The go to book for cakes and bakes. Very comprehensive and very reliable. It begins with an introductory section covering techniques, then 20 chapters: Recipes we love: Frosted Walnut Cake, Hot Chocolate Soufflés, Victoria Sponge, Paprika and Cheese Biscuits, and The Very Best Shortbread. Who is the author: Food writer, TV regular and Queen of Baking, Mary Berry has been teaching the nation how to make the perfect fluffy sponge for decades. Add the vanilla extract to the beaten egg and then add these gradually to the butter and sugar mixture in the bowl, beating well between each addition. Next, mix in the flour, and lastly stir in the chocolate chips. I knew in advance it was written for the UK and I'd be converting measurements which isn't all that difficult to do, however the products she uses are very hard to find here and some are impossible. We just simply do not have the equivalent like double cream. I guess the easiest way to picture this would be - you receive the book and you anticipate perhaps buying a few items, then getting down to business with a recipe. You go shopping for a cake tin because all of mine are only 3" deep and once out to several good stores you realize 8" deep is impossible to find on the shelves. The sugars she uses- are just simply not readily available though you can find some I suspect at whole foods and you can't simply substitute the US brown sugars for muscovado, it's hard to find if not impossible

To make the icing, melt the dark chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Leave to cool slightly. Fold in the remaining white chocolate chips before spreading over the tops of the loaves to make a ripple effect.Classic cakes , Fruit and nut cakes , Spiced cakes, Chocolate cakes, Cupcakes and other small bakes, Celebration cakes, Special cakes, Mary really knows what she's talking about; she's sold veer 5 million books and has been a published author since 1970. Lightly grease 3 baking trays. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5. Measure the butter and sugars into a medium bowl and beat thoroughly with a hand-held electric mixer or wooden spoon until evenly blended.

Measure all the sponge ingredients into a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer until well-blended. The only thing worth mentioning is that British chefs do things by weight (British scale too) not by volume like Americans. So we went ahead and bought a cheap digital scale that does both American and British, ounces and grams. This was a great idea. Measure all the brownie loaf ingredients, except the white chocolate chips, into a large bowl. Whisk together using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in 2/3 cup (125 grams) of the chocolate chips. Mary Berry is the undisputed Queen of Cakes, well-known for her easy-to-follow, tried and tested, mouth-watering recipes. She wrote the Baking Bible to help everyday cooks learn the basics of what it takes to make a good cake, with a collection of classic bakes, as well as hot puddings and pies, soufflés and meringues, cheesecakes and biscuits to satisfy all your baking needs.Mary Berry, the legendary judge from "The Great British Bake Off," is out with a new version of her popular cookbook.

This old-fashioned celebration cake iced with ‘American frosting’ has three delicate layers of walnut sponge, filled and covered with meringue frosting – a beautiful bake for someone special. I work with some lovely ladies with learning disabilities and often take this book with me for them to bake something from it , they find the recipes easy enough and they don’t require unusual ingredients or odd items just the every day bits that they already have

We love Mary, and we love this book. We do wish there were a million more pictures, but then we always want that from every cook book. Explanations were clear and we were successful on our first attempt of our first recipe. Measure all the brownie loaf ingredients, except the white chocolate chips, into a large bowl. Whisk together using an electric hand whisk until light and fluffy. Stir in 125g (4½oz) of the chocolate chips. In the end we're completely converted to the British way of measuring because if you think of it, like with flour, a cup can vary greatly in actual amount due to how much it is compacted or shaken up. So we're totally on board with weighing it out. And with a decent cheap scale it's no problem at all. And like I said we were completely successful on our first bake (Swiss Roll), which I'm not sure ever happened with American (volume based) recipe books. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan, then line the bottom with parchment paper. To make the frosting, melt the dark chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Let cool slightly. Fold in the remaining white chocolate chips before spreading over the tops of the loaves to make a ripple effect.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C/Gas 4. Grease two 20cm (8in) loose-bottomed deep sandwich tins and line the base of each tin with baking parchment.