After more than a year and a half of hard work, my new book “Baking with Success”, is finally out and available. I am so proud of it, because the recipes are quite special to me. I have inserted personal anecdotes in the introductions of each chapter about specific recipes and what they mean to me. Many recipes have links to my YouTube channel so that you can watch how the recipe should be made.
Writing a book is sort of like having a baby. You are creating something and nurturing it until is takes on a life of its own.
It involves lots of effort and a stick-to-it kind of passion that never sleeps. When I am working on a book I leave paper and pen by my bed so I can jot down a recipe idea that may come to me during the night.
There is not a huge amount of text in a cookbook, but there must be clear and concise methods and procedures that anyone can follow. This can be a challenge to say the least. One example was when I was trying to write out the directions for a lattice topped peach pie. After I wrote out the procedure and steps for the recipe I had my husband (a non-baker) try to follow them with strips of paper to resemble real strips of pie dough. Needless to say, my husband would now be able to make a lattice topped pie. He may not be willing, but he sure is able!
There were several versions of the book, and after writing the last iteration, I was finally happy. After re-working the text, re-writing the recipes, making oodles of tweaks and changes to those recipes and finally making each version over and over the book was complete.
At one point I had so many baked goods that I had to keep giving them to friends and family. I always know when I have had enough versions of my baked goods when my family says things like “molten chocolate cakes, again?!” Really?
If you are a baker or know someone that is, check out my book which will, also, have an e-version, with links to my YouTube videos, in just a few weeks as well.
Happy Baking!
Chef Gail