From Publishers Weekly
Appel and Torey are owners of the eponymous Manhattan bakery, which turns out the kind of white-cake treats that graced most tables decades ago. Retro deserts include Chocolate Wafer Icebox Cake, made with Nabisco wafers, and Oatmeal, Raisin, Almond Cookies. These recipes are classics, with a few updated touches. Pecan Pie was handed down from a Texas grandmother; Magic Cookie Bars are packed with chocolate chips and coconut and sweetened with three cans of condensed milk. The unfortunately named Dump Cake is a throwback to old women's magazine recipes, consisting of cherry pie filling, canned pineapple, cake mix, pecans and butter. These super-sweet, mostly buttery items hark back to a pre-cholesterol eraAevidenced by Chocolate Chip, Peanut, Banana Loaf, which the authors describe as "healthy." A chapter on cheesecakes offers Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake and White Chocolate-Hazelnut Cheesecake. A section of baking tips includes little new information for even novice cooks (e.g., advice such as measuring accurately and watching cookies carefully to guard against burning). The same can be said of this book as a whole: these recipes are good, if ordinary. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
Mary Alice Kellogg The Shuttle Sheet The kind of old-fashioned time warp baking so good you'll wonder, is it legal?


Book Description
On the corner of Bleecker and Eleventh Streets in the heart of Greenwich Village sits the Magnolia Bakery. This unassuming shop, where the smells of home-style baking weaken even the strongest will, has attracted a clientele that ranges from kids on their way home from school to celebrity glitterati. Cupcakes swirled with pastel frosting crowd the counter, and cakestands display Lemon Vanilla Bundt Cake, Apple Walnut Cake with Caramel Cream Cheese Icing, and Coconut Layer Cake, swathed in fluffy white frosting and covered in drifts of coconut. As Time Out New York says: "The secret to Magnolia's success is simple: Nobody knows how to bake like this anymore." Magnolia's owners Jennifer Appel and Allysa Torey know how, and in The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook they share their most mouth-watering recipes, from sweet breakfast treats like Dried-Cherry Crumb Buns to classic Iced Molasses Cookies, from decadently rich Caramel Pecan Brownies and Raspberry Marzipan Cheesecake to refreshing Lemon Icebox Pie. Their easy-to-follow recipes and invaluable baking hints mean that even the inexperienced baker will be able to frost the perfect layer cake, turn out the flakiest pie crust, and whip up the creamiest cheesecake. Illustrated with eight pages of glorious color photographs, The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook will inspire you to turn on the oven and create sweet memories for your family and friends.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

On the corner of Bleecker and Eleventh Streets in the heart of Greenwich Village sits the Magnolia Bakery. This unassuming shop, where the smells of home-style baking weaken even the strongest will, has attracted a clientele that ranges from kids on their way home from school to celebrity glitterati. Cupcakes swirled with pastel frosting crowd the counter, and cakestands display Lemon Vanilla Bundt Cake, Apple Walnut Cake with Caramel Cream Cheese Icing, and Coconut Layer Cake swathed in fluffy white frosting and covered in drifts of coconut. As Time Out New York says: "The secret to Magnolia's success is simple: Nobody knows how to bake like this anymore."