One Bowl Baking by Yvonne Ruperti

There’s just something so simple and so elegant about the idea of one bowl baking recipes. No need to get out the stand mixer. No fears of leaving the kitchen a disaster area of dirty dishes. Mix, bake, eat — I love it. Yvonne Ruperti is definitely on to something here, and these recipes for bar cookies, party cakes, breakfast goodies, and cookies promise to be ones we’ll want to make again and again.

• Who wrote it: Yvonne Ruperti

• Who published it: Running Press

• Number of recipes: Over 100

• The Angle: Recipes for cookies, cakes, and bars that can be quickly made in a single mixing bowl — no stand mixer required.

• Recipes for right now: Corn Muffin Toaster Cakes, Upside-Down Sticky Pecan Muffins, Cinnamon Sugar Scones, Ruby Red Grapefruit Bars, Peanut Butter and Jam Bars, Green Tea Cupcakes, Banana Bourbon Cake, White Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake, Lemon Pudding Cake

• Major Takeaways: Once you realize that all these recipes — from simple Saturday morning scones to a decadent layer cake — can be made in a single mixing bowl, baking them feels suddenly doable in a way that it didn’t before. Ruperti isn’t cutting corners here, though; she is just being smart about how ingredients are combined into a batter or dough so that we avoid needlessly dirtying bowls and utensils. She also begins every chapter with a primer on the kind of baked good about to be covered, explaining very thoroughly and carefully how to do things like mix cupcake batter for the best crumb or use a water bath for making the best cheesecakes.

One other huge takeaway hidden in one of the later chapters: tiny cakes. Little 6-inch cakes perfect for a smaller dinner party. I saw these recipes while flipping through and my eyes immediately went as wide as saucers. As someone who loves both cake and small dinner parties, but likes to avoid the siren call of leftover cake on the counter, I think this is brilliant.

• Who would enjoy this book? Bakers living in small apartments, people who love baking but not all the fuss most recipes require, new bakers

Find the book at your local library, independent bookstore, or Amazon: One Bowl Baking by Yvonne Ruperti

• Visit the author’s website: Yvonne Ruperti

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.