Lovable Character Cakes

Rating:
Summary: Great book for sugarcrafters
Review: I'm a novice sugarcrafter, but I really liked this book. The recipes were good (although some of the ingredients are hard to find outside of the UK), the characters are adorable (although I hadn't heard of a few because they're UK characters that haven't made it to North America), and the full-colour pictures are really well done.

Characters included: Fireman Sam, Flower Fairies, Wombles, My Little Pony, Dennis & Gnasher, Kipper, Garfield, Little Miss, Sonic, Brambly Hedge, Bananas in Pyjamas, Super Mario, Wallace and Gromit, Rugrats, Rupert, Babar, Sesame Street, and Barney.

I will give this warning to folks out there: these are not quick cakes. It can take a full day or two to decorate cakes like this, and you do need some sculpting skill (which I happen to have). That's not a fault of the book; that's the nature of detailed sugarcraft. This is an art, not a simple dessert. The cake is incidental.

But if you're willing to put in the time, this book should help you really delight kids and adults alike.

Rating:
Summary: Great book for sugarcrafters
Review: I'm a novice sugarcrafter, but I really liked this book. The recipes were good (although some of the ingredients are hard to find outside of the UK), the characters are adorable (although I hadn't heard of a few because they're UK characters that haven't made it to North America), and the full-colour pictures are really well done.

Characters included: Fireman Sam, Flower Fairies, Wombles, My Little Pony, Dennis & Gnasher, Kipper, Garfield, Little Miss, Sonic, Brambly Hedge, Bananas in Pyjamas, Super Mario, Wallace and Gromit, Rugrats, Rupert, Babar, Sesame Street, and Barney.

I will give this warning to folks out there: these are not quick cakes. It can take a full day or two to decorate cakes like this, and you do need some sculpting skill (which I happen to have). That's not a fault of the book; that's the nature of detailed sugarcraft. This is an art, not a simple dessert. The cake is incidental.

But if you're willing to put in the time, this book should help you really delight kids and adults alike.

Rating:
Summary: FOR PROFESSIONAL DECORATORS/ ARTISTS ONLY!
Review: This book has some great ideas, but some of the cakes shown and described are actually character scenes, the base of which are the actual cakes, and the decorations are almost all sculptures made of fondant or marzipan. (I didn't even know what those were until lately.) Although I did admire Debbie Brown's talent and expertise, the techniques used and suggested were VERY intimidating. What ever happened to old fashioned butter cream frosting and decorator bags? I guess if you're into modeling clay, though, you could get some good ideas from this book.