Bingo 3: Guide
For a how-to category, it seems pretty obvious for me that I have to do a cookbook. Not only that, but this is a cookbook I bought while travelling, knowing full well it would be a struggle to fit into my luggage. Just based on the read-through, The Vegan Cake Bible might be worth it.
I’m a decent baker but I’ve never been any good at decorating or getting things to look anything close to the picture. I have a tiny bit of hope now, but it’ll be about a week before I can verify in practice.
After the inevitable review of ingredients and equipment needed for the basics of baking, there is a detailed review of the procedure for stacking and layering a cake with pictures. This is by far the most detailed review even if I’m generally familiar with the concepts as would anyone who has watched the Great British Baking Show or similar. Sometimes, it just takes the exact right explanation or picture, and I’m hoping this could be the one for me. There follows basic frosting recipes, and ‘Foundation Fillings & Inclusions’. I’m kind of excited to see a vegan pastry cream recipe there, since that’s not something I’ve cared to try with a conventional recipe on account of it being so touchy to get right. This looks more do-able. I’m a little surprised that when it comes to fondant, the paragraph is basically “find a brand you like, see p.*** for mine”. I checked the internet, and there’s plenty of vegan recipes for fondant, including one that looks really similar to the vegan marzipan recipe that is included here (basically, replace the almond paste ingredients with vegan marshmallow, and proceed as stated). I don’t see why you can’t make your own, but then I’ve not tried it. We’ll see who was right.
The cake recipes are pretty standard as basic batters, but there is a fun range of flavors and combinations, as well as a range of types of cakes. The chapters cover ‘Foundation Cakes’, Traditional Cakes, Specialty Cakes, and Gluten-Free Cakes. I’m intrigued by the “Black Sesame Cake with Liquorice Cream & Meringue Buttercream”. I happen to like black licorice, so this might be my first attempt, even though this is in the gluten-free category and rated “advanced” in skill. The individual recipes all have level ratings, sweetness ratings, and texture ratings, along with the expected time to prepare and bake, and decorate (this has its own spot).
I also like how at the beginning of each section, there’s a diagram of all the cakes therein with the various layers mapped out. For some reason, that feels really useful. The ingredients aren’t mostly anything you couldn’t find in a reasonably well stocked grocery store, even if you live in the middle of nowhere which I sort of do. The only real complaint I have is that the book could be clearer about the fact that it uses Australian measures which are slightly different than Imperial standards. This is noted, but it’s hidden in a small off-hand place that it would be really easy to miss. This would be pretty critical information since especially with this type of baking, precision can really be the difference. It’s also mildly annoying when books like this assume that you have room in a large freezer or fridge for a full-sized cake. I don’t know about most people, but I don’t have a full freezer-fridge dedicated to this sort of project.
I’m still hopeful this will be the book that helps me get to visually presentable formal-ish looking cakes. Fingers crossed that the biggest challenge turns out to be keeping my younger cat off the counter for an extended period of time.
