The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

November 1, 1999
Appel and Torey are owners of the eponymous Manhattan bakery, which turns out the kind of white-cake treats that graced most tables decades ago. Retro deserts include Chocolate Wafer Icebox Cake, made with Nabisco wafers, and Oatmeal, Raisin, Almond Cookies. These recipes are classics, with a few updated touches. Pecan Pie was handed down from a Texas grandmother; Magic Cookie Bars are packed with chocolate chips and coconut and sweetened with three cans of condensed milk. The unfortunately named Dump Cake is a throwback to old women's magazine recipes, consisting of cherry pie filling, canned pineapple, cake mix, pecans and butter. These super-sweet, mostly buttery items hark back to a pre-cholesterol era--evidenced by Chocolate Chip, Peanut, Banana Loaf, which the authors describe as "healthy." A chapter on cheesecakes offers Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake and White Chocolate-Hazelnut Cheesecake. A section of baking tips includes little new information for even novice cooks (e.g., advice such as measuring accurately and watching cookies carefully to guard against burning). The same can be said of this book as a whole: these recipes are good, if ordinary.