I absolutely love this cookbook. I have tried several recipes and they came out wonderful. I love the fact that is is very simple to understand and yet yields great results. A definite winner!

What I like to do is to take the book out of the library first, glance over and try a recipe. I tried Black & Tan cake on page 82-83 for a Christmas Party last week. What a show stopper! Sweet Maria's made me look really good. I have put this book on my Christmas list. Hope Santa is checking my list twice.

"Sweet Maria's Cake Kitchen" by Maria Bruscino Sanchez published by St. Martin's Grifiin Maria Bruscino Sanchez has made her name known in Connecticut, thanks to her baking efforts at Sweet Maria's Bakery as well as winning the Grand Prize at the Connecticut Bakers Association Cake Decorating Contest two years in a row. In "Sweet Maria's Cake Kitchen," her second dessert book, Sanchez spills some of the secrets that she has developed over the years. Like many cookbooks, "SMCK" begins with the basics and then uses them as building blocks or layers to create delicious layer, loaf and bundt cakes. For veteran home chefs who are comfortable at the controls of their Kitchen Aide, you'll find intriguing combinations of flavors and ingredients in her 65 recipes while amateurs can accept the hand-holding directions that take you from the first mixing to the final baking. If you're tired of plain old chocolate cake, white cake or yellow cake, flip through the 129 pages here and update your repertoire with the likes of the Elvis cake, the Tiramisu cake and the toasted lemon snowball cake. Your taste buds will thank you. By Mark C. Guncheon

Like Maria Bruscino Sanchez's other books, this is filled with easy, delicious recipes. I received this for my birthday a week ago and we have already tried several recipes. Each one we have tried was easy, tasted great, and the kids were able to help. They are all "keepers". The Eggnog cookies are particularly good. We have made three batches and plan to make more for Christmas. The Maple cookies are aso excellent, another keeper in our house. I hope Maria Bruscino Sanchez writes another book fast, I can't wait to try anything else she makes.

Make Delicious Italian Desserts at Home

In her latest cookbook, "Sweet Maria's Italian Desserts: Classic and Casual Recipes for Cookies, Cakes, Pastry, and Other Favorites," baker Maria Bruscino Sanchez offers traditional family recipes for the home baker. She demystifies the "handful of this and that" that one often finds with "old country" family recipes. Italian baking, like Italian cooking, is regional. Maria offers recipes from her Neapolitan and Abbruzzese heritage; from her Sicilian husband's heritage; and from her travels all over Italy. She shares updated traditional and contemporary recipes from her own Sweet Maria's Bakery in Waterbury, Connecticut, where Italian-Americans and others purchase desserts.

The recipes in this cookbook are easy to follow. Here you will find authentic Italian recipes for everything from cookies (including biscotti), cakes (including cheesecakes), pies and tarts, pastry (wonderful cannoli), sweet breads, frozen desserts, fruit desserts, and dessert sauces.

Of special interest are recipes for tiramisù (including savioardi--Italian ladyfingers), homemade limoncello, crostata di fico (fresh fig tart), millefoglie (thousand-layer apricot tart), biscotti di cioccolata con noci (chocolate hazlenut biscotti), and apricot-almond semi-freddo. For special occasions, such as St. Joseph's Day (March 19) and Easter, Maria tells how to make "Pane di Pasqua con Uovo" (Braided Easter Bread with Eggs). For Christmas, there are recipes for "Panettone" (Christmas Fruit Bread) and "Crostata di Natale" (Christmas Tart).

Sidebars occur throughout this cookbook that offer tips such as "How to Make an Italian Cookie Tray," "Bomboniere" (favors for Italian weddings and bridal showers), and "Al Dente." Another sidebar tells how ". . . Italian pastry chefs traveled with Catherine de Médici when she went to live in France . . . .who showed the French chefs some of their basic techniques for pastry making, which they then adapted to make some of their legendary sweets."

Highly recommended for authentic Italian dessert recipes!

I was thrilled to find this book. There's something special about an Italian cookie bakery: the variety of flavors, colors, shapes and tastes. I made four recipes over the weekend. Two were good but were similar to recipes I already had: Coconut Macaroons and Anise. The other two were failures: the Florentines were so thin that they separated from the almonds and the Sesame cookies were bitter. Many of the recipes use similar base ingredients which is easy but redundant. I wished there were more frosted recipes like in the bakery. I also really would have liked photos: 1) as a point of comparison and 2) for authentic appearance. I will try more recipes in this book but will also look for others.

I was very excited to get baking once I got this book. It includes a nice variety of cookies. I think it would a helpful aid if pictures were included. For example, the Almond Crescents recipe calls for the dough to be shaped like a horseshoe - not quite a crescent. I was just curious what's the author's cookie looked like.
I do think the recipes are wonderful and can easily be adapted for your personal taste. I think this book will make a delightful addition to any baker's repertoire.

This is probably the best and most frequently used cookie cookbook in my collection. The recipes are authentic Italian style cookies similar to what you would find in a good Italian bakery or coming out of grandma's oven. Maria gives interesting little anecdotes with almost every cookie recipe. I have tried almost every cookie in the book and have not been disappointed yet. With the holidays approaching, this is definitely a cookbook worth owning.