Splendidly presented both photographically and logically. Valeri Valeriano has organized this book in such a way that it will serve the beginner as well as more experienced baked goods decorator. The skills are presented progressively, and easily mastered. Even a novice decorator can apply the skills outlined fairly quickly. I would have wished for a few more how to photos on the more complicated presentations, however I am a visual learner. This book would make a great gift and a wonderful addition to any baker's collection.

BUTTERCREAM FLOWERS FOR ALL SEASONS is a wonderful book. I took cake decorating classes, and didn't learn a third of the flowers featured on these pages. Beginning cake decorators are going to love this book!

As a child I had the unique experience to learn buttercream cake decorating from a family friend. My education focused on basic piping techniques and creating consistent borders. I was fascinated by leaves and flowers and had learned how to make several leaves and a rosebud by the time my lessons tapered off. This book helps me to fulfill my childhood dreams of a garden crafted of icing.

Clear photographs and instructions step the reader through the entire process. If you've never made buttercream or worked with it before, don't worry, there are tips for success. After covering techniques to create basic botanical shapes, there are inspirational projects. These are modern cakes with a nod to tradition. In addition to each elaborate confection, there are simpler variations. If you don’t wish for a tiered cake, examples are shown in different ways such as on cupcakes or a single tier. For each project the equipment, baked items, and suggested quantities of buttercream are provided.

This is the book I dreamed for as I filled my first piping bags and practiced endless lines of shells and scrolls. I know that today it can help me relearn long neglected skills and take my techniques to a new level of creativity. It is a resource helpful for the novice eager to expand their skills and the decorator looking for inspiration.

This book has a lot of great info and a lot of good pictures. Starts from the basics and moves towards more advanced flower piping and technique. At times I felt the descriptions were a little lacking. There needed to be more steps listed. More pictures of the steps. It seemed like a lot of times there would be 3-4 pictures per flower. To really learn these techniques from a book you need more pictures and descriptions than that. Overall it’s a great book. Well laid out and easy to find things. Easy to move progressively from a simple flower to more detailed ones all within the same stroke type.
I received a digital copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Buttercream cakes for all seasons is a wonderful cookery book that shows you how to create fantastic multi-tiered cakes with beautiful seasonal buttercream flowers.

It had 7 main chapters which covers Basics, Piping Flowers, Cake Basics, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.  There is also templates for some leaves and a reindeer which are used in some of the cake projects and a list of UK suppliers.

The chapter on Basics, provides more than one recipe for making the buttercream and also includes a vegan option.  It provides a top down view of each of the Wilton nozzles and their corresponding numbers and explains how to make openings wider as necessary.  The chapter also explains how to add colours to the buttercream, and then moves onto adding the buttercream to a piping bag, and includes 5 different effects such as two colours and marbling.

The Piping Flowers chapter provides step by step instructions and pictures on how to do 8 different strokes to make a variety of flowers using certain nozzles, such as carnations, sunflowers, freesia's foliage fruits (apples & lemons), succulents and leaves.

The Cake Basics chapter provides two recipes, Madeira cake and chocolate mud cake.  It explains how to stack cakes and then covering the cake in two coatings (crumb and smoothing) before the decoration is added.

The Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter chapters each have 4 cake projects per season.  Each project comes with pictures and great instructions on how to make the multi-tiered cake.  Also included are instructions on how to carve a cake for shape, such as a pumpkin and a Christmas tree.  The recipes provide both metric and imperial measurements.

So whilst it claims to have 48 projects it has 16 multi-tiered detailed cakes and at the end of each project is a single picture of a smaller cake and cupcakes with no instructions to follow.

The multi-tiered cake projects are different sizes and shapes, but only one size Madeira and chocolate mud cake recipe is available.  Would have hoped for a table with different quantities for each cake size and shape to have been provided.

I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.

This British text would benefit from revising for an American market, as it refers to products unavailable within the US. Additionally, while flowers are illustrated nicely, piping bag technique is not demonstrated; color blending is not discussed; and many images would have benefitted from a contrasting color background, as the off-white cake is difficult to see against a white background. Not recommended for novice cake decorators; of limited use to those wishing to enhance their existing skills.

This is a gorgeous book, with very clear directions on how to make the beautiful flowers and cakes. I hope that with practice mine may look as precise, but until then my family will have fun eating the lopsided ones. I smiled every time I read "pipe a blob of frosting" since "blob" is a fun way of describing the necessary part needed in those instances! There are more types of flowers in this book than I ever imagined being able to create in frosting....

This collection of floral buttercream cake decorating ideas comes from none other than the world’s leading instructors in buttercream techniques, Queen of Hearts Couture cakes, the bestselling authors of The Contemporary Buttercream Bible, 100 Buttercream Flowers, and Buttercream One-Tier Wonders. This book contains ideas to inspire you and the know how to make the ideas come true. It also gives the basics so that even beginners can create these designs too. Each design is presented as a spectacular tiered cake, a more accessible single tiered cake, and a beginner-friendly batch of cupcakes to meet each reader at their skill level. So, there are more than 48 projects within this book. What I liked is that the author doesn’t assume that you’re an expert already. They explain things at all skill levels. The directions are very self explanatory and easy to follow. They were simple enough that even someone who hasn’t decorated a cake before can manage to make beautiful buttercream flowers. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn the fine art of cake decorating.

This book has a lot of amazing information in it, however, probably due to the type of digital galley I am viewing I do not like the layout. Many of the large pictures are cut in half, and smaller pictures, the reader can tell where the shadow was cut off along the top or side. I will say everything looks realistic and yummy and I can not wait to try it at home. Overall, great information, but not the best execution.

This is a beautifully presented book, the information is really good. With a good deal of practise and some equipment, these magnificent cakes and flowers can be achieved in your home. I just love poring through the book, and marvelling at how everything looks realistic and beautiful. A must if you are interested in decorating and baking special event cakes.

This beautifully laid out book showcases the best of cake decorating with natural and real looking flowers ranging across a spectrum from fake sugar made Rose's to Dahlia's and even little leaf detailing and more.



Filled with tips on how to get the perfect shape flowers with step by step sentences accompanied by beautiful photographs of the author's work on their cake's which are marvelous creations.



The book is also filled with tips on how to get the perfect colour of icing and the best essential tools to try your hand at cake decorating too as well as a guide to baking and icing your cake too of course!



The girls truly captured their artistry within this book and is a kitchen essential for any keen baker or crafter in my opinion.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

I. HATE. FONDANT. Making it, using it, eating it...

Buttercream is my bag and it is great to see a book dedicated to it and the fine details to wield it. From design, prep and layout this covers everything a person needs to know when working with buttercream icing. The step by step photos and instructions are easy to follow and specific tip information for each flower is much better than an ambiguous star tip. I will definitely buy a copy of this for myself.

Mouthwatering recipes, spectacular cakes and wonderful pictures.
A very good step by step guide to learn to create spectacular cakes.
Really appreciated and fascinating.
Many thanks to F+W Media and Netgalley