A little selection of the cookbooks on my shelves |
Needless to say I fell in love with the book but it didn't have the desired effect on my cooking skills...
Most people assume that as I'm a good baker I must be a good cook but this just isn't true. I just don't have the patience or skills when it comes to creating new dishes and my saving grace with baking is that things have to be precise and scientific to work whereas cooking seems to be about throwing things together and creating unknown flavours and textures and the uncertainty of it all leaves me paralysed with fear!
The thing I like about Nigella is there's always a recipe to follow - she's done all the work for me and whilst she has done the 'throwing' together, I get to taste the successful fruits of her experiments whilst still feeling like a bonafide cook. Huzzah!
But back to books. Like most home bakers I have plenty of cake/decorating books, I try to stick to buying the books that I hear word of mouth reviews from as I've been unpleasantly surprised with some recipes books and I don't want to spend my hard earner pennies on a dust collector! My favourite 'classic' is Martha Stewarts Cupcakes - it's great when I need a specific recipe or idea for Cake Club and I get a lot of inspiration and decorating ideas just from flicking through the pages.
My next purchase will be the book from Lola's - Making Cupcakes with Lola. I've heard so many great reviews from the book and I've thumbed the book more than once at Waterstones so it's on my wishlist but the book that tops my list is Baked in America from the bakers behind the bakery 'Outsider Tart' in London. I've always wanted to visit this bakery as the cakes look AMAZING and I hear they stock some american goods in store so no doubt my credit card would come back much lighter but my belly would be much happier :)
I love the ethos behind this bakery as the cakes are baked from family recipes that have been handed down and the two guys that run the bakery seem genuinely enthusiastic about what they do, their masterclasses look really fun and once I become a cake millionaire then my first stop will no doubt be this place that offers a little piece of home to me and my tum.
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