I used Swiss Meringue Buttercream (recipe found elsewhere) which worked beautifully and eliminated the stress of boiling sugar, which would have been too overwhelming for me. I used the book’s proportions to cut the buttercream with passionfruit curd (for bride’s cake) and Valrhona Noisette, though — and both frosting turned out beautifully.

Giving this four stars instead of five because I think the book leads first-time bakers astray in a few areas. First, the “hot spatula” technique should be called out in very big, bold font — it’s really the only thing that is going to give a perfectly smooth finish on the “finish coat” of the cake. And, as an amateur you can’t underestimate the amount of time you’ll spend dipping that spatula into hot water, wiping it and running it over the frosting — but it works like a charm! Second, she recommends transporting the cake already stacked. Holy recipe for stress and disaster! To do this you need to drive a pointed dowel through the entire cake — I honestly can’t imagine anything more terrifying after you’ve spent so much time (and money) creating this masterpiece. If you’re doing a simple flat coat with floral embellishment, save yourself some stress and transport the “finish coat” layers to the wedding site, stack them there and then apply the final decoration. Third, don’t be afraid to leave your cake out of the refrigerator longer than she says in the book. If you refrigerate it and only have it at room temp for an hour or two before serving time, the larger layers will still be cool and with a Swiss or Italian Buttercream, you’ll have a mouthful of cold butter which is not so great. The cake and frosting need to be 100% at room temp to release their deliciousness!

Quantities of moistening syrup recipes are, as other reviewers mentioned, waaaaay too much syrup for your cake. BTW use a spray bottle instead of a brush if you’re doing this step.