Semi-Homemade Desserts: Easy Delicious Desserts and Nothing is Made from Scratch

Customer Reviews

Did she write this on a dare?

I think somebody must have dared her to use as many brand name products as possible. I've got nothing against using mixes, but she takes it to extremes - in less time than it takes to thaw Cool Whip, you can toss cream and sugar into a mixer and have real whipped cream; if you have a stand mixer, you don't even have to pay much attention to it. And if you don't have a stand mixer, you should - that's something that really saves time and money. If you make desserts often, "from scratch" (generally just sugar, eggs, and flavoring) is cheaper than Cool Whip and frosting cans, even when you include the cost of the mixer.

Save your money - look on the sides of your cake mixes, they generally have ideas just as good as hers.

Run! Don't Walk away from this book

Amazon really needs to let you give a negative rating. I've seen the "author" on Food Network and was amazed at what a horrible show she has. When I saw her book I had to check it out. It's just as bad. If you really don't have time to cook do yourself and your family a favor and find a good local bakery, or at least choose Sara Lee over Sandra Lee.

P.S. If you think that Katie Couric really does her own cooking I have a some beachfront property in Oklahoma I'd love to sell you.

This book is so bad, it is funny

I don't know why this was published because in my opinion, this is not a good book at all. I saw only a few recipes that might be worth making and one of them wasn't even hers. There is nothing else I can write about that is a positive in regards to this work.
Why didn't I like it? Well, for starters, the recipes seem very juvenille-like her kids made them up or something. The photos have the same look...they don't look professional. I have seen so much better in other books. She should of skipped the pictures altogether if she couldn't hire a decent food stylist.I know that her gimmick is semi-made dishes but that concept seems to carry over in the making of this book. I have never seen such sloppy work in a cookbook. For example, the blue frosting on her hanukkah cake appears to be loaded with tiny lumps-evidently the icing was not mixed completely. The naming of the white chocolate log was not accurate since this was not a white chocolate dessert as one might assume; rather, it was a rolled cake with a plain white frosting. Some of the recipe ideas were really lame. An example of this was the chocolate box with mousse. Who in their right mind is going to consume 1 1/2 large-sized chocolate bars for a dessert? This is how much chocolate was needed to construct a chocolate box to be filled with mousse for one person.The romantic recipes were so stupid that it is not even worth writing about them and there is this recipe for chocolate covered cherries that suggest serving them in a wine glass with the juice from the marachino cherry jar. Huh? The most obvious clunker in this disaster of a book was the crown cake. A cake was made and circled with a chocolate crown. It was a nice idea, but why did she have to have the crown made with the chocolate brushed-side outwards? Professional chefs always brush melted chocolate on molds so that the solid side will be shown to the viewer.
This whole book looked like something published for a church social-strictly amateur. Actually, I have seen local community cookbooks that looked better than this one.
I was very irritated with this book as readers will find obvious. The idea of semi-homeade recipes is a good one, but there were only 3 decent ones in the book that truly fit this profile. Of course, it is a matter of opinion but to me, it appears that there were more personal photos of the author, than good reliable recipes. This author seems to be a "Martha Stewart Wannabee".
I just have to stab at this monster of a book one more time. There are photos of elaborate room displays...again, nice addition but totally useless. The displays were overladen with stuff. No one could actually eat off a table with all the decorative accents put on them, never mind all the stringy things (crystals, beaded cords and the like) hanging from the ceiling all over the place.
I noted that this author even has her own magazine (just like you-know-who). I can't imagine... I recommend an excellent alternative publication if readers are looking for good recipes using boxed ingredients. Try "Taste of Home".