Review: “Cake Days”, the new Hummingbird Bakery bake book.

I love reading, anything from history, crafts, politics, gardening, music, cooking and baking, you name it, I’ve read it! But few books in the last 5 years have had me reading it from cover to cover from the moment I opened the package. The last book was Lorraine‘ Pascale‘s “Baking Made Easy” and the latest being “Cake Days”, written by Tarek Malouf and the Hummingbird Bakers.

Cake Days does all the usual stuff a good cook book should do; it includes a whopping 250 plus pages of delicious recipes. accompanied by great pictures. What makes the difference is the concept; following the success of it’s facebook page, the people behind the famous London Hummingbird bakeries noticed a growing trend of everyday baking, as opposed to just dusting off the baking pans when special occasions demanded.

With chapters including ‘Spring Weekend Bakes’, ‘Summer Afternoon Tea’, ‘Rainy Day Treats’, as well recipes ideal for Mother’s and Father’s Day and Bonfire Night, this book should see you though every conceivable event for any day of the year, where a cake or bake is required. (Which for me, is any day of the week!)

I am very pleased that Cake Days isn’t just about cupcakes, included are cheesecakes, muffins, pies, cookies and even a few savoury bakes. The highlights for me are the ‘Courgette, Walnut and Cinnamon layer cake’, especially as I’m keen on finding ways to introduce vegetables into my cake making, ‘Chilli, Cheese and Sweetcorn muffins’, ‘Lemon and Thyme loaf’, ‘Apple Blossom cupcakes’, and the ‘Cinnamon and Raisin loaf’.

There are a few overlaps of recipes from the first Hummingbird Bakery book, and if you are on a strict calorie control diet, you will need to adapt most of the recipes accordingly. But then cakes are rarely eaten for their health benefits. Some of the bakes are going to be time consuming and some recipes are geared towards the confident baker. Some recipes use expensive ingredients, but with a little fore-thought and planning, this shouldn’t pose too much of an issue. But I think there are a good mix of recipes for both the new and more experienced home baker.

Fans of the Hummingbird bakeries will love this book, and so will anyone who loves baking as a hobby.

Pros: Great photos, super price (at time of writing, now less than half price on Amazon!)

Cons: Would have liked a more in depth chapter about baking suppliers, and tip and techniques – but recognise this is not a teaching book!

Rating 4/5