Books about Whimsical from Amazon.com

Witty, one-of-a-kind imaginative cupcake designs using candies from the local convenience store.

America's favorite food photography team, responsible for the covers of America's top magazines, shows how to create funny, scary, and sophisticated masterpieces, using a zipper lock bag and common candies and snack items.With these easy-to-follow techniques, even the most kitchen-challenged cooks can

• raise a big-top circus cupcake tier for a kid's birthday
• plant candy vegetables on Oreo earth cupcakes for a garden party
• trot out a line of confectionery "pupcakes" for a dog fancier
• serve sausage and pepperoni pizza cupcakes for April Fool's Day
• bewitch trick-or-treaters with chilly ghost chocolate cupcakes
• create holidays on icing with turkey cupcake place cards, a white cupcake Christmas wreath, and Easter egg cupcakes

No baking skills or fancy pastry equipment is required. Spotting the familiar items in the hundreds of brilliant photos is at least half the fun..
Price: $10.19 [Notify me when price goes down.]

*Written by a popular and experienced cake designer

*Range of techniques and skill levels ensures broad appeal

*Lindy's other best-selling titles include Celebrate with a Cake (28,000 copies sold) and Party Animal Cakes (20,000 copies sold)

Readers will discover a collection of 15 truly inspirational and deceptively simple celebratory cakes, each with a modern and distinctive finish. Lavish colour photographs display a unique variety of traditional and contemporary styles from florals and frills to stripes and beadwork. Each cake is accompanied by exquisite mini-cakes to put a creative twist on the main theme, or to make as an alternative when time is short. Chapters are divided by shape, showing how a simple square or round design can be the basis for the most desirable of cakes..
Price: $11.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The mania for miniature sweets is gaining momentum–maybe due to happy memories of the magical tea parties of our childhood, or the intimacy of having our own tiny treat in a supersized world, with no need to share!

The mother-daughter team at the Riviera Bakehouse in Westchester, New York, and authors of The Whimsical Bakehouse and Christmas Cookies from the Whimsical Bakehouse now present an abundance of fabulous new recipes for little decorated cakes, cheesecakes, cupcakes, and more–all in fresh flavor combinations, like caramel cake with dulce de leche buttercream or spicy chocolate cake with cinnamon-chocolate whipped cream. This comprehensive introduction to baking in miniature also provides tips on glazing, icing, and making chocolate decorations and offers details on the equipment you need to get started (including a cake pan chart, so that you can use those mini rose pans, heart pans, and other fun shapes to bake unique creations).

The authors are famous for their over-the-top decorations, and they’ll take you step-by-step through the process of creating cakes piped and appliquéd with bumblebees (white chocolate wings and nonpareil stripes make them irresistible!), blooming roses (or, if you prefer, delicate hydrangeas with lifelike shaded petals), wild meringues (dressed with tiger stripes, zebra stripes, or leopard spots), and spiky dragons (right down to the serpentine tail). The recipes in Little Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse are categorized into three levels: one star for easy, two for intermediate, and three for challenging. So whether you want to start with a charming, super-easy star-shaped mini strawberry shortcake or strive for A Day at the Beach pail-shaped cake, complete with cookie-crumb sand, chocolate shovel, and edible seashells, you’ll find a cool confection that fits your skills. If you’re not ready for complicated decorating, this book also provides easy presentation ideas to make simple cakes look grander, ensuring the perfect finish to any occasion.

Little cakes are as fun to make as they are delicious to eat! After all, who’d turn down a bit–and a bite–of joy in their lives?.
Price: $14.05 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Three neon-bright layers of cake, tilted at a jaunty angle and adorned with edible chocolate candles; a Jackson Pollock–inspired cheesecake spattered with chocolate, caramel, and peanut butter icing; and a swarm of plump bees perched atop a rainbow of candy-colored cupcakes—these are only a few examples of the unfettered creativity at work at the Riviera Bakehouse. There, mother-daughter bakers Kaye and Liv Hansen turn out some of the most charming, refreshingly eccentric cakes ever to grace a birthday or wedding celebration.

Kaye and Liv believe that a cake should taste as good as it looks, so they skip esoteric (and inedible) decorations in favor of simple buttercream, flavored whipped cream, and tinted candymaker’s chocolate, covering their luscious cakes with amusing designs and gorgeous color that are easy to make and delicious to eat. The cakes themselves are no less enticing, pairing old-fashioned favorites like Banana Cake and Spice Cake with sumptuous fillings such as French Custard and Chocolate Mousse. Simple step-by-step lessons, illustrated with photographs, explain how to re-create Liv’s charming chocolate designs, from the bright polka dots that shine against dark chocolate glaze to the shimmering stars that adorn the enchanting “Starry Night.” Templates for the delightful designs allow you to adapt these techniques to create your own unique decorations.

With time-tested tips and complete information on everything from mixing colors to adjusting pan sizes, the Hansens explain all you need to know to get started. Whether you’re dreaming of an elegant Chocolate Apricot Pecan Torte or a three-tiered butter cake filled with spiked mocha cream and embellished with fantastical spring flowers, The Whimsical Bakehouse is the ultimate guide to creating delicious, showstopping confections that are completely original..
Price: $15.48 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Price: $19.77 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In the tradition of the Bungalow series, here is a marvelous celebration of the twentieth century's most delightful and whimsical architectural style

Storybook Style, the rambunctious evocation of medieval Europe in American housing, was born in the early 1920s and almost forgotten by the late 1930s. It took its inspiration from the Hollywood sets that enthralled Americans of the period and that still appeal to our jaded modern eye. Half timbered and turreted, pinnacled and portcullised, these houses owed their fanciful bravura to architects and builders with theatrical flair, fine craftsmanship, and humor. In Storybook Style, architectural information enhances the stunning color pictures by Bungalow and Painted Ladies photographer Doug Keister to impart a wealth of information and enjoyment.

Photography by Douglas Keister..
Price: $17.40 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Price: $8.72 [Notify me when price goes down.]

For over fifty years Martin Gardner has been delighting readers with elegant, witty, and highly intelligent writing on an amazing array of topics. Best known for his works on popular science and mathematics, and as an incisive skeptical commentator on the paranormal, Gardner is also an accomplished writer of children's literature, a novelist, and a prolific essayist on religion, philosophy, and other issues. This new collection of Gardner gems takes its name from an essay on a mathematical theme, about a jinn (or genie) trapped in a "Klein Bottle"--an amusing tale that also teaches the math phobic something interesting about a theoretical one-sided object with no distinction between inside and outside. Other topics in math and physics include speculations about universes where time runs in reverse; the Banach-Tarski paradox (whereby a sphere, after being deconstructed, can be reassembled at twice its size); and a vigorous defense of the objective reality of mathematical theorems independent of human culture. On the literary side, Gardner discusses two neglected works by G.K. Chesterton, one of which concerns an imaginary but now very topical war between Islam and Christianity. He also considers the fantasies of L. Frank Baum that don't take place in Oz, Clement Moore's ever-popular The Night Before Christmas, and the many fascinating books by Lewis Carroll that are sometimes overshadowed by his famous Alice in Wonderland. A treat for longtime Gardner readers or the perfect introduction for newcomers, The Jinn from Hyperspace offers a rich selection of stimulating intellectual wonders..
Price: $11.44 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Price: $5.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Some people look in a pastry case and see sinful excess; others see delectable taste treats. The authors of Butter Sugar Flour Eggs see ingredients. They have named their book "after the first and most important elements of any dessert recipe.... Butter brings flavor and richness; Sugar lends sweetness and melting textures; Flour provides substance; and Eggs bring it all together. Afterward the flavorings take over: Chocolate, Citrus, Fruit, Nuts, Cheese, and Spice complete the dessert making pantry." Most desserts, the authors allow, have one strong characteristic flavor, or one strong characteristic texture that sings louder than anything else. It's how the authors have ordered the recipes in Butter Sugar Flour Eggs, a clever idea.

So, in Butter, you'll find the likes of Millionaire's Shortbread, while in Sugar, you'll find Brown Sugar Shortbread. In Eggs you'll be tempted by Mango Flan on Chocolate, but in Flour it's more likely going to be Chocolate Chip Pancakes. And that's just to get you started. Because there are chapters for all the basic flavorings, too (Oranges Simmered in Red Wine, Brooklyn Blackout Cake, Nectarine Beignets, Roasted Pecan Ice Cream, Montrachet Cheesecake, Moist Ginger Cake with Orange Icing). And then because holidays tend to pull out all the stops, there's a separate chapter for them as well. Ever get in trouble for playing with your dessert? With Butter Sugar Flour Eggs Gale Gand, Rick Tramonto, and Julia Moskin give you permission to do just that. --Schuyler Ingle.
Price: $6.77 [Notify me when price goes down.]