Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

[Updates at end of review, 11/06/2016] As expected, Candace has released a gorgeous cookbook full of pretty photographs of her sweet baked goods, a well-written intro into how Sprinkles came into be, and accessible recipes for home baking. Amazon hasn't released a look inside for this cookbook, which is crazy, so I'm attaching the table of contents to this review as 3 photos. You'll notice (perhaps) this cookbook does not include recipes for some of Sprinkles' most popular cupcakes, especially some of the limited edition/seasonal ones. It is billed as Sprinkles baking, not Sprinkles cupcakes, so I don't feel misinformed at all, but it's worth noting only about one third of these recipes are cupcake recipes, and most of them are the standard flavors. It breaks my heart that salted caramel isn't in here, but I guess from a business perspective there's a rationale for holding back some of the biggest hits. The other recipes are more the kind of things you'd expect to find in a baking cookbook, like brownies, pies, cookies, cakes for a variety of occasions, even a little candy. There are two vegan recipes and two gluten-free recipes. I'm looking forward to replicating some of my family's favorites from Sprinkles, like red velvet and vanilla milk chocolate, while trying some new things like Candace's chocolate chai quick bread, butterscotch milk chocolate bars, cocoa mint brownies, and cinnamon rolls. Unlike the recipe attached to Candace's name in Twenty Five, these recipes all read as though they were well-tested. They're clearly written, and easily made without a huge amount of time investment or extra/exotic ingredients. I'll be testing several of the recipes this weekend and I'll update my review with the results. Update: I tested the vanilla milk chocolate and the black and white cupcakes first because I've eaten many of both, so I know exactly what they ought to taste like. They both turned out really well. Are they an exact replica of what I can buy at the Sprinkles store? I'd say mine were about 95% of the way there, and I didn't have to pay close to $4 for one (or drive 1 hour to get there). The cupcakes themselves were excellent - full of flavor and not at all dry, but they didn't rise quite as much as I thought they should. Maybe my leaveners need to be replaced. It took me several cupcakes to get the hang of how to frost them in the Sprinkles bakery style, but practice makes perfect, and the last few I made were pretty good dupes (there's a how-to section). I swapped frostings & cupcakes, making 6 vanilla with white frosting, 6 vanilla with milk chocolate frosting, 6 chocolate with chocolate frosting, and 6 black and white cupcakes, then took them into work to get feedback. People loved these. Even the cupcake skeptics devoured them and a couple people fought over the last one. For people having trouble with getting their cupcakes to come out properly - the one place that seems a little unclear in the instructions is the addition of the eggs. You should add your eggs separately, and once they are all incorporated, then beat for 1-2 minutes (or whatever time the recipe says at that point). Maybe that's the issue? Also, I highly recommend the use of a scale. Candace doesn't provide weights for her recipes, which definitely makes this not a 5-star cookbook. When I made my cupcakes I converted the volumes she does provide to their standard weights (as specified on the labels: 120g per 1 cup flour, 200g per 1 cup sugar, etc). Good luck!