The Complete Book of Baking: 200 irresistible, easy-to-make recipes for cakes, gateaux, pies, muffins, tarts, buns, breads and cookies, shown step by in over 850 photographs

UPDATE: Despite the issues I noted in my original review, I decided to press on and use this book as a guide for expanding my baking skills. I can now provide some additional insights. First, the recipe yields are too much for two people. I cut them in half to experiment so I don't waste as many ingredients. Second, and this is IMPORTANT-- her conversions to American cups are not always accurate, which for me kept resulting in way too much flour, which then led to rock hard dough which I had to fix by adding in more liquid. After giving this some thought, I've realized that we Americans have a bizarre obsession with VOLUME measurements. This is actually a set up for disaster when you think about it. The problem is that different types of flour and sugar can have significantly different densities. So a cup of American flour might represent more grams than a cup of British flour, or vice versa. Talking about weight (grams, oz) is really the only hope for consistency. Another note for my fellow Americans: it's engrained in us that "there are 8 ounces in a cup". Well, not exactly. There are only eight ounces if you're taking about FLUID OUNCES (fl. oz), which means things like water and milk. But no one uses the term "fluid ounces", they just say "ounces" which makes you think that 8 ounces of flour also equals one cup. Yet the moment you are talking about regular dry ounces and not FLUID ounces, you need a scale to figure out how much flour equals 8 ounces. You can't just start scooping out cupfuls without your recipe being ruined. The conclusion I've reached is this: weighing out dry ingredients is the only way to go. So unless a recipe was written for Americans from the beginning, don't try to convert it to our cups. Use your scale to weigh out the listed grams or ounces and things will be much happier for you.Now this book boasts of giving confidence to newbies, which I am. I feel there are too many details left out to support this claim. Her notes on sourdough starter, for example, are quite misleading and provide no help about how to feed. I look up a lot of things online to supplement. I now have an awesome starter (which I call "Yeasty") and have turned out several lovely loaves, I'm not feeding mine exactly how anyone says, I'm doing it my own way based on principles I've learned. For those of you who hated science in school (as I did) and therefore find endless remarks that "baking is a science" to be very discouraging, don't give up. The most important thing you bring to your kitchen is your confidence and your willingness to persevere and learn from your mistakes. When this lady told me to cover a rising bread loaf with plastic, I knew it would stick, and it did. So I ripped it off and decided I wouldn't be doing that again. My loaf still turned out fine. Don't be afraid to go with your gut and go off script. You learn the most by doing, and there is no perfect cookbook. This one has led me to some fantastic sourdough and a nice cheese loaf so far. I've also made things I didn't care for. There will be other successes and other recipes that I don't like. The key is you can't let yourself be intimidated into giving up. Anyone can learn to bake. 🙂ORIGINAL REVIEW: This is a British cookbook with American measurements included. Great pictures, great variety. My reason for just giving it 4 stars is there are no descriptions at all of what the end product will be for each recipe. As an American living in Britain, I find this surprisingly discouraging bc I'm unfamiliar with many of these items, so I have no idea what I'm trying to make. In the beginning of the cookies/biscuits section, for example, it says some are crispy, some are moist, all are tasty. But it doesn't tell you which recipes are going to be which texture and since I'm not interested in making crispy items, I don't know which recipes to skip. Americans might appreciate knowing there is only one cupcake recipe included under "Iced Fancies". I bought a separate cupcake book after realizing this (we Americans love our cupcakes, lol). For descriptions, I'm planning to look up specific items online to try to get a sense of what it's supposed to taste like. I'm thinking many bakers will find this a major downside this book, so I wanted to mention that. But aside from that, it has plenty of variety and nice step by step instructions, plus the additional American measurements are very appreciated.I'm interested in simple baking. For those who like a bit of artistry, this book offers plenty of inspiration, as there are some very fancy items included. But it's a nice mix, with plenty of basic items as well. If coloured pictures are important to you, that's a major plus in this book, especially if you're British and familiar with these items. But I can't honestly recommend this book when it doesn't even give you a sentence or two to help you understand the flavour/ texture profiles of each item. With so many books to choose from, I'd look elsewhere for recipes and I certainly will be verifying that descriptions are included before buying future books myself.

goid book yo use ,when you are cooking, easy yo follow

Good book easy follow recipes

Love it, lovely buy

Gave it as Christmas gifts. To neighbour and friend.