Bake It Like You Mean It by Gesine Bullock-Prado

White-frosted cakes sliced to reveal a rainbow of layers, blackberry zebra stripes swirled into cheesecake, confections decorated with chevrons of pistachio dust: this is the stuff that cake dreams are made of. And it’s all right here between the pages of this book. Bake It Like You Mean It is Gesine Bullock-Prado’s third book of fantastical sugar creations, and if you love cake, you will love this book.

• Who wrote it: Gesine Bullock-Prado

• Who published it: Abrams

• Recipes for right now: Lemon-Rosemary-Blackberry Vacherins, Wild Blueberry and Guanabana Bavarian Cream Layer Cake, Chocolate Pyramid, Strawberry-Rhubarb Dream Cake, Sunshine Creamsicle Cheesecake, Fourth of July Berry Mousse

• Other highlights: These are definitely not your average cakes! The cakes in this book are a cut above — intended for those homebakers who love tinkering with tricky batters and pulling out the pastry bags. Gesine Bullock-Prado covers sponge cakes, cheese cakes, mousse cakes, meringues, butter and pound cakes, and yeasted pastries. In her hands, these familiar cakes become lofty and magical versions of themselves.

The whole idea with these cakes is to use the layers of frosting and cake to create something beautiful when you slice into it. Bullock-Prado plays with thin, multi-colored layers, spiraled layers tucked inside of square cakes, hearts and other shapes strategically baked into the insides of cakes, and many more astounding creations. Step-by-step photos are included for some of the trickier techniques, but you’ll still need to bring all your skills to the pastry table when diving into these recipes.

Any of these cakes would be enough to completely awe your party guests. Even imagining their expressions of surprise and delight makes attempting one of these feel totally worth it!

• Who would enjoy this book? Serious homebakers, bakers who enjoy complicated baking projects, professional bakers — I wouldn’t recommend the one for total beginners.

Find the book at your local library, independent bookstore, or Amazon: Bake It Like You Mean It by Gesine Bullock-Prado

• Visit the author’s website: Gesine Bullock-Prado

Apartment Therapy Media makes every effort to test and review products fairly and transparently. The views expressed in this review are the personal views of the reviewer and this particular product review was not sponsored or paid for in any way by the manufacturer or an agent working on their behalf. However, the manufacturer did give us the product for testing and review purposes.

(Images: Emma Christensen)