Mary Berry's Baking Bible

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The go to book for cakes and bakes. Very comprehensive and very reliable. It begins with an introductory section covering techniques, then 20 chapters: The only thing worth mentioning is that British chefs do things by weight (British scale too) not by volume like Americans. So we went ahead and bought a cheap digital scale that does both American and British, ounces and grams. This was a great idea. Mary really knows what she's talking about; she's sold veer 5 million books and has been a published author since 1970.

I knew in advance it was written for the UK and I'd be converting measurements which isn't all that difficult to do, however the products she uses are very hard to find here and some are impossible. We just simply do not have the equivalent like double cream. I guess the easiest way to picture this would be - you receive the book and you anticipate perhaps buying a few items, then getting down to business with a recipe. You go shopping for a cake tin because all of mine are only 3" deep and once out to several good stores you realize 8" deep is impossible to find on the shelves. The sugars she uses- are just simply not readily available though you can find some I suspect at whole foods and you can't simply substitute the US brown sugars for muscovado, it's hard to find if not impossibleMary Berry is the undisputed Queen of Cakes, well-known for her easy-to-follow, tried and tested, mouth-watering recipes. She wrote the Baking Bible to help everyday cooks learn the basics of what it takes to make a good cake, with a collection of classic bakes, as well as hot puddings and pies, soufflés and meringues, cheesecakes and biscuits to satisfy all your baking needs. To make the icing, melt the dark chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Leave to cool slightly. Fold in the remaining white chocolate chips before spreading over the tops of the loaves to make a ripple effect. We love Mary, and we love this book. We do wish there were a million more pictures, but then we always want that from every cook book. Explanations were clear and we were successful on our first attempt of our first recipe.

This old-fashioned celebration cake iced with ‘American frosting’ has three delicate layers of walnut sponge, filled and covered with meringue frosting – a beautiful bake for someone special. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan, then line the bottom with parchment paper.Lightly grease 3 baking trays. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5. Measure the butter and sugars into a medium bowl and beat thoroughly with a hand-held electric mixer or wooden spoon until evenly blended. Add the vanilla extract to the beaten egg and then add these gradually to the butter and sugar mixture in the bowl, beating well between each addition. Next, mix in the flour, and lastly stir in the chocolate chips. Measure all the brownie loaf ingredients, except the white chocolate chips, into a large bowl. Whisk together using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in 2/3 cup (125 grams) of the chocolate chips.