Love Layer Cakes: Over 30 Recipes and Decoration Ideas for Scrumptious Celebration Bakes

I will start by saying that all the cakes in this book look stunning, it is a visual feast for anyone who loves looking at layer cakes. However, if you love baking layer cakes then I would proceed with caution. First off most of the recipes require a silly and frankly unnecessary number of cake tins - 4 X 6" pans, 5 X 8" etc. Most home bakers don't possess a multitude of tins, I'm a prolific baker and decorator and I stock two of each size. So, onto the first cake - the cookies and cream cake. After buying copious amounts of Oreos, cream cheese and butter, I went ahead with the recipe. It stated that it required four 6" pans, I have two, so decided to split the mixture between two tins and bake for 45 minutes - I knew this would work as the recipe itself is based on a simple Victoria sponge cake. The cake baked beautifully and looked good on the cooling rack while I proceeded to make the frosting. I looked at the quantities stipulated and thought they looked out, but the photo in the book was so reassuring I went straight ahead and trusted the recipe - big, costly mistake. The cream cheese frosting had so many Oreo crumbs It looked like grey sludge and there was way, way too much of it for a 6" cake. I knew I would have to start again, but before wasting more ingredients I trimmed the cake and tried it. It was sickeningly sweet and had it been covered in frosting it would have been inedible. I cannot believe this recipe has been tested in any kitchen, it's just wrong! This is disappointing from an author who seems to pride herself on perfection in her art form.

I purchased this book several years ago..Peggy Porsche is my inspiration for my baking passion, I visited her cake parlour in London, and made my Daughters Wedding Cake based on her floral vintage themes. However her Recipes in this book are totally unacceptable, they look amazing but are way out on weight of ingredients, cake tin sizes and number of tins required per recipe. I have made several and always dissapointed. I am meticulous in everything I bake and the way I work in my kitchen which should work in my favour, NOT with Peggy's recipes. (Sorry but true). I have retired all my Peggys Porschen books to the Garage storage box! I have wasted so much: Money, Time, and Patience to the recipes and unfortunately I'm not prepared to carry on trying to work out what's wrong with the recipes! I paid lots of money out for the books and it's money I could had our to better use.I have read almost all reviews here today and the majority are exactly the same, someone should look into this if it's possible as surely there is an error here somewhere, Otherwise definitely NOT TESTED IN A TEST KITCHEN, and definitely NOT used by Peggy Porschen.My advise if your considering a purchase of this book, don't bother it's incorrect!

This is a beautiful book to look at but the quantities are wrong. In addition to the comments made by other reviewers, I made the Milk & Honey cake but the mixture was far too much for the 3 15cm shallow sandwich tins specified. I didn't use all the mixture and it still spilled out all over the oven & took 15 minutes longer to cook than stated. I made up the frosting as described and used only a third of it at most it to fill & cover the cake. It looked ok and tasted lovely but was a shocking waste of good ingredients. I'll make it again but use 3 20cm tins & see how it goes.Addendum September 2020.Being on furlough for 6 months has rekindled my love of baking so when asked to make a chocolate cake by my elderly Mum for her friend's birthday I decided to give this book another chance. I made the first recipe in the book, a chocolate & raspberry cake. Due to my previous experience I did a trial run in advance of the day. Thank goodness I did! The recipe said to use 3x 20cm heart shaped tins which I don't have so I wondered if round 20cm tins would do. I looked at the recipe, noticed it used 14 eggs (!) and 750g sugar so erred on the side of caution and used 3x 23cm tins. This was a wise move as the mixture filled the tins comfortably and then rose so much the cakes on the top shelf actually touched the grill bars at the top of the oven. It was my first attempt at meringue buttercream but the instructions were OK, although I was mystified by why it said to make double the quantity and then use less than half for the cake... I am now left with a big pot of meringue buttercream! Anyway, the finished result was great (see pictures) but absolutely huge! I will make it for my Mum's friend but use half the quantity of cake batter in smaller tins and probably only use 2 cakes rather than 3. And of course I won't need to make any more buttercream as I have a big potful in the fridge already.So, in conclusion, as advised in other reviews proceed with caution, do a trial version and don't believe all you read in the instructions.

Even though this book is several years old now, it's still a lovely book filled with full colour photos of the delectable cakes that make your mouth water!! I tried out the red velvet cake recipe and it was one of the best I've tasted (not beause I made it!) The sponge was light and moist with a hint of chocolate, unlike most I've tried elsewhere. The back of the book contains a handy list of suppliers, including Peggy's own website where you can buy some of the items used in the book. At the back of the book is an envelope with 2 stencils that can be used to decorate your cake with a pretty pattern in icing sugar. These sell for £6 each. Bought this book for a fraction of the cost as nearly new and very pleased with the saving!

Amazing, beautiful and some exciting flavour combinations - I've tried a few (made by my friend) but haven't yet had the time or patience to try them myself. Seems to need a fair bit of equipment and specialist ingredients first, but it's great fun to read and imagine..

I don't think the recipes in this book were thoroughly tested? The quantities of a lot of the cakes are way too much for the recommended size tins. If you have never baked before you will end up wasting a lot of money on too much ingredients. Some of the timings are off as well. It's a good book visually and full of good recipes. I just wish there were not so many errors I the recipes.