Zoë Bakes Cakes: Everything You Need to Know to Make Your Favorite Layers, Bundts, Loaves, and More [A Baking Book]

by Zoë François

Cake is the ultimate symbol of celebration, used to mark birthdays, weddings, or even just a Tuesday night. In Zoë Bakes Cakes, bestselling author and expert baker Zoë François demystifies the craft of cakes through more than eighty-five simple and straightforward recipes. Discover treats such as Coconut–Candy Bar Cake, Apple Cake with Honey-Bourbon Glaze, and decadent Chocolate Devil’s Food Cake. With step-by-step photo guides that break down baking fundamentals—like creaming butter and sugar—and Zoë’s expert knowledge to guide you, anyone can make these delightful creations.

Featuring everything from Bundt cakes and loaves to a beautifully layered wedding confection, Zoë shows you how to celebrate any occasion, big or small, with delicious homemade cake.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Cuisine, Food and Wine

270 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 16, 2021

About the author

Zoë François is passionate about food that is real, healthy, & always delicious. She is a pastry chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America. In addition to teaching baking & pastry courses nationally, she consults to the food industry & is the creator of the recipe blog www.zoebakes.com. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband & two sons.

--from the author's website

Reviews

[Simona · Rating 5 out of 5]

These days, I read mostly on kindle, except for beloved authors, art books and cookbooks. I love cookbooks and I actually READ them, and in time I learned to spot the beautiful but useless ones, with wonderful pictures and not a word about tecnique.
I can't recommend enough this book from the excellent Zoe François, where every and each necessary passage is explained and many difficulties solved.
Don't esitate to buy it for youselves if you like to bake. Il you don't have enough space in your kitchen shelves, just throw away the old ones..... I'm joking. Mostly....

[Onceinabluemoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The definitive cake book, beautiful photos, my only concern was how thin she was, how can you bake like that and not show your wares/wears 😉

[Aasinathena · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Book is as Marvellous as Zoe;nothing less !

I have been a “Zoe-follower” for so long and I have watched her IG live sessions on Saturdays. But when she announced her CAKE book(she has several others dedicated to bread with another author),I was counting my days till this point. THIS BOOK IS A GEM !

This book opens with the quick guide/jump-to section so the reader can skip her bio(spans across next 5 pages) and plan the sweet adventure! I love the ingredients section as she starts with critical and most of the time confusing ingredients for the homecook(chocolate varieties,dairy varieties and even egg varieties). However I wonder if I can buy 12 vanilla beans to make homemade vanilla extract. This section is followed by equipment necessary for cake baking and decorating.

Next is where you master the cakes with the section of “Cake academy”. And it spans across 32 pages!!! This contains various techniques a baker should be known for to make a great cake. And she didn’t share these tips in her Instagram as detailed as in the book ! I love the instructional photos as well. Seems so easy to follow even to an inexperienced baker( I consider myself as an intermediate skilled baker).

Then it's time we start to say oohs and ahhs over and over again !!! First wave of cake recipes are pound cakes,quick breads and bundts. As a strong opinionated ambassador of baking with fruits(I saw this in her IG videos and posts),Zoe has reserved a whole chapter for baking with fruits(printed as fruit studded cakes-upside down or otherwise). And she encourages baking with in season fruits starting with a blueberry muffin cake. And who's gonna stop me from trying a Cinco leches cake y’all ? Yes I said CINCO ! Oh I'm so excited !

Layer cakes,loaves and classic sheet pan cakes are the next chapter and I will have more respect for sheet cakes like never before from Zoe’s recipes.This section also features the book cover’s image;the hot chocolate cake ! And her famous pavlova with prickly peaks is in here too !

Last but not the least, the recipe set for “fancy cakes” comes ! Yes she said that ! It's all fancy when we want to impress that special person and the special occasion. Next birthday….Next anniversary or next special feel good ordinary day..Here lies some bespoke cakes !

Final two chapters are dedicated to icing.frostings,ganaches,fillings and flourishes(that’s what special about Zoe:her carrot peel candy,cool whimsical chocolate bark and candied hazelnuts).

You can own as many cake books..
And you can follow as many baking blogs or instagram accounts.. Or bake your forever favorite passed down heirloom recipes … BUT nothing is going to be as charming and serene like Zoe’s. She has this hard to miss captivative vibe surrounding us and the dormant baker in each of us is just begging to come out and bake ! And from what I saw… She has done the entire photography from her home(yes I said that seeing her IG lives). I don’t know its because of the COVID-19.But I felt welcome,included and feels like she is my friend who I can think and be happy about the bakes I do is from her. We all need this kinda warm baking book in our lives ! So irresistible to bake from this book !

I’ve received a free copy from Ten Speed in exchange for a free and unbiased review.
Thank you.

[Miss Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb cakes and other baked goods with stunning photographs to accompany the recipes.

Favourites:
Vanilla-Bean Pound Cake 63
Lemon-Curd Pound Cake
Best-Ever Chocolate-Zucchini Bundt Cake
Blueberry Muffin Cake
Apple Cake with honey-bourbon glaze 85
Plum Cake 89
Semolina-Walnut Cake with Orange Blossom Soak 101
Grandma Ellen's Trinidad Rum Cake - if you want a great fruitcake
Sticky Toffee-Date Cake - never pass it up!
Tiramisu 113
Chocolate Devil's Food Cake - for the chocolate fans 125
Victoria Sponge Cake - considered the author's finest
Jocande 145
Coconut Cream Cake, Turtle Cake, and Pavlova get a mention
Ermine Frosting 206
Thick Caramel Sauce 218
White Chocolate Ganache 219

[Addalai B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best + easiest chocolate cake. Perfect for beginners.

[Shipshapeeatworthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zoë Bakes Cakes is about longing realized. Which of us hasn't looked at pictures of beautiful baked goods online and sighed at the seeming impossibility of being able to bake like this at home? This is where Zoë François comes in -- she enthusiastically creates the most incredible baked goods while demonstrating to home bakers how to achieve these same results for themselves. She comes across as encouraging and kind -- which, in my mind, are qualities that make the best teachers. François is a wonderful teacher. She understands what it means to take complicated techniques and/or recipes and make them more manageable for home bakers.

Reading through the introduction we learn that what began François' fascination with all things cake was longing -- seeing a Twinkie in a classmate's lunchbox. At this moment she felt a yearning towards baking which started her lifelong journey where her "affection for sugar only deepened, along with a determination to figure out its transformational powers."(2) François is effervescent and relaxed -- when I first started to follow along with her baking demos on Instagram stories, I was taken with the feeling that anything was possible. Armed with the right knowledge and a great soundtrack, baking was a group of skills that one attained through practice.

François has organized her book in two parts -- the explanation and the recipes. She understands that some people want to learn about the "hows and whys" behind what they're baking whereas other people want to pass the preamble and get right down to baking. So, in this way, François offers information on the ingredients and equipment at the beginning of her book as well as an in-depth learning opportunity in the "Cake Academy" section. In this section she delves into explanations that you'd expect to hear in culinary classes and, this is where she shares her culinary knowledge. François' knowledge is paired with wonderful process photos, which were taken by Sarah Kieffer. I appreciate that every recipe begins with a "Cake Academy Review" where she highlights the important information from the "Cake Academy" section, along with page numbers for quick and easy reference. Even though I find I know quite a bit about baking, there are still things I learned reading through this section.

The recipes are organized into 9 chapters: (1) Pound Cakes, Quick Breads, and Bundts, (2) Fruit-Studded Cakes -- Upside Down and Otherwise, (3) Soaked Cakes, (4) Cake Layers, Loaves, and Sheets, (5) Light-As-Air Cakes, (6) The Layer Cakes, (7) Rolled and Fancy Cakes, (8) Icing, Frostings, Buttercreams and Ganaches, and (9) Fillings and Flourishes. There are cakes for any level of home baker and for any occasion. When I flip through the pages of Zoë Bakes Cakes, I see cakes to enjoy with am afternoon coffee or during a quiet morning for breakfast. There are also cakes for celebrations big and small. One of the first recipes I baked was the Marble Pound Cake, which has such a beautiful and light crumb -- surprising, considering the cake's name. The real magic happens after the cake has been removed from the oven and cooled. With every careful slice of the knife, the chocolate-vanilla marbled interior is revealed.

You would think that the most special cake I baked from the book might have been for a holiday or a birthday, but you would be wrong. In the late winter, on a cold February day, my husband and I realized that I furnace wasn't working properly and, that a part to repair it would be weeks away! But, as it turned out, one of our neighbours had a spare part that they would be able to lend us until our furnace could be fixed. I am grateful to know people that are so generous and that I could ask on a moments notice for help. So, as a small "thank-you" I baked them the Funfetti Cake (a variation of the White Cake). Frosted with American Buttercream and covered with an inordinate amount of sprinkles, this gorgeous layer cake was baked with love and given as thanks. Although I didn't get a chance to taste it, my friends tell me that it was a delight (one that tasted even better on the second day, if such a thing was possible).

For Easter and the shared birthday between my husband and myself, I decided to bake chocolate cakes, as these are his favourite! I elected to bake a simple layer cake for the birthday -- François' "German" Chocolate Coconut Cake was a perfect choice! Three layers of Hot Chocolate Cake with generous amounts of Sticky Coconut Filling made this cake easy to assemble, considering there was no frosting to apply. For Easter, I took a more festive route with the frosting and sprinkles. I baked the Chocolate Devil's Food Cake and then frosted it with a Coffee-Cinnamon Ermine Frosting. Here's an instance where I learned something new -- how to make boiled frosting! After mixing the ingredients together for the Ermine Frosting, you set it to boil until the mixture becomes thick and glossy (almost like a pudding). When it has cooled, you beat in the butter and the resulting fluffy frosting is reminiscent of the store-bough kind (but waaaay better). This was a perfectly decadent cake to celebrate spring!

Is there anything better than enjoying cake for breakfast? I will say that there is not, and François makes it easy with her recipe for Blueberry Muffin Cake. Imagine a streusel-covered, berry-filled muffin as a cake and this is exactly what this recipe bakes up as. As a long-time muffin opponent, I appreciate recipes that taste like a muffin, yet without the work of preparing a muffin pan. Baked in a springform pan, this 8" cake is the prefect size for a small family breakfast. I took her suggestion and enjoyed it with a generous spoonful of yogurt. Even with a simple bake like this, the results are so beautiful and offer a bit of comfort.

With my longing to be a better baker and achieve results that I never before believed were possible, I am well on my way to becoming a life-long cake lover! Zoë François offers her heart as she explains the science and techniques behind baking a good cake. And, in this way, Zoë Bakes Cakes is both a wonderful reference book as well as being a trove of cakes to bake for any occasion. Everything you need to know about baking cakes all in a delightfully photographed and well-written cookbook.

Please note that this is an excerpt of a longer review posted to www.shipshapeeatworthy.wordpress.com

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Zoë François and Ten Speed Press for providing me with a free, review copy of this book. I did not receive monetary compensation for my post, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've tried at least a dozen of these cakes, and each one is more delicious than the last. The baking academy section at the beginning, referenced in the various recipes, gives very specific and helpful instruction on beating egg whites and other basic skills. LOVE this book.

[Terresa Wellborn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great looking cakes in here, my only complaint is that some instructional pictures were very small. Will be trying the best-ever chocolate-zucchini bundt cake, the chocolate ganache bundt cake, and the og snack cake, among others.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful, delicious and creative!

[Beka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything looked beautiful and delicious, but the recipes were for pretty standard cakes.

[Samantha Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had been eyeing Zoe Bakes Cakes for quite a while but was deep in a Scandinavian baking binge, so I put it on the backburner. Finally, I subscribed to Discovery+ and turned on Zoe's baking show, and the rest is history. I went to my local bookstore and purchased Zoe Bakes Cakes because I couldn't wait for Amazon. The book is of superb quality with beautiful photos and easy-to-follow recipes. I especially loved Zoe's tone - it was mildly self-deprecating and casual. Reading the narrative - and even the recipes - is like talking with a good friend. There is no stuffy language trying to convince the reader that Zoe knows what she's talking about because the proof is in the pudding. While the book is a great standalone, I would encourage people to take in a few episodes of Zoe Bakes Cakes before partaking in the book. Watching Zoe bake and listening to her explain her bakes will provide extra substance to the text, which you might not have gleaned from the book alone. After reading the book, go back and watch a corresponding video before taking on your bake. This book is a must for any home baker.

[Megan Crist · Rating 5 out of 5]

This cookbook produces some of the best cakes I’ve ever made. When I initially unboxed this book, my first thought was, “Really? Do we need another book about cake??” And let me tell you… Yes. Yes we do. We need this book. These recipes are excellent. The instruction in the beginning of the book is clear and well documented. The photography is not my favorite, but I have been able to look past that (which is not something anyone would expect me to say).

I should mention that I have not yet made every single recipe in the book, but I did test a decent selection.

I will be the first to admit that my original cynicism around this book was so far off track that I hardly deserve to enjoy these cakes.

If you’re looking for a book about cake, this is the one you want. ✨

[Brenda Dickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful cake baking book for the novice and the experienced baker. There are chapters that include ingredients and equipment as well as recipes for cakes, frostings and fillings. The recipes range from easy to somewhat difficult and include all types of cakes. I made the Vanilla Bean Pound Cake and the Confectioner's Sugar Icing and it was delicious. It was also simple to make using ingredients that are in most pantries. I plan on baking and making every recipe in this delightful book. I've received a free copy from ten Speed Press in exchange for a free and unbiased review.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pictures in this book were great, and I liked how the recipes were a good mix of complex and simple. I thought that most of the techniques were well explained, and the instructions were clear. Apparently the author is instagram famous, which is why it took me 3 months to get this book from my library, but that wasn't a major of the book.

[Leane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful photographs and clear step-by-step instructions make this a must for anyone who bakes cakes of any kind. Makes some more difficult techniques appear to be accessible. Recipes are both basics like yellow cake and more unique and exquisite confections like Hot Chocolate Cake, etc.
Great gift for bakers. Lovely browse for those who just like to armchair create and/or consume.

[Kandi A. Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Nice Cake Recipe and How To Book

I watch this baker's show on Paramount Plus all the time, and so this book has those recipes and even how to make one's own vanilla extract. I love the pictures and the background on the author. I cannot wait to try some of these recipes. I hope they come out at least half the as good as the pictures look!!

[Pixie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does the world need another cake cookbook? Yes, apparently. Why did I not hear about this 2021 book until now? Idk. Does the style of her upscale yet approachable cakes still hold up a few years later? Yes, absolutely.

[Margaret Gerberding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Baking books with gorgeous photos will get me every time! I want to try a few of these recipes!

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Graduate level baking skills needed for some recipes. Stunning book to look at- very coffee table worthy.
Library copy.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will continue with this beautiful book!

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm ready to bake!

[Mskychick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ohhhh my goodness!
Soooo many things I want to bake in here!!

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book for cakes

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just so focused and insightful—full of small bits of wisdom that feels like they come in a long chat with a friend.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

some great cakes - loved the olive oil chiffon cake.

[Cathy Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

4*. Great recipes I’ll never make. Fun to watch her bake and decorate on her television show.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve only tried the Sticky Toffee Date Cake so far but it is spectacular. Beautiful book full of delectable cakes. Can’t wait to bake more of them.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the baking knowledge section at the beginning with educational photos! This was a (long) library checkout and I didn’t actually make any of the recipes. But I learned a lot about cake.

[karly]

favorite cake book i’ve found so far - really letting me lean into my cake baking nerd era.

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful book on cakes. Well done explanations and covers a lot of basic cake types. Inspired me up my cake piping game.