From the Editors

The mania for miniature sweets is gaining momentum–maybe due to happy memories of the magical tea parties of our childhood, or the intimacy of having our own tiny treat in a supersized world, with no need to share! <br><br>The mother-daughter team at the Riviera Bakehouse in Westchester, New York, and authors of <i>The Whimsical Bakehouse</i> and <i>Christmas Cookies from the Whimsical Bakehouse</i> now present an abundance of fabulous new recipes for little decorated cakes, cheesecakes, cupcakes, and more–all in fresh flavor combinations, like caramel cake with dulce de leche buttercream or spicy chocolate cake with cinnamon-chocolate whipped cream. This comprehensive introduction to baking in miniature also provides tips on glazing, icing, and making chocolate decorations and offers details on the equipment you need to get started (including a cake pan chart, so that you can use those mini rose pans, heart pans, and other fun shapes to bake unique creations). <br><br>The authors are famous for their over-the-top decorations, and they’ll take you step-by-step through the process of creating cakes piped and appliquéd with bumblebees (white chocolate wings and nonpareil stripes make them irresistible!), blooming roses (or, if you prefer, delicate hydrangeas with lifelike shaded petals), wild meringues (dressed with tiger stripes, zebra stripes, or leopard spots), and spiky dragons (right down to the serpentine tail). The recipes in <i>Little Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse </i>are categorized into three levels: one star for easy, two for intermediate, and three for challenging. So whether you want to start with a charming, super-easy star-shaped mini strawberry shortcake or strive for A Day at the Beach pail-shaped cake, complete with cookie-crumb sand, chocolate shovel, and edible seashells, you’ll find a cool confection that fits your skills. If you’re not ready for complicated decorating, this book also provides easy presentation ideas to make simple cakes look grander, ensuring the perfect finish to any occasion. <br><br>Little cakes are as fun to make as they are delicious to eat! After all, who’d turn down a bit–and a bite–of joy in their lives?
Product Description

Customer Response

Alot of big smiles in small packages!
Having just gotten this gem, it's another winner from the mother-daughter team of Kaye and Liv Hansen! Not finished with giving us unique and artistic big-people cakes, they have created little-people cakes, aka cupcakes and their equally delicious and tasty friends, the muffins.

GETTING STARTED
As usual, the book has all those bright neon colors that get you thinking outside the realm of the frosting standards. To help you get started, they have the first section, aptly named "Getting Started". It covers all the specifics of what equipment and supplies you would need to make all the stuff in this book; every template is included as well. One of the most appreciated sections within this book is the chart of cake pans, sizes, and batter capacity needed; cupcakes are always a plural adventure, and for this, you need to know what you're working with. Plus there is the color chart to help you make every wild, bright, and wonderful color you want, plus icing color standards. Kaye and Liv include all sorts of tips on baking (how not to overmix certain batters, adjusting your timetable to meet your timeline, etc.) as well as tips on fillings, icings, piping (from simple to detailed), and the actual recipes themselves.

I need to really emphasize the lesson they give you in "The Chocolate Method". If you've ever seen edible designs and wondered how they are made, this section alone was worth the price of the book. It seems so simple once you get it, but until a really great baker tells you how, it can seem too much to attempt.

ANYTINE LITTLE CAKES & MUFFINS
The best recipes for muffins: blueberry, zucchini, banana, whole wheat blackberry, oatmeal, pumpkin, and coffee chocolate chip. Then there are the cakes: almond coffee, blueberry crumb, coffee pecan pound cakes, and plum kuchens.

SPECIAL OCCASION LITTLE CAKES
Raspberry cheesecakes, pumpkin spice cheesecakes, Matt's little pineapple upside-down cakes, and one of the best ever....TWINKIES and DEVIL DOGS (the delicious way they used to taste)!!! Also, Devil's Food cake, caramel cake, the Big Bang cake (chocolate and caramel on a Pistachio Ganache Truffle cake (mercy!), cream puff nests, pate a choux nests (custard puffs), "ice cream" cupcakes (cake batter cones w/ ice cream on top) along with the ice cream recipe and the topping shell for the ice cream.

THE FUN CUPCAKES
Make-A-Wish cupcakes (the ones on the front cover)
Halloween cupcakes
Mini Acorn cupcakes
Chocolate Coconut cupcakes with German Chocolate Icing
Wild Meringues cupcakes (animal print look made with chocolate---grrrr!!!)
Little Present cupcakes (cute little "gifts" with a chocolate bow)
Valentine cupcakes
Caramel Popcorn cupcakes
Construction cupcakes (this presentation used "the Chocolate Method" of designs to place on a sea of chocolate cupcakes; a definite boy's dream!)
Bumblebee cupcakes
Spider and Ladybug cupcakes
Shark cupcakes
Beach Pail cupcakes (soooooo adorable and sooo real-looking!)
Flower Power cupcakes (gorgeous floral masterpieces that looked like a real garden of dahlias, poppies, daisies, etc)
"A Rose is a Rose" bouquet of cupcakes (very, very clever!)
Basket cupcakes
Hat cupcakes (witches, fedoras, baseball caps, etc)
A Bushel of Apples (literally a cupcake that looks like a apple bushel!)
Flower Pot cupcakes
Christmas Tree cupcakes

and........the Grand Finale...................
Tiered Mini-Cakes (3 basic designs to work from and they are gorgeous!)

These would be great ways of spending time with family and friends, and the delicious joy that these will bring will be sooo worth it!! Thanks to Kaye and Liv!

Book cover doesn't do them justice
The cover of this book doesn't do it justice. The cakes on the cover are cute but fairly plain. But what you find in the book is several good recipes -- and some _adorable_ little cakes, from simple and plain to quite fancy -- from little corn muffins to an iced shark cake (shaped like a shark jumping out of the water) to elegant little fondant-decorated cakes. Some of the cakes are geared toward kids, but some of them are quite elegant and appropriate for adults. I hope the publisher will add the "search inside" feature and give folks a better glimpse of what this little gem of a book contains.

not impressed
i had great hopes for this book prior to getting it. I'm sad to say i am disappointed. i recommend Hello, Cupcake as a much much better alternative to this cupcake book.

Yummy recipes!
I haven't made the designs yet from this book, but I have used several of the cupcake recipes. They are delicious! Those of you afraid to try scratch, need this book. They aren't much harder than a mix and come out very moist. The house buttercream is also an amazing noncrusting frosting. Very tasty and easy to smooth. Highly recommend.

Great book
I really want to give this book 4 and 1/2 stars. The technical information was comprehensive and easy to follow. I was also pleasantly surprised with the number of icing recipes provided - 3 kinds of buttercream, fudge icing, peanut butter, whipped cream and 3 kinds of glaze - as well as the fillings and cake recipes. The authors have phenomenal ideas for beautiful little cakes.

There are a few recipes that use shaped pans (ice cream cones, rose, heart) which can be costly. They do provide alternatives if the user doesn't have the pans. I do not like the book's size. It's only 8" x 9 1/2" and the print is smaller than many of my other cookbooks. However, the content is so good that I can overlook both issues.

It is a great book and I would definitely buy it again.

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