Enchanted Cakes for Children: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Magical Cakes (Merehurst Cake Decorating)

I originally tried to order this book through a catalog, but they were sold out. So I found it on Amazon. Debbie Brown has a gift for making beautiful, creative cakes of all kinds, as exhibited in all of her books. The photos are lovely and there are lots of hints and tips and step by step photographs for creating the elements. The creations really do seem easier to make than you'd expect, and many of the characters are merely like little edible "clay" creations. She includes all the basic information needed to create such cakes to make it accessible to beginners, from cake construction to modeling figures, adding details and so on. The cakes have interchangeable elements and you can make as much detail or as little or you want or combine elements from several cakes to make your own creation. Using edible paints and glitter, these cakes really sparkle. Her characters and her architecture (castles, teapot houses, sleeping beauty's bed, sunken treasure ship, etc.) are so very charming. The fruit in the fruit fairy cake looks so real! She also includes templates in the back of the book.Very helpful is the table of contents which includes the name of the cake creation, along with a picture--so at a 2 page glance, you can see the entire contents of the book without having to flip through the pages, and to compare cakes to each other. I wish I had this book in time for the mermaid and pirate birthday party I had for my daughters. These cakes are too pretty to eat, though!This book includes many fairy tale favorites (Peter Pan, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, mermaids and sea life, Cinderella, wizards, witches, fairies, dragons, knights, an Arabian palace, enchanted castle, elves and more.) I can't wait to have an excuse to make one.

In Enchanted Cakes Debbie Brown covers all the fairytales simply and sweetly. I love this book especially because it isn't commercial at all (even though I love her depictions of popular cartoons), but instead is her own interpretation of these favorite stories, which I find inspiring. Also, she keeps it very simple to the point that, though I haven't started on one yet, I can easily see that the shapes and designs are basic enough that one can leave the more complex details out and still have a great looking result. In that sense it's her least intimidating book so far! By basic I don't mean that you won't have a lot of colors to work with -- which is time-consuming of course, coloring and rolling the different pieces of sugarpaste, etc. But if that doesn't scare you off, it's definitely a good addition to any cake book collection, makes me smile just to look at, and one of the best value-for-money I've gotten this year.

One good book for easy to follow illustration photo step by step. I just a beginner for fondant and butter cream cake decorating. This book don't really teach how to paint. Mostly projects in the book are from bedtime story. I have a daughter who love princesses and whimsical creatures. This book is great.

I GAVE THIS BOOK TO MY MOM LAST CHRISTMAS. MY CHILDREN AND MY NEPHEW WENT THROUGH AND PICKED OUT ALL OF THE CAKES THEY WANT HER TO MAKE, WHICH WAS BASICALLY ALL OF THEM. EVERY CAKE IS BEAUTIFUL. THE ONLY THING YOU NEED TO KEEP IN MIND IS ALL OF THESE ARE FONDANT CAKES, BUT MOST ALL DETAILED CAKES ARE. ALSO, IT IS NECESSARY TO USE A FIRMER CAKE, SUCH HAS A POUND CAKE FOR THE SHAPE TO HOLD UP. REALLY MOIST CAKE WOULD JUST CRUMBLE. MY MOM LIKED THIS BOOK.

A friend of mine is a cake decorator and is always looking for new styles and ways to make her creations. I bought this for her birthday and she loved it. She was excited to get a book from Debbie Brown, which she said was the best cake decorator she knew about. So a really big smile on her face was enough for me to realize that I got a good present.

This is an INCREDIBLE BOOK for inspiration and ideas. It is very detailed, lots of pictures and projects so incredible it is hard to pic just one to make. I do have to say that this book is more for the advanced cake decorator, because the projects are challenging, very time consuming and require some level of expertise in the area. I'm not saying it couldn't work for the begginer as well, I'm just saying that if i hadn't had some experience when i made my first project out of the book, i don't think i would've been able to pull it off. In the recipe area, I already have some amazing recipes of my own so I didn't do any of the recipes in the book, so I can't help there. Still, the book is a great purchase for anyone.

This is my absolute favorite of all her books!! I love the whimsy and have made several of these cakes for my kids!! really great book to enhance and simplify your fondant skills!

Love it.

Had the book along time ago in paperback, glad I bought it again as it is a useful book to have when your just starting out and even when you have been making cakes for a while, step by step instruction and how to's that you might not have always thought of yourself!

Bought to replace an identical copy that went missing in our house move. Fantastic book with breathtaking designs - HOWEVER you need to be a confident cake maker/designer already to perfect some of these styles. I've been doing this for 20 years and even I gave up on the Aladdin cake's towers - impossible to create the roundels and then scoop out excess sugarpaste from the centre and the author MUST have known that. So a good book but you MUST be prepared for the fact your copies will not look nearly as good as the professional's.

Brought this for a birthday present on opening package book corner had been damaged I can live with that does happen but when I gave to friend she started looking through it and on the some of the pages was actual cake mixture finger marks and chocolate powder were someone had previously used book and it wasn’t cheap in cost either was so embarrassed advise check in book before selling to avoid disappointing someone esle

Lovely book, as new. It has useful recipe quantities and clear instructions, helped by photos

Excellent book giving you step by step guide to everything in the book