Zoë Bakes Cakes - Everything You Need to Know to Make Your Favorite Layers, Bundts, Loaves, and More [A Baking Book] by Zoë François
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Web ID: 14061532The 1 cake cookbook every baker needs!
I bought this from B&N after seeing Zoe on Magnolia Network and reading reviews. I have many baking cookbooks but this one is by far the most informative and detailed. Even though I know a lot about baking, I learned several new basics! This is a good investment for novice and advanced bakers and the narrative is delightful.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Great resource for all things cake!
A long-time follower of Zoe's on Instagram, I couldn't wait to delve into her newest book. Much like her online posts, this book is chock-full of helpful tips and tricks. It's broken down so that you learn techniques in the beginning and use them in the recipes, with frostings and fillings and the like in the back. Filled with all the layer cakes and meringue peaks galore, this book has you covered from quick, everyday bakes to multi-layered wedding cakes. I've made the Muffin Cake and Chocolate Devil's Food Cake and both tasted like the best version of my bakery favorites! I can't wait to make more! I’ve received a free copy from Ten Speed Press in exchange for a free and unbiased review.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Great cakes for beginners to pros
I was so excited when I opened the package and found Zoë Bakes Cakes by Zoe François was sent to me free by Ten Speed Press in exchange for a free and unbiased review. I love cakes and I love baking, so I sat down and went through the book deciding what to make first. Fortunately I have plenty of neighbors who love cake as well! The book starts with about 60 pages of instruction and information. Even though I am an experienced cake baker, I learned things I didn’t know. First time cake bakers are in for a treat with the clear directions and helpful hints of what to do if things go wrong. I’ve had ganache break on me before, and I just threw it away and started over. Here we get four ways to rescue it. Brilliant! Then on to the recipes. Some of my favorites are in here. I love a good chocolate cake and the Chocolate Ganache Bundt Cake was amazing. I kept most of this for ourselves, giving it the three day on the counter test, and it was still moist and delicious on the third day. The Blueberry Muffin Cake was a great way to use some of the frozen blueberries I’d been hoarding. It’s a great recipe and I’m looking forward to making it with other fruits as they come in season. There are soaked cakes, sheet and layer cakes, fancy and rolled cakes, and enough frostings, fillings, and flourishes that you can mix and match to customize your own creations. This is a great book, with clearly written recipes that work.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Perhaps the Most Delightful Cake Cookbook Ever
Light. Everything about this cookbook is light. There are chapters full of light cakes and meringues and icings, from a Victoria sponge topped with bundles of split strawberries and confectioner’s sugar, to a pavlova with a passion fruit topping quietly dripping from a crisp-white shell, to a whipped chocolate mascarpone, pictured in the cookbook with the spatula marks still swooped across in cursive-like swirls. There are recipe anecdotes that are written with a prose just as light as the desserts they are describing. Even the photography and the food styling, on the book’s matte paper no less, feels inherently light. A sticky toffee-date cakes sits on gold-lined china, two spoons delicately off to the side as the toffee sauce pools on the plate. Figs nestles atop of whipped cream on a hazelnut-brown butter cake. Sprinkles stark against the whitest white cake I have ever seen, making up a funfetti cake that is nestled against a perfect scoop of ice cream. So to say that I am smitten with this book is a disgusting understatement. I am prone to making broad statements such as, “Wow I think I’d make every recipe in this book,” but actually wow. I think I’d make every recipe in this book. The thing this cookbook is not light on, however, is thoroughness. This book is incredibly thorough, but in a way where it makes the baking feel approachable and not overwhelming with jargon-heavy instructions. The author, Zoë François, is probably best known for having an online baking blog, and she has quite a following to match, but she doesn’t take advantage of the fact that you’re coming to this book as a pro or even as an enthusiast of her blog. Rather, the book progresses from the simplest of cakes (e.g., pound cakes and quick breads) to showstopper cakes, which is to say her cookbook literally ends with a wedding cake—a wedding cake that I now think I can possibly maybe make because the book is that good? My confidence is deserved, though! This cookbook can get you to the place where you deserve it! [Insert a “have your cake and eat it too” reference!] For not only does this book help you develop the skills you may need by progressing you to the place where you can make something like a tiered wedding cake that serves sixty, but it also breaks down the fundamental techniques of baking, from creaming to rolling out fondant, in a section called “Cake Academy.” Every technique you may need to follow any given recipe is in this section, and each specific technique is referenced in the recipes themselves. You will not be left hanging. Inevitably, this cookbook is a solid 12/10. I cannot recommend it highly enough. And there are two zucchini cake recipes in here. Two zucchini cake recipes! I’ve received a free copy from Ten Speed Press in exchange for a free and unbiased review.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Fun + Flavor
I started following Zoe Francois on Instagram in 2020 because of her beautiful and mouth watering bakes. I quickly also became a fan of how she incorporated her family into her cooking adventures. From there, I started to slowly recognize her name on a few other books of mine (5-min Artisan Bread is a good example). This book, Zoë Bakes Cakes is just a wonderful continuation of her work and fun. Ms. Francois offers her reader the science of why methods/recipes work so a deeper appreciation of food is made. This cookbook offers full-color photographs, fun stories and functional instructions. Plus, I've found a new personal favorite of mine- a new take on a chocolate/peanut butter cake. I also love that she lists her preferred brands and baking supplies- this really helps jumpstart the recipes into the right direction. Whether you're in the mood for simple, classic or new, Zoë Bakes has you covered. I've received a free copy from Ten Speed Press in exchange for a free and unbiased review.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Fabulous Cakes
This is a wonderful cake baking book for the novice and the experienced baker. There are chapters that include ingredients and equipment as well as recipes for cakes, frostings and fillings. The recipes range from easy to somewhat difficult and include all types of cakes. I made the Vanilla Bean Pound Cake and the Confectioner's Sugar Icing and it was delicious. It was also simple to make using ingredients that are in most pantries. I plan on baking and making every recipe in this delightful book. I've received a free copy from Ten Speed Press in exchange for a free and unbiased review.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Zoe Bakes Cakes
OH my goodness! I received a free copy from Ten Speed Press in exchange for a free and unbiased review. As soon as I received this copy I had to bake some of the recipes. Wow, my family really enjoyed sampling this book. The recipes were easy to understand and fun to bake. I made the following Vanilla Bean Pound Cake- YumYum!, and the Red Velvet Cake which was delicious and different from my own recipe. Zoe actually has some recipes for different types of cakes such as the Blackberry Diva Cake and the Og Snack Cake that I think will know by a tradition in our family. If you love to bake this is a cookbook to have on your shelf.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Amazing cakes !
ZOË BAKES CAKES ZOË FRANÇOIS March 16, 2021 Zoë Bakes Cakes is a wonderful addition to any cookbook collection. It is both a treasure trove of recipes for cake, as well as an approachable tutorial on why you use different ingredients and kitchen tools. It also includes helpful and detailed techniques in her “Cake Academy” section. I was particularly excited about her recipe for Homemade Vanilla Extract, as I use a lot of vanilla in my baking, the recipe is simple to make, and will keep me well stocked in vanilla. The chapters start with the easier cakes, such as pound cakes, quick bread and bundt cakes and increase in difficulty through the chapters, up to a recipe for a wedding cake. The final chapters are recipes for frostings and fillings. Depending on the cake, you do need to flip back and forth between the cake recipe and the filling and icing recipes. Each recipe includes a blurb from Zoë about the cake, as well as a list of the techniques incorporated from the “Cake Academy”. The photographs are simple and focus on the actually cake, without excess styling. I particularly enjoyed Anna’s Hazelnut-Brown Butter Cake on page 149. This is a recipe of her mother-in-law’s that she spent thirty years attempting to recreate for her husband and this is the winning recipe. This cake was a huge hit and I have been asked to make it again soon ! I did have a difficult time sourcing the hazelnut flour and the superfine sugar, called for in the list of ingredients. I also made the Apple Cake with Honey-Bourbon Glaze, on page 85 and enjoyed that as well. The glaze really sets off the moist apple cake, which is studded with pieces of apple and walnuts. A novice baker may be a little overwhelmed by this book, as it does utilize ingredients that not everyone would have in their pantry and may have difficulty sourcing. The recipes also call for various sizes of cake pans and springform pans that not all cooks would have on hand. All in all, I enjoyed baking from this book and would highly recommend it. Zoë Bakes Cakes is warm and inviting and I would jump in the kitchen and bake with Zoë any day ! I received a copy of Zoë Bakes Cakes from Ten Speed Press for my free and unbiased review.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com