CakeLove: How to Bake Cakes from Scratch

by Warren Brown, Renee Comet (Photographer)

Warren Brown wants you to bake your cake and eat it too. And he wants you to conquer your fear of flour and learn to love every step of cake baking—including, of course, the step in which you present your made-from-scratch masterpiece to bedazzled, hungry-eyed family and friends. (Not to mention the moment when you yourself get to sample a slice of that lovingly crafted creation.)

For Brown, love and baking are inseparable. After all, he abandoned an unrewarding career in law to do the work—baking cakes!—that he finds truly emotionally satisfying. Every page of CakeLove communicates that satisfaction, as well as Brown’s can-do approach to the art of baking. As he asserts, baking cakes isn’t a cakewalk, but it’s not rocket science, either—and getting it right isn’t nearly as hard as you think.

Pound cakes, butter cakes, sponge cakes, cupcakes. Glazes, frostings, fillings, meringues. Brown provides all the basics on ingredients, equipment, and techniques, as well as recipes for more than 50 cakes that range from the classic (Chocolate Butter Cake) to the adventurous (“Sassy,” a pound cake made with mango puree and cayenne pepper). The informative step-by-step shots make you want to run to the kitchen and start baking, and the scrumptious color photos of completed cakes look good enough to sink your teeth into.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Culinary

224 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2008

About the author

Brown makes you want to run to the kitchen and start baking!"

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ummmm. I am going to buy this one. I am a lover of cookbooks. I generally get at least one from the library each month. I take down a few recipes here and there and stare at the lovely pictures.

I realized I would have to re-copy the entire book in this case...and I believe there are rules about that! So, I am going to grab my own copy from Amazon and I am going to start with the Sassy cake.

Any baking book where cayenne is thrown in with citrus liqueurs and delicious looking creamy fillings in one single concoction is taste-sensational enough for me. These look like the kind of death defying cakes (5 eggs and 3 cups of sugar, folks!) that you make for parties all the better to share the calories and cholesterol around.

Cake love contains some zany conversation pieces along with some standard tried and true pound cakes and bundts. The directions are very thorough and the photos are clear and useful. The fact that I was salivating throughout is another positive.

[Reese · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was Nick Malgieri not enough to feed the insatiable maw of novelty-addled Food Network victim/viewers? Do you absolutely HAVE to be a lawyer first before you become successful at any other career? Has anyone baked any of these? If you have ADHD and forget to frost the sides while baking at 3AM for immediate consumption can you really call it "served casual"? So many questions...

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't like the layout of the book. Some good pointers and tips.

[Rosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many specialized ingredients - vanilla powder, cocoa butter, cocoa nibs, and often 3+ kinds of liquer; I don't drink, and the recipe will call for a 1/2 teaspoon of orange liquer and/or limoncello, not (as far as I know) varieties that can be bought in the little airplane-sized bottles, so of course I could substitute, but I'm kind of anal about sticking to recipes for the first time, plus (and this is partially why I'm giving it 3 stars despite the obscure ingredients) his recipes are truly original and unusual in a compelling way (such as a poundcake made with mango puree and cayenne pepper), so I'd keep wondering what the real deal tasted like if I substituted. My other reason for recommending this book is that it's got the best basic yellow butter cake recipe I've ever tried, so I'm sure all the other recipes are equally impressive, if I can ever track down millet and chocolate pistoles and cocoa powder with 40% cocoa butter...

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK...I'm going to say this on the internet...

I remember Warren Brown's short lived Food Network show and was not really impressed. It was sort of blah in the era of up-and-coming food-lebrities like Rachael Ray and Paula Deen whose larger than life personas lit up the small screen.

So, enter this cookbook into my life...I checked this out at the library a few months ago, curious on baking and methods. What I discovered was a book full of life, personality and stuff I really wanted to bake. Just thumbing through you'll discover that Warren definitely didn't get a fair shake on tv. This book contains amazing recipes and flavor combinations that make you say WHAT? Then YUM! And the stories...such personality and depth.

I HAD to order this book just so that I could make some of his cakes.

PS...for those of you in the DC area, he has Cake Love cupcake shops too!!

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just got this new baking book. I have been waiting several months for it to be released. Warren Brown has such talent. He was a DC lawyer and then gave it up to work toward his passion of baking. He has had a show on Food Network and has been profiled on some of their other shows, as well.

Bret went to Washington DC on a business trip and I sent him to Cake Love, Warren's bakery to try something out. He said it was great. Even got a picture with Warren and chatted with him for a while.

The recipes look wonderful. I am excited to dive into the Cake Love world!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love making cakes from scratch, and this book not only has lots of different types of recipes, but a lot of sound baking advice. I purchased this book after I had watched a couple of episodes of his show on Food Network...yeah, I'm a FN junkie! I took Brown's advice and purchased a kitchen scale and have noticed a marked difference in the texture of my baked goods. Thumbs up for that and the inventive recipes!

[Ursula Shelton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Down home Warren shows us how it's done in the world of baking. There are all types of recipes from the extravagant to the basic. I will definitely try a couple of the pound cakes which are my favorites. The cakes with liquor, I will pass on. Great book, full of how the recipes came to be. I think you will find the book interesting especially if you enjoy cooking or eating cake. Enjoy!

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Filled with lots of tips and really good recipes. I who would have thought that even thought the measuring cup is 1 cup its more then what one would imagine. Using a scale is your best bet to get the right measurements. :0)

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been looking for a good chocolate cake recipe forever! This book had it as well as a recipe for Italian Meringue Buttercream frosting that is AMAZING. I can't wait to try more recipes from this book!

[Tayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've ever had a cake love cake you too will want to try your hand at making your very own. For those of us who don't live in DC and have regular access this book is a great way to tide yourself over.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun cookbook written like the baker must speak. A lawyer-turned-baker Warren Brown hangs up his robes for a nice bundt cake pan. The cakes look delicious. Eli made the whipped cream tonight (basic recipe) and was VERY impressed with himself.

[Elke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plenty of pictures and sufficient instruction for a novice baker like me. I don't follow the recipes as written and make substitutions very liberally (base on what I have in the house) and the cakes still turn out great.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

He throws potato starch in everything, and I'm not really a fan of adding starches where I don't have to. His cakes sound delicious, and his writing style is very no-nonsense (which I like in a cookbook), but I just can't justify buying the kinds of additives he puts in his cakes.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like to bake for special occasions this is the book for you. It breaks it down in human terms and looks like cakes you can bake at home from scratch and they will look and taste good

[Saadia]

always sift your flour...I don't have nearly enough kitchen equipment...baked goods are always better when they are chock full of booze.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Such promise. Innovative ideas. HATED the actual recipes.

[Emily Simnitt]

I heart this book....and I'll be making the tres leches cake this week!

[Jenny McDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to browse and drool over, but rather maniacally detailed and fixated on special ingredients.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to eat every cake in this book.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like pie better than cake, but sometimes you need to bake a cake! This book has some fun ideas like cherry chocolate chip cupcakes. Modern and fun but based on classic techniques.

[Shelby Schappa · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love the way warren bakes! his italian meringue buttercream is my go to frosting recipe.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

To die for! Brown gives the easy-to-understand science behind the methods, as well as fantastic recipes, which so far have come out perfectly. Can't wait to make more!

[Tammy Rybaczyk-barron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best book on baking cakes I own. Recipes can be complex, however the end result is a slice of heaven!

[Jamie Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of baked goods..and this is a great book for me! Yes, it's a challenge to get the ingredients and such, but the end product...delightful!

[Robyn Hood · Rating 4 out of 5]

love his philopshy, great read with good tips, and yummy cake :)

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, I love to read cookbooks...I haven't tried any recipes yet, but they look great

[Angelina Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book makes me want to bake a cake using this book, because she/he offers plenty of recipes that all come from scratch.