Find out how even the busiest of busy girls can whip up impressive homemade treats in next to no time! Ruth Clemens, finalist on the original series of The Great British Bake Off, shares her secrets in creating quick but gorgeous cakes, bakes and biscuits. Choose from 25 beautiful projects to make in under an hour, in an afternoon, or over a weekend and be amazed at what you can achieve! This book is all about cake decorating without the fuss, the palaver and sometimes the tears too! The projects are split into three sections. The Evening Whip-Ups (one-hour projects) are perfect when you have very little time, and are easy to throw together one evening after work. The Half-Day Delights (two-hour projects) are for when you have an afternoon to spare. Finally, the Weekend Wonders (three- to four-hour projects) are for when you've got a bit more time available in your schedule! In cake-decorating terms, all of the above are tiny amounts of time - large, intricate projects take professional cake decorator's days, if not weeks, of work. We busy girls don't have the time or the patience to create those kinds of works of art but this book contains stunning projects that can be achieved in next to no time. In addition to the projects, Ruth talks you through all the equipment and ingredients you need, shows you how to line a cake tin, gives her tried-and-tested recipes for fruit cake, sponge cake and chocolate cake, as well as cupcake recipes, cookie recipes and frosting recipes. She shows you how to pipe with royal icing and buttercream piping techniques, and how to cover a cake with marzipan, how to cover cakes and boards with sugarpaste, how to trim a cake board with ribbon, how to colour fondant to your desired shade, how to stack cakes using dowels, and some wonderful creative embellishment techniques. The Busy Girl's Guide to Cake Decorating - the perfect place to start your foray into the world of cakes.

Over 30 baking and cake decorating projects for the latest hot trend in baking, straight from the patisseries of Paris - Eclairs! Choux pastry is often thought of as difficult to make and perfect, but in fact it's the easiest pastry you'll ever make! It's extremely rewarding watching the magic puff that happens inside the oven and it's really easy if you follow the basic rules. Choux pastry is so versatile it can play host to a million different fillings, toppings, shapes and decorations and is equally delicious munched straight off the cooling rack! This beginner-friendly book contains all the choux pastry and eclair recipes you need to get started, along with tasty filling combinations and colourful cake decorating ideas. Bestselling author and former Great British Bake Off finalist Ruth Clemens will show you that you don't have to be a classically trained French pastry chef to make delicious cream cakes for any occasion, including celebration bakes to share. These cake designs look great but are easy to follow and quick to make, with step-by-step advice on piping choux pastry and making sugar flowers and other embellishments to decorate your bakes. Discover how easy it is to make fresh eclairs at home, with simple recipes and techniques that you can recreate with ease. Then take your skills to the next level and create all sorts of other choux pastry shapes, including buns, hearts, towers and rings so you can make delicious desserts such as profiteroles, allumettes, choux cheesecake and more. So whether you fancy rustling up a batch of classic chocolate eclairs or attempting the construction a Croquembouche the size of the Eiffel Tower you'll find all the tips tricks and recipes you'll need right here.

You can't beat the satisfaction of baking (and eating) your own loaf, or the delicious aroma it creates as it bakes min your oven. Bread making isn't a labour-intensive process but you do need a bit of time and some forward planning. Follow the step-by-step instructions in the recipes and you'll soon be on your way to a fantastic loaf. It doesn't have to be perfect - it's homemade after all - and that's why you'll be so proud of it. Like any type of baking, bread making can be full of pitfalls, but if you follow the step by step recipes then you can avoid them. It's worthwhile investing time in understanding what makes a good loaf - and that generally means learning by mistakes! Read through the techniques and troubleshooting sections for lots of tips before you get going. This book is full of bread recipes for loaves of all shapes, to suit all tastes, but it isn't just about the recipes: it's about making all of your bread making even better than before. Ruth Clemens, finalist on The Great British Bake Off has crammed in as many tips and tricks as possible, plus explanations of why you should do a certain something at a specific stage - the sort of thing that's missed out of most recipe methods. You'll then be able to apply these techniques to all of your bread making - and you'll be turning out delicious homemade loaves in next to no time. The recipes are in three sections by method; straightforward doughs in Brilliant Basics, doughs made using a pre-ferment in Perfect Pre-ferments, and recipes that have slightly different methods in Further Favourites. Some of the 30 recipes include Crusty Cobb, Ciabatta with Olive Oil, Chocolate and Hazlenut Wheel, Teacakes, Danish Pastry and Savoury Bagels. There are breads for every occasion, each with its own variation to show you how things can be mixed up a little bit to create something different.