Lucy Wallrock featured in Australian Masterchef 2013 and was hailed as ‘The Dessert Queen’. She has produced her first baking book, Simply Sweet, to encourage the inner baker in all of us.
I’m liking
There is something a bit different about this book to the many other baking books on the market – it features ‘mother’ recipes, which are added to by ‘daughter’ recipes. So you can learn the basics of a recipe and make lots of variations on it very simply. For instance, master the chocolate brownie, then turn it into a salted caramel brownie or a white chocolate and raspberry brownie. There are also some really great looking simple desserts. Toblerone Mousse, anyone?! Mars Bar sauce on your ice cream? The book is a good mix of desserts and baking for the tins.
They’re not all recipes that are super simple – try making your own brandy snaps without beating your head against the wooden spoon. But there’s a recipe for them in this book, so you can be challenged in all kinds of different directions this festive season!
Things that made me go hmmmm
There are quite a lot of your common, everyday shortbreads and tea cakes in this title.
There is no bookmark! I use ribbon bookmarks a lot in baking books to keep my place, so I found this missing object a bit annoying. It’s not altogether surprising though as the book is not as expensive as many similar titles.
The conclusion
Does it offer enough to separate it from other titles to make it worth the $39.99 price tag? Perhaps it does – it is full colour and every page has photographs, and as a hardback title it’s a nice baking book.
Simply Sweet is published by New Holland and has a RRP of $39.99.
