Allyson BobbittBobbette & Belle: Classic Recipes from the Celebrated Pastry Shop: A Baking Book

Wow. I buy baking and cookbooks regularly, quite often reading and scheming more so than baking from them. And this book is plenty pretty enough to just be a calorie-free, mini-vacay, coffee table kind of book, with its elegant and sophisticated looking treats lushly photographed through out. But that would be a shame because making something out of it is doable and delicious!Features I appreciated in the book: Photos of the majority of the recipes; step-by-step photos and instructions in the "how to" section on decorating; little blue side note boxes with tips and important info; bookmark ribbon (although I could have used 2 or 3 to keep up with the 3-part cake recipes I made!).It would have been nice to have metric measurements for the recipes. Most books from real bakers have that these days and even home cooks like me appreciate the accuracy a scale produces when baking.This book arrived just as I was needing a birthday cake for my son's 16th birthday. As I was drooling over the gorgeous photography and dreaming of treats to make, I came across the Coconut Cake with Passion Fruit Curd and knew at once I wanted to give it a shot. One of my son's nicknames is Coconut, so I thought this might be a fun cake to try for him. I immediately scanned the ingredient list and found the only specialty item I would need was Passion Fruit purée, which I ordered right away. (More on that later.) I'm a self-taught home cook and baker, who does not do a lot of intensive baking. However, I was able to pull off this cake! It required 3 separate recipes: cake, Fruit Curd filling, 7-minute meringue frosting. It took a whole afternoon, but was so worth it! I was able to present my son with a really delicious birthday cake that looked almost like the photo in the book. I know he enjoyed it because after the first bite, he actually used words: "Wow. This is really good!" and ate all the leftovers himself the next day.It's a 3 layer cake, so we had plenty leftover, even after our family of 9 went at it. So we took some to share with my sister's family and they all loved it too. It was definitely on the sweet side, but I was so pleased with how moist the cake turned out. Some of the recent cookbook cakes I've made have interesting flavor profiles and look impressive, but the cakes were on the dry side. Not this one!AND it gets better. I only ended up using half the Fruit Curd and half the Meringue Frosting on the cake. I didn't want to just dump all of it, nor did I need a second cake. So I made tarts with the Passion Fruit Curd and meringues with the leftover frosting. I checked the book's recipe for meringues and saw it was very similar to the frosting recipe. I didn't want to take the time to pipe the pretty kisses featured in the book, so I just used teaspoons to make little organically shaped blobs, and baked them at 250F for a few hours like the recipe called for. I was not watching the meringues bake very closely and when I remembered to check them about 3 hours later, they were a toasty light brown color. I feared I'd ruined them, but we were delighted to discover they still had a nice texture and the most amazing toasted marshmallow flavor! Golly, were they good. And I don't even like meringues.I just made the Tart Raspberry and Lemon Cake for another birthday. Again, the base Lemon cake was wonderfully moist, and had fantastic flavor. The raspberry lemon buttercream had the prettiest pink color from the purée - no artificial dye needed. However, I wasn't crazy about the full flavor. It hits your mouth with a wonderfully tangy raspberry and lemon flavor, but it follows up with a butter afternote that didn't fit with the other flavors of the cake. I used Kerrigold Irish butter, which I normally love. But I didn't want to taste it with the other flavors of this cake. I think next time I'll try flavoring the Meringue recipe with lemon and raspberry, or experiment with less butter. However, the rest of my family loved it.So my adventures with Bobbette and Belle thus far have been a hit. The entire family looks forward to seeing how the rest of the recipes work out.A note about Fruit purée - One of the nice little sidenotes in the Passion Fruit Curd recipe said to make sure I was getting purée and not fruit juice. Well, I thought I did. But I didn't. The "purée" I ordered turned out to be a drink mix and tasted exactly the way the book said it would - very sweet and not much flavor. Not withstanding this mistake, the cake was delicious. We really want to try it again with a strong, true Passion Fruit flavor. But some people like very sweet and even the tarts I made with the leftover Curd got eaten by a very happy 5 yr old.

What a stunning book, full of beautifully photographed desserts. It would make a wonderful book for a younger cook , however if you are closer to my age [ mid 60's} you more than likely already own many of the recipes in this book. On the book sleeve is a description of pastel colored marshmallows, but in the book the recipes for a vanilla and chocolate marshmallows only. A recipe for granola ? Sorry that it so easy to find in any book. In the Perfect Pumpkin pie they state that the key to a great pumpkin pie is a buttery crust and proper seasoning of the filing . The seasoning ? pumpkin puree, sweetened condensed milk, a little sour cream, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg. I got this book as a gift to my daughter who lived in Toronto for two years,however I feel her skills exceed the recipes here. But if you are looking for a book for a younger cook this is lovely and inspiring.

I first met Sarah and Allyson when I used to take cake decorating classes in Toronto, Canada. Sarah had just started teaching at the school and gave me a private lesson. She had the gentlest manner and great teaching style. Allyson's wedding cakes are stunning works of art. I've been following their work for a while.I eagerly purchased their book because I knew it would be great. From first glance the recipes are laid out in an easy to read manner and there are lots of tips and tricks. The photography is top notch and best of all there's a recipe for butter tarts! I do wish there were more pictures of their stunning wedding cakes but thats just because I like the eye candy. Can't wait to try the macarons!-Raheel

Justy looking at the cover makes me feel like I've just stepped into Bobette and Belle's amazing sounding shops! I love their style, and as a cake decorator I've been oohing and ahhing over their cake designs for a couple years now. This is the kind of book i will be taking with me to a coffee shop to relax, discover, and bookmark a whole bunch of recipes. So far I've only had time to make the yummy brownies, but I can't wait to tackle more. Everything looks so incredible. There's something about Canadian bakin' that makes me feel like they really know what they're doing!If they would come out with a book on cake designs and techniques I'd be first in line...

I just received this book, I pre-ordered it months ago, and lemme tell you... The patience I had to have to wait until it arrives.... Epic. And it is such a gorgeous book, I'd gladly wait months and months for it again. I live in California, and I've never been to their bakery, but I've followed them on Instagram for a while. Every one of the photos in the book is just stunning. I can't wait to make every single one of the recipes, I can't decide what I should make first.I am also a cake decorator, and I can't wait to put some of these recipes to the test for my customers!

Gorgeous book. The professional tips alone make it a tremendous asset to anyone wanting to heighten their baking skills, but nothing insurmountable to the average baker, with the exception of the French macarons, which took them an admittedly long time to perfect. A great addition to any serious cook's library. Much better than your run of the mill how to bake book, but no so daunting that it is intimidating to the home cook.

Can't wait to bake some of these recipes. Gorgeous photos throughout the book. Recipes look do-able.

Though I bought mine used this is a wonderful book, great pics, well made, and great instructions.

Great book, well written and presented. Some lovely recipes for everyday and special occasions.

Love this book! Recipes are easy to follow, everything I've made so far tastes amazing. The only thing I wish they did was include weights for the ingredients along with the measurements, makes for a more consistent end result. Not a huge problem, I've been making notes beside each recipe as I go to try them.Definitely recommend!

Love this book - recipes are clear - photos are great. Have made several items - the sugar cookies are hands down the best I have made! Highly recommended!

Lots of wonderful recipes. I like that there are photos of all of the products so you know how it should look. I've tried the Caramel cake and it turned out as described. The instructions are good and this book would make an excellent gift.

Quality cookbook with yummy recipes. Got for my wife for Mother's day and love the peanut butter cookie recipe. Just don't forget to add some quality chocolate chips.