The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Baranbaum

I watched Rose Levy on youtube, and was impressed. I noticed members refer to it as the TCB, assuming all you have a copy, is it worth a buy? Does any bookstore sell it? Is it helpful? Does it have good recipes?

Hakeber, I saw the book in Kinokunniya, KLCC a few weeks ago. They were selling it for RM140. Ordered mine thru amazon.com a month ago and am still waiting for it.

Hakeber, someone gave me TCB and made me promise to start at page one and read through the whole book slowly before starting to use the recipes. This is the right way as you learn a whole new world from this book, not just recipes but so much more. Well worth the cost.

Hiya Hakeber,

I am a one month or so owner of TCB. I love it ...it is not your normal recipe book .. I carry the book with me everywhere I go .... as my read. Read it slowly and digest what it tells you.

It has saved my 'life' a couple of times ..... one would be the Mousseline Buttercream. After my first failure, I followed her recipe and instructions to the dot .... and succeeded ...

Her advice on RTR fondant etc ..has proven to also be a life saver for me ....

Her explanations are easy to digest and comprehend ...

I bought mine at Kino, KLCC .....the only recipe book which i actually plastic wrapped ....

btw.... I bought the book becoz cannot tahan reading members of MCDC constant referral to the book ...

I love my TCB.
I bought it at Borders.
I've tried at least 6 recipes in that book and so far the result was superb. and her tips was good too. She sounds very generous with tips..bukan kedekut punya org. certain cookbook hide the good tips.

Thanks for all your sharing.. will try to get more info on that..

seems like have to get one too.

me too, cannot tahan MCDC members saying about this book (like
Lyzaghazali )

thanks for the feedback! i've been thinking of getting this book but wasn't sure if it was worth it.
will have to get it from KL though cos the bookstores in pg don't have it.

Warning: This is a looooong post. Read at your own peril/boredom
I've owned TCB for about 16 years. Among all my cake/dessert recipe books, it is the one that I refer to the most. My dust jacket is yellow and pages are falling out *sigh*....

Rose is a great teacher and all her books reflect that. She tries to make sure that your baking is as successful as possible. To this end, she shares all her tips, techniques, and knowledge of ingredients so that you can be the best baker you can be.

This is the basic review of what the book contains. It's divided into sections:

Sect 1 - all the recipes for cakes (pound, layer, genoise, chiffon etc.) There are also recipes for brioche, pancakes, waffles, even hot fudge sauce! The last part of this section is her special cakes that require several components, all from the basic recipes in the book.

Sect 2 - recipes for anything you need to complement your cake - buttercreams, cream fillings, ganache, meringues, fondants, marzipan, caramel. There is also a chapter on fruit purees, jams, curds, fruit toppings etc. The last part of this section covers the basics of cake decorating, and most valuable to me, working with chocolate. There are instructions for tempering chocolate and making chocolate decorations.

Sect 3 - Ingredients & Equipment. If you are a brand new owner, start reading this section first! It covers all the ingredients and their basic properties, how ingredients react with each other, and the basic equipment you need for making and decorating cakes.

Sect 4 - the last part of the book covers large-scale baking, more for tiered cakes. There is a look at the science of baking, basic formulas for making butter or genoise cakes of any size from 6" to 18", large scale buttercream recipes, and a small chapter on making tiered cakes.

A few drawbacks of the book:
1) Not many pictures If you are someone who is inspired/need picture of the finished cake this book will disappoint! The colour pictures are all in the intro section of the book, although they are pics of almost all the cakes and buttercreams in the 1st & 2nd sections of the book. There are pics of all the 'special' cakes though.

2) The info on cake decorating is pretty basic. If you have taken the Wilton course, you will not learn anything new here, except maybe for the chocolate part. Her instructions on modeling fondant and marzipan are pretty basic too. This is NOT a cake decorating book.

3) The edition I have is OLD, where she refers to chocolate by brand. (At the time the book was written, the US was just discovering the wonders of good chocolate) I think newer editions have different brands/cocoa %, which are at the premium end of the spectrum (Lindt, Valrhona, Callebaut etc)

4) The recipes are very exact. To be really successful, you have to follow ALL her instructions on measuring and ingredients. Rose is a perfectionist and her recipes reflect that.... I have substituted ingredients and the cakes still turn out delicious, but maybe not as perfect as it's supposed to be (which is fine with me as long as it's yummy )

To sum up, (wah macam essay pulak ), TCB is really what its title says - a bible. It is very comprehensive. I like her style of writing, it's very conversational so you feel as if she is 'almost' there with you. And the BEST part of all, I can trust the recipes in the book. She doesn't hold anything back, generously shares her knowledge and most of all, her palate is almost the same as mine. Her cakes and icings are never too sweet, sometimes her recipes are a bit too tangy for me, so I just add sugar.

It is a great reference book, even if you use other recipes, you can still refer to ingredient section of the book. And if some of your cake recipes don't work, at least it helps to troubleshoot and find out what the problem is and how to fix it.

Hope the above review helps.....

Hello Shimi,

No problem on yr long post. Its worth the time reading it thru esp. when I just became a proud owner of the TCB. I got the last copy at KINOKUNNIYA Spore when they were offering members 20% and since it was the LAST copy on the shelf, they gave another 10% off.

I plan to start off with the BUTTER CAKES tomorrow and let you know how it turned out. So far from fellow bakers, review is positive.

Tks again.

margaret

Margaret, my husband tried to buy the last copy off them and they refused to sell to him! I ordered through amazon.com. Waiting for my copy to arrive by mail

How did it go yesterday?? I had to miss the gathering 'coz my husband changed his return date from Singapore. Had to go pick him up. His bus was late some more

I simply love her chocolates cakes recipe.

hi,

i think i'm now craving for this book also (cannot tahan after reading shimi's review) but i think at the moment i can survive with this
http://www.thecakebible.com/

Yes Yatt, that's her blog/forum, or you can use this link http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/ . MCDC & that are the only groups I belong to on the net. Have to get my 'fix' everyday...macam addict

There are quite a few recipes on the site; and the forum members are very helpful and friendly, just like MCDC...Majority are Americans of course, but there are lots of people from all over the world.

There is also an errata section for any printing errors found in all her books (most of them are for TCB, Bread Bible and Pie & Pastry Bible).

Margaret, her butter cakes are really good - my favourite is the Lemon Poppy Seed Pound cake. In fact that was the first recipe I tried, before I even owned TCB. It was printed in another cookbook written by her friends and she shared the recipe.

I also like white spice pound cake, golden butter cream cake, sour cream butter cake (delicious with whipped cream & strawberries), sour cream coffee cake, choc domingo cake (so moist!), the list goes on & on.... Her chiffon cakes are delicious too, very light & moist, not rubbery at all. Oh and i forgot to mention the white chocolate whisper cake - one of the softest butter cake I have ever made. Actually made the blueberry swan lake cake, without the meringue swans. And there are still LOTS of cakes I haven't tried yet.

If you like making bread, try the brioche recipe or the sticky buns. My avatar is the brioche recipe made into savarins soaked with lemon syrup and filled with whipped cream & raspberries.

Happy baking!!

Shimi, thanks for the review. I absolutely HAVE to have this book. Which bookstore has it in KL? Otherwise ... sigh, have to order through the internet.