The learn-to-bake master class in a book.

The craft of baking is based on good technique. Learn the fundamentals well, and you can bake perfect cakes, cookies, tarts, breads, and pastries each and every time.

That's the premise of Baking, revered cooking teacher James Peterson's master course in baking fundamentals. In more than 350 recipes and auxiliary techniques--most accompanied by illuminating step-by-step photographs--Peterson lays the foundation for lifelong baking success.

This book teaches you how to build finished baked goods from their essential components, providing both maximum guidance for less experienced bakers and great creative freedom for more confident bakers. The Cakes chapter, for example, presents basic cake recipes (Moist Sponge Cake, Devil' s Food Cake) followed by frostings, fillings, and glazes (Professional-Style Buttercream, White Chocolate Ganache), allowing you to mix and match endlessly. Or, if you're looking for knockout assembled cakes, go to the end of the chapter and discover complete illustrated instructions for, say, a decadent Chocolate Hazelnut Cake with Chocolate Filling and Hazelnut Buttercream, or an elegant Peach Crème Mousseline Cake.

Baking is packed with the basic, must-have recipes for every baker's repertoire (as well as more ambitious classics), such as:

Pound Cake

Crème Anglaise

Chiffon Cake

Cheesecake

Classic Puff Pastry

Cherry Pie

Lemon Meringue Pie

Miniature Raw Fruit Tarts

Linzertorte

Cream Puffs

Chocolate Croissants

Cheese Danish • Basic Butter Cookies

Lemon Bars

Biscotti

Challah

Rye Bread

Focaccia

Blueberry Muffins

Scones

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Cheese Souffles

Miniature Cake Petits Fours

Apple Strudel

Napoleons

Rolled Fondant • Bûche de Noël

Éclairs

Mushroom Jalousie

Copious photographs inspire and help bakers visualize the crucial moments of hundreds of recipes and techniques, including:

Troubleshooting Tarts and Pies

Baking "Blind"

Making Liquid Fondant

Coating a Cake with Hot Icing

Assembling a Layer Cake without Using a Cake Stand • Decorating a Cake with a Caramel Cage

Coloring Marzipan

Making a Rolled Cake • Decorating Cookies with Colored Sugar

Filling and Using a Pastry Bag

Kneading Wet Dough in a Food Processor

Scoring Dough

Shaping a Fougasse

Repairing Chocolate Mixtures that Have Seized

Cooking Sugar Syrup to the Soft Ball Stage

Thorough, approachable, and authoritative, Baking shows why James Peterson is a trusted source for home cooks of every level. Work your way through this book, and you will gain the skills you'll need for impressive results every time.