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It’s been a while since I last posted a cookbook review, but it truly has taken me some time to find a book so worthy of posting for you readers.
The Sprinkle Bakes Cookbook–Sprinkle Bakes: Dessert Recipes to Inspire Your Inner Artist–marks one of the most important dessert-based cookbooks for any chef’s culinary repertoire that will come out this year. Written by Heather Baird of the Sprinkle Bakes blog, this dessert-specific cookbook offers an unique way to perceive baking: baking as art. Not just the fact that different kinds of frostings can be pretty, cookies can be cut into fun shapes, and Jello can be molded, but the idea that baking invokes some of the ways in which artists perform their craft–blank canvases, sculpture, color, mixed media, and so much more.
In fact, I’ve been posting about Heather’s confections as inspirations and bases for many of my own recipes for about two years. I love the way she treats baked goods as canvases and brings her own flare that’s simultaneously feminine and inspiring. Plus, you can’t beat the adorable pictures of her pugs (dogs) throughout the blog. The blog has a fun feel and shows just how important online writing is to those of us who participate in the digital sharing of recipes and how it can one day work in print.
So, a few words on why you should buy this book:
A Great Reference for Beginners:
Many of Heather’s recipes are great for beginners. She includes recipes for simple sugar cookies, homemade fondant, several kinds of icing, and even a list of stencils in the back for those just beginning to play with colored fondant, the painting of food, and the sculpting of icing as a medium. In many ways the cookbook is advanced too–you’ll see lovely macaroons, meticulously hand-painted cookies, and a slew of other jaw-dropping recipes.
Pictured: A page from Heather’s section on cookies. Here, she outlines not just a recipe for Macaroons, but how to bake with her Troubleshooting Guide and ways to vary the recipe.
Visually Inspiring:
To say that Heather’s baked goods are more like art would be an understatement. In fact, Heather’s baked goods are art. As the title suggests, her approach to baking takes a cue from her past history as a painter and photographer and inspires readers on how to bring that background to something as everyday as cookies and cakes. See pages on brush strokes and the different kinds of candy dough to get an idea of just how malleable this baking “art” form can be.
Pictured: Hand-painted Mendhi Cookies: a favorite recipe from her blog, and now available to me in print. Here, she uses gel food coloring as ink and a bristle brush to add delicate strokes. Absolutely brilliant!
A Primer on Baking Equipment, Art Supplies, and Decorating Tools:
Sometimes, it can be hard to imagine just how Heather gets such amazing results for her blog. With the opening pages of the Sprinkle Bakes Cookbook, you get a sense for what works and what doesn’t. As I’m always advocating the use of a Silpat in my own kitchen, it’s fun to see that Heather uses parchment paper for her work instead. Plus, I can take advice from Heather’s other tools like Rolling-Pin Guide Bands or Piping Tip Brushes.
Although these are just a few reasons why you should consider buying the Sprinkle Bakes book (only $11.98 on Amazon!), there are so many more. As I work my way through the book in the coming months, I hope to give reviews on some of my favorite recipes of Heather’s that I have–and hopefully, you–will be dying to try.
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Sprinkle Bakes: Dessert Recipes to Inspire Your Inner Artist,
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