Sweet Tooth

This week, I was lucky enough to get two new/upcoming cookbooks to review from NetGalley. Both were intended for baking.

The first, Cake Magic! was an amazing book filled with tons of eye candy and pages that had me drooling over almost every image and description. I gave the book 5 stars because I wanted to drop everything and immediately start baking.

While there are only eight cake recipes in the book, there are enough creative variations and exquisite flavor combinations to keep you in cake for weeks and years to come. There are cakes, syrups and frostings galore! If you can't find several amazing ideas for cake in this book, you are crazy.

I absolutely love the idea of using a syrup to kick up the flavors in a cake. It is an added surprise that goes a long way to make the cake atypical. Not only does it add flavor, but it adds moisture, which is so important to me when I'm eating a piece of cake. Who wants a dry, uninteresting dessert? When compared to a boring, store-bought cake, these are easy recipes will floor friends and loved ones when they taste one of your creations.

My daughter is a bake for a casino, and I can't wait to wow her with the cakes I'm going to be making with this book.

This also has a simple make-ahead mix that you can make and have on hand for the times when a cake is needed. Perfect!


The second book, Sweetness, is a great 4 star book if you are in the mood for some good ol' fashion comfort food.

It goes beyond cakes to cover cookies, cobblers, pies, puddings and more. There are so many recipes that bring back Americana and old family memories. I'm not from the South, but a lot of recipes are familiar and seem easy to whip up.

The Cookie Jar section had to be my favorite, although there were other recipes like funnel cake, pound cake in a jar, and cream cheese divinity that definitely caught my eye and were bookmarked for later baking/making. This book would make a great selection or even a gift for anyone who likes to indulge their sweet tooth on occasion.

Now I'm totally hungry and thinking about baking something sweet to eat.