I was born into a family where custard was served in slices, cakes tended to have liquid centres and the gravy boat was passed round the table with the question "One lump or two?". Therefore the fact that I can cook is definitely not genetic, more the result of many evening classes and years of practise. And I do practise regularly. I bake all my own cakes, bread and most of my own biscuits (I say most because I haven't yet mastered Jaffa Cakes!) and I also cook a 'proper' meal every night and regularly have dinner parties. I have a cooks blow torch, for goodness sake - and I know how to use it!
I very rarely use cookery books of any kind.I have most of my favourite recipes committed to memory and I also improvise a lot. However, I do buy, and read, a lot of cookery books. When you do a lot of baking, you tend to become a bit of a stick in the mud. If you know your husband likes Cherry and Almond cake for example,the poor guy gets a hunk of it in his packed lunch every day. Hence, I use recipe books mainly to extend my culinary repertoire.
I bought Nigella Lawson's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' (endorsed by no less than Delia Smith!) for this very reason. After an initial panic attack on finding all the recipes in metric (I'm old enough to work more comfortably in pounds and ounces), I discovered the conversion chart at the front of the book and I was away.
The first thing I made using one of Nigella's recipes was my Christmas cake. I found the recipe very easy to follow and was suitably impressed when the cake came out of the oven looking and smelling exactly as a Christmas cake should. Sadly, I was in for a big disaapointment. When cut, the inside of the cake was the colour of putty. It was dry, yet strangely sticky at the same time and totally flavourless.
I did what all experienced cooks do at one time or another - I blamed my oven. I was delighted to be able to absolve Nigella of all culpability in the crisis ...
My next attempt at baking a la Nigella was the Cherry Almond Loaf cake (my husband's favourite, remember?) I didn't tell him that I had used a new recipe, and he completely failed to notice the fact that I had specially bought the 'natural coloured' glace cherries which Nigella insists upon, rather than my usual supermarket brand.(Men!) For the first time in nearly 20 years, all my cherries - natural coloured or not - sank determinedly to the bottom of the cake. Nothing like the mouth wateringly delicious photograph in the book.
The 'Damp Lemon and Almond Cake'? Wringing wet and soggy, rather than damp. All purpose chocolate icing? Sickly, even for a chocoholic like me. Butter biscuits? Spread all over the baking tray to the size and thickness of poppadoms....
I haven't quite given up on this book yet. The photographs of the food look absolutely mouth watering, the recipes are superbly easy to follow and I can't see any logical reason why I shouldn't be able to produce them too. Even as I write, there is one of Nigella's cakes baking in the oven and it smells wonderful. Yet, when I say 'baking in the oven', I mean just that, since the mixture overflowed the suggested size loaf tin within minutes and is at this moment threatening to escape onto the kitchen floor.
Believe it or not,I actually like this book. Really, I do. I love the little personal anecdotes, the stories about where the authoress first discovered the recipes and/or the people who passed them on to her. The photography is fabulous, probably the best I have ever seen in any cookery book. (And I have more cookery books than you could shake a stick at!) I find myself slightly irritated by her insistence on some particular ingredients - it's all very well for Ms. Lawson to tell us that she prefers Italian 00 plain flour or Montgomery Moore chocolate, but let's see her find those in rural Cornwall. And I applaud her bravery for including an e-mail address for comments. There are also some very novel ideas in the book, such as serving decorated fairy cakes - yes, fairy cakes - for dessert at a dinner party.
Yet, at the same time, I want MY culinary efforts to be greeted with 'Wow' rather than ' What is it?' (accompanied by a slightly worried look and a reluctance to actually taste the results.) Especially when I've just paid £25 (plus post and packaging) for the cookery book concerned.
Publisher: Chatto and Windus
ISBN:0 70116888 9
Price: £25.00 h/b (due for publication in p/b Sept 2002 at £20.00)
Date Reviewed: July 2002
My Rating: 3/5
