Little Cakes: Classic Recipes for Any Occasion

Not too long ago, one of the "country"-themed magazines ran a piece on little cakes that was essentially a photo spread. The cakes pictured did indeed look appealing. Too bad the instructions boiled down to "look for sweet little pans and adapt your favorite recipes to suit, or make a bunch of cupcakes with the leftover batter." Thanks a lot. If I wanted that much cake around the house, I'd just bake a regular cake. And I have no desire to monkey around trying to cut standard recipes in half. I bought this book sight unseen and was pleased to find actual little-cake recipes, which the author seems to have been at pains to test for reliability. I especially like the fact that she doesn't mince words with the instructions: if she thinks something should be done a certain way and not another way, she says so! She is also generous with small-batch frosting recipes. Maybe I was spoiled by that magazine photo spread, but I do wish there were photographs rather than supposedly cute drawings, which don't show much of anything. Also, too many of the recipes are for a boring single-layer square or round cake. To me, that undercuts the "whimsy" of a small cake. (Could be why there are no photographs.) I guess I could experiment with interesting molds, as the author suggests in passing, but that just takes me back to "adaptation" territory. These quibbles aside, I'm more than satisfied with the book, which delivers what it promises.

The classic recipes and more of little cakes are a delite for dieters. Most use one eight or nine inch round cake pan or smaller loaf-sized pan for pound cakes. Just enough cake to satisfy my sweeth tooth.

I love this book. I've made several recipes from this cookbook, and have really been pleased. What impresses me most is that these recipes hold up well when you substitute ingredients, don't exactly measure precisely, or take half of one recipe and combine it with another. The author did her research well, so if you read through a couple of recipes, you can replicate almost anything that you'll find in a fancy cake shop at home with what you have in your cupboard. And the best part? Most recipes make exactly 12 cupcakes - perfect for a midnight snack, and so much better than from-a-box. Yum!

I love this book because everything I have made turned out very good. It is a splendid idea because nobody gets sick of the cake before it is all gone. I am buying these books as gifts for my friends to enjoy, because this is what I would like as a gift.

`Little Cakes' by professional writer and `cookbook archeologist' Susan Waggoner is a very pleasant discovery I am happy to recommend to all, especially occasional bakers who want to go just one step beyond the Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker packages to make cakes from scratch. In spite of the delightful watercolor illustrations dotting the dust jacket, I was expecting a weak effort on petit fours and other less than useful preparations. This especially in light of my recently having reviewed expert baker and baking writer Flo Braker's reissued `Sweet Miniatures'. I was very pleasantly surprised with what I found. For starters `little cakes' in this book means primarily single layer cakes baked in an 8-inch square or round pan, with icing. There are plenty of recipes which can be adapted to two or three layers, and the author gives many suggestions for same, but the heart of the matter is cakes baked with a relatively small amount of batter for a relatively short time. Within those constraints, the variety of cakes presented in this delightful book is wide indeed. The basic types include silver cake, white cake, white chocolate cake, yellow cake, gold cake, genoise (French sponge cake), whipped cream cake, chocolate cakes, devils food cake, marble cakes, `German' chocolate cake, flourless chocolate cake, red velvet cake, pound cake, marble pound cake, butter pecan loaf, lemon pudding cake, orange cake, banana cake, grapefruit cake, pineapple upside-down cake, raisin spice cake, oatmeal cake, pumpkin cake, gingerbread, carrot cake, walnut cake, spice cakes, sandwich cakes, tea cakes, ginger buttons, petit fours, icebox cakes, ladyfingers, and cheesecakes. I will be happy to forgive the author for including cheesecake (a cheese custard pie) and other non-caky desserts such as trifles and tiramisu, as she has successfully created a highly accessible source of good recipes for quick reference when you do not want to wade through a 600 page tome to find something quick for a last minute baking need. The litany of cake types above is multiplied by pairing each type of `crumb' with an appropriate icing, of which Ms. Waggoner gives several such as whipped creams, lady Baltimore frosting, white decorator icing, basic vanilla icing, basic chocolate frosting, lavish fudge frosting, chocolate ganache, white chocolate buttercream, white chocolate meringue, basic cream cheese frosting, grapefruit frosting, powdered sugar glaze, quick-set fondant, browned butter frosting, peanut butter frosting, penuche frosting, and caramel icing. On top of these are recipes for fillings and syrups for `kicking things up a notch' to borrow a phrase from someone. While Ms. Waggoner does not have the professional baking credentials of Flo Braker or Nick Malgieri or Gayle Ortiz or Gail Gand, she is no slouch when it comes to starting one out with excellent advice on how to go about baking a good, simple cake. As far as I can tell, she touches all the right bases and gives abs