New York cheesecake, but the Test Kitchen offers up more unusual takes as well, including a saffron-orange Bundt cake and a tahini-banana snack cake. Layer cakes range from the kid-popular, sprinkle-studded confetti cake to a Bananas Foster Cake with rum, caramel and banana filling. Sheet cake flavors get an upgrade with recipes for lemon buttermilk sheet cake, pumpkin, and buttermilk caramel. Recipes for elegant tortes include a pomegranate walnut cake, and a chocolate-espresso dacquoise made with layers of hazelnut and almond meringue. With a recipe for every taste and occasion, bakers could happily cook their way through this book, assured that each recipe will be a delicious success.

February 1, 2018
The many chefs and editors behind America's Test Kitchen (ATK) once again deliver on their promise to provide bolstering and comprehensive advice to home cooks of all experience levels in their first all-cake cookbook. A detailed and fun-to-read introduction outlines the nitty-gritty on all the potential ingredients and toolsand where there's a best brand, ATK shares itas well as the techniques cake bakers will want to have at the ready. From rustic to refined, more than 200 recipes are then divided into 10 categories to fit a range of seasons, occasions, and time limitations, and each is accompanied by a photo. Readers can expect easy-to-follow but exacting guidelines that match the task at hand herethis is a baking book, after allalong with ATK's trademark interesting explanations as to why, and dry measures in weight as well as volume. An appendix to essential cake components pulls the sure-to-be-most-used cakes, frostings, and fillings from the preceding recipes for a handy quick reference. Overall, a must-have.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from February 15, 2018

Having already crafted The Perfect Cookie, the editors at America's Test Kitchen now turn their attention to cakes. The ten chapters here cover cakes of all kinds, from classic layer cakes to chocolate-coated cake pops. Among the more than 200 recipes (including some vegan and gluten-free), there are such stunners as triple chocolate mousse cake, spiced pumpkin cheesecake, petit fours, and pear-walnut, upside-down cake. Thanks to meticulous instructions (the authors go so far as to specify the ideal temperature for softened butter) and photos of key techniques, even novices will be able to achieve a perfect result on the first try. VERDICT A one-stop shop for foolproof cakes, this comprehensive collection will delight all bakers.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.