The Great British Bake Off: How to Turn Everyday Bakes Into Showstoppers

Beautiful photos for most recipes. Informative tips and techniques for baking and decorating. Chapter on Basics has recipes for sauces, icings, and techniques for working with chocolate and fondant. Book is divided into chapters: Cakes, Biscuits, Breads & Sweet Dough, Tarts, Pies, Desserts, Puddings. Nicely indexed. Unusually nice selection of cakes, bread, and pastries with detailed instructions for forming and baking. One example is cream puff swans, where the swan parts (curved long neck, body, and wings) are pictured, so that you know the proper shapes of the choux pastry. The only problem I have with this book has to do with the third party seller, worldofbooksusa, which ships from Great Britain. If I had known that this were an English version with only metric weights, I would not have bought this copy. It would be cost prohibitive to return the book to England. Perhaps the copy sold directly from Amazon is a different version which includes American measurements. If metric is a problem for you, check with Amazon to see if their version includes American measurements. I would rather have pan measurements in inches instead of centimeters and weights in ounces instead of grams. There are metric conversion charts in the book, but it is annoying to have to convert measurements. Temperatures are given in Centigrade, Fahrenheit, and British Gas numbers; however, measurements in my British copy were given only in metric weights for ingredients and in metric for pan sizes. Minus a metric scale, it is not difficult to convert metric to US measurements, but some bakers may not want to take time to do that. The book took 2 weeks to arrive. There is no information on Amazon regarding the location of this seller. I think that worldofbooksusa is a bit misleading, because most buyers would think that this supplier ships from the USA. I ordered a second book as part of the same order and am still waiting for its arrival.

Because my family and I are huge fans of the show, we bought this book because we wanted the Key Lime Pie recipe that one of the contestants made. I love the way this book is set up in that the writers help you build your baking skills from the simplest to the most challenging. There are basic recipes for things like biscuits/cookies and sponges/cakes that the directions help the baker find a good place to start and then there are suggestions for how to make the end result even more fabulous. The only drawback to this book is that there aren't pictures for each of the recipes. Other than this, it is a really fun way to learn more about baking beautiful and tasty things.

Great cookbook

This cookbook was a gift and the person that received it raved about it!!

I watch the show and love it so when I saw there were books I jumped on this one. The book is beautifully illustrated with plenty of pictures for most of the recipes. There are lots of tips to help you create beautiful bakes! Also love the conversion chart in the back as I live in America and dont use the metric system. I got this book used and it is in great condition. Buy this one!

I liked the book but not quite as much as the other ones I bought from British Bake off show. I liked the recipes from the other books better

Oohs and aahs in this house and lots of yum when I bake from this book....well, except for once when I veered drastically from a recipe. This book is a keeper that I’ll continue to use over and over

I have not seen the Great British Bake Off show, in fact I find those types of shows boring !!!! But, these books are great !!! I finally found out what the heck a treacle tart is. To me treacle sounds like stomach and intestines, but to my delight it's a word the Brits use that means Molasses. So I baked up a batch of them, it's a very tasty tart. The book is good reading and very educational on British Baking.

The second book from The Great British Bake-off TV series which focusses on making basic recipes into eye-catching cakes with a little creativity and imagination. Lots of hints and tips throughout and a wide range of sweet and savoury recipes, many taken from the last series of the TV show. Loses a star for not having enough photographs of the finished products though - I find these a very useful guide to check I've done things right. Despite this, there are some great ideas in this book that I am keen to try out - cinnamon breakfast loaf; chickpea, spinach & mushroom wellington; double-crust pear pie; Gateau Paris-Brest; cinnamon apple doughnuts; marbled lemon squares; caramel layer cake. There are also useful guides to techniques, e.g. how to create feathering icing.Overall it is a lovely book, one that will be in regular use in my kitchen. I have made one of the more simple recipes already - Ruby Jacks, a type of ginger cookie/flapjack, which turned out really well and will attempt a more ambitious Orange Praline Meringue cake next week as a birthday cake for my Mum. Pity there isn't a photo to show how the finished cake is supposed to look though. But as all of the recipes have come from the TV show and therefore have been passed by the indomitable Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, even a novice baker can follow the clear instructions given for each one.Another winner from the Great British Bake-off team.

The book is in excellent condition. The recipes are good and there are some great hints and tips for people wanting to expand their knowledge on cake decorating. The only reason that I gave it 4 stars is that I would've expected more pictures. When you're learning something new, it's easier to see how to do it rather than just reading.

I love this book as much as l loved the series. I would recommend it for people with some baking experience as some of the recipes may be a little tricky for beginners - but what the heck - have a go anyway (that's what life is about and practice makes perfect!). I find the instructions easy to follow and each section contains useful advice and tips on equipment, methods and good practice. I would have liked a few more pictures for the completed bakes, but this is a minor criticism and in no way affects my enjoyment of the book. I have a number of recipe books and this I am sure will rank as one of my favourites. I have made the chocolate teacakes and they are absolutely delicious!

This is a very nice book, great quality paper and binding. I think the recipes are great and they is something for everyone. I think there are some recipes which would even be suitable for begginers to baking. The only downside is lack of pictures to the recipes as sometimes it is difficult to produce the finished product when you do not have a photo to copy. Overall i would reccomend this to anyone interested in baking, begginer or advanced.

This is a good book with lots of tips. Some of the recipes are quite complex as you might expect from the title but there also some simple recipes that go behind them which are easy enough to do. I think this is a great present for anyone who likes to bake. The book is quite detailed and long so will keep even the keenest of bakers occupied for some time. Overall a lovely buy for any bake off fan.