11 Baking Books You Must Read
Here are a selection of great suggestions for books about baking that cater for all tastes. We go from some of the classics to covering requirements of sugar-free, gluten-free and vegan diets. Bake cakes that all your guests can enjoy! And they’re all baking books that you can buy now.
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1. The Great British Bake Off: The Big Book of Amazing Cakes
The Big Book of Amazing Cakes brings the magic of The Great British Bake Off to your kitchen with easy-to-follow recipes for every shape, size and delicious flavour of cake you can imagine.Featuring the very best cakes from inside the Bake Off tent, alongside much-loved family favourites, stunning showstoppers and classic bakes, the book is packed with expert advice and helpful tips for decorating. From simple sponges to spectacular celebration cakes, aspiring star bakers will have everything they need to create the perfect bake for any occasion.
Buy The Great British Bake Off: The Big Book of Amazing Cakes
2. The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook: The Number One Best-Seller Now Revised And Expanded With New Recipes
From their first shop in Notting Hill’s Portobello Road, The Hummingbird Bakery introduced London to the delights of American-style baking. The simple yet spectacular recipes for indulgentcupcakes, muffins, pies, cheesecakes, brownies, cakes and cookies, in this, their first and bestselling cookbook, ensured that the home cook could create some Hummingbird magic in their own kitchens too.
Now Tarek Malouf and The Hummingbird Bakers have created a new edition of the book, fine-tuning their classic recipes and introducing new bakes such as:
- Mile-high Chocolate Salted Caramel Cake
- Sticky Fig and Pistachio Cupcakes
- Hot Cross Bun Cupcakes
- Chocolate Cola Cake
3. LOLA’S: A Cake Journey Around the World: 70 of the most delicious and iconic cake recipes discovered on our travels
Discover 70 popular cakes from across the globe, brought to you by London’s famous bakery. From American and Middle Eastern delicacies to European delights – bake your way across the continents with this exciting range of recipes.
Lola’s Cupcakes is the place to go for handcrafted cakes and cupcakes of all shapes and sizes. Now the professionals behind some of the best bakes in London bring you over 70 recipes that will take you on a delicious journey. What better way to learn about cultures and cuisines than through the medium of baked goods in all their various forms? With Lola’s Cupcakes’ detailed, precise and well-tested recipes you are sure to be in safe hands and practiced home-bakers will be inspired by new skills to master. From simple classics to extravagantly decorated creations that make delightful party centerpieces, Lola’s Cupcakes share their recipes for some of the most admired cakes around the world. Divided geographically, the book begins with classics from Northern Europe including an English Victoria Sponge, Welsh Bara Brith, German Stollen, Austrian Strudel and French Paris-Brest. The second chapter covers treats from sunny Southern Europe such as a Spanish Orange and Almond Cake, Italian Tiramisu Cake and a Greek Lemon and Olive Oil Cake. Next, The Middle East and Africa offer a dreamy Chocolate Tahini Cake from Lebanon, a sticky Baklava Cake from Saudi Arabia and a Peanut and Banana Cake from Ghana. Chapter four showcases The Americas and The Caribbean with a classic Boston Cream Pie, a Mexican Tres Leches Cake and a Coconut Rum Cake from Cuba. The final chapter features sweet treats from Australasia and Asia such as Australian Lamingtons, a Japanese Matcha Cake and an Indian Sesame Seed Cake.
Buy LOLA’S: A Cake Journey Around the World
4. Jamie’s Food Tube: The Cake Book (Jamie Olivers Food Tube)
Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube presents The Cake Book, a collection of 50 deliciously inventive and exciting cake and cupcake recipes from Food Tube’s own Cupcake Jemma.
‘Split up seasonally, you’ll have a wonderfully naughty treat to choose from, whatever the time of year – this book might be small in size, but it’s crammed full of brilliant recipes’ – Jamie Oliver
As owner of Crumbs & Doilies, one of London’s most creative cake and cupcake bakeries, Jemma shows you the easiest everyday classics alongside four chapters of super-cool seasonal cake recipes. With step-by-step instructions alongside handy hints and tips The Cake Book is a beautifully presented collection of recipes you’ll want to bake time and again, including epic layer cakes such as Raspberry Ripple, Super Lemon Meringue and Ridiculous Chocolate as well as amazing cupcakes like Blueberry Cheesecake, Buttered Popcorn, Cookies & Cream, Eton Mess and more.
Jemma Wilson began baking professionally at the esteemed Rose Bakery before starting her own business in 2006. Crumbs & Doilies has since become one of the most respected and exciting makers of cakes and cupcakes in London, with an emphasis on top quality ingredients, imaginative flavours, beautiful presentation and attention to detail that Jemma carries through to all her recipes.
Buy Jamie’s Food Tube: The Cake Book (Jamie Olivers Food Tube)
5. How to Bake by Paul Hollywood
A classic from the man who helped make The Great British Bake-Off. Paul Hollywood is passionate about busting the myths that surround baking, sharing his finely honed skills, and showing that with the right guidance, anybody can achieve success time after time.
Buy How to Bake
6. Mary Berry’s Baking Bible
This definitive collection from the undisputed queen of cakes brings together all of Mary Berry’s most mouth-watering baking recipes in a beautifully packaged edition. Filled with 250 foolproof recipes, from the classic Victoria Sponge, Very Best Chocolate Cake and Hazelnut Meringue Cake to tempting muffins, scones and bread and butter pudding, this is the most comprehensive baking cookbook you’ll ever need.
Mary’s easy-to-follow instructions and handy tips make it ideal for kitchen novices and more experienced cooks alike, and full-colour photographs and beautiful illustrations will guide you smoothly to baking success. Drawing on her years of experience to create recipes for cakes, breads and desserts, Mary Berry’s Baking Bible will prove to be a timeless classic.
7. The Virtuous Tart by Susan Jane White
We love this for the title alone! Susan Jane White eats something sweet every day. Many of us do. But the difference is most of us don’t get the same health kick from our indulgences as Susan Jane does. That’s because all of Susan Jane’s sweets, treats, drinks and snacks are packed with nutritional hits that love your body, boost your brain and make you feel and look great. It’s no wonder they are her most requested recipes.
With this book you’ll learn that wholesome food need never tax your taste buds. You’ll discover new ingredients that not only taste better, but treat your body better too. Imagine a nutritional slam-dunk while snacking on a slice of tiffin! Picture your taste buds raving to the tune of coconut torte! Visualise your toes breakdancing with every crunch of a teff cookie!
The Virtuous Tart will nurse your sweet tooth and service your body like a first-rate Formula 1 pit stop, and you’ll have the energy levels and body to prove it.
8. Ms Cupcake: The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town by Mellissa Morgan
Here are some of Ms Cupcake’s most indulgent recipes to make at home using ingredients readily available at the supermarket or local shop. What’s more, most of the recipes can be made gluten-free with simple substitutions.
‘I believe that, regardless of what we can or can’t eat, we all deserve a delicious, decadent treat every now and then. Let me show you how to bake vegan cakes the easy way with simple, dairy-free recipes that taste just like the real thing!’
Whether vegetarian, vegan, or suffering from allergies or intolerances, everyone can treat themselves to cupcakes piled high with dairy-free ‘buttercream’, fruity muffins, super-easy tray-bakes and no-bakes, gooey cookies, crunchy biscuits and – naughtiest of them all – delicious dipped and fried desserts using store-cupboard basics for something really special at the end of the day.
Buy Ms Cupcake: The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town
9. The Only Sugar Free Cakes & Bakes Recipes You’ll Ever Need! by The Cake & Bake Academy
If you’re on a sugar-free diet, or aiming to eliminate added sugar from your diet, then that doesn’t mean that you have to miss out on your favourite sweets and treats !
This book brings together a wonderful collection of delicious and nutritious recipes that utilise natural sugar alternatives such as dates, applesauce, Stevia and Splenda to make a whole host of amazing cakes, bakes, cookies, sweets and desserts.
These easy to follow recipes offer a healthier alternative to the usual refined sugar-laden processed cakes we have become used to, and are easy to make at home and be enjoyed by all!
Whether you’re craving chocolate cake or brownies, red velvet cupcakes or apple pie, banana bread or peanut butter cookies….this book has them all!
* Delicious natural sweet alternatives used!
* Cut out sugar without missing out on your favourite cakes & bakes!
* Cakes, cupcakes, brownies, cookies, desserts, sweets and more!
* The ONLY Sugar-Free cakes and bakes recipes you’ll ever need !
Buy The Only Sugar Free Cakes & Bakes Recipes You’ll Ever Need!
10. The Clandestine Cake Club: A Year of Cake by Lynn Hill
Following the success of their first recipe collection, the Clandestine Cake Club is back with a second delicious helping. Inspired by the most cake-worthy moments throughout the year, founder Lynn Hill and her army of Cake Club members have compiled 100 gorgeous recipes to whet your appetite and get you celebrating.
Arranged month by month, you’ll find cakes to suit all the best-known dates in the calendar – such as Christmas, Mother’s Day, Easter and Halloween – plus countless other occasions that deserve to be celebrated, from international holidays (Chinese New Year, Thanksgiving) and religious festivals (Diwali, Mardi Gras) to major sporting events (Wimbledon, the London Marathon) and the birthdays of iconic figures, including Shakespeare, Elvis Presley and the Queen – not forgetting the queen of baking, Mary Berry! Whether you fancy rocking out at Glastonbury, shaking your stuff at the Notting Hill Carnival, tapping your feet to the Last Night of the Proms, or smelling the roses at the Chelsea Flower Show, there’s a recipe here to get the party started.
The cakes themselves hail from far and wide: some feel homegrown – such as Toffee Apple Gingerbread, Rhubarb Crumble & Custard Cake, and Strawberry Pimm’s Cake – while others promise a taste of the exotic – Chocolate Key Lime Cake, Persimmon, Yogurt & Pecan Cake, and Matcha Chiffon Cake. Club members love to innovate, offering up such temptations as Sea Salted Caramel Cake, Passionfruit Caipirinha Cake, and Canadian Maple Syrup & Bacon Cake. Each recipe is served up with a little slice of history, revealing the curious traditions behind the cakes and intriguing stories about the occasions that inspired them. Accompanied by gorgeously styled photographs, this book gives every cake-lover a reason to celebrate.
Buy The Clandestine Cake Club: A Year of Cake
11. Seriously Good! Gluten-free Baking: In Association with Coeliac UK by Phil Vickery
Baking is the most difficult aspect of the gluten-free diet to overcome, as it is gluten that gives bread its elasticity and cakes their spring. Phil Vickery has developed a collection of over 70 recipes especially for those with gluten intolerance. He offers gorgeous gluten-free versions of family favourites such as Pancakes with Maple Syrup, Strawberry Tart with Meringue Topping, and Rich Chocolate Slab Cake. The Bread chapter includes Breakfast Brioche and Rosemary and Garlic Focaccia, while those with a sweet tooth will love Buttermilk Muffins and Roasted Hazelnut Cookies. The chapter devoted to Celebration Cakes provides welcome inspiration for birthdays and other special occasions. With a photograph for every recipe, this book is a godsend for all coeliacs.
Buy Seriously Good! Gluten-free Baking: In Association with Coeliac UK
Featured Bonus Books About Baking
“Delia’s Book of Cakes was first published in 1977, and such is the staying power of this 35-year-old phenomenon, it has never been out of print.”
“Britain’s million-copy bestselling, hugely popular bakery is back with over 100 new tried-and-triple-tested recipes that celebrate home baking.”
“Love to Bake is The Great British Bake Off ‘s best collection yet – recipes to remind us that baking is the ultimate expression of thanks, togetherness, celebration and love.”
That’s all for now folks. If you want to mention another book we should include on the Christmas Shopping List then please add a comment. We’d love to hear from you!
And if you’re still here, check out our Christmas Cake Posts:
- Delia Smith Creole Christmas Cake
- Why Not Make A Vegan Christmas Cake This Year?
- How to Make Christmas Cake | Tesco Food
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