Great recipies, but not for the inexperienced (The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook - Tarek Malouf)

Member Name: Dinah93

Product:	The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook - Tarek Malouf
Date:	10/09/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some of the best recipies I have tasted

Disadvantages: Bizarre quantities and poorly proof read recipies

This book is visually exactly what a baking book should be. On each double page there is one side of a big, glossy picture of what you are making, and on the other is the recipe, clearly laid out and easy to read.

However without fail every recipe I have undertaken so far has had a technical error in it. All the recipes appear to make 12 cupcakes, but in reality this is 7-9, which is a pretty small batch. That's fine, and I can live with it. However what bugs me is that none of the recipies appear to have been tested.

Lemon Cupcakes

These were interesting in that the recipie at no point calls for you to put any lemon in the batter, despite having lemon zest listed as an ingredient. So I guessed and put the lemon zest in at the end, along with a bit of the lemon juice. It worked out okay, although the cakes were more solid than I would like. The recipie also mentions hollowing out the cakes and putting lemon curd in, but then does not mention this in the step by step instructions at any point. So I'm not sure if this should be done at the end like fairy cakes, or baked into them to make them gooey. Fairly standard recipie in the end.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Again, only made 8 cupcakes when the recipie stated 12. Very light and moist, however the quantity of icing to cake ratio was huge! If I had used all the icing there would have been at least an inch thick layer on each one. As they were I had a lovely light sugar high.

Peaches & Cream Cupcakes

Also only made 7 cupcakes. As anyone who has baked with fruit will know, it tends to stick to the paper case. I tried to overcome this by spreading a little of the batter into each case first but still they stuck. Would make a nice cake though in the style of an upside down cake. The other issue I had was it requires 400g of peaches, this is a tin and a half. In contrast the batter when made was under 350g, I used less than half a tin of peaches chopped up, and there was still a very generous amount in each case. Again I felt the quantities used were random, and did not really work for the recipie.

Banana Cheesecake

Fantastic. Absolutely could not fault this one. Light and airy, quick to make and a big hit with friends. Recipie is easily adapted for use with different fruits.

I would recomend this book to an experienced baker, however it's not a good first time book, as you really need to think about the realism behind some of the quantities.

Summary: If you are a confident baker, don't hesitate, you'll never want another book again.