2024 the best fruitcake recipe review

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(as of Oct 26, 2024 10:56:15 UTC - Details)

Named one of the Best Cookbooks of 2020 by Food + Wine, David Lebovitz, and Delish.com, and one of the Best Baking Books of 2020 by Pastry at Home and Dallas Morning News

“Jason’s love of shaking up tradition is evident. Adding fruits to bolster flavors in familiar baked goods is groundbreaking . . . steering us to experiment, try new combinations of flavors, and expand our baking vocabulary.” —From the foreword by Martha Stewart

Jason Schreiber, one of New York City’s most influential and popular food stylists, combines aesthetic flair and flavor in 75 whimsical recipes that celebrate fruit and cake in all their festive and delicious glory.

In gorgeous photos and dozens of fresh and flavorful recipes, acclaimed food stylist Jason Schreiber shatters misconceptions about that most maligned of desserts—fruitcake—by imaginatively breaking with convention as he pays homage to the delicious combination of fruit and cake. Forget those dried artificially dyed candied doorstops that everyone regifts and passes on. Fruit Cake is a tasty epicurean tour through dozens of cakes and other pastries that use a variety of fruits, combining them with diverse fillings, as well as liquor, nuts, and more. Interwoven with the recipes are stories, anecdotes and asides that are just as charming and intriguing as the lush, full-color photos that accompany them.

Each recipe in Fruit Cake showcases one of thirty-eight fruit, whose natural sweetness and juice make desserts that are perfectly moist and sweet without being overpowering. Indulge your taste buds with his beautiful, fanciful creations, including:

Constant Cravings—cakes like Raspberry Tea Cake and Polenta Pound Cake with Spiced Mandarins that will satisfy your cravings at any hour of day

Out of Hand—finger-focused treats perfect for pocketing or dressing to impress, such as Mango Coconut Cashew Bites and Blueberry Ginger Studmuffins

Showstoppers—cakes for the spotlight that you can humblebrag about “just throwing together,” including Passionfruit Lime Pavlova and Horchata and Roasted Plum Sorbet Cake

All Rise—the next best thing to eating sumptuous creations like the Blood Orange Bee Sting Cake or Bourbon Peach Kugelhopf, and other sumptuous creations is smelling the just-risen yeasted dough

Soaked—try one slice of these decadent cakes that marinate in booze for days—whether it’s the likes of the Pomegranate Molasses Cake or the Fig, Port, and Chocolate Cake—and you’ll need a designated driver

Filled with divine desserts for all seasons, this wonderful cookbook will forever change the way you think about fruit and cake. 

From the Publisher

Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow Cookbooks (November 10, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0062977458
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0062977458
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.3 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8 x 0.97 x 10 inches
Reviewer: AlexfromNC
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Incredible Treats + Fun to Read!
Review: As a person who doesn’t often reach for a cookbook, I was blown away by the layout of the book (the opening section with tips and tricks was informative and hilarious), the beautiful images and mostly for the way it felt like I was just talking with my really funny friend who happens to be an amazing pastry chef. It felt very approachable and I can’t wait to cook my way through the entire book!

Reviewer: Anika C
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: My New Favorite!
Review: I loooooooooove cookbooks, but it’s rare that I’ll cook or bake a lot from a new one right off the bat. Not so with this book - ever since it arrived it’s been open. I’ve baked three of the recipes - Bim’s Yeast Cake (somewhere between a brioche and a coffee cake - not too sweet and so delicious), the raspberry tea cake (a flavorful loaf with a delicate crumb) and the Sacher torte (my father’s favorite cake, which I think of as dry and dusty - but this recipe is neither, it’s richly flavored and moist and so delicious. My father deeply appreciates having this favorite cake now appreciated by the rest of the family, thanks to this recipe!) I have so many post-its marking recipes I want to bake the book is basically mostly post-its at this point. And it’s not only fun to bake from, the photos are gorgeous and Schreiber’s voice in the instructions (which are all crystal clear) is quirky and fun. It’s a book with personality that will banish the thought of stodgy dense fruit cakes from your mind forever. It’s fantastic.

Reviewer: RET
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The worst written best cookbook I own
Review: This is an excellent cookbook and having tried at least 70% of the recipes at least once, I can say the flavors are unique and unlike the standard variations of many of these types of recipes. When produced correctly these recipes will startle and delight everyone that you share the final products with. However, caveat emptor: you must, must, must read each recipe at least twice-through before attempting to make each cake, and I would say making notes in the margins is essential, both before and during preparation. For some reason the author and/or the editor decided that it wasn’t necessary to emphasize timing considerations in the introduction to each recipe and they can be considerable. Many recipes include “ingredients” which actually depend upon adjunct recipes provided in the back of the book. Also, some of the ingredients can be quite exotic and you have to be open to exploring more available alternatives (good luck finding and affording mamey fruit anywhere north of the Rio Grande!). While studying each recipe in anticipation of making, you have to really think through your time management and create your own plan before diving in.That said, the ideas here are brilliant and the flavors are spectacular and I cherish this cookbook, but it could easily produce more tears than joy if you don’t study first. This is definitely not for beginners.

Reviewer: Tara W
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Modern, classic, iconoclastic
Review: Yes there are “fruit cake” fruit cakes and holiday cakes in here but that’s not what this book is about. Fruit Cake has page after page of delicious recipes from straightforward to sophisticated, and none are over the top difficult. Muffins, layer cakes, gorgeous yeasted cakes and richly indulgent liqueur-soaked cakes parade through the beautifully photographed pages. I love the flavors and colors and above all the refreshing streak of humor in Jason Schreiber’s voice. The photography is full of design, texture and rich colors. Love it.

Reviewer: Molly Jessica Wenk
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A STAND OUT BOOK!
Review: Absolutely LOVE this book! It is clever, funny, insightful and every recipe I’ve made has been delicious! I have a massive cookbook collection, and I’m a professional baker, and I can tell you this is a stand out book for professionals and home bakers. Jason makes everything feel doable, with so many helpful tips and explanations. The humor is refreshing and the pictures are beautiful. Cannot recommend this book enough!

Reviewer: Chris Pinto
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Be aware: 1) This is a SEASONAL cookbook and 2) it's boozy and involved.
Review: Those aren't necessarily bad things, but I would have put this lower on my hit list of cookbooks to purchase had I known the extent of this book. Jason's recipes are creative, detailed, and thought provoking. His recipes, however, demand fresh ingredients, and rely heavily on fruits and vegetables that are hard to find in season, let alone out of season (there's not a chance in hell I'm going to find a fresh mango or a plantain in a 200 mile radius of Philadelphia in January). Gooseberries in Philadelphia? February? I'm SOL. Also, I like boozy cakes. Truly I do. But sometimes, the booze takes away from the art and craft of baking by stealing the show. Plus, you need a stocked liquor cabinet to bake out of this book. Not a bad thing - but don't expect to open this book and find an accessible gem to bang out for a dinner or any kind of occasion. These recipes are far from accessible. However, if you're a planner, know your seasons, aren't new to baking, and are ready for the challenge, this is a book for your shelf.

Reviewer: Em Plus Me
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Now I LOVE BAKING!
Review: Yes, Fruit Cake is filled with gorgeous pictures, informative and heart warming writing, and extremely clear instructions. And yes, I love to cook... but I never enjoyed baking.After opening Fruit Cake, I read it cover to cover...that’s how enjoyable it was. I immediately baked Maple Orange Cornbread...and WOW! It was scrumptious! And so were the next recipes I tried.Now I LOVE BAKING!!!Thank you Jason Schreiber

Reviewer: Dr. David Fryer
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Some of the recipes just don't work well
Review: I know this book got a lot of great press, but some the recipes are seriously flawed. The Panettone has some misdirections that result in a dense loaf. The Stollen recipe is a complete bust. The Mango Coconut Cashew bites taste awful. Other recipes are solid. The Jamaican Black cake is wonderful. The Banana Bread's use of plantains is inspired. And Summer Berry Shortcake recipe is classic. That being said, it is a beautiful book and I love looking at it. As a coffee table book, it works; as a cookbook, it is hit or miss

Reviewer: Luis
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Un libro muy hermoso. No puedo esperar a hornear todos los pasteles con levadura.

Reviewer: Rosemc
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The recipes in this book all contain fruit in some form, but only a few are what we usually think of as “fruitcake “.This is a collection of really interesting recipes, some more complicated but all with precise and easy to follow instructions. Jason’s writing style is warm,funny, and friendly, I think of him as my baking buddy now.The book is fun to read even if you don’t actually make any of the cakes although it is hard not to want to try everything.Each recipe has an illustration and all the recipes I have tried so far actually do look like the pictures, and they taste great.I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys baking.