Martha Stewart Cake Cookbook?! Yes!!

On my last flight I picked up a Martha Stewart Living Magazine at the airport newsstand, because the cover offered a "foolproof chocolate cake."  As it turned out the recipe was a tease for a soon-to-be-published cookbook, "Martha Stewart's Cakes"

I don't mean to be providing free advertising for an already overly imperialistic corporation, and I know that Martha Stewart's recipes can be inconsistent and at times unreliable, BUT, as in terms of her recipe format, Martha Stewart (Inc.) offers just what I like.

By this point I've looked at dozens of cake and dessert cookbooks.  My perfect formula is: 1) a picture for every recipe; 2) a short description of what makes the final product special or distinctive; 3) a group of recipes that each offer something different from the rest; and 4) simple and beautifully presented desserts.

The crazy thing is that most cookbooks don't illustrate all the recipes.  In this era of publishing, I don't understand that at all.  Of course, I am a visual person, and I choose recipes based on how the cake looks, and I want to know what I'm trying to create.  My Moosewood cookbooks, which are super reliable, and are my go-to source, don't illustrate ANY of the recipes.  Two of my new current favorites, Vintage Cakes and Cake Simple, illustrate some of the recipes.  And in the bookstore I have to resist buying the food porn cookbooks (like Williams Sonoma) which seem like they're more about the photography than the recipes.

But I'm looking forward to this new Martha Stewart book - out at the end of September - because it's just the right blend of the cookbook components that I know I like.  I guess that's the benefit of a franchise with a well-defined brand: you know exactly what you're getting.