Chocolate Is Forever: Classic Cakes, Cookies, Pastries, Pies, Puddings, Candies, Confections, and More

A greatest-hits culled from the long career of the late Heatter (1916–2019) is collected in this enjoyable cookbook. Included are Heatter trademarks such as her favorite birthday cake (two flourless chocolate layers sandwiching whipped cream and topped with coffee-chocolate icing) and her famous Palm Beach brownies with Peppermint Patties. Instructions are solid and specific (readers are admonished, for instance, not to overdo the zigzagging when marbling a loaf cake), though the slightly amateurish drawings sometimes don’t capture Heatter’s precise finishing instructions. A retro feel is inevitable—Heatter recounts tracking down a chocolate soufflé cake recipe on the Upper East Side in 1980—but there’s sweet nostalgia to be found in three variations on chocolate fondue and old-fashioned fudge. Treats such as chocolate icebox cookies studded with almonds, and pots de crème are classics for good reason. Still, it might have been nice to have historical background on some of her recipes, such as when “the newest cheesecake,” based on Craig Claiborne’s, was actually new. Heatter remains an important figure in the American baking world, and reading her firm-but-friendly voice is like visiting with an old friend. (Apr.)