The Gilded Cake: The golden rules of cake decorating for metallic cakes

Lovely techniques in this book. I will be implementing these into my cake designs!!

Loved the cake designs, she is a fabuluos and meticuluos cake artist.

Informative

When I selected "The Gilded Cake: The Golden Rules of Cake Decorating for Metallic Cakes" by Faye Cahill, I was hoping to find some recommendations on how to 'upcycle' my basic level baking. But when I received it and started flipping through the pages, I immediately thought, "Whoa, this gilded cake is serious business."I mean that in half-jest but honestly, this book was intimidating. That said, I have a friend who lit up when I showed her the book so we tackled a couple of the projects listed. There are a lot of materials listed so I think getting through 2 projects was pretty good.The directions are good and I appreciated the first few chapters that cover some of the applications. Still, the list of materials was intimidating to me so my friend suggested staying with the one layer projects. I liked that there was those options. I learned how to make meringue 'kisses' and that was fun. My friend had a blast but I was sweating it. She knew how to scale back and honestly, I think that brings me back to a previous point. As pretty as the pictures were, this book is a true craft book. It is meant for people who love this craft. Again, I was half-jesting that this book is 'serious business' but I'm also half-not-jesting because it is a craft. A beautiful craft too.So while for me, I think this book is way over my head and skill set; for my friend, who loves making beautiful cakes and actually is a good baker, this would be a book that is more appropriate. She loved it and more importantly, it is useful to her.

I’m more of a foodie than a cake decorator, but I enjoyed reading The Gilded Cake so much despite knowing my skills are far too basic to take on these metallic cake projects. The cakes photographed in this book are truly works of art and reading the projects confirms what I suspected- that creating a stunning gilded cake is not an easy project to take on. But the instructions are there for artful intermediate and advanced cake decorators to make a truly special cake. This book will dazzle those who have worked with metallics or who want to take cake decorating to a whole new level.And while creating a gilded cake isn’t in my foreseeable future, this book was still a joy for me to read. The photos of the absolutely stunning cakes can be admired by anyone as there’s so much beauty and creativity in the finished projects. This is also a fabulous idea book for a bride-to-be planning a wedding, or a couple planning a silver or golden wedding anniversary. The instructions are all there so that someone talented could be hired to create a beautiful cake decorated with silver or gold. While perhaps best for an advanced cake decorator, I think this is a gorgeous book that can be enjoyed by a much wider audience. 5 stars.

As other reviewers have said, this is a gorgeously presented book with full color illustrations of all of the techniques and projects. I was pleased to see the general structure was such that basics, general tips, specific projects, and a link to templates were all included. There are also tiny projects as companion projects to major cake decorating sections (e.g., small stacks of cookies with ganache between them and a decorative topping). Even if you feel you're not up to the complex cakes, you can start with those small projects.I also liked that there are a lot of troubleshooting tips interspersed into the instructions such as mentioning that certain types of preparations might start to clump up and telling you how to resolve these issues on the fly. Since I'm not well-practiced in such things, it's nice to know beforehand that what might go wrong is something even an expert might experience and not my incompetence.There are recipes in the book, but they are not for basic cakes, but for ganache, royal icing, and other decorative elements that you can make yourself. No small number of materials are referenced and required, but sources to shop from are in the back of the book (including multiple countries). The number of materials needed is a bit daunting though that's not really a fault of the book so much as a reflection of how sophisticated the techniques are.The only thing which I wished was different in the book was some explanation of why working over materials other than fondant was given. I know some people decorate on frozen, smoothed, buttercream (which has a better texture and preferable flavor). I didn't know from this book if that simply will not work or if it's just a preference of the author and most decorators for working with fondant since it isn't subject to changes in texture with temperature variation. This is a minor point however. I found the content and organization of the book to be clear and helpful and would recommend it to anyone looking to do metallic decoration of cakes.

Brilliant book helped me with my design using gold leaf which I haven't used before

This is a good book if you are looking to change your cake presentations.

Lovely book bought as a present

Absolutely in love with this book! Look at the cake I made with soft metal touches! ♥

This book is a must for anyone thinking of using gold and silver. It is inspirational as well as informative.