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Sprinkles

Review of Sprinkles recipes and ideas for rainbowlicious desserts with sample pages and photos from the book by Jackie Alpers

Those with a sweet tooth who want colour in their life need a copy of Sprinkles!: Recipes and Ideas for Rainbowlicious Desserts in their kitchen.

It is such a joy to flick through these pages of treats. Their high quality photographs will have you drooling over them and eager to slip on your apron. I can confidently say that these are the best images you will ever see in a cookbook.

Even the text leaps out at you and embraces you with comforting hundreds and thousands cuddles with various patterns and designs bordering each recipe.

The Drummer Boy is my latest novel about the ghost of a Gordon Highlander Drummer Boy from the Battle of Waterloo who haunts a modern day army nurse.

Chapters take place in modern day Aberdeen, at the Noose & Monkey bar and restaurant as well as His Majesty’s Theatre and Garthdee. Other scenes take place at Tidworth and during the Napoleonic War.

Read the first three chapters for free on most devices.

Jackie Alpers has generously shared treats such as confetti layer cake with us and taken stunning pictures so we know what they should look like. There is no guessing the outcome of home-baking here because each delight has a picture to accompany it and what stunners they are. Who can resist wanting to tuck into the red velvet whoopie pies?

She starts with a guide to the various sprinkles available, and my goodness what a range there are from elaborate sno-caps to delightful flower lay-ons. We in the UK know them as 100s and 1000s whilst in other countries they go by various names such as hagelslag (hailstorm) to the Dutch or jimmies to the Americans. Whatever type there are is pictured in Sprinkles! There is also a guide to sprinkling methods that range from dusting, swirling, dipping, dunking, coating and edging.

Recipes are broken into meal type sections. So for example in the breakfast sweets you will find a plethora of delights like Belgian pearl sugar waffles, fancified doughnuts, sprinkles stuffed French toast, homemade pop tarts and even how to make your own portions of sprinkles butter to bring joy to your morning toast.

Late morning snacks that Jackie teaches you to easily make at home include chocolate pistachio biscotti.

Each page has a tips section and these helpful hints include her favourite ingredients to enhance the treats, storage suggestions and what accompaniments would add to the visual eatable treat to give it a little sparkle.

Our favourites are the rock candy garnishes and hot chocolate stir sticks: all decorated with colourful hundreds and thousands. There is even a guide to using lace or paper cut-outs as stencils to form gorgeous and intricate patterns on the top of food.

Don't worry if this sounds beyond your abilities, trust us it is not, even the kitchen novice can follow Jackie's advice because she helpfully provides stage by stage photos in sections like the how to cover a cake with sprinkles pages.

In the cookies, cakes and pies section we loved the strawberry teacup cupcakes and in the snacks and party fare we were unable to resist the Brazilian chocolate truffles, fleur de Sel caramels and her melt in the mouth pillow softness meringue kisses.

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There are even decorations to hang in the window or the Christmas tree that look great and can be eaten. Do try the windowpane cookies and gingerbread ornaments.

If Roald Dahl had penned Willy Wonka as a lady her name would have been Jackie Alpers! I would challenge anyone to resist flicking through Sprinkles! And not being able to resist a rumbling tummy and salivating in anticipation with an eagerness to start baking.

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