Book of baking recipes for beginner

[justabigdisco]

I love to cook, but never really got into baking. I've just moved house and want to start doing some cakes/biscuits etc. Can anyone recommend a good book with some starter recipes (not bothered about cupcakes!) and info on equipment etc?

Hopeful bump?

Mary Berry's Baking Bible is great for beginner bakers! The 'handy tips' are great, the kind of things my gran used to tell me as she taught me to bake (unfortunately she never taught me how to cook proper food)!
www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/mary+berry/mary+berry27s+baking+bible/6565170/

Thanks callipygian I'll have a look at that one!

Nigella's How To Be A Domestic Goddess - her recipes are really straightforward, not very technical, and have great flavours.

Yes, I was going to suggest Mary Berry's Baking Bible too.

Thanks. Is the nigella book just on baking or is it a general cookbook? I don't have any of hers.

Women's Institute Cakes by Liz Herbert. Everything I have made from it has come out really well!

Mary Berry Quick and Easy Cakes is a great starter, brilliant book sadly long out of print, but nearly always available on Amazon used for 1p :)

I third Mrs Berry's Bible.

It's learning the true staples of baking knowledge, starting with a Madera cake and Victoria Sponge, she then moves on to traybakes, meringues, pavlovas, biscuits, breads, pastry etc.

I don't mind Nigella HTBADG, I do find some of the recipes go a bit wayward and are more novelty factor than learning to be a good baker.

Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet is a great all-round baking book, including the best recipe for scones I've ever used (sweet buttermilk scones).