With the upcoming trends where people are taking cooking as a serious art form, one section which everybody is keen to work on is definitely baking cakes. First step is to find a nice recipe book which could introduce you to the world of cakes. One such book distributed in India by Penguin is Roger Pizey’s “World’s Best Cakes”. With Roger Pizey’s vast experience of working with luminaries such as Albert Roux and Marco Pierre White this book is definitely a benchmark in the world of cake books.
It has a collection of 250 great cakes from across the globe. As Roger is in Delhi for the CCSG summit the first question which one asked him was why did he choose baking instead of cooking? In simple words he replied, “Baking brings smile to everybody’s face. Be it children or elders everybody just loves it.” The journey till being an author of a cake book is long and interesting too. After completing schooling at 16, Roger worked as a herdsman tending to 500 cows. Delivering milk to bakeries and the aroma of freshly baked cakes just inspired Roger to get enrolled himself into a City & Guilds retraining programme for young people.
After that he worked at Le Gavroche, the prestigious establishment of Roux brothers. Then one fine day the legend Marco Pierre White just fell in love with Roger’s Tart Tatin and offered him a job at his restaurant. Since then it’s no looking back. This is Roger’s second book, the first being “Small Cakes”.
Flipping through the pages one gets a sense that Roger has incorporated recipes from every continent. Selection of cakes reflects his travel expeditions. Roger says, “This book is perfect for a beginner as the books starts with the basics and then the level increases steadily. Practising all the cakes will make a person able to compete with any professional baker.”
The recipes are grouped into chapters such as sponges and layer cakes, traybakes and pastries. Each recipe also includes a small introduction giving details of its origin.
The book ends with a few chapters on the basics of baking which has recipes of crèmes, ganaches and icing which would add life to the cakes and even make them visual delights. Roger parted saying, “Whether you feel like making a small cake, a sponge cake or a show stopping cake, just enjoy. A cake made with a smile is definitely the best kind of cake!”
