cover image Rosie's Bakery All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed, No-Holds-Barred Baking Book: All Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed, No Holds-Barred Baking Book

Rosie's Bakery All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed, No-Holds-Barred Baking Book: All Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed, No Holds-Barred Baking Book

Judy Rosenberg. Workman Publishing, $22.95 (244pp) ISBN 978-1-56305-126-5

Readers smitten with the rich stuff of Boston's Rosie's Bakery will be wooed by proprietor Rosenberg's assorted recipes and personal revelations. The fixings for calorie-laden cold fudge sundae cake, chocolate fruitcake and brownie cheesecake are interspersed with well-organized information on equipment, methods, ingredients and decorating tips. Many readers will be amused when Rosenberg bares her sweet-toothed soul, telling how she devised her ``Yin and Yang of calorie consciousness'': while living on ``a strict diet of brown bread, cheese, fruit, nuts,sic and vegetables,'' she would think nothing of polishing ``the meal off with a fat slab of cheesecake.'' But despite a smattering of recipes with truly novel twists (e.g., mustard gingerbread), much here will be found in other cookbooks. Still, ``Rosie'' is a redoubtably charming alter ego, and while not all of Rosenberg's favorites are originals, the writing is worth the tariff. Illustrated. Author tour; BOMC Home Style and Better Homes & Gardens Book Club selections. (Dec.)