Book Review - The Cake Stall from The Australian Womens Weekly

Morning, hope you aren't too cold this morning.  I'm not sure I really want to know how cold it actually was last night, but I know it was several numbers below zero!  Today Drew has kindly agreed to share a book review from his wonderful world of Dad's Cooking Tonight and what better than a recipe book full of sweet treats.

image from Amazon

The Cake Stall is one of those books where you just want to reach into the pictures and pick things out to eat. With chapters such as 'The Lemonade Stand' and 'Gifts for Mum' it soon becomes clear that there are plenty of treats and sweets within the pages of this book.

Happily many of these recipes are quite simple and the instructions are clear and concise. Joyously all of the recipes are given in dual measurements, US and metric, something which is often missing in other publications.

I always make an effort to try out a few recipes from every book review on my blog, sometimes this involves careful thought, but with a book full of treats it was more a matter of filtering through the multitude of requests from my children, who certainly seemed keen on some of the sweeter ideas within.

Shown above are the Lamingtons that we rustled up, which are a kind of cake bar enclosed in chocolate icing and coconut. These were very simple to make and dunking the cake into a bowl of liquid chocolate was a firm favorite, if a bit messy.

On the request of one of my daughters we also made Vanilla Whoopie Pies, although the photo does not really do justice to the end product. Once again these were easy to make, although make sure you leave plenty of space between them on the baking tray as they get a lot bigger.

Both of these recipes turned out pretty well and were very tasty, the Whoopie Pies disappearing in one sitting. The only problem I have with the book is that the kids are always looking through it and making new suggestions, read demands, for what they would like next. Thoroughly recommended, lots of fun and full of great ideas, a very nice book.

Thanks Drew, those lamingtons were yummy and I could eat them as the icing was made with cocoa powder and water not real chocolate.  I also wanted to add that this book is perfect if you do lots of baking for school fairs or cake stalls and would be a great addition to your cookery book collection this year as we all prepare for street parties to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee.

Happy baking,
Zoe & Drew

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