A delicious, versatile yellow cake that has good vanilla flavour and a lovely, moist crumb.

It was the first cake I baked from this book so the author’s 2-step method of mixing the batter was totally foreign to me. I now appreciate this method of beating dry ingredients with butter first, then beating eggs (yolks only in this recipe) and liquids in later; it’s faster, dirties fewer dishes and results in a tender cake every time!

As other reviewers have noted, the cake marries well with a number of different frosting flavours. My most recent pairing (pictured) was with the vanilla mousseline buttercream from the same book.

A fabulous, basic cake suitable for “all occasions”!

Génoise cakes are the bane of my existence. I haven’t made too many attempts at this type of cake as my results have been hit and miss. Fortunately this one, using this recipe for the first time, was a hit.

I’ve learned from experience (and the few successful cakes of this type that I’ve made) that weighing the ingredients and keeping them warm are critical to a successful outcome. And though I’m not usually one to play with my food, using your fingers (immersed in the batter) is the best way to locate and dissolve those pesky flour clumps without over mixing the batter.

The cake has a very nice but not too assertive chocolate flavour and a light and delicate texture. It doesn’t contain much fat so must be syruped to stay moist. I used a syrup flavoured with orange liqueur; a chocolate syrup would intensify the chocolate flavour. This is the base cake for the Strawberry Maria.

Perfectly sweet and tart and tasting like the fresh fruit, if not better, this curd has superseded lemon as my all-time favourite fruit spread/cake and pie filling.

The recipe is a basic curd recipe that involves cooking, but not allowing to boil, a mixture of passion fruit puree, egg yolks, sugar and butter until thickened. Passing the mixture through a strainer before cooling ensures removal of any cooked egg bits or passion fruit clumps and a perfectly smooth curd.

I’ve made this recipe a few times now, and I’ve learned from experience (and also a recommendation from the author’s blog) that weighing the ingredients yields a curd with the best consistency.

I used it most recently as a filling for a white velvet cake frosted with white chocolate mousseline buttercream, both recipes from The Cake Bible.

This delicious purée/sauce really captures the essence of the summer fruit more so than any other recipe I’ve tried.

The method is a little more complicated than just puréeing the fruit but results in superior flavour. It involves straining the juice from defrosted fruit and reducing it to concentrate the flavour before adding it back into the puréed strawberries.

The resulting purée smells and tastes like juicy ripe berries and can be used to flavour whipped cream or buttercreams or can be sweetened and used as a sauce.

Easy and very versatile. I usually make a double batch and keep some in the freezer.

This delicious vanilla cake has a fine, velvety soft crumb, beautiful white appearance and good vanilla flavour; it's one of my favourites.

It’s made with basic ingredients and uses Rose’s 2-step method of mixing: the dry ingredients are beaten with butter and some milk; the remaining milk and the eggs are then added in 3 batches, beating briefly after each addition. The cake uses egg whites only, hence the lovely colour, but as whipping them is not required, whites that have a little yolk in them are okay. The batter is quite thick so chopped nuts, chocolate chips etc can be added and remain suspended while the cake bakes.

I chose to make this cake for my recent wedding anniversary, pairing it with passion fruit curd filling and white chocolate mousseline buttercream. This project was somewhat of an experiment for me and represented a lot of firsts, but I knew that the cake portion would turn out well as this is an extremely reliable recipe as long as you measure ingredients carefully and follow the detailed instructions.