Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum

Rose's Heavenly Cakes Reviews

• 
  C

  Ok I spent some time flipping through last night.
  
  The pros:
  - Gorgeous pictures. As one person said "food porn."
  
  - Interesting ideas... some truly beautiful cakes and cake ideas in there.
  
  - She's remarkably thorough in instructions, going with volume and weight both for measurements and explaining thoroughly what to do/what not to do when making cakes.
  
  - There's a bit of enjoyment in there for the food science folks, as she gets into what changing ingredients will change in the finish product and why.
  
  - I have a feeling these recipes are all well tested.
  
  - A sticky toffee pudding with guiness stout? ok I have to try that.
  
  
  Cons:
  - Will her thoroughness play out at altitude?
  
  - This is more of an idealistic homage to cakes (as perhaps the "heavenly" title alludes to) than a realistic tool in the kitchen. It's so foolproof that beginners won't use it. But, that is why The Cake Bible exists. I would suggest this one as "inspiration" and probably The Cake Bible as intended "utility."
  
  
  Overall I can see people like me who enjoy cooking and baking checking this book out, enjoying it, marvelling over the level of detail and some of the recipes... then maybe making one or two cakes out of curiosity, but otherwise having it grace the cookbook collection. That said, it'd be very pretty there, so it's not a lose/lose and there's certainly inspiration in the pages.
  
  
• 
  tiasreads

  Rose Levy Beranbaum has never disappointed me with a cookbook before and this one is no exception. I love the way she includes some of the science of baking in her recipes. She also includes weights for the ingredients and I am now a kitchen scale convert. She sometimes provides helpful commentary during the baking process, such as 'the mixture will look curdled' and then goes on to reassure that what she describes is just as it should be- thus no panic attacks in the kitchen. Her approach to a recipe is a bit different from the cream-the-butter-and-sugar norm. Many of the offerings are inventive twists on classics, such as the Bostini, a deconstructed Boston cream pie. If you're a fan of the book, there is a bloggers' bake-through on the internet that I enjoy following. It's found under Heavenly Cake Bakers. Good stuff!
• 
  Debbie

  Oh good heavens! This book is incredibly inspiring — this weekend I'll be trying the Moist Chocolate Raspberry Génoise. Can't wait!
• 
  Melissa Shmish

  Informative but dull.
• 
  Jeri

  Great, well-explained recipes, as with all of her cookbooks. But, seriously, is "ethereal" the only adjective she knows?!
• 
  Mskychick

  Fussy recipes, and not a thing I wanted to make
• 
  Shelby

  There is a lot of information, but there is nothing in here that I want to make. The pictures are small and I do not find them inspiring because I think they all look like they're from the 70's. I feel the same way about The Cake Bible.
• 
  Stephanie

  I must make the white chocolate lemon cake
• 
  Dawn

  I very much want to make some of these cakes, so I will be returning to this book at a later date, when I have the time and inclination to bake.
• 
  Jo Lin

  I love RLB's precise recipe writing style. Almost foolproof!
• 
  Yaaresse

  As usual, Beranbaum has written a thoroughly intimidating, highly educational, incredibly details, wonderfully geeky, and gorgeous cookbook. This one is a little less militaristic than The Cake Bible, but not by much.
  
  Lest that sound entirely negative, baking is an sort of the kitchen equivalent of rocket science and so this sort of exactitude is often necessary.
  
  I rate cookbooks differently than leisure books, so three stars for a cookbook is not a "bad" rating. Novels are easy: I love it or I didn't. The character and plot worked or it didn't. Reference books are different. My first questions are always these:
  1. Is if formatted for practical use? (Does the book lie flat on a counter? Is the text large and clear? Do the graphics help or hinder?)
  2. Is it accurate? (I am so damn tired of errors in cookbooks. It's just sloppy.)
  3. Will I actually use this? (Some cookbooks are gorgeous and interesting, but I know I'll seldom actually cook from them, either because the recipes are too complicated or the ingredients too obscure to get my hands on.)
  
  The e-book of this cookbook is nicely formatted for the most part. I'm not wild about the burgundy text for ingredients, but at least it wasn't that illegible light gray font everyone seems to be using lately...and which the stylist chose for the intro notes, unfortunately. Also -- and here's where the e-book edition of cookbooks can shine -- there are links within the recipes to references such as dependent recipes, sources, or notes. No more flipping pages back and forth with flour or chocolate-coasted hands.
  
  Photos are attractive and informative, often showing the finished product slice, so you can get an idea what the inside will look like. One thing I didn't quite get was the decision to put a photo on one page, only a link with the recipe title on the next, then the recipe on the next page. The link leads to the recipe. If the photos were all in the center of the book with the links under each photo, it would make sense, but I'm missing the logic behind this.
  
  Fortunately, the recipes are very logical. Beranbaum is the queen of well-written, logical processes. Her recipes are intimidating, but the average baker should be able to handle them if s/he pays attention and has some patience with the process.
  
  The recipes are projects, not something you're going to whip out in a few minutes, so chances are I will only use this a couple times a year.
  
  
• 
  Ambrosia

  I am a fairly experienced home baker with a teeny tiny kitchen.
  
  I absolutely love Rose's Heavenly Cakes. I have made many cakes from this cookbook and they have all been delicious (with some caveats). They look impressive and gorgeous, but more importantly they taste scrumptious and not overly sweet. Her cakes are light and tender and delicious.
  
  I love the four layer white cake with strawberry mousseline and chocolate frosting, the Karmel cake, both coconut cakes, the chocolate cake with caramel ganache, the red velvet cake, the carrot cake with (white chocolate) cream cheese frosting. (I didn't love the layered coconut cake because it seemed a little sweet. I also didn't love the red velvet cake, but that's because I'm not a red velvet fan - I just don't think it has enough flavor.). I even made a four layer cake by combining the Karmel cake and the chocolate cake, using a caramel buttercream between some lawyers (from The Cake Bible) and the caramel ganache. My friends, all foodies, raved about the cake. One of my friends, who prefers pie to cake, swears by the single layer coconut cake. She asks me to make it for her, even though she doesn't usually eat cake.
  
  I've really enjoyed exploring the book, and my friends enjoy my explorations too!!! I can't wait until I can try another recipe.
  
  Her techniques can be complex, but she gives detailed explanations. Be careful and read through the recipe carefully so you know when you need to have ingredients at room temperature, prepare certain components hours ahead of time, etc. If you follow her directions carefully, you will create amazing cakes worthy of your best friends and loved ones.
• 
  Sandra

  While the cakes in this book look gorgeous, and are probably quite delicious, my first impression is that this book is for someone who has much more time and patience in the kitchen than I. Every recipe has a ton of complicated steps, or if not complicated, then at least time-consuming. The woman has found a recipe that makes making Whoopie Pies complicated for crying out loud (step one for the filling is making a sugar syrup - seriously?)
  The pictures are gorgeous, and there are many clever ideas within its pages, but the fact that in the author's introduction she says she now, "more than ever, value[s:] simplicity over complexity" gives me pause and causes me to break out in cold sweats imaging what her earlier cookbooks must contain.
  You can never truly judge a cookbook until you try out its recipes, so I fully intend to choose one or two (perhaps the Marionberry Shortcake or one of the several sinful-looking chocolate creations) and give them a whirl before I actually rate this book, but it will have to wait for a quieter day.
• 
  Cara

  2.5 for me...
  
  Rose's Heavenly Cakes no doubt has some really delicious looking recipes and great photos (which I am a huge fan of in cookbooks). However, I would never know how "heavenly" Rose's cakes are because the recipes in this book are just beyond my skill. So unfortunate. I'm not a beginner, but I'm by no means a seasoned baker. I just didn't understand the recipe layout (and this may just be me). It was so confusing. Plus, several of the ingredients used I wouldn't be able to find at my local grocer and would have to go to a specialty store, which I'm normally not a fan of in cookbooks. I like my recipes to have accessible ingredients for everyone. Really a shame, I'm sure her cakes are yummy, recipes just didn't make any sense to me.
• 
  Lindsey Duncan

  This is a thoughtful, in-depth pastry book meant for the serious amateur pastry chef - one who is ready to attempt egg-foam cakes, Italian meringue, and various ganaches. It's beautifully illustrated and all the directions are clear and precise, the descriptions lovingly written and evocative of their contents. I would have enjoyed seeing a few more exotic and unusual cakes, personally, but the only other real complaint I have is personal. I like to photocopy recipes when I work through them so I can have them at hand without damaging the book ... but many of these are three, four pages or even more, so it's difficult to work with.
• 
  Ehrrin

  This book has billions (well, a lot, anyway) of really beautiful cakes, and I've paged through The Cake Bible before, too, and know that between the two, it's a pretty exhaustive cake collection. And, there were definitely some recipes I was interested in. But, I was instantly turned off by all the recipes calling for bleached flour. And, it was all a little too fussy for my tastes. That said, I have definite plans to try her "cradle cake", but all in all I just found that I wasn't my type of book. So Rose, it's not you, it's me...
• 
  Srisurang

  I've tried some of the recipes in this book. They worked beautifully. There 're her videos in Youtube for techniques and tips to help you fully understand how to make a cake. I'm a beginner and I find this book very helpful. The specific things she described are good for they prevent many mistakes. I haven't try to do the toppings which seem so much complicated but just the cakes 're good. I've used 9" pan and also baked them as cupcakes with the same recipe and it works very fine. I love Southern Coconut Cake that use coconut milk instead of milk. Very delicious.
• 
  Catherine Woodman

  I love the Rose cookbooks, and the Cake Bible is one where I have gone to it to get proportions and learn baking lessons time and time again. THis book is a step above the other three that I have--I hope she does another cookie book after seeing this--and in addition, she has a whole section on wedding cakes, which is the next frontier for me. THe pictures are divine, the variety of what is presenting is very appealing tome, and I will give this to baker's on my gift list, it is wonderful.
• 
  Paige

  Another wonder by Rose Levy Beranbaum, baking goddess. Great recipes (the ones I had time to try before it was due back at the library, anyway -- and Rose doesn't publish bad ones, anyhow), and a design that makes my beloved Cake Bible look impossibly frumpy. Totally going on my Christmas list.
• 
  Erica

  just delightful to look at. my mom and i made the coconut cake in here and it was the best cake i have ever had. the recipes are complicated but they are that way in order to literally blow your ideas about what a good cake tastes like far away from you. this is what a good cake tastes like. so good.
• 
  Kara

  
  What is wrong with me?!?!?
  
  I’m trying to make 2014 all about eating right – and then I spend an evening drooling over these pictures… imagining occasions (excuses) for the difference recipes, imagining what they would taste like, imagining eating cake with one hand... imagining… all sorts of delightful things.
  
• 
  May

  Christmas present to myself. Lovely book, and most of the recipes sound absolutely delicious - although I've yet to make any of them, which might affect the rating. Giving four stars for the present moment for presentation and how excited/inspired I felt reading through it.
• 
  Yasmeen

  Wonderful cookbook. Though I find that her personal taste leans towards dry cakes. Regardless, brilliant flavor and technique. Bonus points for listing the ingredients in grams. No baker should ever use volume measurement.