Chocolate Is Forever

Maida Heatter, aka "The Queen of Desserts" died last year and during the 70s and 80s, she published several titles that are now considered classics. Her precise instructions taught a generation of bakers and eased their fears about entering the kitchen. The recipes in this book have been assembled from Maida Heatter’s previously published books, including Happiness Is Baking, Maida Heatter's Cakes, Maida Heatter's Cookies, Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts, Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts, Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts.

Last year, a compilation of her recipes appeared in Happiness Is Baking. This book follows the same format and is again illustrated by Alice Oche's colorful drawings. A preface by David Lebovitz was not available in the preview galley. Maida Heatter's notes on equipment, ingredients and how-to's are included in the opening chapter..

Recipe sections include Simple Cakes, Special Occasion Cakes, Cookies & Bars, Pastries, Pies, Puddings & More and Candy, Fudge and Chocolate Drinks. I have made many of these recipes and they include some of my all-time favorites, such as 86-Proof Chocolate Cake, St. Louis Chocolate Layer Cake, Country Fair Chocolate Cake, Frozen Chocolate Mousse and Rocky Roads. But there are also a number that I haven't tried, chief among them are the September 7th Cake, Robert Redford Cake, Queen Mother's Cake, Hungarian Seven Layer Cake, Mocha Velvet, Chocolate Bread and a host of others. Just seeing the list of contents reminds me, that despite blogging her recipes for the past decade, I still have tons of recipes to go!

I've always loved chocolate, but I found chocolate work to be very intimidating. The great thing about this cookbook is the tips and tricks that make you feel more confident going into the process. The tone of the author's writing is very down-to-earth while the recipes are (sorry, I have to say it this way) out of this world. I found plenty of new things I want to try and improvements on my current repertoire. If you purchase this book for yourself, you will want a physical copy rather than a digital copy to write, underline, and make other notes in.

My only caveat was a personal preference. I would have loved to see photos of each piece rather than illustrations. I'm a very visual learner so that would have been helpful to me.

The endless mouthwatering recipes had my stomach growling! I love chocolate and I love baking and I thought I have seen (or made) it all and I was wrong. There were so many variations on chocolate based desserts that there is never room to get bored. The beginning of the book had a lot of information on equipment and baking tips that I got worried there wouldn't be enough recipes in the book, but there were more than I thought possible! I would absolutely recommend this book to any chocolate lover!

There are some serious delicious recipes in this book. I love that most of them have a little story about where they came from or who they've been cooked for, a great personal touch. Cant wait to try some of these out very soon and see what kind of reactions that we get. Some great tips and tricks at the beginning for us novices to increase our skills.
Thanks for the opportunity to try something new.