Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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173 of 180 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
DELICIOUS!!!, 16 Mar 2009
I bought this at my local bookshop a few days ago and I have since been on a baking frenzy!
Yes, there are indeed many good home-baking books out there. And yes, this does make you wonder exactly how many ways of making/icing a cupcake there can possibly be!!! But the Hummingbird bakery cookbook does fill a few gaps for those of us who are time pushed but want the satisfaction of making sweet treats ourselves.
The usual sections that one would expect apply: cupcakes, cakes, pies, brownies and bars, muffins and cookies. It's all packaged very beautifully with plenty of mouthwatering photographs.
On the face of it, there doesn't seem to be anything cutting-edge or new about it...but then it is about baking, not the latest feat in engineering. I like it because the recipes are easy to follow, simple, inspiring and above all, they taste great! Achieving those aspects alone in my opinion gives it 5 stars.
Inevitable comparisons are bound to be drawn between this and the Magnolia bakery book. After all, the author states that his inspiration came from the American style of baking. So I'll address this from the outset. I have both books and there are a couple of the same recipes in Hummingbird as there are in Magnolia. But that's it. What made me buy this book in particular (apart from being seduced by the stunning cover!!) is that the Hummingbird bakery makes THE most delicious cakes in London and I wanted to try and make mine taste as good!
Strawberry cheesecake cupcakes, green tea cupcakes, brooklyn blackout cake, blueberry cake, nutty apple loaf, mississippi mud pie, raspberry cheesecake brownie, carrot and courgette muffins. These are a few of the recipes in this book.
Enjoy!!!
EDIT (01/06/09)
I am editing this review to try and give a bit more info about the recipes here. I have seen that the book has garnered a few 1 star reviews, so I would like to give a brief idea of how my recipes have actually turned out.
So far I have tried the following recipes....
**Nutty apple loaf (moist, dense and delicious)
**Blueberry cake (nice tangy texture and very moreish)
**Red velvet cupcakes. The second time round, I also made the batter into a red velvet cake, using just 2 tins and cooking it for longer.(I used red paste food colouring as that was all I had, and they turned out perfectly).
**Mississippi mud pie (WOW, my favourite so far! Easy to make even though pastry is my nemesis).
**Raspberry cheesecake brownies (Another favourite of mine, great flavour combination). Nice alternative to the regular recipe. I made these with my friend's daughter who is 5. And while I did most of the work, they were easy to make and even easier to eat!
**Lemon and poppy seed cake (simple and full of flavour).
**Hazelnut and chocolate cupcakes (Absolutely delicious. Again, easy to make).
**Marshmallow cupcakes (fluffy and light with a nice melted marshmallow filling).
So far, so good. All of the above recipes have turned out well and have tasted lovely. I am an "experienced" baker (20 years of cake eating and making!!) and my most used baking recipes are by Nigella. I'm not an expert on the subject but I have had a few years of practice and I was delighted with this book and I still maintain that it deserves the 5 stars I originally gave it.
For the majority of the recipes, I followed each one exactly as stated and the only time I came unstuck was with the blueberry cake when I used a ring tin that was much smaller than recommended. This made the batter overflow during cooking. So the next time I made the cake I had the correct size tin and again it turned out as good as the other recipes.
In terms of ingredient quantities and methods, the recipes are wildly different to what I'm used to (which doesn't matter to me). For the most part I have kept to what has been written and everything has so far turned out well.
And just for the record, I do not work for Hummingbird or the publisher and I am a keen home cook, not a professional caterer or chef!!!
I hope this helps.
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42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful book with decent recipes, 13 May 2009
I've been waiting ages for this book, but gave up waiting and decided to order one on Amazon.com but didn't know that all the measurments would be American (US cups, etc). There have been a number of mixed reviews about this book - in fact, there're quite a few negative ones that almost put me off trying to make anything from the recipes.
I really wanted to know if this book is worth anything so I decided to prove it to myself. I am a decent baker; that is to say, I taught myself to cook and bake on a regular basis (often with good success!) but have no real culinary skills or knowledge. However, I do spend enough time in the kitchen to notice that the methods for doing various things in this book is quite different from most recipes that are commonly used. For example, the methods for mixing the cake mixture in Vanilla Cupcakes provide that you first combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and a bit of milk in one bowl; and some eggs, milk and vanilla extract in the other. Once thoroughly incorporated, the book tells you to mix the two together. Now, most recipes would ask you to first beat the egg and sugar in one bowl, add the milk and vanilla, follow by the dry ingredients. But I decided to stick closely to the recipes provided - using whatever amount of ingredients (which may seem "ridiculous" to many people) that the book suggests, and have my fingers crossed. The results? Well, the cupcake recipes (vanilla, chocolate and the velvet cupcakes) that I've attempted so far have turned out pretty good! They're all very tasty and do not appear to be "dry" or "inedible" in any way. My guess is that for those of you who are rather experienced would question the validity of the recipes and so instead of sticking to the book, would be tempted to do "what they think is best" - which is probably why there're more experienced bakers complaining about their various failures, etc. So my advice is for you to turn blind eyes and ears and just follow the recipes to the letter, even though your experience and "instinct" are telling you otherwise!
The book itself is simply beautiful. It is well laid-out, divided into several sections like cakes, pies, tarts, cookies, etc. The photographs are all stunning, you get to see exactly what your cakes should look like.
However, I must say that since I own over 50 books on cakes, cookies, ice cream and desserts, this book doesn't give you a very wide range of recipes - hence why I've given it 4 stars. The book is quite thin and it does have "enough" to keep you entertained for a while, but I prefer to have more choices so I usually have several books on very specific subjects. For example, if you're looking for a good book on cookies, I'd recommend "Martha Steward's Cookies", "The Good Cookie" and "Great Cookies"; for cakes, I'd recommend "Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book" and "Southern Cakes"; for cupcakes, I'd recommend "Cupcake Heaven", "The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake" and "Cupcakes: Luscious Bakeshop Favorites"; for general baking/desserts "Desserts by the Yard", "Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts", "Jim Fobel's Old-fashioned Baking Book"; for ice cream "Ices", "The Ultimate Book of Ice Cream", "The Perfect Scoops"; and for chocolate, I'd recommend "The Essence of Chocolate" and "Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts".
N.B. Many of the suggested books require US measuring cups - which can be bought at various online stores or decent bakery shops. A lot of people complain about the "inaccuracy" and "complexity" of using US cups. I personally don't understand why anyone would make such a big deal out of it, as not only is it SO EASY to use (just put it in the cups and start mixing!) but it also produces great stuff! If the whole US population can produce successful goodies using these "not so accurate" instruments, so can we! Invest in a set - it won't fail you. Trust me, many great baking books are from/for/published in America. You'll find that once you start exploring, you'll find plenty of amazing books/recipes to make the most wonderful goodies and not be restricted to European style of baking only.
Overall, if you're truly passionate about cakes and are NOT looking for "healthy" cakes (whatever that means!), you'll love this book. It'll be a great addition to your cook book collection, although I wouldn't say that this will be the ONLY book you'll need, because the book just simply doesn't offer enough varieties in the long-run. I've never been to the bakeries in London so I cannot comment on the taste (i.e. if they' taste similar, etc), but I can assure you that this book will give you some great ideas and the pictures will be able to keep you coming back to the book time and time again!
Recommended.
P.S. I've also noticed that a few people have been comparing this book with Magnolia Bakery Book. I own all of them (2 by Magnolia, 2 by Buttercup Bakeshop and The Hummingbird Bakery) - and I'd NEVER pick the Buttercup Bakeshop over the other two. In fact, The Hummingbird bakery book actually has MORE cupcakes recipes than those Magnolia books! It should also be noted that none of these books offer "healthy" goodies!
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
What a let down!!!!, 28 Aug 2009
After reading all the hype about this book I had to buy it. The photographs are wonderful and mouthwatering but actually following the recipes is a nightmare. The first warning bell went off when I looked at the recipe for Cream cheese frosting. It states to use 'cold' cream cheese. I have never ever heard of using cold cream cheese to make a frosting....it means that you will get lumps that never go away. ALL of my other cream cheese frosting recipes state that the cream cheese MUST be at room temperature before using. That was the first sign that this book had a few things mixed up. Then upon reading some of the methods....i.e. Putting the flour in a bowl first and then adding the rest of the ingredients. What!!! Working the flour too much (too much gluten) makes for tough cupcakes and cakes....I know in the US this method is often used but more so if oil rather than butter is being used. I prefer to cream the butter and sugar first then add the eggs and lastly the flour. Something was lost in translation from industrial to home baking..... portions and timings are completely off and it was a very frustrating experience. My first tryout was with the red velvet cupcakes. The recipe calls for 40ml of red food colouring!! 40ml!! That's a bottle and a half which would have made my cupcakes very watery so I opted for gel paste. These actually came out really well without using the liquid. Next was the lemon loaf......awful!! I had to cook it for one hour longer than stated and it still didn't come out right....same with the lemon cupcakes. There are some far better and less frustrating baking books out there....don't waste your money on this one.
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