Better Homes and Gardens Pies and Cakes

by Better Homes and Gardens

Perennial fruit pie favorites, creamy, custard, chiffon, parfait pies...shells and crusts. in the cake catagory we have chocolate, lemon, white, spice, cupcakes. Upside down and pudding cakes, the lightest cakes ever, fruit cakes, tricks with cake mixes and finishing touches. Whew need I say more i am goin to go get some cake!!

Genres: Cookbooks

91 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1966

About the author

Better Homes and Gardens is the fourth best selling magazine in the United States. Better Homes and Gardens focuses on interests regarding homes, cooking, gardening, crafts, healthy living, decorating, and entertaining. The magazine is published 12 times per year by the Meredith Corporation. It was founded in 1922 by Edwin Meredith, who had previously been the United States Secretary of Agriculture under Woodrow Wilson.

Better Homes and Gardens is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.

Reviews

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the last of the “fifty cents for a half-bag of books” I picked up over the holidays, and very nice. It does not appear to have a lot of overlap with the Better Homes & Gardens Dessert Cook Book. The photography is better than average for a book of this type and era (mine is dated 1966), although the cantaloupe pie (green lime custard with pastel-red cantaloupe balls) is somewhat off-putting.

There’s also a little less in the way of helpful hints; but the photos of how to make lattice pie tops and other fancy pie tops is very helpful. There are also tips for mailing cakes, including one neat idea:

For a novel cake-by-mail, wrap an unfrosted angel cake in clear plastic wrap; tuck in a can of frosting (that needs no refrigeration) and plastic bags of nuts or candy for trim. Let receiver assemble cake.

My first test of this cookbook was Strawberry Glamour Pie; I made it with blueberries. It’s a layered pie, with a layer of pie crust, a layer of meringue crust, a layer of fruit filling, and a layer of whipped cream on top. It was fun to make and fun to eat.

For my second recipe, I noticed that the Peppermint Chiffon Pie uses candy canes, and I had just decided to stop using the same canes on my Christmas tree every year. It takes a half cup of “crushed peppermint-stick candy”, which turned out to be six canes. The canes are melted with sugar, gelatin, milk, and egg yolks; then meringue is mixed into that and the whole thing trimmed with whipped cream.

As it happened, I also had some soft peppermint sticks (in texture like butter mints) which were perfect for putting on the top of each slice.

That was an amazing close to the Christmas season that will probably become traditional.

If it weren’t for the review, I probably would have made Peanut-Butter Chiffon Pie next, but since the book is “Pies and Cakes” I thought it a good idea to try at least one cake out as well. That’s part of why this is the final book reviewed from my holiday haul—I’d already made so many cakes.

But yesterday I got around to making Poppy-Seed Cake. I like all kinds of poppy seed pastries, and this cake was very different from the Poppy Seed Almond Cake I made recently from Dessert Person.

Instead of a tube cake with a glaze on top, this is a layer cake made from two rounds; each round also sliced in half for four layers of poppy seed cake. The filling was a cream filling, really a vanilla-walnut custard. Then, the cake is lightly frosted with powdered sugar.

I was a bit disappointed when I started putting it together. But the whole here is definitely better than the sum of its parts. The custard soaks into the cake slightly and the cake itself is very light. This is one I’ll be making again.

Like many Better Homes and Gardens books, the recipes vary from the standard ingredient list and then instructions, to simple instructions with no ingredient list.

I have a lot of other recipes bookmarked: Caramel Apple Pie, Brown-Sugar Peach Pie, Peanut-Butter Pie, Black Bottom Pie, Peanut-Butter Chiffon Pie, and Burnt-Sugar Cake. But it’s probably going to be on my short list when I want to bake a new pie or cake.

[Jacquline Ard · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a simple classic book. I'm not sure how I feel about using one of those packaged pudding mixes or cheddar cheese on top of any pie, but everything else seemed fine to me. Perhaps I was thinking of gelatin, though... Of course, the fruit cup pie was something new to me. You know of that mixed fruit in a can? Well, I guess you can make a pie out of that with fresh fruit.

Even though pecan pie and blueberry pie are my favorite type of pies (both recipes in the book), I have a tendency to make apple pie more often. It's probably because apples are cheaper and easier to come by.

There were about 10 different apple pie recipes. I was also satisfied by the amount of recipes that involved fresh fruit. I prefer it that way rather than canned fruit, especially for the blueberry pie recipe.

My favorite cakes are red velvet (red devil's food cake in this book) and German chocolate cake, and those were included. I also enjoy bread that involve molasses, honey, ginger, cinnamon, and/or clove-think of autumn and pumpkins-of which there were several. That was nice.

I'll list the chapters since this book isn't that common:

Pies
Perennial Fruit Pie Favorites
Petite Fruit Pies
Smooth Cream Pies
Custard-Type Pies
Fluffy Chiffon Pies
Chilly Parfait and Frozen Pies
Shells and Crusts
Picture Perfect Pies

Cakes
Wonderful Chocolate Cakes
Elegant White Cakes
Golden Yellow Cakes
Savory Spice Cakes
Cupcake Treats
Upside-Down and Pudding Cakes
The Lightest Cakes Ever
Luscious Tortes
Festive Fruitcakes
New Tricks with Cake Mixes
Cake Cues
Finishing Touches
Index

What got my attention was peanut butter pie, rum eggnog pie, lemon meringue pie, coconut tart, black bottom pie, lemon chiffon pie, seafoam cantaloupe pie (cool!), cherry burgundy pie, petit fours, maraschino cherry cake, molasses pound cake, caramel ginger cake, mocha nut torte, almond-brittle torte, and spicy pumpkin cake.

There was a tomato soup spice cake, but I don't know about that...

I had also never heard of penuche frosting, but it sounds tasty (butter, brown sugar, regular sugar, and hot milk).

I like the idea of using a crust made of not just the good old flour dough with shortening or oil but being able to use coconut, vanilla-wafers, gingersnap, and whatever zwieback is. I'm sure I could use any cookie or even one mixed with nuts. I took note of the different way to decorate the top of a pie, including the top of the crust.

I mean I have heard or seen much of it before, but I have one reference for it at hand now for me to make.

[Irma · Rating 5 out of 5]

1966. One of my first cookbooks. Hard to believe it’s probably a vintage cookbook.