Marbled, Swirled, And Layered: 150 Recipes and Variations for Artful Bars, Cookies, Pies, Cakes, and More – Beautiful Desserts Through Inventive Baking Techniques

by Irvin Lin

Incredible desserts with layers and swirls of flavor that are beautiful and delicious--inside and out

When you marble, layer, and swirl doughs, batters, toppings, or frostings, good looks and good taste come together in one total package. Irvin Lin, creator of the popular blog Eat the Love, shows how these techniques open the door to inventive flavor combinations that look as fantastic as they taste. Bakers of all levels will enjoy recipes ranging from easy brownies and bars to brunch-worthy muffins and morning buns to show-stopping cakes and cinnamon spiral icebox cookies, pistachio-swirl brownies, triple-chocolate pie, multicolored “Neapolitan” layer cake, and more. Lin offers variations to suit any taste (more than 150 recipes total) plus baking and decorating tips throughout on topics like making your own all-natural food coloring, rolling up jelly roll–style cakes, and discovering the magic of browned butter. Readers (and eaters) are sure to ooh and ahh over every dazzling dessert at first glance—and then again at first bite. 

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Biography

352 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2016

Reviews

[Leona · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not for beginners, or people who are more traditional in their baking.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of easy-to-read, detailed recipes for baked goods including cookies, cakes, pies, and muffins. There are some color photos. I won this book from Leite's Culineria.

[Denver Public Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy goodness I want to eat everything in this book, maybe not make it because there are some complicated treats but GOODNESS, the caramelized white chocolate brownies with strawberry balsamic swirl were really good, the honeybun cookies were also good but I felt the glaze was unnecessary, still though the creations in this book are mmmmm! I really want to make the pistachio butter brownies, oh man! Do yourself a delicious favor and check out this book!

[Ligaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been reading a ton of cookbooks lately but I didn't enjoy reading this one. Granted, 150 recipes is massive, but reading through was quite the slog, and I read it to the bitter end... I thought the recipes sounded great (I have yet to bake a one!) and all the variations seemed equally good. There are lots of tips and background information that added to my knowledge. I did not at all like the design of this cookbook, and wish to strangle the book designer. On many recipes, the ingredients list jumps from one page to the next. There are not photos of each recipe - which I CAN understand, but there is also a huge amount of white space within this book, certainly there could be small thumbnails of the finished items? Also, some desserts were so styled that the photographs clearly did not match the descriptions. That always makes we worried and leery. Lastly, there is teeny italic font and small ORANGE font that is CRAZY STUPID to try to read in a dim, busy kitchen. Arg! This book assumes knowledge of technique and familiarity with more exotic ingredients. I'm going to re-check this from my library and plan on trying out several recipes.

[Sarah Wu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Irvin hit it out of the park with this book! It's so well done, the writing and the recipes are extremely thorough. I'm beyond impressed that at the end of every recipe is a variation in case someone wants to try a different flavor combination. There is a part right at the beginning discussing gluten free flours and I thought that was helpful too. Thanks so much for this book (even though I'm getting to it late). I treasure it.

[Danielle Booey · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of delicious looking recipes in this book. I’m especially excited about the pistachio swirled brownies. Headed to the grocery store tomorrow to pick some pistachios up. The cinnamon honey bun cookies also look good. I admit to being a sucker for cookies you end up slicing off a log to bake just like pillsbury. Also the whoopie pies!

My only criticism is that I wish a picture had been included for every recipe.

[LS kitchen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the alternative ideas for each recipe, but the various substitutions and steps made them difficult to read. From a book standpoint, the tiny font and lack of compelling photography also made the book rather ho-hum. I assume a lot of hard work went into these recipes, and it's unfortunate that the cookbook is not easier to follow.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the creative flavor combinations and all the different techniques.
such an inspirational baking cook book - my only issue is that all the recipes are complex with multiple steps and different batters - I would surely use every bowl in my kitchen! although one to come back to for some amazing ideas

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Good Book For Unusual Baking

This book was filled with unusual types of cookies, cakes, pies and some breads. A lot of helpful hints on changing up the flavors of each recipe. My only complaint is that there was not enough pictures. For a man who is a professional photographer he ought to know better.

[Ppcfransen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love paging through this book. I've made a few of the recipes and they turned out well. There are some pretty photo's in it that look very appetizing. I like that every recipe has two alternatives, but I would have loved this book a lot more, it there had been a photograph for each (main) recipe.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this cookbook! Each recipe comes with a flavor variation or two! I made the raspberry almond Battenberg cake and it was amazing. The instructions very detailed and the cake turned out phenomenal.

[Garrett McCord · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvelous book with thoughtful, creative recipes that work. Perfect gift for the curious baker willing to try new things.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

The recipes are enticing, but I particularly liked liked reading the Troubleshoot for Baking, and the Discussion on Ingredients.

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a very good intermediate baking book. The recipes are a little more involved than everyday baking but still within reach of most cooks. And the recipes are fantastic.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super creative takes on classic baked goods. All ingredients are given by weight and volume, and many of the recipes have flavor variations as well. Wish more of the recipes had photos, though.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique. And readers will undoubtedly find many things worth baking.

[Donna Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute cookbook with a nice variety of recipes. Some of the recipes I didn't enjoy because it had ingredients that I can't use due to my food allergy.

[Pamela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the recipes too fussy. Besides, having such complex recipes, the book format where "alternative" recipes are detailed as changes to the original ones makes it truly complicated to follow if you want to try one of the alternatives. They are (mostly) not a direct swap of one ingredient for another, so you have to follow the original recipe and make multiple alterations in quantities, ingredients and even procedure most times. Hence, IT IS A NEW RECIPE! It should be printed as such. If that makes too long a book, choose fewer recipes, or suggest easier "alternatives" where you truly swap one fruit or nut for another and that's it.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

holy goodness i want to eat everything in this book, maybe not make it cuase there are some complicated treats but GOODNESS, the carmelized white chocolate brownies with strawberry balsamic swirl were really good, the honeybun cookies were also pretty good but the glaze was unnecessary, but still mmmmm i really want to make the pistacio butter brownies, oh man fuck yeah

[Saima · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK. There were only a few recipes that I liked. Not all recipes have photos.

[AskNezka · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tart recipes look amazing.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. Everything sounds phenomenal, the pictures are beautiful....but the recipes are, let's say, probably untested.

[Alena]

Lots of things I wouldn’t mind eating if someone else made them, but bookmarked only a handful of things and I’m not sure anything will ever come from it.