With a deep appreciation for my family’s cherished memories tied to the original Cake Bible cookbook, I was thrilled at the opportunity to explore the 35th Anniversary Edition of The Cake Bible. This beloved classic has not only shaped our baking traditions but also inspired countless delicious creations over the years. I couldn’t wait to see what new insights and recipes this updated version had to offer.
About The Cake Bible 35th Anniversary Edition Book
The legendary IACP Culinary Classic The Cake Bible—found in the kitchen of every serious baker and beloved for decades—with classic recipes thoroughly updated and including about 30% new recipes and methods and the latest ingredient and equipment information
The original Cake Bible is a guiding light in the world’s baking literature, with Rose Levy Beranbaum’s deep knowledge and respect for craft to be found on every page. It’s for home and professional bakers who want to make glorious, technically perfect cakes and understand why the ingredients in cakes work the way they do.
The book was hugely influential from the moment it first came out in 1988, selling hundreds of thousands of copies and going through sixty printings. It introduced the reverse creaming method, incorporating flour and butter first instead of butter and sugar. This makes mixing faster and easier, helps cakes rise more evenly, and results in a finer and more tender cake texture. And it’s among the first United States cookbooks to offer measurements in weights, highlighting the superiority of the metric system, which has become the gold standard in baking books.
But a lot has changed in thirty-five years—and The Cake Bible has changed with it! This striking new edition—with new photographs in an expanded section–contains recipes for classic and innovative cakes and complementary adornments of all types, instructions for making stunning decorations, and flavor variations for every craving and occasion, with foundational recipes like All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake and Angel Food Cake and showstoppers like the Strawberry Maria, which brings together Génoise au Chocolat, Grand Marnier-flavored syrup, and Strawberry Cloud Cream. Rose also provides instructions for baking for special occasions, such as weddings, with recipes to serve 150 people as well as formulas to scale the recipes for any number of desired servings.
For thirty-five years, Rose has been tweaking and reworking her methods based on reader feedback and constant conversations with other bakers and food and equipment professionals. Rose’s fans, professional and amateur alike, will love this perfect distillation of her decades of experience and the pure joy of creation.
Disclosure: Thank you to Netgalley for the Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.
My Review of The Cake Bible 35th Anniversary Edition Book
Since I received an advanced reader copy of The Cake Bible 35th Anniversary Edition, I did not get the pleasure of seeing it with the included images. That took away from my experience with this book. A cookbook without pictures was kind of hard to review.
I’m a visual learner and like using my images to make decisions. I hoped to make one of these cakes to accompany this book review. However, everything was so jumbled up that I felt uncomfortable doing that.
The Cake Bible was a staple in my mom’s kitchen growing up. My mom used it to make special cakes for homecomings at church and other special events. I was eager to get my hands on this anniversary edition due to our love of flipping through the pages of the original Cake Bible and oooing and ahhing over the cake images and picking out one to make together with my mom.
While I was initially disheartened by the challenges of navigating the advanced copy edition of The Cake Bible, 35th Anniversary Edition Book, I believe this book is packed with valuable insights and techniques for enhancing cake flavor. Additionally, it serves as a comprehensive resource to elevate your overall baking experience.
It was as if I were participating in a cake-baking class alongside Rose, uncovering all her insider tips. She offers thorough insights into every element of cake making, detailing the essential tools and ingredients required and providing guidance on using each to its fullest.
If I had a copy of this book with colorful images, I would have thoroughly loved this cookbook and had more fun with the review.
About the author
Rose Levy Beranbaum is the award-winning author of 12 cookbooks, including the latest–“Rose’s Ice Cream Bliss”, “Rose’s Baking Basics”, and “The Baking Bible” (the International Association of Culinary Professional Best Baking Book of the Year) and “The Cake Bible”, now in its 56th printing and the International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook of the Year for 1988. In 2017 it was inducted into the Culinary Classics Hall of Fame. “The Cake Bible” was also listed by the James Beard Foundation as one of the top 13 baking books on “the Essential Book List.” Rose also won a James Beard Foundation Award in 1998 for “Rose’s Christmas Cookies”, and her book, The Bread Bible, was an IACP and James Beard Foundation nominee and was listed as one of the Top Ten Books of 2003 by Publishers Weekly and Food & Wine. Her most recent book, “Rose’s Heavenly Cakes”, won the International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook of the Year for 2010. For multiple years she was a contributing editor to Food Arts magazine and writes regularly for the Washington Post, Fine Cooking, Reader’s Digest, and Bride’s. Her popular blog, realbakingwithrose.com, has created an international community of bakers where you can visit Rose Levy Beranbaum and join in the discussion on all things baking. While you are there, you can bring the author right into your kitchen as she demonstrates key techniques and shares trade secrets so that you can create perfectly divine cakes. She also has over 160 YouTube appearances demonstrating baking techniques, including her PBS show “Baking Magic with Rose.”
Rose’s new product line, “Rose Levy Beranbaum Signature Series” by American Products Group, was launched in 2015 and is available on Amazon along with her All-Original All-American Pie Recipes E-Booklet. Her upcoming book, “The Cookie Bible,” Fall 2021, will offer over 150 classic and innovative cookie recipes.
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That would be really hard to review a cookbook without photos; I too am a visual learner.
I’ve never heard of this but it sounds intriguing. I can’t image a cookbook without pictures, especially given the beauty on the front. But I can always use cake tips. 🙂 Visiting from the Bookish Bliss linkup.
This book is FULL of baking cakes tips. It really felt like a full on textbook for cooking cakes. The original edition had lots of beautiful pictures, and it seems this one has little pictures compared.
I’m still in the beginning baker stage. I never took an interest in baking while young. I’m sure a hard copy of this would come in handy for me now. Lol.
This book is a wonderful guide. I feel it will hel you become a solid baker for sure.
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