What do you think?
Erin Bakes Cake: Make + Bake + Decorate = Your Own Cake Adventure!: A Baking Book
Erin Gardner's cake recipes share a delicious, time-saving secret: they're all the same. Why play the guessing game of sifting through dozens of recipes when all you need are just a few that contain hundreds of variations--572, to be exact! The cakequations in Erin Bakes Cake teach you how to combine her cake, buttercream, cookie, and candy recipes in endless mouth-watering ways. Erin's cake recipes aren't sorcery--they're science. They all share similar ratios of ingredients that add tenderness, strength, or flavor. You don't have to be an expert. Everyone can learn to make a great cake!
Erin Bakes Cake provides the building blocks for constructing a great cake, and then offers endless ways those blocks can be reassembled. Erin shares the baking tips she learned as a professional pastry chef and wedding cake baker, what tools to use, how to perfect the cake's finish, and other tricks of the baking trade. She then shows you how to make gorgeous and intricately decorated cakes by elevating simple, but delicious, ingredients like candy, cookies, and chocolate. Erin's created cake designs that are festive, chic, and easy to recreate at home without the use of hard-to-deal-with fondant.
And best of all, you can make every recipe your own! The Any Veggie Cake cake can be transformed into a classic carrot cake, zucchini cake, or sweet potato cake. A creamy cake filling isn't limited to buttercream with the inclusion of recipes for caramel, ganache, marshmallow, and more. A chocolate birthday cake recipe can be reimagined as red velvet or chocolate toffee. Elements of crunch, like peanut brittle, honeycomb candy, or even cookie crumbles, can be sprinkled onto your cake layers for tasty added texture.
Erin Bakes Cake provides the building blocks for constructing a great cake, and then offers endless ways those blocks can be reassembled. Erin shares the baking tips she learned as a professional pastry chef and wedding cake baker, what tools to use, how to perfect the cake's finish, and other tricks of the baking trade. She then shows you how to make gorgeous and intricately decorated cakes by elevating simple, but delicious, ingredients like candy, cookies, and chocolate. Erin's created cake designs that are festive, chic, and easy to recreate at home without the use of hard-to-deal-with fondant.
And best of all, you can make every recipe your own! The Any Veggie Cake cake can be transformed into a classic carrot cake, zucchini cake, or sweet potato cake. A creamy cake filling isn't limited to buttercream with the inclusion of recipes for caramel, ganache, marshmallow, and more. A chocolate birthday cake recipe can be reimagined as red velvet or chocolate toffee. Elements of crunch, like peanut brittle, honeycomb candy, or even cookie crumbles, can be sprinkled onto your cake layers for tasty added texture.
241 pages, Hardcover
Published September 5, 2017
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 16, 2018
Very cute, but an enormous amount of work for a cake.
Read
July 1, 2020Did you know you can freeze creamy cake batter or if you add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to flour it makes cake flour? Now you do thanks to Erin. This book includes 11 variations on vanilla birthday cake and 5 for chocolate. Recipes for any fruit cakes, any veggie cakes and even any booze cakes! Get to know your buttercreams with Erin's help. The best helper in the book is the unicorn.....yes unicorn. With chapters entitled Candy and All About That Base you will make cakes not to be forgotten by your family and guests. A great cake book! So fun!!
October 25, 2017
This cookbook was one of the best that I have read about baking cakes. I have been baking for 40 years and enjoy any cookbook that has to do with baking. I expected this one of be like all the others I have read. It was not. The great information was not only laid out simply and clearly, but in such a way that I felt like I was sitting down with a best friend having great conversation and laughter. I will be purchasing this book for Christmas gifts.
December 25, 2018
When I first started reading this book, I was turned off by the flip nature of the writing and all the unicorn and candy-colored stuff but I'm very glad I didn't give up. The numerous charts showing the myriad of variations and substitutions and combinations one can make are amazing!!! You don't have to figure it out - it's already done for you!!! I even attempted the Toffee recipe (easiest thing the author's ever made...) before I was finished with the book. Apparently, the author's "golden and bubbly" is really "golden BROWN - sugar all dissolved - and bubbly." I re-did this one THREE TIMES before it turned out okay. So, I'm a bit leery of the other recipes but I'm putting this book on my BUY list!
February 5, 2022
I just happened to find this book and uh, holy shit what the hell lol. I was NOT expecting THIS level of detail and quality. I feel genuinely blown away. It is SO COMPREHENSIVE and THE most informative and amazing book you could ever hope to find, ESPECIALLY as a beginner just starting out!!!
Not only is the aesthetic of the book beautiful (rainbow sprinkles on the back cover!! yellow spine!!! rainbows and cute fonts and pretty aesthetic and formatting and cute typeset!!!), but this book is absolutely JAM-PACKED with information. I highly, highly recommend this book for everyone, whether you are a serious baker or just beginning to bake. It's got something for everybody, from teaching the basics down to inspiration and novel, creative ways to really up your baking game.
I'm seriously in awe that a book like this exists and can't talk about its merits enough. She teaches you basics from the very beginning and lays out a VERY solid foundation for your baking skills and knowledge. Even the book's organization is fantastic, from the way the chapters are ordered to the graphical presentation of data and recipes and tips on each page. It all flows together very cohesively and is very easy to navigate.
And the knowledge contained within these pages...HOLY SHIT. I'm not an expert or even arguably intermediate baker, but I'm not a beginner either by any means, solely because I consume a lot, and I mean a LOT, of informational baking content voraciously (hundreds if not maybe over a thousand hours now of baking science, tips, trips, and a TON of articles and blog). And I found so much stuff in here I had never even come across before or thought to think about!
She breaks down cake anatomy and science to a level that's very approachable for even complete beginners. She goes sooooo in detail from the broad basics of how to make a cake to even extremely nitpicky little details about everything from cake setting to decorating that you'd never even think of (e.x., page 33: "Plastic is not fantastic when whipping egg whites, as it can absorb fats over time. Use a metal or copper bowl for foaming success" WTF??). And she gives the basics/breakdowns for different types of cakes from veggie to fruit to booze cakes. This woman is like, a genius. She's SO good at time saving tips and improving ways to bake that make it much easier than conventional methods, on top of teaching you different methods to make the same thing! (Or like, different methods and what cakes they work with or not.) She even gives you pros and cons of different ingredients/materials!!!! E.x. buttercreams (swiss meringue, American buttercream, ermine buttercream). You learn everything you've ever wanted to and more!!
I think she's also on crack or an extremely meticulous Virgo or something because she includes SO MANY CHARTS and data in this group. She has a page on crunch-cluster combinations on page 90 that rates combinations of different toppings, grouped by category of baked good (cookies, cereal, crackers) and what it goes best with (candy, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate). Like bro, wtf lol. But it makes everything sooooooo easy to read and you can get information in quick glances. She even has unit conversion charts in the back (U.S./metric) and gives you a table of common ingredients and their weights (e.x. 1 cup cocoa powder = 3.33 oz/95g). She gives you charts of how much servings different pan sizes give (6" round pan = 12 servings, 6" square = 32 servings, bundts and sheets give different servings etc.). She even gives a chart for how much batter to fill the cakes in, how much frosting, and how much filling. I was on the verge of tears because this woman and her book are such a godsend lol.
She really doesn't tell you how to bake cakes, she teaches you how to make them. You can literally take all the knowledge she gives you and then use this to make your own recipes and variations instead of just dictating step by step what she does. She gives reason behind everything she does so you really understand what she's doing and why. My favorite kind of cooking teacher!! And she really does encourage you to be inspired and make your own combinations with a ton of cake combinations scattered throughout the book.
She teaches you so many techniques to incorporate into your baking, and even teaches how to bake other things to use in your cake. There's everything from piping to decorating melted candy and different types of cookies and how to make chocolates and marshmallows. These were honestly the most informative 228 pages I've read in my life. She also has great cake recipes and ideas that are mouthwatering and SOOOOOOOOO PRETTYYYYYYYYYYYY to look at lol. Seriously, her cakes are amazing.
I have ADHD, a short attention span, AND I'm too lazy to actually go out and bake, but this book was such a pleasure to read because it was formatted pleasantly and learning about the science and techniques behind cake making and decorating was just so interesting and addictive. Thanks Erin Gardner, for presenting them in such a great way!!
The pictures and colorful text and formatting are GORGEOUS and sooooo aesthetic and I'm just SO in love with this colorful, informative book. Again, this book is excellent in its presentation, well-organized, and informative. My review can't even this book justice. AND it's pretty. Can't recommend it enough!!!
Not only is the aesthetic of the book beautiful (rainbow sprinkles on the back cover!! yellow spine!!! rainbows and cute fonts and pretty aesthetic and formatting and cute typeset!!!), but this book is absolutely JAM-PACKED with information. I highly, highly recommend this book for everyone, whether you are a serious baker or just beginning to bake. It's got something for everybody, from teaching the basics down to inspiration and novel, creative ways to really up your baking game.
I'm seriously in awe that a book like this exists and can't talk about its merits enough. She teaches you basics from the very beginning and lays out a VERY solid foundation for your baking skills and knowledge. Even the book's organization is fantastic, from the way the chapters are ordered to the graphical presentation of data and recipes and tips on each page. It all flows together very cohesively and is very easy to navigate.
And the knowledge contained within these pages...HOLY SHIT. I'm not an expert or even arguably intermediate baker, but I'm not a beginner either by any means, solely because I consume a lot, and I mean a LOT, of informational baking content voraciously (hundreds if not maybe over a thousand hours now of baking science, tips, trips, and a TON of articles and blog). And I found so much stuff in here I had never even come across before or thought to think about!
She breaks down cake anatomy and science to a level that's very approachable for even complete beginners. She goes sooooo in detail from the broad basics of how to make a cake to even extremely nitpicky little details about everything from cake setting to decorating that you'd never even think of (e.x., page 33: "Plastic is not fantastic when whipping egg whites, as it can absorb fats over time. Use a metal or copper bowl for foaming success" WTF??). And she gives the basics/breakdowns for different types of cakes from veggie to fruit to booze cakes. This woman is like, a genius. She's SO good at time saving tips and improving ways to bake that make it much easier than conventional methods, on top of teaching you different methods to make the same thing! (Or like, different methods and what cakes they work with or not.) She even gives you pros and cons of different ingredients/materials!!!! E.x. buttercreams (swiss meringue, American buttercream, ermine buttercream). You learn everything you've ever wanted to and more!!
I think she's also on crack or an extremely meticulous Virgo or something because she includes SO MANY CHARTS and data in this group. She has a page on crunch-cluster combinations on page 90 that rates combinations of different toppings, grouped by category of baked good (cookies, cereal, crackers) and what it goes best with (candy, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate). Like bro, wtf lol. But it makes everything sooooooo easy to read and you can get information in quick glances. She even has unit conversion charts in the back (U.S./metric) and gives you a table of common ingredients and their weights (e.x. 1 cup cocoa powder = 3.33 oz/95g). She gives you charts of how much servings different pan sizes give (6" round pan = 12 servings, 6" square = 32 servings, bundts and sheets give different servings etc.). She even gives a chart for how much batter to fill the cakes in, how much frosting, and how much filling. I was on the verge of tears because this woman and her book are such a godsend lol.
She really doesn't tell you how to bake cakes, she teaches you how to make them. You can literally take all the knowledge she gives you and then use this to make your own recipes and variations instead of just dictating step by step what she does. She gives reason behind everything she does so you really understand what she's doing and why. My favorite kind of cooking teacher!! And she really does encourage you to be inspired and make your own combinations with a ton of cake combinations scattered throughout the book.
She teaches you so many techniques to incorporate into your baking, and even teaches how to bake other things to use in your cake. There's everything from piping to decorating melted candy and different types of cookies and how to make chocolates and marshmallows. These were honestly the most informative 228 pages I've read in my life. She also has great cake recipes and ideas that are mouthwatering and SOOOOOOOOO PRETTYYYYYYYYYYYY to look at lol. Seriously, her cakes are amazing.
I have ADHD, a short attention span, AND I'm too lazy to actually go out and bake, but this book was such a pleasure to read because it was formatted pleasantly and learning about the science and techniques behind cake making and decorating was just so interesting and addictive. Thanks Erin Gardner, for presenting them in such a great way!!
The pictures and colorful text and formatting are GORGEOUS and sooooo aesthetic and I'm just SO in love with this colorful, informative book. Again, this book is excellent in its presentation, well-organized, and informative. My review can't even this book justice. AND it's pretty. Can't recommend it enough!!!
October 13, 2017
Erin Bakes Cakes is a stunningly beautiful book. I thought it was a little complicated and just a bit too clever in the narrative, but the ideas are quite clever and allows the reader/baker to soar with creativity
August 2, 2018
If you are looking to learn about baking (young child, someone who does not bake/cook) this is great. Utensils, pans, ingredients - all there for whatever cake you choose to bake. Fun to look thru and get some new ideas for decorating also.
October 11, 2017
Loved this cake book for all the wonderful pictures and ideas that will surely inspire everyone who loves to decorate their cakes.
August 6, 2018
Lots of helpful tips for making and decorating cakes.
January 25, 2020
COOL book ! I love the charts mostly ! And her easy breakdown of cake combos ! So excited to make some cakes from this book !
December 12, 2021
i liked this book, it shows you how to make showy and artistic layer cakes. i loved the unicorn thoughts. The cakes are quite showstoppers, mainly.
November 4, 2018
Remember those children's books that were pictures of people split into three strips, so you could flip to combine different heads, bodies, and feet? That feels like the same concept as this cookbook - it explains each of the component parts and lets you choose how to combine them (with a guide to what works best together). It's a surprisingly wonderful way to visualize and understand how to put together a showstopping cake. And then, each process is broken down into simple steps that are explained with lots of detailed instructions. (My pet peeve is cookbooks that assume I know more than I do! This one never does.) The writing is so friendly you feel like you have a friend in the kitchen with you - a friend who's one of the best in the world at this sort of thing! I've definitely made my fanciest, prettiest, and best-tasting cakes of all time from this cookbook.
March 17, 2019
I wrote a review on it on Amazon. Good book l. Lots of basic recipes then way to alter them. Love all the build a cake part of it. Be care full of recipes size thought the recipes make huge cakes and you have to figure out to bake that much batter without overbaking. I ended up doing th chocolate birthday cake and did it in 3 8 inch pans she recommended two 8 inch pans which according to reviews on Amazon makes the outside way overbaked. If you can figure out the math you can easily adjust down to half to three quarters of the recipe and be fine.
May 29, 2018
Great book! Great recipes!
Want to Read
September 2, 2017Recently won this in a goodreads giveaway and can't wait until I get it so I can try some of these cakes out.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews