Can you stand that title?
I don’t think the photo does the cover of this cookbook justice. This cover is pink and purple and has more glitter on it than everyone attending a Rocky Horror Picture Show viewing. It is, what we would call back in the day, ridiculously girly. The above photo only makes it look somewhat girly.
But for some reason I was compelled to buy it. I’m almost positive I don’t own anything else that is pink (although once, just to make a point, I bought a pink Boston Red Sox cap) and most of my purples are dark and wintery. There is nothing I own that looks anything like the photo above…except the book in the photo above.
The style of the book and especially the name should have made me go running from the bookstore. (Yes, I still go to the bookstore…especially for cookbooks.) But the thing is I have a bit of a problem…I’m addicted to buying cookbooks and cooking magazines and recipe cards. Completely addicted. I’ve been this way for a good 20 years. Mind you, I almost never cook for myself but I’ve been collecting recipes for a very long time. I love them even if I never use most of them. When I was in grammar school I used to read all of my mother’s cookbooks and even those recipe cards from Good Housekeeping (more on those in another post). I think my mother was hoping I’d be a great cook like her and both her parents (and my father, actually)…but it never happened. I didn’t want to COOK the recipes, I just wanted to READ them. (My mother got a cook in my older sister but she still holds out hope that someday I’ll make something in the kitchen more interesting than a Healthy Choice meal.)
So I swallowed my pride, put aside my prejudices and bought The Ladies’ Book of Baking. I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I love, I love, I LOVE this book. (That’s my shout out to Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Darcy. Because if I’m going all feminine on myself I might as well admit to being head over heels infatuated with both Misters Macfadyen and Darcy.)
The Ladies Book starts with Afternoon Tea with some tasty pastries like Mini Strawberry Sponge Cakes, Lemon Drizzle Cake and Tea Rolls. There’s even a tip on How to Make the Perfect Cup of Tea. (My Nana Donnelly would be thrilled to learn they don’t suggest using a teabag. When Nana Donnelly was still with us she would have slapped the cup out of your hand if she saw a teabag in it.) There are other dainty delights like Raspberry Crumb Muffins and Vanilla Macarons (that’s how they spell it…I always thought it was Macaroons) and there is even a section for party ideas. Basically, this book reads exactly the way you would think it reads. Someday I’ll have a fabulous afternoon tea and invite my friends to much on Salted Caramel Pies and Cream Palmiers but for now there is one dessert that jumped out at me immediately and I have every intention to try and make it…Black & White Cookies.
Where I come from, black & white cookies were called half moons and a fresh half moon was the only thing I ever wanted to get when my mother took us to one of the many Italian bakeries in our city. I used to save change from under the couch cushions to bring with me in case my mother said ‘no’ when I begged for one. (“See? I have money! I can pay for it! Pleeeeeeeeease?”) So to be staring at a recipe that has photos of the process as well as the final product in a book I already bought? There’s no way I’m not going to at least try!