Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this recipe book because of all of the wonderful reviews. The best thing about the book is that it features these creative flavor profiles that someone like me, who has already mastered the traditional recipes, couldn't wait to try. I decided that 3 of the 6 desserts I would have for my large dinner party would come from this book: Kentucky Brown Butter Cake, Key Lime Pie Cake, and Nana Pudding Tiramisu Cake. I started with the Brown Butter Cake and was surprised to see the leavening was off; the cake did not rise evenly and the center was gooey. I thought that I must have made a mistake and I started over, followed the directions carefully, and experienced the same outcome (see photo). In order to salvage the time I had invested into making two unpresentable cakes, I took the crusty edges from both cakes, made some Chantilly cream, and created a trifle (see photo). My guests loved it because those edges were tasty, so I plan to correct the recipe, which I suspect stems from the balance of baking soda and baking powder in the recipe. While disappointed, I didn't give up n the book because I had already purchased the ingredients for the other desserts and I didn't have time to go back to the store. So I moved on to the Key Lime Pie Cake. Preparation started off fine with the cake coming out of the oven perfectly. I made the key lime pie filling and cooled it completely, actually longer than the recipe advised because I began to have doubts that the soft pie filling could withstand the weight of a pretty dense cake. I knew better to pipe a retaining ring of icing at the edges of the cake to keep in place the pie filling as I assembled the cake, even though the recipe does not tell you to do so. However, since the recipe said to make the icing with room temperature butter, that cake was still having a hard time staying vertical. I did what any experienced baker would do; I stuck a wooden skewer down into the cake and popped it in the freezer to get the cake set enough to ice. After one hour I was able to finish the cake (see photo), and it needed to be refrigerated until 20 minutes before serving. This creation was not among the favored desserts at the dinner party because the cake portion was dense and dryer than ideal, due to the use of graham crackers without sufficient reductions in the amount of flour. Overall, the taste was not worth the skill required to save it. Finally, I tried the banana pudding tiramisu, and I loved it...that is saying a lot for someone who avoids banana pudding at cookouts and family functions. It also holds together well when served if you withhold one of the packages of cream cheese. Doing so cuts the calories and doesn't reduce the volume of the pudding mixture to the point where you don't have enough. I still had some of the pudding mixture left after assembly. I also used bourbon instead of rum, because bourbon makes the world a better place. In sum, I don't know if it was just my (bad) luck of the draw but 2 of the 3 recipes I tried were not ready for publication.