Title:	Layered
	Author:	Tessa Huff
	Published:	2016, Stewart, Tabori & Chang
	No. of Pages:	288
	Cover Price:	$26.95 Hardcover, $16.54 Kindle

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Even though cake mixes are easy and quite good, there is something special about a cake made from scratch. Tessa Huff’s cookbook, Layered takes the art of making a good cake to the highest levels (pun intended). Not only are there recipes for dozens of incredibly good “scratch” cakes, there are also dozens of ideas of how to make those cakes into works of art, most of them with multiple layers so that they are tall and impressive. There are also sections of how-to instructions for creating professional looking finishes for the cakes, complete with pictures.

The basic cake recipes are easy to follow and there is enough variety to appeal to everyone – chocolate, fruit flavored, spice, butter, sponge, etc. What is most impressive, however, is how Huff makes these basic cakes into beautiful works of art. The pictures are beautiful, and show how a bit of imagination can result in something amazing.

This is not a book about cake decorating, and most of the cakes do not require fancy equipment, decorating bags, and tips. The simplicity of the decor adds a bit of class, which makes the cakes suitable for any occasion. Bakers don’t need special skills to duplicate the cakes, and even though there are enough ideas for a lifetime of cakes, the basics are there for creating new ones with a little individual imagination.

Any baker who loves to create and wants to serve beautiful, delicious cakes, will consider this a must for a baking book collection. The book is well-organized, the pictures are phenomenal, and the potential for generating ideas for impressive cakes is over-the-top.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying an advance review copy of this cookbook.

This book may be purchased at Amazon:
Layered: Baking, Building, and Styling Spectacular Cakes
Layered: Baking, Building, and Styling Spectacular Cakes, Kindle