Hello Cupcake! Cute Cupcakes Book Review

Tack & Richardson's New York Times Bestselling Book Hello, Cupcake!

Mar 14, 2009 Donna Diegel

NY Times Bestseller Hello, Cupcake! Karen Tack & Alan Richardson's cute homemade cupcakes look like animals & clowns made with cake mix, candy decorations and frosting.

One of the cutest cupcake books in the stores today, Hello, Cupcake! by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson, will tickle every kids fancy. Full of high-gloss photos so lifelike, a child could easily mistake them for the real thing. Complete how-to instructions to make cupcakes that look like puppies, sunflowers, penguins and more, will have kids begging to decorate their own cupcakes for the next birthday party!

Hello, Cupcake!

Using store bought cake mix and canned frosting with bags of candies like Twizzlers, Smarties, licorice whips, jelly beans, Chicklets and Swedish Fish, anyone - kids included - can follow the easy instructions and duplicate the same cupcakes they see on the glossy pages.

Introduction

The first few pages of Hello, Cupcake! look more like a Mr. Potato Head instruction sheet. Two pages of eyes, noses, mouths, hair and eyebrows, all made out of candy, are displayed in full color in a mix-and-match sort of way. The next few pages talk about tools like scissors, scotch tape, rulers, paint brushes, tweezers, and everything else to build all the cupcakes in the book. Add to that, candy ingredients like sprinkleables, designables, cutables and rollables, and the baker will have a sugar-high just looking at the pictures!

Cupcake Techniques

A detailed section, Cupcake Techniques, explains how to make and pour batter, frostings, designing, making leaves, petals, faces, hair and even dog fur, providing the pastry chef with all the tips and tricks they need to know to master all these designer cupcakes.

April Fool's

This chapter has cupcakes made to imitate Corn on The Cob, Bagels and Lox, Spaghetti and Meatballs, and even a faux TV dinner complete with chicken drumsticks, mashed potatoes, peas & carrots and chocolate pudding on the side!

Party Animals

March of the Penguins, Fat Cats, Crazy Horses, the cutest Westies, Monarch butterflies and Shark Attack cupcakes will delight every child, but are way too adorable to eat!

Happy Birthday, Cupcake!

Birthday party suggestions are predictable with clowns and princesses, slumber parties and bowling pins. The most impressive cupcake project of them all, is a four tiered Circus Big Top, made out of almost 30 cupcakes, multiple cans of frosting, and plenty of candy to send a kid to the dentist. Each and every cupcake is hand decorated to resemble a different animal or clown that circuses are famous for! This huge project is not for the amateur Betty Crocker cupcake baker. The instructions alone are 8 pages long. When finally finished, the Big Top in all its glory, is worth the time and patience it took to create something so elaborate!

The chapters Hostess with the Mostest, Nightmare Before Thanksgiving and Holiday On Icing, have the usual, but also very unique cupcakes like sunflowers, bunnies, pool balls, babies, Easter eggs, stars & stripes, monsters, aliens and creepy crawlies. On the other side of the spectrum, stunning holiday creations are so elegant, they belong in the middle of the table as centerpieces, too elaborate to cut into.

Cupcakes and Frostings has a small collection of scratch recipes, as well as a section on how to doctor-up cake mixes and canned frostings. This is an invaluable section with many creative ideas most bakers would never dream of.

Final Words

Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make, can arguably be considered one of the most detailed and playful cupcake books of all time. It's a must have for anyone that lives and breathes adorable cupcakes.

But don't confuse this book for a cookbook. If the baker is looking for a cookbook of cake and frosting recipes, they won't find them in these pages. Sadly, Hello, Cupcake! has only a few basic recipes. However, what it lacks in recipes, the book more than makes up for in sweet glossy cuteness!

Tack & Richardson excitedly sum up their book by saying, "You don't need any baking skills to make these projects...So find a project that tickles your fancy, grab a bag or two of candy, and get ready to put your smile into overdrive. It's time to get this party started!"

Title: Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make

Authors: Karen Tack & Alan Richardson

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co; 1 edition (April 24, 2008)

Text and Photographs: Alan Richardson

Recipes and Food Styling: Karen Tack

ISBN-10: 0618829253

ISBN-13: 978-0618829255

Paperback: 240 pages - US $15.95

If the cupcake recipes in Hello, Cupcake! aren't enough, check out the recipes for Red Velvet Cupcakes, and Homemade Carrot Cake both with Cream Cheese Frosting, and also Spice Cupcakes with Penuche Frosting. All these cupcake recipes can be used as a base for the decorated cupcakes in the Hello, Cupcake! book.

The copyright of the article Hello Cupcake! Cute Cupcakes Book Review in Baking & Desserts is owned by Donna Diegel. Permission to republish Hello Cupcake! Cute Cupcakes Book Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.