After the success of their first cookbook, last year, here is the second offering on the cookbook front from the famous bakery. The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days by Tarek Malouf and the Hummingbird Bakers published by Collins in 2011.
A very nice book it is bigger than the first one. Plenty of pictures of the finished baked goods too. It has a good layout, with different colours used in pretty ways. Cupcakes, cakes, loaf cakes, savoury muffins and more. This book takes you through a year at the bakery, and this is clearly reflected in the flavours of the baked goods in the various chapters. The chapters are: Valentine’s Day* Spring Weekend Bakes* Mother’s and Father’s Day* Easter* Summer afternoon Tea* Birthdays and Celebrations* Rainy Day Treats* Halloween and Bonfire Night* and Christmas.
I couldn’t wait to get baking from this one! They say the cupcake is waning in its popularity; well not in my heart, head and kitchen it’s not!! Sticky Toffee Cupcakes were my first bake, and they were closely followed by the next two here that I’ve tried. My friend Kate made and gives the thumbs up to the apple and walnut cupcakes too.
Some of the other recipes I have marked to try are: Apple Blosson Cupcakes, Caramel Cupcakes, Rose Cupcakes, Lemonade Cupcakes, Pea, Ham and Feta Cheese Muffins, Gingerbread Cupcakes and Apple Crumble Cupcakes – to name but a few..
Sticky Toffee Cupcakes
Goodness these are so good they are dangerous! Hubby has declared this as his favourite cupcake ever, ever, EVER! Mind you it’s with good reason, moist sponge with the gorgeous mejool dates I used providing contrast and a dulce de leche buttercream frosting. I topped them with a few more chopped mejools. There was a lot of icing left over, and I’d halve it next time. There will be a next time, I think these might become hubs ‘birthday cake’ this year. I didn’t work out how many calories these have, and I definitely don’t want to know, it would spoil the joy! What I will say though is that I would have bought the book for this recipe alone.
Malteser Cupcakes
As if to contrast the success of the first one, this one didn’t do it at all for us, the cake was neither chocolate-y or malt-y enough and the frosting was just not sweet enough. Can’t win them all.
Banoffee Whoopies
This one however was another hit. I’ve been working myself up to making whoopie pies for some time now, and they are fabulous. They are really filling so small to medium in size would be better than large – well that’s what I think anyhow. Cakey, creamy, moist – delicious!
Next Up: Custard Creams
Next Review: Taste Le Tour
