February Week 1.... Media....

Well I've been putting this post off all week as I have has no ideas for what to do, media and baking.... so I've just had the thought that I'd show you some of my recipe books that I love to use and cherish....

Now I could probably pile all my baking books up and they would probably be as tall as me I'm sure if not taller, here's a quick photo of the pile of books I currently have sitting on my desk. Most of my books are in the kitchen piled on top of my fridge but a select few make it back in the house so I can flick through them when I need some ideas or just when I get bored.

Starting at the bottom The Primrose Bakery Book is the first recipe book I brought myself only about 3 years ago now, it's full of every cupcake flavour in the world and is testimony to how many flavours you can make if you just know how. Next we have the Covent Garden Soup Book a last minuet christmas present from my mum as I saw it and thought it would make a change from my tomato and veg soup (the only thing I can make) I don't tend to use this in my baking very often. Hmm then we move on to Mary Berry, now I know she's dubbed the queen of baking but she's not my personal favourite. While I find her recipes normally always turn out how they should I just find them slightly dated and simple....

Now one of my newer additions (I keep telling myself one day I will have enough books..) Lilly Vanilli's Sweet Tooth, this is the most random artisan cookery book I've ever seen ranging from rhubarb bakewell tarts to marzipan bleeding hearts.... Then we come to my tried and tested Paul Hollywood How to Bake book, this was an 18th birthday present again from my mum with a lovely note written on the front page. Making bread can be extremely technical and you can easily get frustrated with all the terminology, I find that in this book he makes baking bread simple and easy giving me time to fall in love with the process. All this made me ready for the book above it, so intense that I have to only read a little bit everyday. Sadly the top three are quite recent presents so I haven't had time to properly try them out. I'll let you know in a week or two.

Now I'm nearly finished but I have to show you my favorite baking book of all time.

This isn't my edition of the book but it's 10:30 on a sunday night and I don't fancy going out in the rain to take a photo of mine. (It's repaired with tape and everything) This is the most reliable book I've ever used to bake, yes the recipes are dated, yes they're in ounces, and yes there's a recipe for rabbit and ox but the baking sections is amazing. All the bones any baker needs, sweet pastry, marzipan, royal icing and egg custards. It's all there and it always works.

I remember being little and my mum saying we need to find this cook book as she couldn't remember where it was, she said 'it's cream and called the dairy book'. I thought 'yuck! Why would a baking book be called the Dairy Book it must be terrible' It was found later under the stairs in a plastic box full of other books. Since then it never left the kitchen until I commandeered it for mine, it's full of post-it notes, flour and some of the pages are coming lose but it's still the best book I know.