• sck on July 28, 2010

  Great baking reference, with tips you can use with any recipe from any cookbook.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Shirley's even greater American pound cake

  • ashallen on November 18, 2019

    When I checked the cake after 55 minutes of baking, the top looked very set and dry. I got too excited and rotated the cake in the oven, only to watch the top undulate as uncooked batter sloshed around underneath. Oops. I ended up with a caldera-like crater running around the entire cake top where unset batter lost its air and collapsed. I brought it into work anyways...and it disappeared within an hour! People *loved* how moist the interior was and the contrast with the slightly crispy/crunchy exterior. The flavor's great, though quite sweet - it was definitely OK without a glaze. Fully cooked parts were tender and soft without any gumminess - very nice. The collapsed bit was tender-fudgey and very moist. I aged the cake for 3 days before serving. Flavor was consistently very good on all days, but texture improved - more evenly moist and cleaner-slicing. Great cake - I'll definitely make it again (hopefully without the collapse)!!

  • ashallen on January 05, 2020

    Successfully made cake without a collapse this time! Coworkers have been reminiscing fondly about this cake since I made it in November so I decided to try it again. Baked for 65 minutes without disturbance (no opening oven door, poking, etc) before checking for doneness - it needed ~5-10 minutes additional baking time. Center was 207F when pulled from oven. Excellent texture from exterior to interior. Great cake!

• Take-your-breath-away lemon pound cake

  • yassoma on August 20, 2016

    Yes. It indeed took my breath away. Use a good-quality bundt pan for this (i.e. Nordic Ware).

• Magnificent moist golden cake (dissolved-sugar method)

  • ashallen on July 31, 2019

    This is a basic yellow cake recipe for use in frosted layer cakes. By itself, the cake is a bit dull, but it comes into balance once you frost it. Despite being made with cake flour, it has a nice firm texture that holds up well to slicing into thinner layers for cake building.

• Serious stuff gingerbread

  • ashallen on June 11, 2022

    Really good gingerbread. Vegan, too! Tender and moist without gumminess. Flavors are dark and strong - great with vanilla ice cream. Leftovers kept very well over multiple days. I used organic blackstrap molasses and wasn't sure whether the flavor would be overwhelming, but it worked out great. Easy, hand-mixed recipe - no mixer required. Since I was using a greased natural aluminum pan vs. the non-stick pan called for in the recipe, I mixed the batter in a bowl instead of the baking pan.

• Moist banana nut bread

  • annmartina on October 23, 2017

    This is the most decadent and luscious banana bread you can make

  • nakellerman on June 17, 2018

    Almost too moist for my liking. Cooked it twice as long as stated and still not to temp. More a banana cake than traditional banana bread.

  • ashallen on September 05, 2022

    This recipe went all kinds of wrong! Batter quantity was too large to fit in specified 8x4.5x2.5-inch pan (I measured ingredients by weight). I used a 9x5x2.5-inch pan instead and it was still overly full with batter coming within 1/4-1/3-inch of rim. Recipe specifies baking 35 minutes until center temperature reaches 209F, but there's no way a mass of batter like that can cook in that time. It took 90 minutes to reach temperature (probably would've needed somewhat less if I hadn't been checking it every 10 minutes!) and the top had to be covered with foil to prevent over-browning. Cake's bottom half had a dense, wet, steamed pudding-like texture, probably because the slow bake allowed some banana to settle out. Not to my taste. I'm guessing there's an error in the recipe - maybe the author intended it to be baked in two loaf pans versus one? My search online afterwards didn't turn up any corrections, unfortunately, though I did find a few others who'd had a similar baking experience.

• Financiers

  • ashallen on January 26, 2021

    These are great. Flavor is super buttery like most financiers. Unlike other recipes I've tried, however, this one has you beat the batter for several minutes with a mixer which made mine fluff up like a buttercream frosting. The baked financiers had a fluffier, more melt-in-your-mouth texture than other ones I've made, edging towards pound cake-territory. I "aged" the batter 2 days in the refrigerator before baking (recipe says you can go as long as 2 weeks!) - it seems to help soften the slight grittiness of the almond flour. I didn't have the special tins specified in the recipe but using 18 standard muffin tin cups worked really well. I skipped applying the orange marmalade glaze and butter-toasted almond slice garnish suggested in the recipe and they were still delicious without. Kept well for several days except for a hint of chalkiness that showed up - maybe from the large amount of powdered sugar?

• Shirley's simplified Clichy cake (Opera cake)

  • jmvictor94551 on October 07, 2025

    On page 235

• Memorable creamy pumpkin pie

  • debkellie on August 11, 2019

    My American daughter-in-law said it was impossible to make a great pumpkin pie in Australia. Well she had to eat her words .. and the pie. As we can't easily get canned pumpkin puree down under I did a blend of this and another pumpkin pie recipe (https://www.gourmettraveller.com.au/recipes/chefs-recipes/pumpkin-pie-8120). I subbed 450g roasted butternut pumpkin and a can of Nestle's caramel top & fill for the puree & condensed milk; halved Shirley's sugar quantity. Otherwise her recipe, deleting the warming and standing of the puree. I just blitzed all filling ingredients in the food processor. For finishing touch I topped with plain sour cream adding some crushed pepita brittle and brittle shards from AGT recipe.. absolutely delish. Serves 16! And that's with daughter-in-law & kids coming back for seconds. Grandkid said best pumpkin pie since he revisited his homeland 8 years ago!

• Bourbon pecan oatmeal cookies

  • ashallen on October 10, 2022

    These have a very nice chewy-moist texture and the salted pecans make for a nice salty-sweet contrast. The baking soda flavor is stronger than I prefer, however, so I won't make them again for that reason. The cookies I made immediately after mixing had the best salty-sweet contrast. Cookies made from dough stored in the refrigerator a few days tasted like the salt on the pecans had migrated into the rest of the dough. Recipe calls for lining cookie sheets with parchment or non-stick foil. I skipped lining and the cookies came off both insulated and single-layer sheets fine (with a bit of a scrape!). Cookies stayed moist and chewy for multiple days after baking.

• The ultimate brioche l: light, airy, bread-like brioche

  • debkellie on February 21, 2016

    The end result is really worth the effort (well actually time) involved. Really does deliver a light, airy, and excellent brioche - eaten alone, dunked in a cappuccino, turned into French toast...