Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I feel slightly torn about this book. I had pre-ordered it because I have Celiac and have loved every gluten-free thing I have tried at the Babycakes NYC Bakery. Most recipes for gluten free baked goods contain high amounts of sugar, or require mixing your own flours or are all kind of generic and blah. This book promised to be free of those things without compromising taste. However, I've found there's good and bad to being a different cook book.
The Good:
It's beautiful; the photography is stunning, the products look amazing, it gets you in the mood to bake and have fun with it. I love the personality in it, I love the colour and food shots. It's so nice to have it feel part photo-book and part-recipe instead of the standard recipe books. And the size is nice whether you're cooking or curled up the couch reading up on it.
The recipes are laid out really well; most are just a page which is nice for those of us who don't like long directions and 17 steps. The write-ups about the items and little stories are fun. The celebrity-endorsements are kind of weird (except the "fat pants" - that's pretty awesome).
There are lots of different kinds of baked goods to make from cakes to cookies. Recipes I hadn't seen before that look incredibly delicious. No more boring cupcakes and cookies for me! The Myer Lemon and Cherry Cupcakes is on my baking list for sure.
The not so good:
As a few people have already said, none of Chapter 2 (scones) are gluten free and there's a couple more elsewhere that call for spelt flour. Although Erin makes a comment about spelt in the beginning of the book and how it's not gluten free, it seems odd to have as a tag line on the FRONT of the book "gluten free" - especially since it says "mostly sugar free." I found this to be very misleading and I felt kind of left out. Maybe that sounds silly but when you're anticipating a gluten free cookbook and you can't use a whole chapter, it's disappointing.
The ingredients are costly. I shop exclusively organic and at Whole Foods so high prices for ingredients aren't a new thing for me. But I found a lot of the ingredients in here either hard to find (even at Whole Foods) or very expensive. The soy milk powder she recommends for so many things is about $20 on average I've found (you can find it on Amazon). Coconut oil, which I already use, is about $10 a jar but her recipes can go through about half of it (a whole thing if you're making cupcakes + icing). A few of the supplies she mentions having on hand can also add up. I can understand using the best ingredients but it's something to consider when ordering this book. If you bake regularly or for a large family, your baked goods can add up quickly. GF baking isn't cheap by any standards but these recipes are definitely a little bit more.
I followed the instructions perfectly for the cupcake (of course this would be first!) and, like another reviewer, I was really disappointed by the vanilla frosting. Looking at the photographs in the book and recalling what I ate at the bakery, I was so excited to make this but really disappointed in eating it (and it takes at least 6 hours to chill and then come to room temperature so there's no instant satisfaction). The cupcakes were OK.
I haven't made any other recipes yet so I'm hoping the book redeems itself. I am very interested to try out the gingerbread and chocolate chip cookies (I just have to find some of the ingredients I haven't been able to find yet).
In any event, I would re-purchase this book as it has inspired me to get back into baking, to have fun with it, and more importantly, to share what I bake with my friends. It really is a beautiful, inspirational little book but it does come with a few flaws that I can live with but wish I would have known about ahead of time so that I wouldn't have been disappointed and more prepared for what I was getting into (IE can't bake right after getting it if you don't generally have all the things on hand).
(Update: Babycakes NYC has answered a lot of questions about the book on their site at [...]. I found this really helpful and hope it helps with the baking).
Update 01/03/10: I purchased a Kitchen Aid stand mixer a couple of months ago and I have to say, that (along with some of the edits in the link above) have made a HUGE difference in baking and in the icing. I really think when using the coconut oil, you really need to mix it really well in order for great results. I tried some recipes using a regular hand mixer afterwards and just could not get the same results. I have since had success with the cupcakes, the icing, cakes and banana bread. Yes, a stand mixer is a huge investment as is baking using this cookbook. But, for me, it's been well worth it since I can eat sweets in a healthy way instead of a process (gluten free) mix way.
Click Here to see more reviews about: BabyCakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery
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