Baking with Kim-Joy

Welcome to Foodie Fridays once again! I don’t have an actual recipe for you today, but I do have something food-related (finally)! It’s been many moons since my last cookbook review, so I figured I’d restart again with one that I actually bought (what whattt)–Baking with Kim-Joy!

Baking with Kim-Joy: Cute and Creative Bakes to Make You Smile

By Kim-Joy Hewlett

Genre: Food/Cooking
Pages: 176

During my road trip, I stopped in Tucson to visit Pixie, a friend from medical school (and co-founder of FMStudent)! She’d never seen the Great British Bake Off, so I convinced her to binge-watch season 9 with me. I love GBBO because the contestants are so supportive of each other and so, so incredibly talented.

It’s really fun seeing what each baker comes up with, but I especially loved seeing what Kim-Joy would make. (Given my affinity to cute animals, I’m sure this is a surprise to absolutely no one.) She’d come up with the most adorable bakes ever! Baking with Kim-Joy is divided into the following sections:

Introduction

I am most definitely a beginner baker so I did question whether I should be getting this at first. In the end, I obviously chose to get it–there’s always room to improve! Kim-Joy talks about her philosophy behind baking–to do + find joy in what you love and do what’s achievable. There are also options to simplify any of the recipes and step-by-step photos on what to do, so I think I’ll be good to go! (Stay tuned on future Foodie Friday‘s to see how things go!)

Cakes & Frosting

Learn how to make 16 different cakes and 7 types of frostings/buttercreams/tempering chocolate, including…

• Pistachio & Cardamom Cake with Mango-Saffron Jam, Vegan Vanilla Cake with Lemon Curd & Blackberries, Halloween Cake with Meringue Ghosts, Woodland Cake, Easter Cake, Cat Paradise Cake…

Space Turtle Cake(!!! If you watched GBBO, you’ll understand my joy in seeing this <3)

• American Buttercream, Coloured Ganache Controlled Drips, Homemade Vegan White Chocolate…

Cookies & Icing

Semolina Shortbread, Ginger Cookies, Basic Vegan Shortbread, Vegan Ginger Cookies…

Breads

The first things I want to make are actually in this section! :] The Tangzhong Cat Buns + Space Turtle Melonpan Buns are so adorable! There’s a recipe for a no-knead bread here as well.

Square Cakes

The recipes here are literal works of art–Firework Cake, Lavender & Orange Cake (with an autumnal or floral design), Lady Lemon Drizzle Cake…

Little Bakes

The Cardamom, Almond & Honey Bee Cookies here are super cute! As are the Jam Love Letters, Pigfiteroles in Mud, Pistachio Choux Turtles and the Passionfruit & Strawberry Tarts with Cat Meringues. *-* The Rhubarb & Frangipane Butterfly Tart is gorgeous too!

Sadly, although I’m finally home and now have a kitchen, we do not currently have a functional oven (it doesn’t know how to turn off, so we’ve remedied this by…never turning it on). I’m waiting for my best friend to come back from his business trip and we’re looking forward to making a bunch of these! <3

Each of the recipes contains an introduction, serving size, an ingredient list, instructions, and tips where applicable. There are also sections on cake, cookie, and macaron decorating tips + ideas! The photos are super cute/gorgeous and it was pretty difficult trying to decide which recipes to feature on here. If you’re a fan of GBBO, baking, cute desserts, and/or want to get better at decorating, I’d definitely recommend getting Baking with Kim-Joy! :]

• Do you watch the Great British Baking Show?
• Do you enjoy baking? What’s your favorite type of thing to bake?
• Aren’t these the cutest creations ever!?!