Welcome back to the Maison Cupcake Bumper Books Christmas Gift Guide served in SIX digestible parts.
Most of these titles below came out, or where re-issued during 2011, some I own, some I’ve gazed at in bookstores, all would make an ideal gift for someone.
Today I’m kicking off with books for cake and confectionery fanatics.
Below you can also win a Morphy Richards Breadmaker
Books for cake and confectionery lovers
Clockwise from top left:
For ladies beyond cupcakes
Meg Ray’s Miette brings the famous San Francisco bakery of the same name to your kitchen; famous for her signature mid sized cakes, especially those like the one on the cover with triple layers and frosting, this book is one of my favourites of the year. Scalloped edges to the pages make it stand out! Sadly it’s only been published with American cup sizes but I intend to make lots of things from this in the new year.
Miette by Meg Ray with Leslie Jonath is published by Chronicle Books in hardback RRP £17.99.
For the Francophile who loves to bake
David Lebovitz certainly will have you Ready for Dessert with this masterful volume of over 170 recipes for cakes, cobblers, cookies, custards and more. This book is weighty, full of detailed advice and the wit we’ve come to expect from David’s blog. Not all recipes are accompanied by photos but you feel so guided by his expert advice you can have every faith each dessert or biscuit will turn out just right.
Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes by David Lebovitz is published by Jacqui Small in hardback RRP £25.
For the discerning chocolate lover or would-be chocolatier
William is one of the country’s top chocolatiers, having worked at numerous Michelin-starred restaurants with a number of the most respected chefs and pâtissiers in the business. Couture Chocolate is an astonishing homage to chocolate patisserie. Beyond being any other chocolate cookery book, it demonstrates in pictures highly skilled techniques that go into creating the most elaborate chocolates and desserts. For most people this is very advanced and would see little further action than oo-ing and arr-ing on the coffee table, however if you were someone wanting to set up their own chocolate business this publication would be an inspiring and beautiful textbook.
Couture Chocolate: A Masterclass in Chocolate by William Curley is published by Jacqui Small in hardback RRP £30.00.
For the cake perfectionist
Mich Turner’s Cake Masterclass does for cake what William Curley has just done for chocolate: There are those happy with a dusting of icing sugar on their bakes and others who set out to create a real show stopper. If you fall into the latter category and are prepared to get seriously obsessive about piping bags and sugarpaste – this ain’t airy fairy stuff you know, it’s hard core cake decoration. Mich shares her secrets for baking and decorating stunningly beautiful cakes with a dizzy array of step by step pictures to see you through virtually every cake decorating technique imaginable.
Mich Turner’s Cake Masterclass: The Ultimate Step by Step Guide to Cake Decorating Perfection by Mich Turner MBE is published in hardback by Jacqui Small RRP £30.
With thanks to Jacqui Small for the review copies.
Don’t forget, until 30th November you can also enter my Mich Turner cake decorating products giveaway.
Giveaway #27: Win a Morphy Richards Breadmaker
This ergonomically designed Morphy Richards breadmaker with easy-view front angled display has a unique collapsible kneading blade for perfect shaped loaves, a timer, digital display, makes loaves up to 2lb and has 13 programmes for a variety of different recipes.
Find out how easy it is to wake up to fresh bread every day!
HOW TO ENTER
- Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made via blog comments, Twitter, Facebook etc.
- This giveaway is set to run until midnight Saturday December 10th.
- Do read the rules below.
- Winners are announced on the Rafflecopter form after claiming prizes.
First timers: How Rafflecopter works (video clip)
- No form showing? Hit refresh and it should appear
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- Mandatory entries to be completed first; i.e. leave a blog comment
- Want more chances to win? Come back daily to confirm bonus entries via Twitter
- Viewing this by email? You need to click through to enter.
Good luck!
Prize sponsored by Morphy Richards
RULES:
1. Open to UK residents over the age of 18.
2. The prize is a Morphy Richards Breadmaker model 48322.
3. Instructions form part of the terms and conditions.
4. No fibs: each winner’s tweet entries and subscriptions etc are cross checked, cheats will have ALL entries disqualified.
5. This giveaway is hosted on behalf of prize sponsor Morphy Richards who will deliver the prize(s) following confirmation of winners’ contact details.
6. The prize sponsor’s decision is final and binding on entrants; no further correspondence will be entered into.
7. There is no cash or alternative to the prize stated.
8. The prize is selected in good faith, however the prize sponsor may substitute with one similar value/type if original one is unavailable.
9.Winners are picked by Rafflecopter using random.org and the site owner contacts them by the email.
10. Failure to claim prizes within 7 days will result in a replacement winner being chosen.
Come back next time when Part Three of the Maison Cupcake Bumper Books Christmas Gift Guide will feature books for teens and twenty somethings – and a chance to win a Kindle with new shopping smartphone app, Simply Tap.
Other Maison Cupcake giveaways to enter
Best bread I’ve ever had was walnut and blue cheese, hungry just thinking about it! 🙂
Homemade raisin and cinnamon bagels! Granted, I may have been overzealous with my hole-making, but the sense of pride made every bite taste ten times better than shop bought.
Do you have the re-issued version of miette? I wanted that book really bad but the first printing had some many errors it put me off.
Ah no, it has a very pretty erroratum card inside the back cover though.
Oooh the Miette book looks amazing!
What a fabulous prize – the scent of baking bread without the effort!
Rosemary bread made by my daughter!
My mum’s white soda bread. Takes me back to my childhood.
Wholewheat granary is always my favourite
My sister made a tomato and cheese bread in her bread maker, I ate it while still warm, was FANTASTIC!
great prize
My granny used to make her own, delicious, I would love to give it a go too
I’d love to give this to my mom as a Christmas present!
I’m just a simple girl at heart and a warm white slice of bread can’t be beaten.
cinnamon & raisin bread
Roasted Tomato and poppy seed Bread. Mmmm
Mmm definitely need a bread maker – have been hand baking bread for a couple of months but it’s a struggle to always find the time to do it myself with two small children so a bread maker would solve all my problems!
Jo x
Banana bread
Fave bread has to be West Indian Bun wonderful with butter & cheese!
Granary bread is my favourite
I love the fresh baked flat breads you get around the Middle East… larger than a dinner plate and slapped on the heated walls of the fire like a pizza to bubble and bake so they end up with crispy bits, thin bits, bubbly bits and soft thick bits (you can tell I am not a food writer!). They normally bake twice a day so you collect them fresh as they are being cooked and it is impossible not to eat any before you get home.
I hope i win
looking forward to make lots of fresh bread
Mix of white and wholemeal with added sunflour seeds
I always love wholemeal and granary – the more seeds the better and I prefer a thick cut piece of loaf!
I love raisin, rosemary and walnut – simply delicious!
Onion and rosemary focaccia – unbelievably scrummy!
Any fresh bread drives me wild 😀
My Fave bread has to be fruit bread – lovely toasted with butter
I love ANY fresh bread! i love the smell, the texture! yum! But if i have to choose then a nice Ciabatta…..
The best bread I have tasted is bread my mum makes 🙂
Without a doubt sourdough from a bakery in Clifden,Ireland
fresh fruit bread
I absolutely love any Fresh Bread – there is nothing better than the taste of a freshly baked loaf of bread.
walnut bread was my favourite x
toasted fruit loaf is wonderful
I love bread so much, I could never not have bread. My friends made a nice sundried tomato and herb bread recently and it was delicious.
I love focaccia bread with olives & pesto – yum!
x
I love a fresh baguette.yum
Focaccia bread
I like cheese topped bread, with cheese in it!
Catalan tomato bread. I’m slightly cheating here cos the tomato is rubbed on the bread but it’s the best thing (almost) about going to Barcelona.
Great Prize!
has to be sundried tomato bread mmm
A warm Baguette
I have recently become passionate about cooking and baking in particular, I am itching to try and recreate my favourites, onion bread and rosemary bread.
Garlic bread, so tasty with butter on !!
Crusty White Bread
My husband makes the best cinnamon fruit loaf in the world. Trust me! He’d like it so much more if he had a bread maker!!
The best bread I ever tasted was while I was in Zambia in the bush. The chef baked fresh bread every day. Each day it had a different flavour, but the best bread had to be the onion bread however. It was simply gorgeous, and with such limited ingredients available and using very simple baking methods (Wood and fire) as no electricity was available, the chef was a true talent and inspiration to all wannabe bakers!
Lightly roasted Garlic Focaccia is my favourite, nice ‘n’ soft with plenty of moisture.
Six-seed granary.
Granary and Walnut! mmmmm
I love parmesan cheese and onion bread, the dough makes a great pizza base as well.
My favourite type of bread has to be the Challah bread from the Happening Bagel Bakery in Finsbury park! You’re almost always guaranteed a hot loaf of amazing bread! Yum!
My favourite bread is tiger bread, I just love the taste and when fresh is fab in chunks, after a day or two, it’s amazing for toast, it’s probably the only bread that we eat the whole loaf without giving any to the birds!
I’d have to say my most favourite bread would be a simple warmed ciabatta with olive oil and balsamic dip… yum 🙂
Yorkshire flatbread
cheese and onion bread yummy
tomato bread :O)
My favourite type of bread is garlic bread 😉
I love sourdough bread – can’t get enough of it when I holiday in the USA!!!
Already subscribed to Maison Cupcake
Fresh baked seeded bread when I was visiting a friend. Yum.
I love cheese and walnut bread
My Favourite type of bread I have eaten has got to be a lovely basil and sundried tomato wholemeal roll stuffed with mozzerella! Wow, I so need one of those right now! xx
Ciabatta is the best
Banana and walnut
Rum and raisin loaf is my favourite.
Fave Bread … a simple French White Baguette dipped in Balsamic Vinegar and Mustard Vinaigrette.. yumm ..thanks for the chance to play 🙂
Cheese and Onion loaf . It was a brown triangle shape and it had little chunks of Red Leicester inside . DIVINE !
x
Honey and sunflower wholemeal home made bread, mmm lovely
Homemade Cheese n Tomato bread
A really good organic dark rye bread (preferably topped with goat’s cheese and chilli chutney!).
It has to be a sundried tomatoe Italian bread
mmm sesame seed bread, yummy.
Has to be tomato bread
I recently tried ‘toffee apple’ bread and it was yummy!
For me, you can’t beat a thick slice of pure, soft white bread!
I love Soda Bread with poached eggs, that would have to be my perfect comfort food.
I love all fresh crusty bread, but my favourite type of bread is garlic bread – I can’t ever resist it
It has to be a sweet bread, full of raisins and honey
sunflower & black olive
just ordinary French bread – but baked in a wood fired oven in a tiny hilltop restaurant in Provence, still warm and slightly smokey tasting from the oven
HAS BE SODA BREAD
Granary bread
Banana bread yummy x
Rosemary bread roles, onion bread and tiger bread, ok i have to go and eat now….
Garlic Bread is my favourite.
The favourite bread I’ve ever eaten was a fruit soda bread my mother used to make – absolutely delicious, especially straight from the oven!
Sundried tomato bread!
Homemade soda bread. mmmm
sesame bagel
I really enjoy rosemary focaccia!
TIGER BREAD
Apricot wholemeal.
ooh I made a chilli and cheese bread when I was at school but they teacher didnt like it and failed me, I thought it was lovely though.
@tiredmummyoftwo
Actually i’m really loving the onion loaf that Asda sell at the minute. Very oniony and rustic and only £1 – great with a good hearty winter soup
I love homemade white baps eaten while still warm
Thanks so much for the amazing competition
Ooh its soda bread every time for me 🙂
Sweet American-style sourdough
Ciabatta for me!!
I love any type of bread if we’re in France!
love all types of bread
I love Banana bread ?
A simple fuccacia
My Mother-in-Law’s olive bread
Anything involving sourdough
ciabatta – mmm – yes please
Soudough. It’s some kind of delcious alchemy.
focaccia
olive bread please
I agree. Focaccia is my favourite as well
Rasain.
Freshly baked crusty white bread.
Easy question for me it has to be Ciabatta.
Love teabread when I can get it
I love rolls with sesame seeds
I love ciabatta
@emma1111111
Soya and Linseed.
Naan
Rye bread
I love soda bread … especially my Mum’s homemade soda bread; it’s the best!
Sun-dries Tomato & Black Olive Focaccia
Soda bread,,, love it
Ciabatta bread everytime
Any freshly baked bread
A lovely sourdough with that wonderful chewy crust…mmm
Pumpkin seed bread
Homemade foccacia
NAAN BREAD FOR ME LOL
I love sesame seed buns
Our old one has lost its non-stickyness, but it was great for making all sorts of flovoured breads. Could do with another.
Naan (for my Nan!)
My favorite bread is Portuguese Sweet Bread.
Naan
i love tiger bread!
Soda bread my aunt used to send us boxes of it.
I love poppy seed bread x
Cheese topped barmcakes
My mums whole meal bread! Yum!
Olive bread in Italy – Mammamia its was good
Sounds tame but the fresh crunchy white rolls at Co-op are amazing!
Cottage loaf
fruit loaf is just lush!!x x x
A really soft garlic bread with lots of garlic butter 🙂
Does Banana bread count?
i love a nice fresh fruit loaf toasted with real butter on it. yummy!!
I love home made bread
My husband makes superb wholemeal bread with ground nuts and different oils. Best I’ve tasted.
GARLIC BREAD
I love good old tiger bread. It’s simple and scrummy.
Fresh baked white bread with a soft crust.
Hmmm, fresh bread… Not had that in yonks…
challah bread.. delish
Cheese and Onion Bread
Oats and honey bread, it’s amazing!
My favourite bread is Garlic Bread
definitely garlic bread
My favourite bread is anything with seeds in it.
I love french bread
Just love Pumpernickel bread
I love bread with poppy seeds – delicious!
Italian herb bread is the tastiest
Turkish Bread – made in front of us in open ovens in Turkey. Hmmm!
Olive and sundried tomato
I love bread baked with sunblushed tomatoes and cheddar cheese
My favourite bread ever is Sourdough. I love any kind but i especially like the one made from a sourdough starter which lives in my fridge.
DOOR STOP BREAD!
onion bread
Oats and honey bread, yummy!
banana bread x
Has to be Mediterranean bread with basil and sundried tomatoes
fresh white bread will do
I love bread with sunflower seeds.
I love a fresh French baton with sesame seeds on it
garlic!!
I can never resist a baguette
I love any type of bread, especially when it’s freshly baked and still warm with the butter melting as you spread it!! mmmmmm
sundried tomato and parmesan. GORGEOUS!
baguette
Low GI bread,soft seeded bread that releases energy slowly mmmmmm
Starbucksluxury fruit bread its my Friday morning treat!!!
A pumpkin & maple bread topped with pumpkin seeds… would love to try & recreate it.
Warm sourdough bread for breakfast.
i love german bread. dont know exactly what it called, they have different loaves like we do but its all delicious
garlic bread
Fresh baked white bread with a soft crust yum
I love bread with poppy seeds on x
cheddar and caramelised onion crusty cob
Cheesy Tiger bread. NOM NOM NOM
Soda Bread
I would love a Breadmaker, the smell of baking bread is one of my favourite smells
Irish soda bread
Homemade bread is the best-all types!!
brioche
Crunchy crust,soft centered fresh white bread.
I like brown, whograin bread with seeds.
Walnut bread is my favourite. Love the nutty flavour.
Naan bread
Tiger Bread! lovely!!
I’m an old school’er and will always stick to fresh granary.
Love granary
Home baked wholemeal – preferably soft top!
Tiger bread
Fresh White for me.
My high school used to sell wholemeal rolls that were baked onsite, they were lovely, still warm from the oven
@littleboo_21
I love cheese & onion rolls
cinnamon, i still love it the most today.
I have to have gluten free bread and to be honest the shop made GF bread is all pretty rubbish 🙁 But I make a loaf from a mix called ‘Helen’s brilliant bread mix’ and it’s lovely. @piperanddaisy
I absolutely love and adore – sourdough! I rememer the first time I ever tasted it, just delicious 😀
Tiger Bread. Grrrr!
Tiger Bread from Asda!
@compingstar
Ciabatta, absolutely amazing taste!
I love home made bread.
Entry confimrd on Twitter.
Cheese and onion tiger loaf.
Cheese and onion bread xxx