A cupcake can change your life. Ever since Magnolia Bakery opened its doors in 1996, people have been lining up day and night to satisfy their sugar cravings -- patiently waiting in line at the old-fashioned yet funky bake shop to buy cupcakes, layer cakes, pudding, and ice cream, much to the surprise and delight of owner Allysa Torey. Now, from the baker who brought cupcakes to everyone's attention, come even more recipes from Greenwich Village's favorite bakery and her home kitchen.

Whether it's a birthday cake, weekend breakfast treats, or sweets for a bake sale, you'll find simple and delicious recipes to delight family and friends on all occasions in More from Magnolia: Recipes from the World-Famous Bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen. Beginning with the ever-popular cupcakes and frostings, you'll find the much-requested recipes for the mouthwatering Magnolia's Famous Banana Pudding and sinfully rich Red Velvet Cake with Creamy Vanilla Frosting, all with helpful hints that let you achieve the same sweet results as the bakery. In the well-loved Magnolia style, Allysa Torey brings you new twists on old favorites, such as Devil's Food Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting, Peaches and Cream Pie with Sugar Cookie Crust, and Apple Tart with Hazelnut Brown Sugar Topping. You'll also find breakfast treats like Cream Cheese Crumb Buns and Blueberry Coffee Cake with Vanilla Glaze; and afternoon snacks like Black Bottom Cupcakes, Walnut Brown Sugar Squares, and Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chip Cookies. From Banana Cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing to Heavenly Hash Ice Cream Pie, these are the desserts that Allysa makes for friends and family at home -- unfussy, straightforward, and simply delicious.

Illustrated with eight pages of beautiful color photographs, as well as black-and-white stills that capture the daily life of the bakery, More from Magnolia is an irresistible collection of new classics that will inspire you to fill your kitchen with sweet things.
Located in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, the near-shoebox-size Magnolia Bakery has become a destination for lovers of all-things sweet. The reason? From the beginning its owner Allysa Torey and her staff have offered cakes (and particularly cupcakes), pies, and other pastries that are utterly unpretentious but deeply satisfying in a grandmother-would-have-made-it-if-she-could-have way. More from Magnolia Torey's second book, adds to her already impressive recipe roster 75 formulas that range from Pear Streusel Breakfast Buns, and Pumpkin Walnut Cookies with Brown Butter Frosting, to Chocolate Pecan Pudding Pie, and Old-Fashioned Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. Included also are recipes for signature specialties like Magnolia's Chocolate Cupcakes and famous banana pudding, plus a section on frostings and sauces. All are easy to do, even for beginning bakers, and all have the straightforward Magnolia appeal. --Arthur Boehm

Customer Rating:
Summary: Cute book, good for your collection
Comment: After visiting the Magnolia Bakery, I had become a bit obsessed with cupcakes and the story behind the bakeries success so when I found this book I was really excited.
There are so many great recipes in this book, although being from Australia myself, I hadn't heard of a lot of them.....can't wait to try them though!
The only thing that lets this book down is the lack of photographs. Due to me not knowing what a lot of the recipes were, I would've liked to see what they look like, or are meant to look like.
Other than that, it's a great book with heaps of recipes. Definitely worth making space for in your bookcase!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Way to Burn...
Comment: Alyssa Torrey offers terrible advice on how to toast nuts before adding them to a recipe: "toast them in the oven at 350 for fifteen minutes..." That's a sure way to burn your $7 per pound pecans! What gets me is that these exact same instructions are repeated in several of the recipes. Who edited this book????

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Customer Rating:
Summary: 3 reasons to buy this recipe book
Comment: 1 - the easy Blueberry pie recipe
2 - the easy cupcakes recipes (duh)
3 - the easy instructions/explanations

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Customer Rating:
Summary: loved it
Comment: I loved almost every recipe in this book. Just what I was looking for, tasty "comfort food" desserts. Easy recipes and helpful hints. The photos looked good enough to eat! The preface was even well worth reading. It gave me a down home, flash back to my childhood. I highly recommend it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: vanilla vanilla cupcakes disappointing, but other recipes good
Comment: I've tried the red velvet cake (made them into cupcakes to fill that craving) with the cream cheese frosting. These were fabulous! I keep the frosting in a bag in the refrigerator and eat them when I have the urge. (I keep the cupcakes in the freezer and defrost when the craving strikes.) They are very light and fluffy and were the best "from scratch" cake I've had.

I just baked this morning the vanilla vanilla cupcakes with signature frosting and, after just moments ago tasting one, was disappointed. It turned out dense and with a strange subtle taste to them that I suspect was imparted by the self-rising flour. I've never used self-rising flour and was shocked to find salt among the many ingredients in the flour. The cupcakes just tasted a little funny, and even a tad salty despite my using less than the recipe called for (again, maybe the flour??). The frosting was a little sweet for me. Perhaps adding some cream instead of all milk would have mellowed it a tad. I usually make my frostings with some cream for consistency and taste.

I read the cautionary reviews that these turn out great for baking novices and disappointing for those with lots of baking experience. I'm an avid baker, and so this was unfortunately a correct predictor in my case. I'll keep trying the others, but will continue to hunt for another recipe.

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