I thought it was about time I wrote a book review, if only to give you all a break from my obsession with Lakeland! The first book up for review is Cupcakes for Princesses by Love Food.
Available from: Amazon.co.uk
So what do I like?
I love the concept of the book; the book is sold as “the perfect cookbook for every little princess”. I love that, it’s really cute and the princess theme is continued throughout. The chapters are given titles like “party princess” and “pretty princess cupcakes” which is cute and there are some adorable photographs of little girls dressed as princesses. I love all that stuff, it’s very cute and most of the book is pink which matches the theme! There are also some lovely extras at the back, two templates for party name plates (a crown and a star) and some stencils for use when dusting icing sugar onto cakes and biscuits (crown, heart, flower and star). I will admit that these are one of the major reasons I brought this book!
I love the concept of the book; the book is sold as “the perfect cookbook for every little princess”. I love that, it’s really cute and the princess theme is continued throughout. The chapters are given titles like “party princess” and “pretty princess cupcakes” which is cute and there are some adorable photographs of little girls dressed as princesses. I love all that stuff, it’s very cute and most of the book is pink which matches the theme! There are also some lovely extras at the back, two templates for party name plates (a crown and a star) and some stencils for use when dusting icing sugar onto cakes and biscuits (crown, heart, flower and star). I will admit that these are one of the major reasons I brought this book!
 |
| Neat layout and cute photographs |
Despite being called “Cupcakes for Princesses” there is a really nice variety of recipes, there are plenty of biscuit recipes and lots of other nice little things. There is even a recipe for mini-meringues! I haven’t tried any of the recipes in here yet but reading through them I can see that the instructions are clear and easy to follow. The layout of the recipe pages is neat and organised, with every recipe page including at least one photograph of the finished product.
And what don’t I like?
This will seem strange given my praise in the previous paragraph but I don’t like the recipes much. I should rephrase that, I don’t like the cupcake recipes. With the exception of two recipes (warm strawberry cupcakes and lemon meringue cupcakes) all the cupcake recipes are for plain vanilla cakes which are just decorated differently! And on four occasions the decoration is just a vanilla butter cream with some sweets thrown on top! However for me the most annoying “recipe” are the “princess doughnuts”, why? Because this recipe basically tells you to make a simple water icing, dye it pink and then spoon it onto shop brought doughnuts! That is not a recipe in my mind.
This will seem strange given my praise in the previous paragraph but I don’t like the recipes much. I should rephrase that, I don’t like the cupcake recipes. With the exception of two recipes (warm strawberry cupcakes and lemon meringue cupcakes) all the cupcake recipes are for plain vanilla cakes which are just decorated differently! And on four occasions the decoration is just a vanilla butter cream with some sweets thrown on top! However for me the most annoying “recipe” are the “princess doughnuts”, why? Because this recipe basically tells you to make a simple water icing, dye it pink and then spoon it onto shop brought doughnuts! That is not a recipe in my mind.
 |
| Really not a fan of this font |
I’m also not a huge fan of the font used throughout the book, it’s readable but I just prefer seeing something simple like Times New Roman or Arial used in publications.
So final verdict and score? I’ll give the book a 3/5
This is an ok book to give a child as their first cookbook, but I wouldn’t recommend it for girls above age 8 or 9. While I happen to find it cute, older children and adults will probably find the princess theme a little childish and I think young girls might get bored with some of the recipes on offer quite quickly. The layout is generally ok, and the instructions are clear and concise which is good. But while there is some variety amongst the recipes I am really not happy with the standard of some of them.
This is an ok book to give a child as their first cookbook, but I wouldn’t recommend it for girls above age 8 or 9. While I happen to find it cute, older children and adults will probably find the princess theme a little childish and I think young girls might get bored with some of the recipes on offer quite quickly. The layout is generally ok, and the instructions are clear and concise which is good. But while there is some variety amongst the recipes I am really not happy with the standard of some of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment