The Gilded Cake: The Golden Rules of Cake Decorating for Metallic Cakes 

The Gilded Cake is a very beautiful book yet few home bakers will benefit from it. This is clearly for the professionals, and only the most advanced home baker would attempt any of the recipes—they are involved, difficult and very time consuming (some cakes with thirty-five steps). Nevertheless, bakers would learn a lot from the intricate techniques author Faye Cahill teaches through descriptions and series of nicely executed and illustrated step-by-step photos. Professional bakers will benefit from this book, but products are for the high-end professional where clients are blessed with unlimited budget. Cahill uses edible (and some inedible) metallic cake decorating material—expensive but showy, producing stunning cake designs. Her book starts with the basic recipes (such as royal icing, meringues and ganache), then illustrates equipment needed (a full fifty of them), metallics and a table to calculate amounts required, and finally the elaborate techniques working with metallics. You need to be an artist besides an accomplished baker. The book ends with good explanation of general techniques, well-illustrated with photos, and a list of suppliers. (Note that these are Australian.)