Blog Tour: One Sweet Cupcake by Janell Brown

One Sweet Cupcake: Professional Decorating and Recipe Secrets Made Easy

Book Description:

Winner of Food Network's Cupcake Wars, Janell Brown, gives expert advice on all aspects of cupcake baking, including ingredients, techniques, and equipment. You'll also learn the basics of cupcake decorating, along with ideas for themes, seasons, and holidays. Discover all these sweet secrets for making your cupcakes look professional and taste great.

Review:

I love the cover and the pictures in One Sweet Cupcake. The cupcakes look so delicious!

Although I was practically drooling when I finished looking through the book, I was a bit overwhelmed. It didn't seem really geared toward your average baker.

I decided on two recipes, Peanut Butter Swirl and Grasshopper. I really liked how the cupcake part had nearly the same recipe, so I could test both recipes at once. However, I was horrified to find no baking time for either of these recipes. I need a ballpark time, not just telling me it's done when a toothpick comes out clean and it springs back at my touch. Luckily the cupcakes in the previous section said 20-25 min, so I had an idea of where to start.

Other than the missing baking time, the instructions were pretty easy to follow. But, the mint recipe said to core the cupcake for the ganache and I wasn't sure how to do that. It would have been nice having a note on that recipe or a section in the book with tips on things like that. As it was I just used a spoon to dig out a bit in the center. That seemed to work, but I'm not sure if that's what was intended.

In general I'm not a dark or semisweet chocolate fan, and I found that I didn't care for the flavor of the chocolate base. The filling and frosting flavors definitely help, but if I were to make more of these chocolate based cupcakes I'd definitely use a cake mix. It would be much easier and I prefer the flavor.

That said, my husband and I shared these with our co-workers to see what they thought. The Grasshopper seemed to be the favorite, although both were enjoyed by most of our tasters. The Grasshopper was more moist, and one taster enjoyed it so much he was speechless.

The beginning of the book talks about having basic ingredients that most people would have on hand, and for the most part I did have the ingredients, but there were a few things I didn't have. Especially with the non-chocolate based cupcakes-vanilla bean paste isn't a staple in my kitchen.

Title:One Sweet Cupcake: Professional Decorating and Recipe Secrets Made Easy  

Author: Janell Brown

Publisher: Cedar Fort
Published: October 2013
ISBN: 1462112358
Source: I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Purchase: Amazon