Ruby Tandoh started making waves in the baking world when she became a Great British Bake Off Finalist in 2013. Since then she has gone on to become a writer for The Guardian and Elle Magazine, and write her own book, Crumb, in 2014. I got this book for Christmas (signed as well! Ahh), and here is what I think of it...
Firstly, I was a huge fan of Ruby when she was on The Great British Bake off and I really liked the recipes she created. She combined make classic recipes, creative and innovative ideas, and it got her all the way to the final. She didn't win, but who cares because she's written a book anyway, and in my opinion it's pretty brilliant!
It's the type of recipe book you flick through and instantly want to create every recipe, because the pictures are so attractive! But it's also the type of book that is ideal for everyone, from complete novices who don't know the difference between beating and whisking, to someone who's been baking for years.
If I had to give the name of a cookbook to someone who had never baked before it would be this one. Ruby's written it in a style that doesn't leave a lot to the imagination....it's explanations are very clear, and she explains how to actually bake. By this I mean what she has dedicated pages in her book to explain topics that I'm guessing she gets a lot of questions about. For example, she has pages that purely explain why your cake may be too dense, or too dry, or why it hasn't risen properly. She talks the reader through every single stage of making meringues, from the best way to seperate eggs, to the best way to bake them to get different textures.
On the backpage of the book Ruby herself says ''I may digress at points, singing the praises of blackcurrants or writing an ode to doughnuts. I make no apologies for this: I bake for the love of it, and I hope that you will too'
It really is the most honest recipe book I've got, you can tell the recipes are made with love!
Anyway, onto the actual recipes. There are eight chapters; cake, bread, sweet dough, biscuits, puddings and desserts, pies and tarts, pastries and extras (which includes things like making your own marzipan, jams or chocolate sauces). I've tried out a couple of the puddings and desserts (no surprise for anyone who knows about my incredible sweet tooth!) - the Berry Pavlova, and the Raspberry, Whisky and Oat Cheesecake.
Both were really tasty.
I'm going to blog about the Pavlova more specifically soon, because making Meringue is on the 'My 100 things' list. The cheesecake is a baked cheesecake, which is something I've never done before and thought would be quite difficult but thanks to Ruby's instructions it was a very easy to follow recipe.
I'm looking forward to making the Gooseberry Elderflower Cake (my neighbour has given us about three hundred gooseberries, no exaggeration, from his garden, so my Mum would probably want me to make this to get them out our freezer!), Tiramisu and Raspberry Mascarpone Vatrushka (cool name!).
I would 100% recommend this recipe book. It's great whatever your cooking abilities are and seems to be full of bakes you can go back to time and time again.
Hope you've enjoyed this blog post. It's something quite different to what I would usually do, and I haven't reviewed a book before, but I've enjoyed writing this so there might be some more posts like this is in the future?
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