Zoë Bakes Cakes Cookbook Review

Zoë Bakes Cakes: A Baking Book

In this week's cookbook review, we are back with another pastry cookbook this time with Zoë Bakes Cakes.

The expert baker and bestselling author behind the Magnolia Network original series Zoë François explores her favorite dessert cakes! Featuring everything from Bundt cakes and loaves to a beautifully layered wedding confection, Zoë shows you how to celebrate any occasion, big or small, with delicious homemade cake.

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Cakes For Everyone

Cake is the ultimate symbol of celebration, used to mark birthdays, weddings, or even just a Tuesday night. In Zoë Bakes Cakes, Zoë demystifies the craft of cakes through more than eighty-five simple and straightforward recipes.

This book spans all of Zoë's favorite cakes, from family recipes such as Anna’s Hazelnut–Brown Butter Cake to cakes from her years in professional kitchens, like Chocolate Devil’s Food Cake, and some new ones discovered during her cake-walk odysseys, like Hummingbird Cake.

The recipes get progressively more involved in each chapter. Some of the cakes you can toss together in a single bowl using nothing more than a spoon; but as you go through the book, Zoë will add techniques to create classic pound cakes, which are leavened with nothing more than air whipped into butter, or light-as-air cakes, made with egg whites that are super-delicate and delicious.

Some cakes are simple, old-worldly, and rustic, while others are sensational and adorned with flourishes that look complicated but are really easy to make when you know the secrets. With step-by-step photo guides that break down baking fundamentals - like creaming butter and sugar - and Zoë’s expert knowledge to guide you, anyone can make these delightful creations.

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Let's Bake Some Cakes

For us, Zoë Bakes Cakes has something for everybody. Some people will want to dive right into the recipes and bake a special cake for a loved one’s birthday or for an after-school snack. Other bakers will want to know a little more about the whys and hows of baking the perfect cake. This book is for both the novice and the more experienced baker.

This book has a section called Cake Academy where you can find more informations about the techniques used in this book. Here you'll find things such as the science behind why egg whites whip up to perfection. For those who aren't interested in these details, you can jump go to the recipes and start having fun in the kitchen. For those who really want to get the most out of this book we recommend you read this section carefully.

The Zoë’s professional background shines through in the book’s opening section, which features a user-friendly and lavishly photographed guide to the fundamentals of baking, covering ingredients, tools, and cake-baking basics from measuring ingredients to frosting the finished product.

Recipes are organized by type (pound cakes, soaked cakes, layered cakes, etc.) and range from classics (angel food cake and Boston cream pie) to more inventive offerings (a tempting orange-juice-and-liqueur-infused Greek orange phyllo cake and a decadent meringue-topped Blackberry Diva Cake). The recipes themselves are clearly written, with measurements in volume and weight.

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Final Thoughts

Zoë Bakes Cakes is an excellent cookbook that will guide you through the basics of baking to more advanced techniques that will help you to make cakes for any occasion. Its rich content and delicious recipes make this book a must-have for anyone interested in baking.