The only thing I've done so far for Halloween is baking pumpkin spice muffins from the famed BabyCakes NYC bakery cookbook. Famed for their gluten-free vegan baked foods and the fact that even omnivores drool over their cupcakes and frosting, made me curious. I'm not gluten-free, but was interested anyway to learn more about baking with agave syrup and without gluten, dairy and eggs.
The cupcakes were....good...and I chose my word carefully. The ingredients were outrageously expensive, even for someone like myself who doesn't shy away from good (and therefore often expensive) food.
Were they the best cupcakes I had ever had? Nope. Do I think the book is worthwhile for people who are gluten intolerant? I'm not sure because I don't know enough about gluten free baking to have a solid opinion.
However I do think that whatever CupCakes NYC sell in their bakeries is probably incredibly delicious. There seem to be long lines which prove either a fantastic product or amazing marketing. It appears that every vegan actor in Hollywood has given a rave review, from Jason Schwartzman to Natalie Portman. I wonder, is it because the cookbook is vegan, or is it because their baked items are good? Often these two don't go together and when they do, it may be the key to their success. I don't own a single cookbook containing more than a few usable recipes and I'm sure this book contains more than just one or two.
Were they the best cupcakes I had ever had? Nope. Do I think the book is worthwhile for people who are gluten intolerant? I'm not sure because I don't know enough about gluten free baking to have a solid opinion.
However I do think that whatever CupCakes NYC sell in their bakeries is probably incredibly delicious. There seem to be long lines which prove either a fantastic product or amazing marketing. It appears that every vegan actor in Hollywood has given a rave review, from Jason Schwartzman to Natalie Portman. I wonder, is it because the cookbook is vegan, or is it because their baked items are good? Often these two don't go together and when they do, it may be the key to their success. I don't own a single cookbook containing more than a few usable recipes and I'm sure this book contains more than just one or two.
In general, I love cookbooks with a travel and cultural element and good photography. When I see one with an odd typeface and lacking pictures, I tend to pass it by. Simple and superficial? Perhaps, but eating is a sensory and sensual affair and should start with a pleasurable reading experience. Ultimately, that's the market for cookbooks.
Cookbooks are a lot like craft books. You make a project/recipe or two and the rest is inspiration and sparks your own creativity. I've never made anything exactly according to instructions from a craft book and I mostly treat my cookbooks the same. Cooking or crafting is a creative process and experimenting is often key to enjoyment, success and learning.
Anybody want to share their favorite cookbook? Baking or not, I'd love to hear.
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BabyCakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery
Erin McKenna
# ISBN-10: 0307408833
# ISBN-13: 978-0307408839
I love My Gooseberry Patch cookbooks. :) They are so down home and everything is easy! :) I will tell you though I am exactky like you with my cooking and crafting. I am ALWAYS changing things and adding or taking out of eveything I do! :) Loved this post and your honesty! :) <3 your blog! :)
ReplyDeleteVery thoughtful write-up of the cupcakes, I appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that most of the time I cook without a cook-book - I just wing it, trying a bit of this, a bit of that.
When I do use cook-books, I like the classic cook-books, like Joy of Cooking, the New York Times Cookbooks, Fanny Farmer, Julia Child, along those lines. My mother was a very basic, very careful, and VERY good cook, as praised by my little brother and my son, who both would name her as the best cook in the family, and that's who I'm trying to emulate. I don't need photos, if something has cumin in it, for example, it's over for me, no matter how pretty the photo.
Que delicia! parece muito bom. Eu adoro cosinhar fazer experimentar receitas novas. E esses muffins de abóbora deve ser fantásticos.Eu nunca sigo uma receita na totalidade sempre acrescento alguma coisa para dar aquele toque pessoal, Querida tenha um ótimo fim de semana. Beijinho
ReplyDeleteI'm the same way about cookbooks and craft books. One of the first cookbooks I ever bought (back in the 80s!), however, is still a favorite, and everything I've made from there is delicious. It's The Silver Palette cookbook, and it's what I credit with teaching me how to cook. In college I pretty much cooked my way through the whole thing. My copy is falling to pieces now, but I still regularly make several recipes.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the books by Tessa Kiros? Not vegetarian, which would be my favourite, but I've made a whole bunch of her recipes from "Apples for Jam" and they have even become family recipes now (i.e. something that I cook over and over -- Ricotta Gnocchi and her delish tomato sauce), then there is Heidi Swansons Super Natural Cooking (http://www.101cookbooks.com/supernatural/) another great find...
ReplyDeleteBut my absolutely most often referred too book is my Kochschule Lehrbuch (the one from my home-economics class in Switzerland), because it contains all the food that I grew up with.
I agree with your analysis about craft books, generally, I look at them as eye-candy and triggers and simply to dream about all the creating that is possible. This even goes for knit magazines. So much fun to leaf through and then design my own.
i too agree with your craftbook observations...i love the inspiration i get just looking at them. cook books are, for me, a different story. the ones i loke best are usually local, paperback and without benefit of pictures...i have one from a private school fundraiser that has always been a "go to" for me, and of course anytime you can get a church cookbook it's going to be great, but by far my favorite is from our local farm bureau...you get a bunch of farm women together coughing up recipes and you've got yourself a winner....family favorites, holiday treats and heirloom recipes....delicious!
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say I really enjoy your posts, and since you asked, this is a great cookbook:
ReplyDeleteWith a Measure of Grace, The Story and Recipes of a Small Town Cookbook ISBN 0-9719364-2-0
It has wonderful photographs and stories as well as recipes for real food--butter figures prominently in most. Great recipes oriented to the seasons, as experienced in a (stunning!) rural Utah setting. The Christmas posole recipe is a tradition for us now, as well as the Lemon Chiffon Cake for birthdays.
I used to collect cookbooks, but didn't cook much. I love food memoirs and the way that people identify themselves by the foods they prepare and eat, and I read cookbooks in that way as well.
ReplyDeleteWhen I moved to Vermont, I donated most of my cookbooks to the New England Culinary Institute and only kept the ones I cooked from pretty regularly.
Now that I cook daily, I use Joy of Cooking most often, and also turn to a couple of Martha Stewart books for entertaining.
My favorite cookbook to read, however, is Amanda Hesser's THE COOK AND THE GARDENER, in which Hesser recalls her days as a personal chef to a French family and the relationship she had with the family's opinionated gardener. The recipes are mighty good, but the stories are even better.
I love to read cookbooks. I never leave the library without one in my bag and totally agree if they don't have great pictures, I'm not likely to read it. One of my suprising favorities is The Dinosaur Barbecue Cookbook. The pictures are great and the recipes are good and not too difficult.
ReplyDeleteI am gluten free and I make tasty muffins and cakes. When I went to Babycakes on a trip, my reaction was, very cute shop and the baked goods tasted...meh, not exciting, not bad but really not fabulous. I was pretty underwhelmed.
ReplyDeleteI love cooking magazines, especially Saveur, Fine Cooking, Cook's Illustrated, and Gastronomica, and I never buy cookbooks.