Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make

This is the most fun, creative, and charming cupcake decorating book that I have come across. The designs are phenomenal, and the authors show you how to create each design, step-by-step. They have a supply list for each type of cupcake (so you don't go into the grocery store trying to figure out what you need, without much guidance), and there are a few basic techniques that they repeat, but to create different effects. So, for example, you might use a cookie for a panda head, but you will use it to make beagle ears. This is primarily a design book, NOT a cookbook, although the authors provide a few recipes in the back for a basic cupcake and frostings. Even with the fantastic pictures (the book is loaded with them) and the wonderful instruction, making cupcakes like this takes a lot of time and love. There's no way around that, so please don't fault the book if you find that the learning curve is steep, or that it's taking you hours to decorate the 40 cupcakes that you promised to bake for your child's first grade class!

SUGAR ALERT: I will be fawning and tripping all over in talking about this book! If you are a closet cake-decorator but you don't feel up in the ranks of Duff or Colette or Martha, then grab this book and hold on to your socks, because Karen Tack and Alan Richardson will take you on a fabulous decorating ride!! Wow, wow, and WOW! This veritable encyclopedia of "mini-cake" decorating is so fun and easy that there is absolutely no excuse for anyone to lament "they can't". With the use of food items found anywhere, you will be making the cutest, and most impressive cupcake creations you can possibly think of, and Karen and Alan will make you legendary to boot! This team of talent has come up with extremely amazing and irresistable cupcakes like giraffes, Van Gogh paintings, clowns, aquariums, etc that will all fit on top of a little poof of cake batter. The book size itself is large with big print which lends itself to the purpose of the photographic detail that is so big, sharp, and clear, there is no doubt or question on sequence or step. Karen Tack is the recipe creator and food stylist and Alan Richardson is the text writer and photographer; both are brilliant and incredibly talented individuals, so as a team, they are a match made in cupcake heaven. The Acknowledgement page was itself fun and relaxed, not something plodded through; you can tell it was done with real gratitude and thought, which is part of the overall charm of how this book was put together. There are 8 chapters between the "Introduction" and the "Sources"; got those socks gripped?........ INTRODUCTION: Your text page begins the journey, and right after, you are given an impressive section of pages that visually, and with text, show you how you will make the many creations through the use of candies, cookies, and types of sugars. CUPCAKING TECHNIQUES: This was invaluable for those who are novice cupcake bakers or wannabe's. Hints and instructions on methods for pouring batter, spreading frosting, making frosting, and melting chocolate for designs, are shown in close detail. They show you how to make "fur" for the lion cupcakes and "leaves" for flowers. This is followed by methods used to draw "bugs", people faces, and hairstyles by using melted chocolate and candies. The next section shows how you will literally build up these creations, like the bowling pin cupcakes, so instruction is shown in simple and fascinating detail. Part of the more complex designs require a grouping of cupcakes, like "corn on the cob", "rabbits in a hole", or the "alligator", and you are given an idea of the schematics involved in getting them just right! APRIL FOOL'S THEME: Corn on the Cob Bagels and Lox Buttered Popcorn TV Dinner ("peas & carrots", "drumsticks", & "mashed potato" cupcakes!) Spaghetti and Meatballs Box of Chocolates Van Gogh's "Starry Night" in frosting (he'd love it!) PARTY ANIMALS: March of the Penguins Fat Cats (cats with their paws on fishbones!) Fishbowl (you use

This book is so enjoyable to simply browse thru. Simply Adorable!!! Each recipe has precise instructions with beautiful photographs to guide a home baker to produce brilliant results. It is jammed packed with delightful & original & very creative ideas that will appeal to all ages. I plan on gifting this to many family members & friends. I know they'll love it too.

When I saw this book featured on the Martha Stewart show, I thought, "Do I really need another baking book? I have so many..." I decided to get it anyway, thinking I could always pass it along to someone else if I was not fond of it. Well, I am SO GLAD I made this purchase! The book is beautiful- and I really mean that- the book itself is beautiful, large in size, softcover, with huge color photos and great instructional pages. The recipes are really not that complex (they vary from very detailed to very simple, even though they look challenging at first glance). The author teaches you how to make a variety of adorable cupcakes, and they don't all have to be used for kid parties - there are some showstoppers in there for weddings, party favors, barbeques, holidays, and more. My favorites are the garden patch, the "April Fool's" cupcakes, the alligator, and the pandas. The book is not full of cupcake recipes - it is more of a cupcake design book, as it shows you how to create these fabulous cakes. At the end of the book there is an actual baking recipe section, and I LOVE how the author has two kinds of recipes- simple, quick cupcakes you can make with boxed mixes, and then another section of "from scratch" cupcake recipes. Even if you never make a single cupcake from this book, it is STILL worth purchasing for its sheer beauty. It is fun to flip through the pages and look at the adorable creations and see how they were put together. I LOVE this book. If you are STILL saying you don't need another baking book, do what I did and throw out one old cookbook so that there is room on the shelf for this baby.