Grandbaby Cakes: Modern Recipes, Vintage Charm, Soulful Memories

I never heard of Jocelyn Delk Adams before, but this book made me a fan. Part family history(and a love letter to family lore), part cake cookbook, this is tons of fun and wildly creative. After an extensive breakdown of her baking methods(she uses self-rising flour often, and writes about going the extra mile with her cakes) she gets into the nitty-gritty, with over 200 pages of beautiful cakes. Chapters include sheet cakes, seasonal specialties, and an entire pound cake chapter. Along the way she also shares ingenious homemade cake mixes and plenty of family stories regarding the origins of the recipes. Other reviewers mention they have made some of the recipes with mixed results, which is a shame because they all look so darn good. The real beauty of the book though is her creativity; if you are in a rut with your baking this book might help spark some creativity. New flavor combinations like mango carrot cake and watermelon-lime icebox cake abound. A beauty of a book that is a worthwhile read even if all the recipes might not be foolproof.

So happy I purchased this book. The book is well organized and the Grandbaby Notes are very helpful, especially to a relatively inexperienced baker. Thank you, Miss Adams, for all your efforts.

THIS BOOK HAS THE BEST CAKE RECIPIES

I bought this recipe book because of all of the wonderful reviews. The best thing about the book is that it features these creative flavor profiles that someone like me, who has already mastered the traditional recipes, couldn't wait to try. I decided that 3 of the 6 desserts I would have for my large dinner party would come from this book: Kentucky Brown Butter Cake, Key Lime Pie Cake, and Nana Pudding Tiramisu Cake. I started with the Brown Butter Cake and was surprised to see the leavening was off; the cake did not rise evenly and the center was gooey. I thought that I must have made a mistake and I started over, followed the directions carefully, and experienced the same outcome (see photo). In order to salvage the time I had invested into making two unpresentable cakes, I took the crusty edges from both cakes, made some Chantilly cream, and created a trifle (see photo). My guests loved it because those edges were tasty, so I plan to correct the recipe, which I suspect stems from the balance of baking soda and baking powder in the recipe.While disappointed, I didn't give up n the book because I had already purchased the ingredients for the other desserts and I didn't have time to go back to the store. So I moved on to the Key Lime Pie Cake. Preparation started off fine with the cake coming out of the oven perfectly. I made the key lime pie filling and cooled it completely, actually longer than the recipe advised because I began to have doubts that the soft pie filling could withstand the weight of a pretty dense cake. I knew better to pipe a retaining ring of icing at the edges of the cake to keep in place the pie filling as I assembled the cake, even though the recipe does not tell you to do so. However, since the recipe said to make the icing with room temperature butter, that cake was still having a hard time staying vertical. I did what any experienced baker would do; I stuck a wooden skewer down into the cake and popped it in the freezer to get the cake set enough to ice. After one hour I was able to finish the cake (see photo), and it needed to be refrigerated until 20 minutes before serving. This creation was not among the favored desserts at the dinner party because the cake portion was dense and dryer than ideal, due to the use of graham crackers without sufficient reductions in the amount of flour. Overall, the taste was not worth the skill required to save it. Finally, I tried the banana pudding tiramisu, and I loved it...that is saying a lot for someone who avoids banana pudding at cookouts and family functions. It also holds together well when served if you withhold one of the packages of cream cheese. Doing so cuts the calories and doesn't reduce the volume of the pudding mixture to the point where you don't have enough. I still had some of the pudding mixture left after assembly. I also used bourbon instead of rum, because bourbon makes the world a better place. In sum, I don't know if it was just my (bad) luck of the draw but 2 of the 3 recipes I tried were not ready for publication.

Great recipes

Go ahead and judge this book by its cover. The cake pictured on the front is a good representation of what you will find inside - sensation. And inside the front cover is just as telling. There is a special place provided to personalize the book with the name of the “FIRST GENERATION to own this book” followed by lines for future generations to claim ownership! The book is all about celebrating proud family traditions passed through the generations. Jocelyn describes her recipes as humble yet sophisticated in flavor and influence. Her writing is warm and playful with recipes featuring charming family anecdotes and “Grandbaby Notes,” which are Jocelyn’s personal tips and advice. The first recipe that I tried (excitedly within hours of receiving the book!) was her “German Chocolate Pound Cake,” created in a Bundt pan. She says it’s a “dressed up version” of her father’s favorite cake made by her mother. It had the elements of a traditional pound cake with modern, easy twists in ingredients, flavor and method. My family loved it. There isn’t a cake in the book of 50 that I won’t want to try. To name a few others that especially caught my eye are a light and luscious-looking peach-raspberry layer cake, the “Nana Pudding Tiramisu” sheet cake, crème brulée cupcakes; a sea salt caramel layer cake and some gems that look perfect for the holidays such as the “merry berry Christmas cake.” Thanks, Jocelyn. I look forward to baking and enjoying more of your cakes and expect some of them will become traditions in my own family.

Easy to follow amazing cakes

I was really excited to get this book. While it's really nicely designed I agree that the recipes were not all tested. I consider myself a pretty good baker so I was surprised at how the Marble Texas Sheet Cake turned out. It was soft and rose correctly but it had Zero taste. In fact due to the Buttermilk it had a bitter aspartame like flavour. Every other sheet cake I've seen uses vanilla extract or some other flavour enhancer. This recipe does not use it and to me it's a big flaw. It's supposed to be a beginner level recipe and so if I were new to baking I'd be wondering what went wrong. I've gone from being excited about the book to questioning whether to try any others. I've had much better luck with recipes found online.

I am always on a diet , so my cheat day has to be worth the calories. This book is so tempting that it is now my top cookbook for cakes that are worth the calories when I feel it is time to break my strict diet.

This was exactly as I had hoped. Excellent book and shipped very promptly.

This is truly a book every baker should have!!!