• DKennedy on March 23, 2014

  A lot of patting herself on the back in this book but she is clearly very talented. I once owned The Cake Bible, but discarded it at some point. I don't think I knew much about baking back then so I mistakenly thought it was the recipes, not me. A decision I now regret. The kindle version of this book is hard to manage but I bought it when it was dirt cheap.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Dreamy creamy white chocolate frosting

  • kleins99 on February 13, 2019

    Was NOT sweet enough. Followed directions and weights and ingredients, but it tasted like cream cheese not dreamy white chocolate frosting. I added a cup of powdered sugar and still it wasn't that sweet. And I don't like too-sweet frostings!

• Peach upside-down cake

  • LaPomme on July 14, 2011

    Tastes great, but so moist (and top-heavy, with the peaches and the syrup) that it doesn't hold its shape as well as the photo would have you believe.

  • stef on August 24, 2018

    Increased ingredients slightly to fit a 10 1/2" pan. It came out nicely. Will make again

  • Jardimc on August 20, 2021

    Fantastic flavour and texture. Summer peaches make this cake irresistible. Definitely a crowd favorite. I doubled the quantity of peaches and reduced the sugar by 25%, and am glad I did; I find I prefer a slightly less sweet cake than Rose does.

• Pure pumpkin cheesecake

  • TrishaCP on November 27, 2015

    This is just as good as everyone says- I haven't made many cheesecakes but this would have to be one of the best I have made. As a cheesecake. As a "pumpkin" cheesecake, I did find the pumpkin flavor to be very subtle-maybe too subtle. (But I have a head cold now, so my taste could be off, as I also couldn't taste the ginger snaps.) I omitted the caramel piping too- instead I swirled some dulce de leche on top.

  • Astrid5555 on February 10, 2013

    So good! Had to substitute graham crackers for the gingersnaps, but added ground ginger to the crust. Left out the Caramel piping glaze. Will definitely make again!

  • WendyKinney on January 03, 2012

    Just spectacular. Made it for the 100% Club party, and it was so good broke my own rule of not making a recipe more than once, and made it 11 more times for holiday parties (2011). Spectacular. I might make it again.

  • Eacooney on August 12, 2023

    Perfection

• Barcelona brownie bars

  • meganjane on April 27, 2015

    Made this in a tray rather than the specialist tine specified in recipe - was delicious but be careful not to over cook - becomes more 'cake' than 'brownie'

• Peanut butter ingots (Financiers au beurre de cacahuètes)

  • PatriciaScarpin on April 14, 2011

    These are addictive - I wasn't so sure about using peanut butter in financiers and I was completely wrong. :D

  • stef on March 19, 2024

    These baked up nicely. Brown butter adds so much flavor and peanut butter flavour is not intense. There's a cup and a half of icing sugar in them so I found them a bit oversweet to my liking but others liked them.

  • ashallen on October 02, 2021

    These are great! Though I'll confess I've rarely met a financier I didn't like.... Nice tender texture. Peanut butter flavor isn't intense (e.g., like a peanut butter cup), but that actually works really well with the almond and browned butter flavors. I deviated from the recipe in a few ways - used unbleached all purpose flour vs. bleached; used Whole Foods Market organic sweetened peanut butter spread vs. Jif; and baked the cakes in 18 well-buttered aluminum standard muffin tin cups vs. financier molds. Cakes took 15 minutes to bake and released easily from tins.

• Plum round ingots (financiers aux Mirabelles)

  • PatriciaScarpin on June 03, 2011

    These are not quite easy to make, but certainly are worth it - look amazing and taste even better.

• Gold ingot (financiers classiques)

  • Astrid5555 on February 10, 2013

    Delicious little cakes also without Wondra flour. Great way to use up leftover egg whites.

  • ashallen on October 18, 2021

    The combination of browned butter + toasted almond flavors in these is wonderful. Tender interior and lightly crisp exterior. I substituted a mixture of 1/2 unbleached cake flour + 1/2 unbleached all purpose flour for the pastry flour. Instead of financier molds, I used 16 standard muffin tin cups which I buttered well but forgot to flour. The cakes stuck some on the bottom and, being very tender, a few got mangled while I was wrestling them out. Next time I won't forget to flour the tin and will maybe try 2 parts all purpose flour to 1 part cake flour as a pastry flour substitute.

• Coconut cheesecake with coconut cookie crust

  • Astrid5555 on February 10, 2013

    Guests delcared it best cheesecake ever! Used unsweetened coconut instead of sweetened, still sweet enough.

  • Ray234 on June 21, 2016

    This is an exceptional cheesecake. I used extra sour cream and cream of coconut to make a topping, and garnished with fresh pineapple, kiwi, macadamia nuts and coconut. The cheesecake recipe is outstanding, and guests loved it.

• Miette's tomboy

  • Astrid5555 on February 10, 2013

    Workes also with natural cocoa powder instead of Dutch-processed. Substituted Dreamy, creamy white chocolate frosting from the Banana refrigator cake for the Vanilla mousseline frosting. Excellent!

  • Zosia on February 16, 2016

    This was a rich and incredibly moist and delicious chocolate cake. My pans weren't tall enough to bake one cake to split into 3 layers so I baked it as 2 layers in 2 pans. I used some (1/3 batch) chocolate Italian meringue buttercream (from the authors Cake Bible) that I had in the freezer to make this an uber chocolate-y treat for valentine's day.

• Chocolate tweed angel food cake

  • Astrid5555 on February 10, 2013

    Did not care much for the inclusion of the unsweetened chocolate, also had to substitute cake flour for Wondra flour. I prefer my Angel food cakes plain!

• Red fruit shortcake

  • Astrid5555 on February 10, 2013

    Used the Génoise Rose batter. Found it too time-consuming for a simple shortcake recipe. Have had more success with other recipes.

• Saint-Honoré trifle

  • Astrid5555 on February 10, 2013

    Made without the spun sugar, but still excellent! Absolutely loved the Chiboust cream, would have liked to eat all by itself. Not on the quick and easy list, but if you need a showstopper for a dinner party, this is it!

• Whipped cream cake

  • Astrid5555 on December 26, 2012

    Delicious and very tender crumb - would use real vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract next time to enhance the currently too subtle vanilla flavor.

  • Zosia on June 10, 2018

    A moist, delicious vanilla cake with a tender crumb that’s made without butter. The batter also comes together quickly and for a bundt cake, has a relatively short baking time. Delicious as is but can easily be dressed up with berries and cream or lemon curd. One of my family's favourites that has been made countless times.

• Marble velvet cake

  • Astrid5555 on November 26, 2012

    Best marble cake ever!

  • chawkins on April 13, 2024

    Very good marble cake. I used 72% chocolate.

  • Zosia on April 24, 2019

    One of my favourite marble cakes. It’s easy to make, has a good balance of chocolate and vanilla flavours and the crumb lives up to its name, velvety soft, even made with all purpose flour. I omit the chocolate glaze - it’s just not necessary.

• Chocolate streusel coffee cake

  • Astrid5555 on February 10, 2013

    This coffe cake has a most and dense crumb. The cocoa streusel become chocolatey during baking and form a surprising layer in the middle of each slice of cake. Will definitely repeat!

• Gâteau Breton

  • Astrid5555 on February 10, 2013

    Completely different to what you would suspect when preparing the dough. Like a pastry on the outside with a soft and moist interior. Changes over the course of several days from cakey to shortbread like. Excellent even after several days.

• Chocolate velvet fudge cake

  • Astrid5555 on February 10, 2013

    Very nice, big hit with the kids. Substituted natural for Dutch-processed cocoa powder, worked perfectly as well.

• Banana refrigerator cake with dreamy creamy white chocolate frosting

  • Astrid5555 on February 10, 2013

    Have made several times already, good way to use up overripe bananas. Excellent with the white chocolate frosting as suggested.

  • Zosia on October 29, 2018

    The cake texture was nice but I thought the banana flavour had too much competition from the lemon in the cake and the almond flavouring in the frosting.

  • anya_sf on December 17, 2022

    I doubled the recipe to make 24 sizeable cupcakes. Baking time was around 23-25 minutes. The cupcakes were fairly typical banana cakes: moist, sturdy texture, not too sweet, so perfect with frosting. I topped most of them with chocolate frosting from another recipe, plus a few with peanut butter-cream cheese frosting, and both were great with these.

  • et12 on August 01, 2023

    A really nice banana cake. I didn’t have any lemon so I’d love to try it again with the lemon rind. I made a big mistake when I first put this cake together. I had it in the oven for a few minutes before realizing I forgot to add the oil! Took it out, put it back in the mixer, added the oil and all turned out surprisingly well!

• Classic brioche

  • Astrid5555 on November 01, 2012

    The recipe yields exactly the amount of dough needed for a classic brioche mold. Very little hands-on time, but it takes 2 days until the final result can be tasted. Unfortunately with all the rising time needed this is not a breakfast staple, but it was excellent with some butter and jam and a cup of tea on a rainy afternoon. Will make again!

• Mini vanilla bean pound cakes

  • Astrid5555 on February 10, 2013

    Excellent - were gone within the hour!

• Golden lemon almond cake

  • adrienneyoung on September 10, 2020

    Pretty good. Not the BEST lemon Bundt, but pretty good. A less dense, more lemony option is Ina Garten’s lemon yogurt cake — also pretty Bundt friendly.

  • Zosia on April 26, 2014

    Very moist and tasty cake with a good balance of lemon and almond flavours, and baked in a bundt pan, made a pretty presentation. Regular brown sugar worked fine in the recipe as did replacing half the sour cream with plain yogurt (ran out of sour cream).

• Sicilian pistachio cake

  • Zosia on April 24, 2019

    This cake was somewhat dense but moist and nutty with a hint of almond. The French buttercream had a nice butterscotch flavour that was a good complement to the cake. My pistachios weren't a vibrant green so I didn't use them to decorate the cake.

  • Acequiamadre.nm on April 02, 2017

    Baked this up for a party and it received rave reviews. Moist and flavorful, without being too sweet. The instructions are a bit unusual for a cake, so read through them before starting. I had to sub in Trader Joe's pistachios (unsalted dry roasted) and changed the decoration as a result. This one is a new favorite.

• Cradle cake

  • Zosia on March 29, 2014

    Interesting idea.....a tender vanilla-buttermilk cake surrounded by a crunchy, nutty dacquoise. Flavour and texture were good for the most part but I had execution issues. The batter didn't rise high enough to meet the top of the meringue mixture used to coat the interior of the pan so there was a bit of breakage on inverting the cake, and the dacquoise layer at the bottom of the cake pan failed to become crisp. I think I'd have better luck baking this in a smaller loaf pan.

• Classic carrot cake with dreamy creamy white chocolate frosting

  • Zosia on April 24, 2019

    This is a great carrot cake - it's very moist and light, mildly spicy and doesn’t have any of the add-ins that so many people take exception to. I've tried but don't care for the accompanying frostings and am still in search of a cream cheese frosting I like. (Family likes the recipe from Baked Occasions). The latest rendition of this cake was frosted with Bravetart's cream cheese buttercream.

• Swedish pear and almond cream cake

  • Zosia on April 24, 2019

    A lovely bundt cake with a filling of juicy pears and sweet almond cream. The flavours of a French pear and almond tart in cake form.

  • anya_sf on February 20, 2023

    Delicious cake with a fine, tender crumb. Love the pear and almond flavors.

• Heavenly coconut seduction cake

  • Zosia on April 24, 2019

    Wonderful moist cake with great coconut flavour that's surprisingly light and much less sweet than most.

• Financier-style vanilla bean pound cakes

  • Zosia on April 24, 2019

    Excellent pound cake....sweet, intensely vanilla in flavour with a tight, moist crumb and golden crust.

• Chocolate ingots (financiers au chocolat)

  • Zosia on April 24, 2019

    The little cakes are very rich, very buttery and very involved to make but sadly lacking in chocolate flavour.

• Classic passion curd

  • Zosia on October 05, 2023

    My favourite passionfruit curd recipe. Flavour is bright and fruity and isn't masked by too much sugar or butter. It doesn't set as firmly as others I've made but a little gelatin or agar agar helps if I use it as cake filling.

• White gold passion génoise

  • Zosia on August 30, 2017

    This is one of my favourite cakes comprising moist vanilla sponge flavoured with passion fruit syrup, sweet-tart passion fruit curd filling, and delicate, white chocolate cream cheese frosting. It is a little involved but with planning can be made over several days.

  • jenburkholder on May 23, 2022

    I made this for my son’s graduation cake per his request. I did not eat any as I am GF but from everyone’s reactions, and my tasting of the non-cake components, it was delish. Bought the passion fruit purée at a Mexican grocery. It may have been thicker than the author’s as the syrup was VERY thick and had to be thinned in order to soak into the cake. Made syrup and curd the day ahead then cake and frosting the morning of. Definite repeat and would use a GF genoise next time so I can enjoy it.

• Angel food cake base recipe

  • Zosia on April 29, 2019

    I love that this recipe is based on 1 egg white so you can adjust it to suit the quantity you have. I had 14.4 (by weight) and calculated the sugar, flour etc based on that. The resulting cake was beautiful - lofty with a delicate texture - and surprisingly not that sweet for an angel food cake.

• Baby lemon cheesecakes

  • Zosia on December 20, 2017

    Incredibly creamy, luscious and totally decadent cheesecakes. They call for quite a lot of sour cream which adds a nice tangy flavour. I didn't top them with lemon curd but with cranberry sauce, an idea I borrowed from another recipe in this book, cranberry crown cheesecake. A wonderfully festive dessert.

• Dulce de leche whipped cream

  • Zosia on April 24, 2019

    Delicious caramel-flavoured whipped cream that's particularly good with coffee and chocolate flavoured desserts.

• Golden dream wedding cake

  • Zosia on April 24, 2019

    This is a delicious, moist, almond cake flavoured with lemon and frosted with a silky, lemony, white chocolate-vanilla bean buttercream. The flavours complement each other perfectly. The cake is very rich but its moist, dense texture lends itself well to very thin slices. The recipe is easy to scale down: I made 2/3 of the batter and syrup intended for the 6” and 9” tiers and 1 batch of the frosting to make a 9” layer cake.

• Double-chocolate -whammy groom's cake

  • Zosia on April 24, 2019

    This is an uber chocolate-y, moist, dense cake that is delicious. However, it requires that you first bake a pan of brownies that are chilled, chopped up and added to a chocolate cake batter. I’ve made equally delicious chocolate cakes that took far less time and used fewer ingredients so I won't make this again.

• Crisp meringue kisses

  • Zosia on January 05, 2014

    Among the lightest and crispiest meringues I've had. The flavour was very plain and as with all meringues exceedingly sweet, but they served their purpose well in adding sweetness and crunch to a variation of Eton Mess I was making.

  • stef on January 25, 2020

    These worked well with carton egg whites just too about 5 minutes longer to whip up. As stated they are sweet and crunchy

• Apple-cinnamon crumb coffee cake

  • tofudogg on November 16, 2014

    Our family really liked this recipe, and we will be making it again. We are cinnamon fans in this house, so I will likely add cinnamon to the cake batter next time. A little cardamom would be good , too.

• Pumpkin cake with burnt orange silk meringue buttercream

  • tofudogg on October 05, 2014

    So, we changed this recipe up a bit from the way it's written. First I baked it as a sheet pan in a 9x13 pan. I set the oven to about 325 non convention and it baked in 25 minutes. We also wanted a cream cheese frosting so we did that instead of the suggested orange one. Aside from changing the pan size for the cake, we made it as written. The cake was very good and it will be the pumpkin cake we use from now on. I used pumpkin puree I made from roasted pumpkin and froze. The pumpkin flavor was very good.

• Chocolate banana stud cake

  • tofudogg on September 06, 2014

    Our family really liked this cake. I followed the cake recipe as written (I did end up with a bit more banana since my was not the same size as RLB's but had no ill effect). I made half the ganache since that is all the cream I had but it was plenty for us since this is a one layer cake. I also didn't use the chocolate chips as decoration since I would never have the patience. As I said, I followed the cake exactly and and it baked well and the texture was nice. Mild banana flavor.

• Chocolate raspberry trifle

  • valente347 on July 05, 2018

    Pages 222-225 Needs at least 12oz raspberry jam and about 2lbs raspberries.

• Classic lemon curd

  • stef on March 28, 2021

    I had egg yolks left over from another baking project. This recipe called for egg yolks only. Cooked up quickly and is a lovely golden colour.

• Devil's food cake with midnight ganache

  • stef on April 19, 2020

    A very nice chocolate cake with very precise measurements. Nice and moist. Icing was Ermine. Done for son's birthday and he loved it

  • Xyz123 on February 15, 2023

    This was incredibly delicious, soft and pillowy. Like eating a cloud. Not too sweet. I filled it with chocolate mousse from Dominique Ansel, Everyone Can Bake and covered it with the Midnight Ganache. I did not make the Cognac Cherries that go with it. I will definitely make this cake again.

• English gingerbread cake

  • anya_sf on January 01, 2022

    Easy to make, this lighter style gingerbread cake (sampled 2 days after baking) was preferred by some members of my household over a darker, spicier version I made for comparison. Everyone especially liked the flavor from the lemon butter syrup. Unfortunately, the cake had a sunken center - not sure why as I followed the relatively simple instructions precisely. Perhaps the cake strip worked too well.

• Dreamy creamy white chocolate frosting

  • et12 on August 01, 2023

    This was a nice, sweeter version of a cream cheese frosting. Loved it.

• Yellow butter cupcakes

  • et12 on June 26, 2024

    Simple and quick to put together. They were sturdy cupcakes with a nice crumb. Filling the moulds 3/4 full is enough to have the cake rise to the top and be even to the pan.

• Lekvar

  • ashallen on September 25, 2019

    This apricot lekvar is delicious and easy to make. Thick, but still spreadable, texture. I used sulfite-free organic dried apricots - I always think their flavor is more complex than that of other dried apricots and since this lekvar is primarily dried apricots, their flavor dominates. I substituted plain brandy for the apricot or peach brandy specified in the recipe - still delicious. It's kept very well in the freezer and thaws quickly. [Cross-post for The Pie and Pastry Bible/Rose's Heavenly Cakes.]

• Chocolate drizzle glaze

  • ashallen on June 16, 2022

    It's chocolate and cream so it's delicious (of course!). Very easy to make using the microwave instructions. Also very easy to make in larger or smaller quantities than specified since the recipe uses equal weights of chocolate and cream.

• Raspberry sauce

  • Jardimc on August 20, 2021

    This sauce is superb. Beautiful rich color and raspberry flavour.

• Raspberry ganache

  • Jardimc on August 20, 2021

    I used 70% Valhrona, instead of 60% and really loved this ganache. In fact, I had a bit left over and will make truffles with it.

• Coconut whipped cream topping

  • dbuhler on April 07, 2024

    I made this to top the Heavenly Coconut Seduction Cake. After a quick taste test, everyone wanted it to be a bit sweeter, so I added 2 TBS of powdered sugar. It is quite delicious with its coconut flavor. I would make it again.

• Not So Humble Pie

  Rose, I love you. I want to have your cake babies... whatever that means. Your beautiful new cookbook is probably one of the most prized books in my library.

  Full review