• Sparkles75 on April 11, 2019

  Received this book yesterday and with an hour to spare today I tried 3 recipes and all 3 were quick to come together and tasted fantastic. While I love my big, beautiful baking books I seldom find the time these days to potter for a few hours while I bake. This book was a spur of the moment last minute addition to my shopping cart and I am so pleased! I'm surprised by the variety of recipes and the (so far) on point outcomes. This is a book that I can see myself working through. UPDATE:......26/04/2019- Have now had this book for 2 weeks and have made 12 recipes which in itself is amazing as I have so many baking books and so little time! From the 12 recipes all but one were very good to great, 6 have become absolute keepers and there has only been one recipe (the Anzacs) that I wouldn't recommend baking again. For now I have to step away from this book though because it's just too easy and yummy and my pants are feeling a bit too snug!

• Cheri on December 21, 2013

  Tried Cinnamon Sugar Scones, Walnut Brownie cookies and Kitchen sink cookies today. All were excellent and would repeat. All very easy & yes, ONE bowl. Nice. Nothing revolutionary here, but nice quick variety of reliable recipes.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Pumpkin pie muffins

  • cynthia_lx08f9 on February 17, 2026

    Really happy with the height of these muffins. So good!

• Strawberry cheesecake muffins

  • Sparkles75 on April 11, 2019

    We all loved these! Super light and fluffy, almost a cupcake in texture and with a delicious lemony tang complementing the sweetness of the strawberries. Definitely a keeper recipe although I will say the yield was off for me, got closer to 15 muffins than 12 but it may be the difference in Australian sized muffin pans to US.

• Double chocolate muffins

  • aeader on February 28, 2015

    These were quick and easy to prepare, and tasted like chocolate cake - nice texture and not too heavy. I used mini chocolate chips which I would do again because they sort of melted into the muffins rather than having chocolate chunks in them. Definitely use the non-stick spray or paper liners in the muffin tin. I tried greasing the pan instead since I didn't have either on hand, and the muffins were a bit difficult to remove. Start checking them at 15 minutes.

  • Sparkles75 on April 24, 2019

    A great option to use up some Easter eggs, I just crumbled them up into the mixing bowl on the scales. A nice, light chocolate muffin which rose up beautifully. Probably totally unnecessary but I dusted mine lightly with icing sugar. I used paper cases and would definitely recommend doing that.

• Easy orange-blueberry scones

  • Astrid5555 on February 14, 2015

    Very flaky and really delicious! Used frozen blueberries but did not mix them into the dough to avoid that off-putting grayish-blue color when you accidentally smash the berries. Instead, I patted the dough into a slab and spread the blueberries on top, then rolling the dough into a log with the blueberries enveloped inside.

• Cinnamon sugar scones

  • vegwithtastebuds on November 16, 2025

    Excellent just as written. I subbed a mix of heavy cream and milk for the half and half

• Fudgy walnut brownie cookies

  • Kag2020 on December 14, 2025

    Made according to directions (although I used half dark chocolate and half milk chocolate and maybe a half teaspoon of espresso powder) but the cookies were not cooked enough after the suggested eight minute bake time, sticking to the parchment paper. Added some time to the recipe, made 18 (not 12) cookies, baked for 12–15 minutes and let settle on the tray. Excellent taste, although a bit flatter than the picture. Will definitely make it again. Quick and delicious.

• Macadamia white chocolate chunk cookies

  • Sparkles75 on April 14, 2019

    These are lovely and reminded me of the Subway cookie. No photo of it in the book so not sure how it is meant to turn out but it turned out a thin chewy style of cookie for me.

• Classic chocolate chip cookies

  • Sparkles75 on April 14, 2019

    A very good subway style choc chip cookie. Probably won't make these again as I prefer my cookies thicker and chewier, just personal taste.

• Soft and chewy sugar cookies

  • Sparkles75 on April 12, 2019

    I have never eaten or baked sugar cookies before so had no preconceived ideas on how these should turn out. The taste and texture were fantastic but next time I will halve the size of the cookie balls and will only dip the top of them in sugar. As the recipe is written they make a large cookie and the full coating of sugar was just a little too much for me but with these minor changes they will be perfect.

  • hirsheys on June 28, 2020

    These took me very little time and they came out delicious. I made very few changes, other than briefly refrigerating the dough for a little while before baking because my kitchen was quite hot and I didn't think the warm dough would roll in sugar easily. I also made slightly smaller cookies - the book doesn't describe the size of the scoop you should use, just the number of cookies that should come out at the end (annoying), so I had to guess, and I ended up with slightly more than she recommended. I also forgot to flatten the first batch of cookies, so the first batch came out puffier than the second (which you can see in the photo). That said, both batches were delicious and this is definitely a keeper recipe.

• Chewy ginger molasses cookies

  • Kag2020 on February 05, 2022

    Absolutely delicious. I was out of light brown sugar so substituted white. I made no other changes other than making the cookies slightly smaller than the author suggests. I made 35 cookies using a number 50 scoop. I didn’t flatten the cookies but did roll them in sugar. Perfect in 10 to 11 minutes.

• Chew Anzac biscuits

  • Sparkles75 on April 14, 2019

    There is an error in the recipe, it mentions rolled oats but not included within the recipe. I added in with the flour and coconut. As I put these in the oven I was skeptical they would work out. Being Australian I have made a lot of Anzacs in my time and the texture seemed quite off to me. I was surprised to see they did bake up quite well however they don't really taste like an Anzac. The cookie itself is tasty enough however if you want to try an Anzac I would go with the normal method. Perhaps there is an error in the weights conversion (i bake via scale) but I won't be making these again.

• Lunch box chewy peanut butter cookies

  • Embry on March 22, 2026

    Made 1/2 recipe. Used salted butter 1/8 tsp salt. A little too salty otherwise very good

• Double chocolate espresso cashew cookies

  • Sparkles75 on April 12, 2019

    Another great cookie. Will make again

• Crispy brown sugar shortbread

  • Sparkles75 on April 11, 2019

    Rave reviews all round. These are super quick and simple to put together and the taste is amazing. Keeper for sure

  • hirsheys on December 23, 2019

    My sister made this tonight and it was wonderful, plus she said it was very easy. Definitely a keeper recipe. (Pretty sure it will be even better tomorrow.)

  • averythingcooks on December 25, 2019

    Oh yes - these are good! The dough came together quickly & pressed easily into the tart pan. I have Demerara sugar (which is not exactly but really similar to Turbinado? I read several conflicting accounts online). I maybe should have have left them in for a bit longer (I gave them 18 minutes) but nonetheless, they are a delicious treat with a cup of coffee.

• Classic lemon bars

  • swegener on May 11, 2015

    Another failed dessert. This split into a thick egg white layer and the lemon curd didn't set. I had to throw the whole batch away--which was very irritating!

  • Sparkles75 on April 14, 2019

    I have to admit I was a bit skeptical of this recipe however it was to die for and I won't bother making lemon bars any other way now. I thought something was off with the recipe as it baked because it had a slight whitish look to the top of it but once dusted with icing sugar it looked beautiful. Line tin with baking paper for easier removal

  • Sparkles75 on July 02, 2019

    This has now become my go to lemon bar recipe. It's so quick and simple it's a no brainer. Having now made this numerous times I will say that while the recipe says to take the bar from the oven as soon as it appears set I now prefer to leave it in until it seems quite firm as we prefer the chewier texture.

• Fudgy walnut brownies

  • TrishaCP on February 15, 2020

    I made these for my young niece who is firmly in the “no nuts” camp style of baking. These are a fudgey chocolatey brownie that tasted good with no walnuts (but for sure I would add them next time).

• Pecan pie bars

  • vegwithtastebuds on December 25, 2024

    Excellent! Line only bottom of 9 by 13 glass baking dish with parchment. Keeps well overnight

• Peanut butter and jam bars

  • Sparkles75 on April 23, 2019

    I'm personally not a fan of pb and jam but even I quite liked these. Given success with other recipes in this book I'm keeping an open mind with recipes I normally wouldn't make and they didn't last long at our family Easter lunch.

  • Kag2020 on June 23, 2022

    Excellent. I used a peanut butter/jelly mix and reduced the butter to four tablespoons in the filling. Also added a bit of flour to the reserved dough which became the crumb topping. A new favorite.

• Gingerbread cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting

  • Sparkles75 on January 17, 2020

    Made these for Christmas eve and another absolute winner from this book. This little book has turned out to be full of surprises and at this stage I have quite a lot of confidence in trying the other recipes.

• Marble sheet cake

  • Joyceeong on June 28, 2017

    Lovely sheet cake. Moist with tender crumbs. I have reduced the sugar to 180gm (from the original 300gm) and it works out great, the sweetness was just right for us. Made this twice already. Great with coffee, tea and lovely with a glass of warm milk.

  • Embry on April 21, 2026

    Used salted butter 1/2 tsp salt

• Chocolate cream cheese pound cake

  • Sparkles75 on July 02, 2019

    Another beautiful cake recipe from this book. I added the optional chocolate chips and a simple chocolate icing...may be a bit over the top but that is how I roll :) Despite misreading the directions and adding all the eggs at once which resulted in curdling the crumb still turned out really well. Next time I would take the cake out of the oven 10 min earlier to compensate for my hot oven.

• White chocolate cream cheese pound cake

  • Sparkles75 on April 11, 2019

    This is a deceptively plain recipe with a taste and texture that is actually very moreish. I've never eaten pound cake before so I have nothing to compare it to. I was in a hurry and realised half way through bake time I had the shelf in crooked so the cake cooked somewhat unevenly (totally my fault) so I'm keen to try this one again.

• Brown sugar chocolate chip cake with chocolate ganache

  • hirsheys on December 30, 2023

    Lizzy made - she lightly overbaked it, so it was dry. Still, we thought the chocolate overwhelmed the cake too much. No need to make again.

• Satiny chocolate tart with sea salt

  • Gretchen718 on February 03, 2019

    Crust recipe is a bit skimpy, I found it better to increase everything by 25%.

• Sour cherry almond clafouti

  • Sparkles75 on April 12, 2019

    I had run out of heavy cream and used sour cream in its place and the recipe turned out beautifully. Another delicious keeper from this book

• Baking Bites

  ...especially good if...pressed for time when entertaining and want to have a go-to recipe source that will allow you to get a from-scratch dessert on the table in less time than...a cake mix.

  Full review