Book Review: The Donut Daddy Cookbook: Sugar & Seduction in 69 Recipes by Anthony Randello-Jahn
Some cookbooks whisper “family dinner.”
This one struts into the kitchen wearing leather boots and a dusting of powdered sugar.
TikTok pastry personality Anthony Randello-Jahn leans fully into his persona here. The Donut Daddy Cookbook is less about polite baking and more about turning dessert into a full sensory event. It is playful, theatrical, a little ridiculous on purpose, and surprisingly competent as an actual baking guide.
A Concept Cookbook That Actually Works
The obvious hook is the tone. The chapters read like a flirtation:
Foreplay sets up your pantry and technique foundations
Decadent Desires dives into doughs, fillings, and textures
Recipes arrive with cheeky headnotes that treat pastry like performance art
The jokes never replace instruction though. Under the innuendo lives solid culinary structure. Measurements are clear, methods are repeatable, and techniques such as proofing dough, emulsifying custards, and glazing properly are explained in ways beginner bakers can follow.
You can laugh at the writing and still learn how to make a good donut. That balance is the book’s real trick.
The Recipes
The selection leans indulgent and bakery-style rather than minimal or wellness-leaning. These are desserts designed to be memorable, not restrained.
Standouts include:
Sticky Cinnamon Buns with properly developed dough elasticity
Black Raspberry Rendezvous Truffles that teach tempering basics
Jam and Cream Split for layered texture contrast
My Pleasure Bombs which function as a filled choux pastry tutorial in disguise
You could remove the humor entirely and still have a capable intermediate baking book.
Tone and Audience
The voice is intentionally over-the-top. If you like your cookbooks quiet and pastoral, this will feel loud. If you enjoy personality-driven food media, it reads like a long-form extension of a charismatic video creator.
It works best for:
Home bakers who want to level up pastries
Fans of personality-forward cookbooks
Couples or friends cooking together for fun
Anyone bored of minimalist beige baking books
What Makes It Different
Many influencer cookbooks rely on aesthetic over substance. This one flips that expectation. The theatrical voice draws you in, but the technique keeps you cooking.
It’s dessert as entertainment, but also dessert as craft.
Final Thoughts
The Donut Daddy Cookbook understands something simple: baking is tactile. Kneading, folding, filling, glazing. The book just decides to narrate that experience with a wink instead of a whisper.
Come for the personality.
Stay because your kitchen suddenly smells like a professional bakery.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A playful, indulgent dessert cookbook that doubles as a genuinely useful pastry primer.