Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful dessert book!
Review: Although I am not a vegan, I do try to limit my dairy. However, dessert is my major weakness. This book is nothing short of fabulous. It taught me how to make healthier desserts, make appropriate subs., etc. She explains all of the uncommon ingredients for those we are new to vegan desserts. I have made a ton of recipes from this book and have not been dissapointed by any! I highly recommend this book.
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Summary: Delightful new cookbook for healthy dessert lovers
Review: At last, a delightful new cookbook for people who want to indulge a sweet tooth, while striving towards being healthy. Fran Costigan's informative book is packed with recipes which include no butter, no refined sugar, no milk nor eggs, and are cholesterol free. Each recipe is written simply enough for a newcomer in the kitchen, and carefully tested to be totally fool proof. I love the author's lively notes, which makes the book ideal for bathtub reading. The book includes all my favorite traditional desserts; flaky pastry pies, yummy lemony custard sauce, fruit crumbles, outrageous chocolate sauce - even double fudge brownies (but all made healthily), as well as a new collection of contemporary, hip desserts, including lemon-lime tofu cream, carob cake, and "this is not my mother's pumpkin pie". This is a must-buy for anyone wanting to be healthy and happy at the same time!
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Summary: Should be in every vegan/vegetarian kitchen
Review: Finally, a well-tested cookbook! (And a chef who actually gives away her secrets!) This is one of the best cookbooks I have ever used. Every recipe I've done has worked perfectly. Her instructions are detailed and if you follow them, they will work. She also gives all the essential information on the unusual ingredients so anyone who isn't used to using tofu or agar in desserts will be able to with no problem. (She doesn't talk your ear off, either -- just gets to the point!) As a professional chef I find most vegan/vegetarian cookbooks to be unreliable, so I make up my own variations. But this book is for REAL. Delicious desserts that NO ONE will guess are healthy! The double chocolate brownies are my favorite. One thing I've noticed though is, the ultimate chocolate frosting will set quicker if you cook it with the kuzu a few more minutes than she says. The only other thing I should mention is, there are more steps involved in these than your average baking recipes. You'll need a blender AND a food processor to get the best results on some of them -- but if you're like me and you love dessert but not the junk, it'll be worth it!
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Summary: THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE VEGAN OR NOT!
Review: I am am a vegan and I LOVE CHOCOLATE> I have detested the so-called chocolate desserts, recipes in books and store bought. BUY THIS BOOK! It's a steal if only for the Chocolate Cake to Live For recipe. The Ultimate Chocolate Sauce is incredible. NO ONE KNEW THEY WERE EATING HEALTHY> I had to fight for my piece. This cake and several of the other recipes I have tried could convert the world to veganism. I can't wait to try them all. Fran explains in clear English all about chocolates, organics, natural sweeteners and hype. She must be a good teacher at the school in NY, she writes clearly and with a sense of humor. I am buying another copy for safekeeping.
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Summary: Healthy sweets
Review: I attended Fran's desserts demonstration Summerfest and tasted the desserts made from or adapted from recipes in her book. Unbelievably great tasting and look pretty easy. She is a good teacher too. I bought her book and already tried 2 recipes, low fat chocolate brownies and blueberry slump. Yum! Easy as can be and my lucky tasters are in heaven and begging for more. This will be a well used book and I hope she wrties another one soon. She mentioned working on pies and tarts. Fran made an orange blueberry bundt cake based on tropical fruit gateau and a german style carob cake based on the carob cake in the book---which is the only carob cake I ever liked. Buy this book. You won't be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: The Real Deal for Dairy Free Vegan Desserts
Review: I attended Fran's desserts demonstration Summerfest and tasted the desserts made from or adapted from recipes in her book. Unbelievably great tasting and look pretty easy. She is a good teacher too. I bought her book and already tried 2 recipes, low fat chocolate brownies and blueberry slump. Yum! Easy as can be and my lucky tasters are in heaven and begging for more. This will be a well used book and I hope she wrties another one soon. She mentioned working on pies and tarts. Fran made an orange blueberry bundt cake based on tropical fruit gateau and a german style carob cake based on the carob cake in the book---which is the only carob cake I ever liked. Buy this book. You won't be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: I have a ton of alternative cookbooks and this is my favorite one! EVERYTHING I have made from this book is absolutely fabulous. It uses healthy ingredients (whole wheat flour, maple syrup instead of sugar, agar, etc) so I am not worrying about trying substitutions all the time. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: I have a ton of alternative cookbooks and this is my favorite one! EVERYTHING I have made from this book is absolutely fabulous. It uses healthy ingredients (whole wheat flour, maple syrup instead of sugar, agar, etc) so I am not worrying about trying substitutions all the time. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Great book ... Great desserts
Review: I love this book, the first time I read it I wanted to run out and just start baking everything in it..since I have to avoid sugars and white flour I basiclly never get to have dessert but I bought 2 of these books and put one away for safe keeping so I would not lose it.... great book! Even better dessert..... I love the oatmeal raisin cookies!
Rating: 
Summary: Not Great or Good !!
Review: I must admit that I bought this book with great expectations after reading the positive reviews. After trying a couple of the recipes, I was greatly disappointed. The carrot cake was just average tasting, more like cinnamon bread, and I noticed that the most important spice was left out for some reason. Anyway, I thought I would make it up for the bland taste, with the suggested lemon glaze. Big mistake!! The cake became soggy and the flavor of the glaze had a strong lemon flavor, very much like cough syrup. At that point, I tried to scrape off the glaze to save some of the cake, but it was too late, the glaze had already soaked into it. My next step was to discard the entire cake.
I would think that if a recipe calls for good quality expensive ingredients, the least an author can do, is to make sure it tastes good. I believe that is a reasonable expectation on my part. I was very upset that this expensive cake ended up in the garbage. This is one book that I will not be using anytime soon.
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