Cake Baking and Decoration Books

We get lots of requests (and recommendations) for books that will help you with cake baking, decorating or running your cake business. Here are some that we like and that you have recommended. We've included links to Amazon to help you find them:

Cake Decorating

Debbie Brown's 50 Easy Party Cakes - This delightful book offers some easy and original ways to give your party cake real impact. It contains easy to follow recipes and decorating steps which we think appeal to both novice and experienced bakers. The range of ideas covers (or can be adapted to suit) cakes for all age groups.

The Contemporary Cake Decorating Bible: Lindy Smith - Many of our facebook followers are fans of Lindy Smith. This book starts from the basics and works up to advanced sugarcraft techniques, so we think this one too will appeal to both beginners and really experienced cake makers. There are lots of pictures andclear instructions. Lindy's cakes are both beautiful and original so you'll be sure to find something here that you won't have seen elsewhere.

Fun and Original Birthday Cakes: Maisie Parrish - Another of our readers' favourites, Maisie Parrish is a well known cake designer whose fun cakes can actually be achieved by all. This book has lots of ideas, with great pictures and detailed instructions on how to create fun cakes. If you thought you'd never be able to do character sculpting, you may find you surprise yourself after a bit of practice with Maisie!

Mich Turner's Cake Masterclass - Mich Turner of the Little Venice Cake company, has produced another stunning book here. It's easy to follow and both the beginner and the experienced cake maker will find it an essential addition to their kitchen library. We found it really is a 'masterclass' with such clear and detailed instructions that you'd find it hard to go wrong.

The Art of Royal Icing - Eddie Spence - According to some of facebook fans, if you're serious about cake decoration, this book is an 'absolute must'. This book is often recommended for college courses as it covers piping techniques from the basic to the really intricate.

Alan Dunn's Sugarcraft Flower Arranging - if you intend to make cakes for weddings, anniversaries or christenings, then you can be pretty sure you will need to make edible flowers/flower arrangements for them. This book comes highly recommended by sugarcrafters.

Cake Baking

The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook - If you're familiar with the Hummingbird Bakery's cakes and want to try your own, this is the book to use. Our readers have been split in their views on this book as Hummingbirds do seem to have 'slightly alternative' methods in some of their cake recipes. What we'd say is if you follow the recipes exactly, you'll achieve great results. Our favourites are peanut butter cookies and the lemon and poppy seed cake!

The Great British Bake Off: How to Bake - For those of you who love the TV series, this book won't disappoint. We find many books published as a spin off from a TV series are often lacking in substance. The books contains lots of the key baking tips that you'll use time and again, whenever you're baking cakes, pastry or bread. With over 120 recipes and some ideas for creative twists on old favourites, we think this one's a winner.

The Delia Collection: Baking - Trusty Delia Smith, comes up trumps again for us with this lovely collection. For anyone who's a novice or who doesn't bake regularly, this is the one that will get you inspired and on your way. Great recipes, laid out in an easy to follow, methodical format which always includes baking tin size, temperatures and timings.

Starting or Running a Cake Business

Starting a Cake Decorating Business from Home: Kathy Moore For the budding cake business owners among you, this book will give you all the informaton you need to start out. Even if your hobby is cake making and you're not sure about the whole business thing, this books gives you all the relevant points to consider and ponder. A great reference point for any small business cake businesses.

The Small Business Start Up Workbook: Cheryl Rickman - Not purely about cake businesses, but there's a great deal of information here which will be relevant to you if you've started small, selling to friends and want to move to the next stage. There are lots of case studies, worksheets and check lists to draw from and crucial sections on marketing strategies and managing staff effectively.

Keeping up to date

We hope to keep this list up to date and will continue to add to it as and when we can. We're working on a list of your favourite baking equipment and tools as we write this too!