50 Easy Party Cakes (Tuttle Specials)

I ordered this book knowing that it was all about fondant, which is the medium I prefer. I also ordered it knowing that most (though I would argue not all) of the cake ideas are geared toward kids. If you are looking for inspiring ideas to dazzle a crowd at a kid's birthday party, this is a good idea book. Some of the designs are really over-the-top and probably more for the advanced decorator, but several are doable at the intermediate level. I would consider myself intermediate and aspiring to stretch my skills, so I think this was a good purchase. Little Bow Peep, Shopping, a clown, a babydoll in a stroller, a make-up themed cake, and dog with a bone are a few of the ideas that seem like winners to me. I also think that even if I don't use the exact ideas, I will pick up on a few new techniques that will come in handy for fondant cakes. If you are looking for "easy" and quick cakes, this is not what you are looking for. Also, if you are creative enough to come up with your own designs, you probably don't need this book. But, if you are like me and prefer to see a design and then attempt it, this is a good buy. I only gave it four star because some of the designs are a bit random (e.g. Noah's ark, dolphins, and an owl) or predictable (e.g. a flower cake).

When I ordered this book, I figured it had the same cakes that are shown in other cake decorating books, with very minimal instructions. It was on my doorstep two days after ordering. I was so surprised when I looked through this book! Each cake has very descriptive instructions and a list of needed ingredients and supplies needed to construct the cake. Definitely a book that could be used by beginners! I will be using this book for many years to come.

I enjoy Debbie Brown's cakes and looked forward to obtaining this one. It has a lot of whimsical cakes but I was a little disappointed. Most of the cakes are for very young children and I had hoped for more cakes that could be used for any age. That said, the cakes in this book are a bit easier than in some of her other books. Anyone with a little knowledge of fondant should be able to easily make them. They are all in fondant so if you do not like to work with it I would not recommend this book. As usual, the instructions are generally clear and with sufficient pictures. Although I was disappointed, it was solely because of the age factor. It is an excellent book and, if you are looking for a lot of great ideas for cakes for young children, I would highly recommend it. The star off is solely for not making it clearer that it is a book for young children.

I had never baked a cake shaped like anything before, but I gave the dinosaur cake a try. It turned out to be quite impressive! If I can impress my brother-in-law with my baking, then that's saying something. It was really easy, too! The cake recipe that I used in the book turned out very dry, though. The second time I baked a cake shaped like a toolbox using the plans for the jewelry box in the book, I used a pound cake recipe from another cookbook, and it turned out much, much better. So I would use this book for decorating ideas and strategies but not for the cake recipes.

Really enjoyed looking through this book and it was in EXCELLENT condition! Could also be done with figure piping and regular frosting with many of them. My grandchildren will really enjoy these. They would also enjoy working with the sugar clay too! Fun memories and something to enjoy thru their lives. (My own children - sons and daughters - even make cakes for their offspring now. The boys enjoy the amazement in peoples faces when they see them - and they are all boy.

The cakes in this book are a great introduction to carving 3D cakes and covering/decorating the 3D shapes in fondant. All the cakes are super cute, easy to reproduce, and not overly time-consuming to complete. I have made many for the cakes in this book just to help develop my skills in 3D carving and covering non-standard shapes in fondant.This is a great book if you want to practice your fondant skills, and as a bonus to improving your skills you get a super cute cake to share.

Just received this book yesterday and have already look through it three times! I'm new to cake decorating and was looking for a book that would help build some of my basic skills like cake sculpting. This book has very easy to follow instructions and great photos. Best of all you can take almost any cake and leave the design as is or spruce up by adding your own elements. So far this is the best book I've purchased to date and I can wait to get started making the fun designs.

And so easy to follow. Great book for bakers

ok, the title says '50 easy party cakes'I would imagine, 'easy' if you are good at making figures out of fondant icing, but otherwise, maybe not as easy.But plenty of lovely cakes in the book, and the photos are great. So, maybe with practice the cakes will look 'nearly' as good as these in here.

I enjoy baking and decorating cakes but I only do serious sugar craft decorating a couple of times a year when it's a loved one's birthday.This book is particularly ideal for making children's party cakes and there is a wide variety of themes such as fairies, football, farm yard animals, toys etc. A list of equipment, basic recipes and tips on decorating techniques are also included at the start of the book to give you an idea what resources and work are needed as a minimum. The madeira sponge cake recipe in this book is in my opinion the best in terms of taste with the added bonus of having firm enough texture for carving without shedding too many crumbs.I have only given this book 4 out of 5 as I think that it will be better improved if the reader was given a rough guide of how long it would take to make the cake although I appreciate that it will largely depend on one's experience and ability.Personally, I have made the party bags cake but only with 6 bags and I made 3 pandas and 3 teddy bear models. I started on Wednesday evening, baking the cake and modelling the teddy bears whilst the cake was in the oven. Nearly 6 hours the following day carving and wrapping the individual cakes and modelling the remaining panda bear models. I personally find the modelling much easier and more satisfying to do than covering the cake. It was all assembled on Friday morning which was relatively quick. The whole process involves so many steps and a lot of preparation so even though this book claims to be easy, it requires a lot of time and effort.If you enjoy decorating cakes and sugar craft modelling then this is a good book for doing children's cakes.

I'm a very experienced baker, but completely new to working with sugar paste.I made the dotty dragon cake, and though it did come out well I have few comments:A~ the equipment and ingredients cost a lot!!~ the instructions are lacking, perhaps because they fit one page only. It would be useful to know the measurements of the sugar paste covering the ball shaped cake; what to do if the sugar paste keeps sticking to work top despite using lots of icing sugar; how to get rid of icing sugar marks on the sugar paste... I worked it all out with the help of google.~ the cake itself was okay, a Madeira cake which doesn't really do so much for me. These recipes seem to be focused on looks over deliciousness.~ it took me a very very long time to decorate (3 hours incl time googling 'help, my sugar paste is....')~ it would have been great to see the cake from back so I could see what the joints between neck/head , tail/ body should look like~ neck got a bit squeezed by the very heavy dragon headDon't think I'll be doing this again - my son did however love the cake!! (He is three)

I really am in two minds about this book.It's bright, colourful and beautiful and it has some really lovely and imaginative designs. There is a basic madiera recipe at the beginning with different flavourings and a table for quantities for the various cakes. Also some information about icings. Then on to the designs - a large colour photo of each and below the instructions some smaller photo's showing construction.So far, so good.What I found a little disappointing is the sheer amount of fondant icing used - everything totally covered and lots of decorative extras made of it. For me, the designs look so perfectly crafted rather than tasty. I am going to try some of the designs because they are so very good but will use butter icing predominantly maybe with a little fondant icing for moulding figures etc. I am sure that my efforts will not look so professional but I don't think small children will notice (hope not!) I would have loved to have seen some of these designs done by the author in alternative icings/frostings to see how it would be done by an expert.

With step by step instructions on how to create the models, I find that I can create her cakes and use her ways to make my own versions with ease. Before this book, I would take a lot longer to create models. Debbie's style of explaining is easy to understand and doesn't make you feel like an idiot like some books do. The only problem with this book is that you don't get pictures from all angles, so although she describes how a part of a cake should be done, there's no picture to compare it with sometimes so you just have to hope for the best. Other than that, it's a really cool book at a good price. And there's a few really good basic recipes for things like sugar glue in the front, including one for home-made sugarpaste. I bought my book here on amazon and when I went to a cake show, took my book along to be signed when I heard Debbie would be there. She's lovely too!!!