The Great British Book of Baking: 120 best-loved recipes from teatime treats to pies and pasties. To accompany BBC2's The Great British Bake-off [Kindle Edition]

This is the one! The holy grail I have searched for all my baking life.

I have an absolute passion for British baking(and eating)and until now my longings have remained unsatisfied. I have wanted a book which has clear, well-written authentic recipes that work; recipes that haven't been dubbed-up with additional, non-traditional ingredients, recipes that are part of the great British baking heritage but equally are enjoyable today- without reflecting yesterday's tastes - using dripping or lard in cakes for example. Julie Duff's Cakes Traditional and Modern has a firm place on my shelf but a great many of her recipes fall into that category and are of mainly historical interest.

This is a lovely collection of the very best of British baking, sweet and savoury. It runs the gamut from pies, bread, biscuits, tarts and flans to cakes. All the homely foundation stones of our rich traditions are here: Scones, Crumpets, Shortbread, Madeira cake, Cornish saffron buns, Bacon and Egg Tart, Cornish Pasties and Beefsteak and Kidney Pie among many others.

Alongside these are some unusual regional specialities such as Stargazey Pie, Westmoreland Tart, Cornish Clotted Cream Cake. As the book accompanies the BBC series the Great British Bake-off there are winning recipes from the contestants too.

The book itself is impressively heavy which conributes to it's authoritative sense and has lovely photos of each bake.

This is such a winner I haven't had it out of my hands since it arrived. I look forward to many happy years of baking it's yummy, moreish treats.

I bought this book at the weekend as a gift for my Mum, who loves baking. But I started reading it and was so taken by the wonderful recipes and mouthwatering pictures that I've actually started baking from it myself! The results so far are as good looking as the book so I'm delighted. It's so refreshing to have a picture with every recipe and very interesting that the authors have gone to the trouble of explaining the provenance of the different recipes. I'm ordering a copy for my Mum when I've finished writing this. If you love baking or would like to learn how, I'd really recommend it.

This is the very first book of baking that has enticed me to part with my money.
The recipes are classic and whilst flicking through it in the shop, brought back many wonderful memories of baking with my great grandmother when I was a small child. Recipes such as rock cakes and jam thumb prints have personal resonance for me and they are laid out on the pages in such a fabulous picture one side and recipe other side fashion that begs you to make them yourself.

This is not a flimsy book but rather a stunning hardback with luxuriously thick pages. The front slipcover is lovely with its retro charm but underneath the slipcover is the most gorgeous union flag design in gingham and floral sprig patterns. It really is beautiful and fits in fabulously with the most counrty of kitchens and with the new modern nostalgic take on the union flag that seems to be appearing everywhere from cushions to cookers. Whilst I know that the recipes inside are the primary function of a cookbook it is great to find a book that can sit on my shelf in the kitchen that does not have a 'celebrity' chef gawping off of it or super glossy garish colours but that is my own personal preference and given the delightful recipes inside I would have bought this book anyway.

The Great British Book of Baking is filled to the brim with handy passages on how to make the basics be it in the processor or by hand and articles that go into depth about the history of baking which made this a great,informative and enjoyable read.These factors plus the picture to recipe layout have made this into a book that my ten year old has many a time picked up and read parts of just for the sake of it. Also my five and three year old children can easily pick out a recipe that they would like to help me make.

We are not an always baking kind of household, this book has taken us from twice a month to twice a week simply because we all love it. The clear and concise recipes mean that my eldest is more than capable of whipping up some treats alongside me whilst I do the savouries and takes me back to when I used to bake with my great gran.