Who wouldn't like...

Little Cakes, or Swift Knits?! I'm a sucker for both :)

As I mentioned recently, there was a time when I actually entertained the thought of doing some pastry cheffing, and around the holidays, I usually am looking forward to fancy sugar cookies and the decorating of said sugar cookies. This book, Little Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse is a treat to look at. I am especially enamored of the various flower cupcakes...and I really like the looks of the Caramel Popcorn Cupcakes (scroll down for recipe, or read the whole interview!)

The book starts out with basic information including tools of the trade, baking tips and notes on ingredients. It also has basic information on frosting and decoration - my favorite part of these little treats! There's even a color mixing chart - that I might find cross functional use for for some of my colorways :D

For recipes, we start with the frostings, then head into the muffins and mini-coffee cakes, special occasion cakes (mmm strawberry shortcake and mini cheesecakes...not to mention the devil dog and twinkie-alikes...) and then we have the cupcakes - I'm extra happy to see a recipe for red velvet...course, I'm not sure I could bet Melati's Red Velvets...

As an extra sweet treat, the publisher is allowing me to offer up a copy of this lovely book to my readers...if you're interested, send me an email (woodlandsprite at gmail dot com) and I'll use the trusty random number generator to select the lucky winner at the end of next week.

Now then, in addition to small cakes, I also appreciate a nice quick knit. That's where Twinkle's Weekend Knits comes into play with 20 patterns to choose from, each knit (mostly) from fast knitting bulky weight yarn. The projects range from the expected scarves and hats, in addition to some wonderful sweaters and other accessories. Photos for this book are lovely, and right up front in the book, on glossy paper - the patterns are referenced clearly and are presented in the back of the book on matte paper. The patterns themselves appear to be well written, though it should be noted that most of the sweaters assume you're comfortable wearing knits with negative ease. I've got some bulky yarn in my stash that I've been trying to figure out what to do with - and I'm especially interested in some of the sweater designs :)

If the thought of working with bulky yarn wigs you out now that we are hopefully moving into the spring, don't forget about that scarf book I reviewed not too long ago - it's now available and has projects perfect for the warming weather!