Professional cake decorating - Toba M Garrett

Professional Cake Decorating

The comprehensive guide to amazing cake decoration--now fully updated Professional Cake Decorating is a must-have resource for professional and aspiring cake artists, baking and pastry students, and cake decorating hobbyists, drawing on years of experience from master cake designer and IACP Award nominee Toba Garrett. This Second Edition has been completely revamped with gorgeous new photography and a fresh new design. The New Skills have been re-organized into a user-friendly, step-by-step format, and line art and photos throughout the book provide a visual reference for each new technique. The book begins with an introductory chapter on all the fundamentals of the cake designer's art, from covering a cake board to assembling and icing a layered cake to stacking cake tiers with pillars or columns. Subsequent chapters cover decorating techniques including Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced Piping Skills, The Art of Writing and Painting, Royal Icing Design Skills, Hand Modeling Skills, Pastillage Construction, Gumpaste Flowers, and much more. A chapter on Miniature Cakes and Decorated Cookies includes techniques for making petit fours and other small treats, while the Cake and Confectionery Gallery provides inspiration for decorators with nearly 20 full-page photos of breathtaking cakes and information on the techniques needed to complete each one. Garrett also includes recipes for cakes, fillings, icings, cookies, and more, as well as an appendix of templates to help decorators replicate the designs shown in the book.

Product Details

Language: English
ISBN-10: 0470380098
ISBN-13: 978-0470380093

From the Inside Flap

Professional Cake Decorating is the definitive guide on the subject from master cake designer and IACP Award winner Toba Garrett. This comprehensive second edition has been completely revamped with all-new photography, and includes more cake decorating skills and techniques than ever before in a fresh, easy-to-use format. Whether you decorate cakes in a professional bakeshop or simply as a hobby, Toba Garrett provides all the information and guidance you'll need.
This must-have resource begins with an introduction to the fundamentals of the cake designer's art, from covering a cake board to assembling and icing a layered cake to stacking cake tiers with pillars or columns. Later chapters cover such topics as piping, writing and painting, royal icing design, hand modeling, pastillage construction, gumpaste flowers, and much more.

A full chapter on miniature cakes and cookies includes techniques for making petits fours and other small treats, while a gallery of cakes and confections provides inspiration with color photos of breathtaking cakes and information on the skills needed to create each one.

Featuring hundreds of step-by-step photos and illustrations and dozens of tried-and-tested recipes, Professional Cake Decorating is the only book that puts Toba Garrett's 30 years of training, traveling, teaching, and private decorating practice in the palms of your hands. A must for today's professional bakers, cake artists, baking and pastry students, and cake decorating enthusiasts, this book is an indispensable one-stop resource on the art of cake design.

About the Author

Biography
Toba Garrett heads the department of cake decorating and design at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. Garrett holds a Master's Degree in Educational and Instructional Technology from Long Island University and is the author of Professional Cake Decorating, The Well-Decorated Cake and Creative Cookies: Delicious Decorating for Any Occasion. She is a member of the International Cake Exploration Societe and former President of the Confectionary Arts Guild of New Jersey, and was named one of the Top Ten Cake Artists in the U.S. in 2010 by Dessert Professional magazine.

Reviews

I have been long awaiting the arrival of this second edition book by the most talented Toba Garrett, and it has been worth the wait! Though Chef Garrett has published other fine books in the baking field, the first edition book of "Professional Cake Decorating" published in 2006, had been the one that came initially from the requests of her students; something to consolidate the overwhelming mountains of teaching in this field. The 2006 edition encompassed the techniques of cake decorating, though much can be used in other areas of culinary decorating (cookies, cupcakes, etc). Having the first edition book well-worn, I feel confident in my opinion that this second edition far exceeds all that she offered in the first.

She has updated and reorganized this excellent teaching tome, by steamlining some aspects and intensifying others. With the initial target audience of students, those who are comfortable in their cake decorating skills, as well as a patient beginner, can certainly embrace the joyous challenges as she takes you through a myriad of more detailed lessons and techniques. To compliment the serious attention that she gives this art form, there is an accompanying instructor's manual as well.

The photography is crisp and clear, the drawing clean, the text straight forward. Charts, colored and B&W photographs, with the steps needed to achieve the end results, are given. Having said this, there is an assumption that you have some skill base already. With each lesson, she provides you with the prep/set-up, the instructions, lesson reviews, and even performance tests to help build your confidence by practicing. Each lesson introduction page will list everything you will need to complete that section.

This book is so complete that it would probably be the only one you need in your cake library. Some of the 'lessons' are a bit advanced, but then again, the book is called "Professional Cake Decorating". I decorate cakes as a hobby and I'm always looking to learn new ideas and 'tricks of the trade'. If you are like me, this book is essential for you.

This is a beautifully composed book on the art of decorating the modern cake. As earlier reviewers have described the book in depth, I would say, for the advanced beginner and intermediate baker, this book is a plus on your shelf.

I am pretty new to cake decorating, but have been baking for years now. I saw this book and something told me to buy it. I am pleasantly pleased by the photos, the information and the entire structure of making and putting together the many layers of a well decorated cake. Ms. Garrett has given us the tools to practice with in such clear English, it's almost too easy.

As for the three star reviewer, I would pose the question, if there is anything new to learn or a better way to teach it, why not put it in a book yourself and share it with the world? The content of this book deserves more than a three star. Especially since most bakers do not hold a Master's Degree in teaching, and most writers on this subject are not as giving as Ms. Garrett. If you are a dedicated learner, there is always something to be learned from everything.