The Lady Ultimate Guide to Baking
It is a truth universally acknowledged that when television discovers a popular trend, publishers are quick to cash in, or vice versa. What’s plain is that baking, currently in the persona of Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, has become a primetime phenomenon, and bookshops are stuffed with how-to-bake books. Infuriating if, like so many, you have spent the last 30 years baking terrific biscuits, buns, bread and cakes off your own bat; intriguing if the idea of making your own cake or biscuit has never entered your head.
Clockwise from left: Meringues from The Great British Bake Off; Cherry chocolate muffins from How To Bake; Chocolate decorated cake from Sweet Tooth; piping buttercream on to cupcakes from The Cake Decorating Bible; Banana bread with walnuts from How To Bake
If of the latter persuasion, how do you choose which book? Well, Mary Berry’s Baking Bible (BBC Books, £25) is still the favourite. You won’t find a better banana loaf or Victoria sponge recipe, and there are plenty of other stars, too. And she has a hand in two further baking tomes, associated with The Great British Bake Off. Showstoppers turns basic recipes into eye-catching spectaculars. You can make a winter wonderland cottage out of a gingerbread dough, turn choux dough into swans, and churn out herby rolls with brioche dough. Learn To Bake, out at the end of October, contains 80 recipes aimed at teaching children how to bake, with a foreword by Berry.
The Great British Bake Off: Learn To Bake by Linda Collister; foreword by Mary Berry (BBC Books, £18.99).
The Great British Bake Off: How To Turn Everyday Bakes Into Showstoppers by Linda Collister with Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood (BBC Books, £20).
HOW TO BAKE by Paul Hollywood (Bloomsbury, £20)
Mary Berry’s handsome sidekick on The Great British Bake Off presents 120 recipes for bread, biscuits and cakes, puddings and pies.
VINTAGE CAKES by Jane Brocket (Jacqui Small, £25)
Brocket made her name with Cherry Cake And Ginger Beer, a delightful book full of recipes for the food that appears in such childhood favourites as The Famous Five and The Secret Seven. Vintage Cakes contains more than 90 recipes for old-fashioned cakes, as well as tips on styling, including notes on linen, crockery, china, cake tins and stands. It’s a visual and practical feast.
THE CAKE DECORATING BIBLE by Juliet Sear (Ebury Press, £20)
The owner of the Fancy Nancy cake boutique reveals the secrets of innovative cake design and decoration.
BISCUITEERS BOOK OF ICED BISCUITS by Harriet Hastings and Sarah Moore (Kyle Books, £12.99)
Iced biscuits for all occasions – from fl owers and bags to sugar hearts and ducks by the Biscuiteers mailorder company.
SUGAR & SPICE by Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra (Pavilion, £25)
Sweets and confectionery from around the world – Indian milk sweets, madeleines, Turkish delight and cardamom biscuits.
NATIONAL TRUST SIMPLY BAKING by Sybil Kapoor (National Trust, £25)
Seasonal recipes by an award-winning food writer, based on local producers: a chapter on the dairy has curds, custard tarts and cheesecakes, while one on the mill has savoury biscuits, scones and soda bread.
SAY IT WITH CAKE! by Edd Kimber (Kyle Books, £18.99)
Kimber won the first The Great British Bake Off and is author of the bestselling The Boy Who Bakes. Here, he’s collected 80 recipes for celebratory cakes and posh treats. His Bûche de Noël (yule log) is a spectacular chocolate fest: chocolate on the outside and chocolate on the inside with a caramelised pear stuffing.
SWEET TOOTH by Lily Vanilli (Canongate, £20)
At last, an invitation to leave the cupcake behind. Lily Vanilli, who has baked for Elton John among others, runs her own bakery in Columbia Road Market, east London. Here she reveals the skills needed to produce bakery-standard cakes, custards, coulis and ganache.
ANNIE BELL’S BAKING BIBLE (Kyle Books, £25)
Some 200 recipes (including glutenfree) for cakes, tarts, traybakes, biscuits, muffi ns and meringues. All triple-tested. Bell also has notes on equipment, storage and ingredients glossary. (To be published on 18 October.)
MARK HIX ON BAKING (Quadrille, £20)
Diverse recipes for the oven – from grissini, sausage rolls and pizza, to veal and ham pie, truffled pointed cabbage, baked onions and wheatfree chocolate, and Guinness cake.
Clockwise from left: Meringues from The Great British Bake Off; Cherry chocolate muffins from How To Bake; Chocolate decorated cake from Sweet Tooth; piping buttercream on to cupcakes from The Cake Decorating Bible; Banana bread with walnuts from How To BakeIf of the latter persuasion, how do you choose which book? Well, Mary Berry’s Baking Bible (BBC Books, £25) is still the favourite. You won’t find a better banana loaf or Victoria sponge recipe, and there are plenty of other stars, too. And she has a hand in two further baking tomes, associated with The Great British Bake Off. Showstoppers turns basic recipes into eye-catching spectaculars. You can make a winter wonderland cottage out of a gingerbread dough, turn choux dough into swans, and churn out herby rolls with brioche dough. Learn To Bake, out at the end of October, contains 80 recipes aimed at teaching children how to bake, with a foreword by Berry.
The Great British Bake Off: Learn To Bake by Linda Collister; foreword by Mary Berry (BBC Books, £18.99).
The Great British Bake Off: How To Turn Everyday Bakes Into Showstoppers by Linda Collister with Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood (BBC Books, £20).
The best of the season’s new baking books
HOW TO BAKE by Paul Hollywood (Bloomsbury, £20)
Mary Berry’s handsome sidekick on The Great British Bake Off presents 120 recipes for bread, biscuits and cakes, puddings and pies.
VINTAGE CAKES by Jane Brocket (Jacqui Small, £25)
Brocket made her name with Cherry Cake And Ginger Beer, a delightful book full of recipes for the food that appears in such childhood favourites as The Famous Five and The Secret Seven. Vintage Cakes contains more than 90 recipes for old-fashioned cakes, as well as tips on styling, including notes on linen, crockery, china, cake tins and stands. It’s a visual and practical feast.
THE CAKE DECORATING BIBLE by Juliet Sear (Ebury Press, £20)
The owner of the Fancy Nancy cake boutique reveals the secrets of innovative cake design and decoration.
BISCUITEERS BOOK OF ICED BISCUITS by Harriet Hastings and Sarah Moore (Kyle Books, £12.99)
Iced biscuits for all occasions – from fl owers and bags to sugar hearts and ducks by the Biscuiteers mailorder company.
SUGAR & SPICE by Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra (Pavilion, £25)
Sweets and confectionery from around the world – Indian milk sweets, madeleines, Turkish delight and cardamom biscuits.
NATIONAL TRUST SIMPLY BAKING by Sybil Kapoor (National Trust, £25)
Seasonal recipes by an award-winning food writer, based on local producers: a chapter on the dairy has curds, custard tarts and cheesecakes, while one on the mill has savoury biscuits, scones and soda bread.
SAY IT WITH CAKE! by Edd Kimber (Kyle Books, £18.99)
Kimber won the first The Great British Bake Off and is author of the bestselling The Boy Who Bakes. Here, he’s collected 80 recipes for celebratory cakes and posh treats. His Bûche de Noël (yule log) is a spectacular chocolate fest: chocolate on the outside and chocolate on the inside with a caramelised pear stuffing.
SWEET TOOTH by Lily Vanilli (Canongate, £20)
At last, an invitation to leave the cupcake behind. Lily Vanilli, who has baked for Elton John among others, runs her own bakery in Columbia Road Market, east London. Here she reveals the skills needed to produce bakery-standard cakes, custards, coulis and ganache.
ANNIE BELL’S BAKING BIBLE (Kyle Books, £25)
Some 200 recipes (including glutenfree) for cakes, tarts, traybakes, biscuits, muffi ns and meringues. All triple-tested. Bell also has notes on equipment, storage and ingredients glossary. (To be published on 18 October.)
MARK HIX ON BAKING (Quadrille, £20)
Diverse recipes for the oven – from grissini, sausage rolls and pizza, to veal and ham pie, truffled pointed cabbage, baked onions and wheatfree chocolate, and Guinness cake.