Pick up this cookbook for many delightful treats...
Pastry chef and tattoo artist Heather Kim serves up sinfully delicious recipes and bittersweet advice for those going through breakups or having troubles with people in their life! What better way to say you are sooooo over a person than baking a dessert that will blow their minds!?
I'm no chef even though I do enjoy baking, especially if I have someone who is willing to help out in the kitchen with me... The holiday season is also a great time to pull out the cookie recipes and do something a little more complex than your typical stir and bake. So I was super looking forward to this cookbook! And I wanted to see which of the recipes I would be comfortable baking and which I would back out of... my eyes being more willing than my hands!
The first thing I need with a cookbook are full color photographs of each recipe. There doesn't have to be step by step pictures but at least the finished product!! And this cookbook has those!! They will draw you in and make you salivate!! Really 5 STAR when it comes to the pictures... I really dislike when a recipe or 10 are slipped in without a finished product to look at... but Heather doesn't do that to us!! Especially with a dessert the presentation is soooo important and now I know what it should look like!
The next thing I need with a cookbook are tips! I don't need every little thing explained but let me know what specialty tools I'll need... Explain any ingredients that it isn't common knowledge to know about... And if you do something special then explain what each rating means! This cookbook has ALL of that! I knew right away there were recipes I wouldn't be able to do because I don't have a rolling pin (NOOOOO I really wanted to make the Figgy Cookies but I didn't really want to buy a rolling pin and it was pretty essential!) I knew that I was taking on a couple of pretty intense recipes because the burn factor rating told me so!
A couple of my favorite specialty pages were the sugar explanation, the nut guide and the flour breakdown. Super cute and very handy to find when I can't quite remember what turbinado sugar or pastry flour is! (And now I can send the BF to the store to get hazelnuts and won't get almonds instead!) There are also handy hacks spread through the book, right in the margins where they are super handy... (For example, I knew I was supposed to get 15 crepes and not 5! #oops )
The last thing that I need with a cookbook are simple but complete steps, for recipes that I would make regularly where MY end product is close to the original. This step necessitates someone TESTING the recipe. SO I DID THAT FOR YOU! I LOVED how clear the steps were for each recipe. The size bowl was mentioned. When you should butter the pan. Plus even if you need to turn the pan when baking! Very nice! Plus the extras like the frosting and edible garnish are separate recipes so if I want to go easy and buy those things for time's sake I can and I don't have to figure out what belongs to the main recipe and what doesn't.
There are some crazy garnish ingredients especially the raman on fudge and chicken skin candy but if those aren't you're thing they are easy to skip or when you're ready, take the leap and go crazy... whichever you chose!!
The recipes were pretty simple to follow even the higher rated ones I chose to make! And while the end product didn't totally turn out on one of my recipes I think that was because it was an epic level skill that needs practicing! The important part THE TASTE was excellent and the final products were gorgeous (even if a little different from Heather's)!! If you'd like to read about the cooking experiments part of my review then please click through to my blog!
There are still recipes I NEED to make... the Figgy Cookies (need rolling pin), the Cinco Leches Cake and the Coconut Mochi Cake with Coconut Sesame Pecan Icing! YUM! I actually can see these becoming favorites of mine (no chocolate cake for me...)!
As a cookbook this is a winner! I think if you are a beginner you will be adding some skills to your repertoire and yet nothing is so hard you can't muddle through. As a poke at your ex or crappy friend its witty and fun plus it makes baking and desserts fresh and super entertaining!
I'm no chef even though I do enjoy baking, especially if I have someone who is willing to help out in the kitchen with me... The holiday season is also a great time to pull out the cookie recipes and do something a little more complex than your typical stir and bake. So I was super looking forward to this cookbook! And I wanted to see which of the recipes I would be comfortable baking and which I would back out of... my eyes being more willing than my hands!
The first thing I need with a cookbook are full color photographs of each recipe. There doesn't have to be step by step pictures but at least the finished product!! And this cookbook has those!! They will draw you in and make you salivate!! Really 5 STAR when it comes to the pictures... I really dislike when a recipe or 10 are slipped in without a finished product to look at... but Heather doesn't do that to us!! Especially with a dessert the presentation is soooo important and now I know what it should look like!
The next thing I need with a cookbook are tips! I don't need every little thing explained but let me know what specialty tools I'll need... Explain any ingredients that it isn't common knowledge to know about... And if you do something special then explain what each rating means! This cookbook has ALL of that! I knew right away there were recipes I wouldn't be able to do because I don't have a rolling pin (NOOOOO I really wanted to make the Figgy Cookies but I didn't really want to buy a rolling pin and it was pretty essential!) I knew that I was taking on a couple of pretty intense recipes because the burn factor rating told me so!
A couple of my favorite specialty pages were the sugar explanation, the nut guide and the flour breakdown. Super cute and very handy to find when I can't quite remember what turbinado sugar or pastry flour is! (And now I can send the BF to the store to get hazelnuts and won't get almonds instead!) There are also handy hacks spread through the book, right in the margins where they are super handy... (For example, I knew I was supposed to get 15 crepes and not 5! #oops )
The last thing that I need with a cookbook are simple but complete steps, for recipes that I would make regularly where MY end product is close to the original. This step necessitates someone TESTING the recipe. SO I DID THAT FOR YOU! I LOVED how clear the steps were for each recipe. The size bowl was mentioned. When you should butter the pan. Plus even if you need to turn the pan when baking! Very nice! Plus the extras like the frosting and edible garnish are separate recipes so if I want to go easy and buy those things for time's sake I can and I don't have to figure out what belongs to the main recipe and what doesn't.
There are some crazy garnish ingredients especially the raman on fudge and chicken skin candy but if those aren't you're thing they are easy to skip or when you're ready, take the leap and go crazy... whichever you chose!!
The recipes were pretty simple to follow even the higher rated ones I chose to make! And while the end product didn't totally turn out on one of my recipes I think that was because it was an epic level skill that needs practicing! The important part THE TASTE was excellent and the final products were gorgeous (even if a little different from Heather's)!! If you'd like to read about the cooking experiments part of my review then please click through to my blog!
There are still recipes I NEED to make... the Figgy Cookies (need rolling pin), the Cinco Leches Cake and the Coconut Mochi Cake with Coconut Sesame Pecan Icing! YUM! I actually can see these becoming favorites of mine (no chocolate cake for me...)!
As a cookbook this is a winner! I think if you are a beginner you will be adding some skills to your repertoire and yet nothing is so hard you can't muddle through. As a poke at your ex or crappy friend its witty and fun plus it makes baking and desserts fresh and super entertaining!