Cover Image: Cheryl Day's Treasury of Southern Baking

Cheryl Day's Treasury of Southern Baking

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Member Reviews

A delightful compilation of traditional Southern recipes. I especially loved the recipe for Hummingbird Cake, which I haven't had since my grandmother passed. These recipes are perfect for the inexperienced baker as well as the accomplished baker. Day includes tips for canning and making jam. I highly recommend this baking book!

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This was a great cookbook and I really enjoyed reading through the recipes. I definitely found some that I will be making.

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A fantastic collection of delicious recipes that are completely achievable by a home baker. I’m super irritated that I didn’t make it to Back in the Day Bakery when I was in Savannah this summer. Definitely going to put it at the top of my must-do list the next time I’m there, so I can try the originals!

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Break out the buttermilk! This is a wide-ranging and wonderful collection of recipes combined with history, personal insight, and tips. It's a comprehensive tour of baking in the South. Some of the recipes may have more ingredients or seem complicated but Day has written clear instructions. I gotta admit- I know most people will love this for the cakes (big thumbs up for the loaf cakes), which I do as well, but honestly- the section on bars! I'd forgotten how much I loved Carmelitas. And grits bars- what a treat these are. And custard! I made this taste from my childhood straight off. And cookies! I liked also that she gives good space to savories, which are often forgotten in baking books. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Perfect for both the new and the experienced baker as this is a book for the ages.

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This book was received as an ARC from Artisan Books in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Being very familiar with Cheryl Day and her remarkable confectionary creations, I have been highly anticipating the release of this book. I love how all of Cheryl's recipes are simple, classic, and of course delicious. I have done one of her cookbooks for a demo and it was very popular amongst our community and I know this book will do just as well if not better in our collection. All of the recipes look delicious but I can't wait to make all of them and I know I will definitely enjoy the Pig-Pickin’ Cake, Lime Cornmeal Shortbread, and chocolate pies. I know I will love them and our community will love them too.

We will consider adding this title to our TX Non-Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

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Cheryl Day is well known to baking in general, but even more so in the south. I have used her previous cookbooks and made some of her signature bakes (the biscone, for instance) and I've even visited her bakery!

This cookbook feels even more like her heritage shining through, like you can feel where she roots herself. I'm so excited to bake from it. I want to make everything, but particularly:

Blueberry Buckle
Cinnamon Swirl Buns
Fresh Fruit Dump Cake
Ginger Cake Squares with Chantilly Cream
Chocolate Church Cake (my southern co-worker says the standard food for funerals is fried chicken and chocolate cake, so I assume that's this one)
Little Layer Chocolate Cake
Doberge Cake
Scuppernong Grape Pie (I'm making this ASAP because they are in season right now)
Peach Lattice Pie
Strawberry Rhubarb Slab Pie
Coconut Cream Pie
Black Bottom Chocolate Cream Pie
Chocolate Honey Pie
Old Fashioned Tea Cakes
Sweet Potato Spice Cookies
Ginger Molasses Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies (I've made her recipe from a previous cookbook, maybe these are the same)
Lemon Lavender Crinkles
Georgia Peach Cornmeal Cake

I've already made:
Bill Smith's Famous Atlantic Beach Pie (when it was making the rounds of the culinary circles)

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“ Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking” will be available for purchase on October 26, 2021. I just had the privilege of reviewing an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this cookbook. It did not disappoint, and I highly recommend it!

Cheryl Day along with her husband Griffith Day are the owners of the Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, GA. They are co-authors of two other stellar cookbooks, and Cheryl is a James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef, a self-taught scratch baker, and an entrepreneur.

This cookbook is a departure from their previous two cookbooks in that she is the sole author. It is a tribute to her lineage and to Southern baking and is filled with delectable recipes.

Here is the publisher’s blurb:

“There is nothing more satisfying or comforting than tying on a favorite apron and baking something delicious. And nowhere has this been so woven into life than in the American South, where the attitude is that every day is worthy of a special treat from the kitchen.

Cheryl Day, one of the South’s most respected bakers, a New York Times bestselling author, and co-owner—with her husband, Griff—of Savannah’s acclaimed Back in the Day Bakery, is a direct descendent of this storied Southern baking tradition. Literally: her great-great-grandmother was an enslaved pastry cook famous for her biscuits and cakes. Now Cheryl brings together her deep experience, the conversations she’s had with grandmothers and great-aunts and sister-bakers, and her passion for collecting local cookbooks and handwritten recipes in a definitive collection of over two hundred tried-and-true recipes that celebrate the craft of from-scratch Southern baking.

Flaky, buttery biscuits. Light and crisp fritters. Muffins and scones with a Southern twist, using ingredients like cornmeal, pecans, sorghum, and cane syrup. Cookies that satisfy every craving. The big spectacular cakes, of course, layer upon layer bound by creamy frosting, the focal point of every celebration. And then the pies. Oh, the pies!

The book steeps the baker in not only the recipes, ingredients, and special flavor profiles of Southern baking but also the very nuances of how to be a better baker. With Cheryl as your guide, it’s like having generations of Southern bakers standing over your shoulder, showing you just how to cream butter and sugar, fold whipped egg whites into batter, adjust for the temperature and humidity in your kitchen, and master those glorious piecrusts by overcoming the thing that experienced bakers know—a pie dough can sense fear!

Time to get out that apron.”

Chapters include: Hot Breads and Crackers; Coffee Cakes, Loaf Cakes, and Bundt Cakes; Muffins and Scones; Slow Breads ( Breads that need time to rise); Gathering Cakes; Layer Cakes and Cupcakes; Pies; Cookies; Brownies and Bars; Grits and Grains; Custards, Puddings, and Cobblers; Ja,s and Preserves; Basics.

Thank you to the publisher Artisan and to NetGalley for allowing me to review an ARC of this title which is available for prepurchase at booksellers.

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Thank you NetGalley for an e-ARC of Cheryl Day's Treasury of Southern Baking. Beautifully illustrated, filled with recipes for breads, pies, cookies and more! Cheryl not only shares recipes, but tips for successful baking. This is a cookbook I would own leave out year round. A great gift for a friend that enjoys baking.

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This is a wonderful baking cookbook. I love that Chery Day begins by dedicating it to her mother and then gives honor to enslaved laborers who created the Southern recipes that have been passed on for generations. The book is broken into sections covering Hot Breads, Muffins, Scones, Slow Breads, Gathering Cakes, Pies, Cookies etc. There are beautiful photos too although not one for every recipe. Her directions are clear and include helpful hints on things like get eggs or butter to room temperature. Her traditional biscuits recipe has my mouth watering. (I don't even care there are three sticks of butter in them.)

This is sure to be a classic for bakers. Day's ingredients lists are things that most people should be able to shop for easily. I haven't eaten Coca-Cola Cake and Coconut Cake since I lived in Georgia many years ago and am happy to have new recipes to try. I am going to Hilton Head for Christmas this year and a side trip to Savannah and her bakery is now on my must do list. Thank you to NetGalley and Artisan Books for a temporary ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

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This cookbook is amazing! Everytime I visit Savannah, I visit her bakery. Having the first book, I knew that I had to get the second one. This is just as good as the first cookbook and I love all the recipes. Highly recommend!

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Can’t wait to try out some of these recipes! I enjoyed the anecdotes and histories that went along with them. I’m checking my pantry to see where I should start on my baking journey with Cheryl Day.

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What a fantastic addition to your cookbook collection. Cheryl Day's book has everything - helpful tips, beautiful photos, and (of course) delicious recipes! It makes me want to spend days in the kitchen trying them all out!

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