Piece of Cake!: One-Bowl, No-Fuss, From-Scratch Cakes

If you love cake this is a great cook book. With different recipes

I love to cook and I love to bake. For baking, cake is my favorite thing to make. I have a couple of favorite recipes from other books. The Chocolate Transportation Cake from Death By Chocolate Cakes by Marcel Desaulniers and the All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake by Rose Levy Beranbaum have been my two all-time favorites for years. While both are incredibly delicious and extremely dependable recipes, they are both quite a bit of work and really dirty up my kitchen.When I saw Piece of Cake, I had to try it! This book is a keeper! I have made four cakes so far and each has had incredible texture and was absolutely delicious! I've made the Cookies and Cream Chocolate Cake, the Mixed Berry Spoon Cake, the Sunny Lemon Cake and the Butterscotch Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting. I have only made the cake portions of these recipes, as I have frosting recipes that my family adores and chose to use those instead of the frosting recipes in the book. The cakes were moist and delicious! They are heavier cakes than my previous family favorites, but that hasn't stopped anyone who has eaten them from gobbling them up! We served the Mixed Berry Spoon Cake at a dinner party with Whipped Cream on the side. Every guest requested seconds! My husband ate the left-overs the next day, warmed in the microwave, with vanilla ice cream. I served the Sunny Lemon Cake and the Cookies and Cream Cake at pot lucks and both were the favorite desserts by many of the guests. I am embarrassed to say that we ate the entire Butterscotch Cake all by ourselves.I have loved these cakes so much, that I bought copies of the book for my daughter and two daughter-in-laws for Easter. My daughter has already made the Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake and pronounced it really delicious. She really liked the fact that clean-up was minimal.This is a great book for any baker, even those who are beginners. The key, like many others have commented, is to be sure your butter is very soft and the eggs warm.

Love this book on how it simplifies the baking process!

I feel bad being the first to leave a less than five star review here, especially because I really like this book in some respects...I believe that part of the "job" of a successful cookbook is to make the reader WANT to re-create the recipes presented in that book. I think like a lot of folks, I have a large collection of cookbooks that I look through from time to time, but never actually utilize for their intended purpose. Piece of Cake, is actually a book that made me want to pull out the baking tins right away--and I did! The book is well written, nicely photographed and includes a ridiculous amount of recipes and variations; who could not appreciate that, right? My problem, though, is that out of the three recipes that I have attempted so far, two have had MAJOR issues with timing and texture--well, maybe I should say three out of three, because although one cake tasted good on the inside, it was a little scorched on the outside, and I actually pulled it from the oven way before the recipe specified. It is truly disappointing to go through the process of baking something for your family and friends only to have a fiasco instead of dessert. I am not trying to toot my own horn here, but I have been baking quite well for some years now; I would also like to point out that I followed these recipes exactly as they were written (except for the scorched one, when my "do not burn" instinct kicked in). I am on the fence about trying any more recipes at this point and that truly disappoints me. For a better success ratio, please check out  Baking Unplugged  and  The Rosie's Bakery All-Butter, Cream-Filled, Sugar-Packed Baking Book ; all of the cakes (and other desserts) that I have tried from these books are seriously amazing! Good luck.

The recipes are excellent and I am a good cook, known for my baking as well. The Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting was excellent, aka, the bomb! I have found it easy to make small substitutions if I was out of something or did not have enough, such as using 3 eggs instead of 4 in the New York-Style Crumb Cake, which was even better the second day. In the aformentioned Red Velvet Cake, one time I didn't have enough red food coloring, only one and a quarter bottles out of the two that were required and it still came out fabulously. The second time I made that cake, I also added Heath Toffee chips to the frosting. Oh my goodness... Any time I made a change, I leave a note for myself in the recipe to keep track of the change and the results. I always make a recipe as stated by the author the first time and then if I need to make changes I do that the subsequent times. I am very pleased with this cookbook because it is sensible, logical and provides a delicious cake that I'm happy to serve to friends and family!

First off, I am a huge fan of her books, and have most of them: the muffin book, cake mix cookies, cookie dough cookies, puff pastry ( those aren't the titles, but you can do a search on Amazon to find them), all of them are terrific. I finally bought this one and this is a home run too. I have made two recipes so far-the Hot Fudge Brownie Cake and the Busy Day Butter cake and both are terrific. The former came out rich and chocolatey, made with pantry ingredients it can be thrown together quickly, and is delicious. The yellow cake is very simple, and as long as you remember to soften the butter it can also be thrown together quickly. It was simple and scrumptious, the perfect base for all kinds of desserts or simply by itself. It is that good.I am a pretty experienced home baker and have made many cakes, and the "one bowl" way is so much easier than the creaming method. There are several types of cakes, loaf, bundt, layer, all made in a single bowl. As a bonus she has recipes for mixes that you can keep on hand to make scratch cakes whoever you wantHighly recommend for anyone who wants a simpler way to make "from scratch" cakes.

I wanted to review this book as soon as I got it because it is so attractive and chock-full of wonderful looking recipes. But I held off until now so I could give a more useful review. To date I've made the Lemon Sour Cream, the Pear and Cranberry Bundt, the Spiced Yogurt Bundt, the Lemon-Glazed Gingerbread Bundt, the Italian Cream, and the Blueberry Lemon Bundt from this book. The gingerbread was good, everything else was excellent, except for the Pear and Cranberry Bundt which was tremendous. Really, that recipe should win an award! The recipes in this book are clear and well-laid out. There aren't many calls for items one doesn't normally have on hand. Mixing & baking instructions are easy to follow, tips are useful. And most helpful of all, each recipe comes with a small description of the finished cake so that you can determine which particular recipes will best provide the cake you had in mind. (For example, is the chocolate cake fudgy? dark? dense? intense? rich? light? You get the idea...) Plus, the last chapter of the book is for Pound Cakes. Twenty-seven of them. A very useful resource. I bake a lot of cakes-- two or three a week usually. I love this book. And so will you.

I am an experienced baker. Ms. Saulsbury's books are well-written and, more importantly, well edited. I own several titles and am pleased to add this one.Clear logical explanations of the methods employed. This is good because they differ so radically for traditional methods. Excellent info on substitutions,alternate pans and such. If she specifies something you can trust it is for an very good reason.I fear the people to whom I give baked goods will be gleeful but joining a gym.

Well presented recipes and useful tips for easy delicious treats.

Great recipes