View source for Sprinkles! Recipes and Ideas for Rainbowlicious Desserts by Jackie Alpers

{{infobox1
|title=Sprinkles! Recipes and Ideas for Rainbowlicious Desserts
|author=Jackie Alpers
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Cookery
|summary=Recipes and ideas for the imaginative use of those decorations broadly described as sprinkles.  It's not exactly a healthy option - but it is colourful fun.
|rating=3
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|pages=144
|publisher=Quirk Books
|date=October 2013
|isbn=978-1594746383
|website=http://www.news.jackiealpers.com/
|video=ancj_gvgu0M
|cover=1594746389
|aznuk=1594746389
|aznus=1594746389
}}

A friend had taken his granddaughter for a picnic and he'd gone to town on the food.  The pudding was decorated but the child seemed distracted:

Child: Grandad, there's an insect in my pudding.

Grandad: No, darling - they're called 'hundreds and thousands' and they're there to make your pudding look pretty.

Child:  Grandad, one of my hundreds and thousands is climbing up the side of the bowl...

To date that's probably been the extent of my involvement with the cake decoration which Jackie Alpers broadly terms ''Sprinkles'' and I was amazed at the variety which is available and the uses to which they can be put..  She opens with a details of what is what, but you might like to note that some of the terms used are different in the UK - my hundreds and thousands might well be called nonpareils in the USA.  Most useful are the illustrations and this is true of the photography throughout the most - generally it's been done by the author.  There's also some very good advice on how to apply your sprinkles - as opposed to decorating your kitchen with them, which is what usually happens.

We start the recipes with ''Breakfast Sweets'' and in fairness I have to admit to a prejudice here: I prefer breakfasts to be balanced meals providing sustenance to take people healthily into their day.  I don't believe that this achieved by eating empty, sugar-filled calories, regardless of how pretty they look.  Belgian Pearl Sugar Waffles, Fancified doughnuts and Sprinkles-Stuffed French Toast are ''never'' going to emerge from my kitchen as breakfast fodder - particularly where children are involved.

Moving on to ''Cookies, Cakes and Pies'' I can see the point.  They're treats, something which you wouldn't normally have, made pretty and even more appealing.  I loved the window pane cookies, or the embroidered sugar cookies, which really do look as though someone has been using a needle and embroidery thread.  You'll probably need to use tweezers, but the effect is very clever.  Stencilling with sprinkles makes a very pretty cake and it's something which I've done using a paper doily.  There are instructions on how to make the cake on the cover - without getting the sprinkles all over the kitchen!

''Snacks and Party Fare'' opens with Brazilian Chocolate Truffles - I've served something similar as an after-dinner treat.  My favourite here has to be Fleur de Sel Caramels, which look a lot more difficult to make than they really are - and so does Starry Night Fruit Leather, which takes an unbelievably short time to cook: in a similar recipe [http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/aug/08/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall-fruit Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall] suggests 10 to 12 hours rather than the 6 to 10 minutes in this recipe.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy of the book to  the Bookbag.

For more favourite puddings you might care to see what [[Gregg's Favourite Puddings by Gregg Wallace|Gregg Wallace]] has to say.

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