REVIEW: Baking Made Easy by Lorraine Pascale (From Basingstoke Gazette)

REVIEW: Baking Made Easy by Lorraine Pascale

1:45pm Wednesday 25th January 2012 in General By Joanne Mace

Baking Made Easy

Lorraine Pascale

HarperCollins

RRP £18.99

AS ITS accompanying television series is currently being shown on BBC2, there’s a renewed surge of interest again in this second cookbook from former model Lorraine Pascale.

The follow up to her first tome about cooking, Home Booking Made Easy, it’s very much along the same lines, an approachable set of recipes set out stylishly and simply.

The introduction contains the unexpected information that Ms Pascale, before heading off to Leith’s cookery school and opening her Covent Garden bakery, wrote a book on the offside rule. How bizarre.

But she clearly knows her stuff as far as putting together a lovely cake, dessert or bit of bread is concerned, and, no matter if any you are partial to Lorraine or not, you’ll find it hard to resist her cookies and cream fudge brownies. She also, thanks to her fashion past, has an eye for design and therefore decoration, ensuring that whatever you cook, it will look good. The book, however, is a little short on illustrative images of the food and the latter are essential to help out novice cooks.

Yes, there are recipes within which are quite simple, and which wouldn’t scare the horses to any degree. You can stick to the standards if you prefer, putting together her version of banoffee or jam roly poly, and leaving it at that.

The book does then occasionally veer into difficult territory. Recipes for things such as lime and ginger posset, gorgonzola and pear soufflé and, to cap it all, pumpkin and chestnut empanadas with thyme and polenta pastry, pop up in a relatively intimidating fashion from time to time.

Certain items of equipment and ingredients are a little unusual or expensive too – I own cupboards full of baking equipment but I do not possess a kugelhopf mould, nor would I purchase Dolcelatte cheese to put into a glam mac and cheese. Well, maybe for a special occasion!

Still, this is still a worthy addition to any cook’s shelves, given its potentially delicious contents. Lorraine’s voice is a constant presence throughout, encouraging you to have a go at her coffee and maple panettone, the stout and stilton rolls, and the ‘I Can’t Believe You Made That’ cake, with its impressive chocolate cigarillo decoration.

And, thanks to one of her money-saving introductory tips, I will never buy unwaxed lemons again.

More information can be found at waterstones.com.