Christmas round-up - Cookbooks reviews

It’s sort of funny how things turn out sometimes. For many years I had only two cookbooks – Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook by Terry Pratchett and a cupcake recipe collection called 200 cupcakes by Joanna Farrow. I never gave thought to getting more - I’m more of a digital kid and I can find all the information I need on the internet. However, this Christmas I found three different cookbooks under the tree  for all my fancy food, cupcake and dessert treats.

First I flipped through the pages of each book but later I came back to read more. Each of the books is specific in what desserts it contains. So while I’m waiting for the only shop in Prague that has peppermint extract to restock (should be next week), I decided to write a little overview of what each of the books focuses on and how good or interesting its content is.

The Feast of Ice and Fire

I’m not the biggest fan of The Game of Thrones series. What I like is the show but I don’t read the books and I sure as hell don’t know the names of the characters and their allegiances by heart. However, this book is not too heavy on the knowledge of the lore so even a person who knows little about the world and the story will understand the references.

The cookbook is divided into several chapters/regions like The Wall, The Riverlands, King’s Landing or across the Narrow Sea, each presenting „typical meals for the region“ – breakfasts, lunches, dinners and desserts that a member of one of the families would have if they travelled here or there.

As I haven’t read the books, I don’t know if any of the recipes actually appear in the book but it is cute to find Arya’s favourite Snitched Tarts. As one would guess, the recipes in the Wall section are heavy meals that can be preserved in cruel weather (salt meat and dried goods like nuts) while in the King’s Landing section you can find a rich recipe with quails, snails or for various cakes. There’s even a recipe for a rattlesnake!

Yeah, that’s another of the features of the book. The recipes usually come in two variants – one medieval that could be prepared and eaten in let’s say 14th century (the book actually mentions when is what recipe from) and one modern that is easier to prepare with whatever ingredients we, the people of supermarkets, can obtain. However, there’s no stopping you from having a real medieval feast – both recipes are fully fledged.

Each recipe comes with a picture of the result, a short introductory quote from the book and what it goes well with. The book also has full menus – sets of selected meals – for certain events in the books like The Wedding in King’s Landing. In my opinion, The Feast of Ice and Fire is a great buy for any cooking-inclined fans of the GoT universe.

Cox Cookies & Cake

Named after a now-closed bakery in Central London that served the products of a collaboration of a fashion designer and a professional baker. Their cupcakes were colorful, sexy, flashy and a bit gay and this books shows the secrets behind their preparation.

The book itself is like no other cookbook that I’ve ever come across. The front cover is somehow padded and soft to touch, the dominant colors are black and neon pink, purple and red. More than a cookbook it reminds me of a sexy lingerie photoshoot catalogue, only instead of near naked bodies there are recipes for cupcakes (and cookies and bars) like you've never had before - provocative and decadent.

Some cupcakes don full lips, some male torsos (from white chocolate), some look like breasts... sexy, raunchy, fabulous. Not all of the recipes wander into the risque territory (such cupcakes are hardly possible to make by casual bakers like myself) and many of them are not easy to make but damn professional looking cupcakes that put to shame all those "10 minutes easy bake cupcakes" that flooded the internet. Couple examples of such other recipes - a Fusion cupcake that remind you of the Far East, Pistacio & Praline cupcakes, White Chocolate, Macadamia nut & Cranberry cookies, Maple Pecan bars... YUM!

I'm somewhat hesitant about tackling one of these recipes. I've never successfully frosted a cupcake with buttercream and this seems like the basic skill you need for these. It's definitely not a starter cookbook but it sure does work as a motivation for improvement.

Delicious Gifts

This book in particular is something I'm both excited about and a bit disappointed by. First of all, Delicious Gifts is a book that, as its name suggests, is full of recipes on small sweet baked goods which can be easily gifted in a small box or whatever – pralines, truffles, chocolate coated fruit, preserves, even some savory recipes for flavored oils and meat sauces. Its first part even shows several ways to make a hand-folded box, so that’s nice.

Some of the recipes consist of a pre-baked cake crumbled into pieces that are stuck together by one thing and then coated by another. Most of them aren’t too difficult to prepare but there is a lot of them that require working with melted chocolate which I don’t consider a beginner’s stuff at all. However, all the treats really do work as great gifts, I can imagine.

The only problem I have with the book, that while it of course is written mainly by an American lady for American audience, very few of the recipes can be easily made in Prague (which is as cosmopolitan as you can get in CZ). The majority of the recipes contain one damned ingredient that is plain impossible to find in a regular store – pomegranate syrup (I don’t think I’ve ever seen it sold in a supermarket) or peppermint extract (which is apparently sold in only one shop in the whole city) to name two off the top of my head.

I got Delicious Gifts translated into Czech which I thought would make certain things easier. While I appreciate the translator’s effort  - converting the imperial units to metric - the warmth of the words that sounds believable in English is forced and looks fake in Czech. All in all though, the idea of giftable baking is great and there is a lack of such recipes on the internet beyond the classic cupcakes and muffins. The book is nice but doesn't offer enough… quirk, to transcend the its focus group of housewives and random shoppers like me.