Baking book recommendations

[Exhausted5487]

My cousin has recently got into baking. I love baking so I would like to get him a nice baking themed birthday present. I wanted to get Leiths baking bible (for a thorough recipe index) or Justin Gellatly's Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding (for indulgent recipes) but they are both now out of print.

I'm always wary of ordering books for others that I've not tried so I wondered whether you had any good all round baking books you could recommend please? Ideally more on the indulgent end of the scale than basics as that would appeal more to him. But not too random with flavours, he'd be happy with spices but would raise an eyebrow at herbs for example!

Has anyone tried Dominique Ansel's Everyone can bake? Looks fun but I don't have time to order it to me first to check it out (always too last minute!)

We like the Baker and Spice book. It has breads, cakes, tarts, pastries. A good mix. The measurements are a bit eyebrow raising (like 185ml of bottled spring water don't think so). Otherwise very reliable.

This one www.abebooks.co.uk/9781902757643/Baking-Passion-Baker-Spice-Lepard-1902757645/plp

Nigellas How to be a domestic goddess is good. Somewhere between simple and indulgent.

The hummingbird bakery book is good too.

The most random one though is the hairy bikers (not usually a fan, but this series and book are magnificent) big book of baking. They travelled all around Europe and these are the recipes. Lots of unusual recipes.

That's a lovely present idea.

I've got Paul Hollywood's 'how to bake'. It goes through some of the basics and has some lovely recipes
I've also got GBBO's 'How to turn everyday bakes into showstoppers' - again, covers the basics and then how to make something more special, which would help your cousin progress.

Delia's Cakes is very good if it's just baking you want.

Another vote for Nigella's how to be a domestic goddess.

Reasonably simple, very reliable. My brownies come from there, also my Victoria sponge, lemon drizzle and some amazing melt in the middle chocolate puddings.

I would recommend Pastry Love by Joanne Chang. Great recipes and beautifully published.

Short and Sweet by Dan Lepard.

It's a great book, quite thick, and covers breads, cakes, biscuits, pastries, small things, sweet, savoury... I love it because in the intro to each section there is a bit dedicated to how each ingredient works in this type of bake and what effect different varieties have, like different kinds of sugar. I find this really interesting, but I also think understanding the purpose and effect of the ingredients makes me a better baker. Additionally, everything I have baked from that book has turned out amazing.

Hummingbird Bakery books are good and I really rate them, but they only have sweet bakes in there.

Justin Gellatly’s other book ‘Baking School’ is good, especially if he’s interested in bread making