Calling all cakes/desert cooks - can you recommend a good first cook book please?

[PavlovtheCat]

I would like to do a bit of baking/desert making. I can do fairy cakes quite well, muffins less well, and can do simple biscuits. I am not looking at just cakes/biscuits, but all desert types.

I want to make a few things, then from those pick say 3 or 4 things and learn to make them well, taste wise and the way they look.

Can you all please recommend me a good 'starter' book that will have lots of recipes for me to wade through and try. Nothing complicated for now, i want simple with a view to making it perfect.

Thanks

Sue Lawrence and Mary Berry are both excellent for baking and deserts. Much as I love Nigella's Domestic Goddess book it is probably not ideal for beginners as there are some typos in it and ingredients are expensive to practice with.

Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book. OMG, it's amazing. Everything works EVERY TIME and she has extra tips and "What went wrong??" suggestions at the end.

It's got cakes, muffins, cheesecakes, meringues, scones and teabreads, biscuits and shortbreads, buns, kids' recipes, no-bake recipes...

It's soooooooooooooo good.

Another vote for Mary Berry - she has a book called "Simple Cakes" iirc. She's got quite a few recipes which are "dump ingredients in bowl, mix with electric mixer, dump in tin, bake" which is my kinda cooking

Another vote for Mary Berry!

Oh i love the idea of dumping in a bowl and just mixing!

I do not have a food processor, or an electric mixer. So i have to invest. Which one is best, mixer?

You could get a basic handheld mixer from eg. ASDA for less than £20. Much cheaper and easier to store than food processor and , to be honest, better for cakes and meringues. Mine has lasted >5yrs.

Nigella's "Domestic Goddess" every time! Or Nigel Slater's "Real Fast Puddings".

Another vote for MARY BERRY here too - her brownies are to die for and they are a chuck it all in a bowl and mix. I started a new job last September and I have been drip feeding some of my colleagues brownies and they just keep asking for more....