How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking

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Editorial reviews

Product Description
This is a book about baking, but not a Baking Book. The trouble with much modern cooking is not that the food it produces is not good, but that the mood it induces in the cook is one of skin-of-the-teeth efficiency, all briskness and little pleasure. Sometimes that's the best we can manage, but at other times we don't want to feel stressed and overstretched, but like a domestic goddess, trailing nutmeggy fumes of baking pie in her languorous wake...' How to be a Domestic Goddess is not about being a goddess, but about feeling like one. What this deliciously reassuring and mouthwatering cookbook demonstrates is that it's not actually hard to bake a tray of muffins, or a sponge layer cake, but that the appreciation and satisfaction they bring are disproportionately high. The 'domestic goddess' has to maintain her (or his) cool when faced with pastry, too, of course - but with Nigella Lawson's guidance even puff pastry can be pain-free. Here at last is the book which understands our anxieties, feeds our fantasies and puts cakes, pies, pastries, pudding, breads and biscuits back into our own kitchen. This is the art of baking and comfort cooking made simple and alluring for the modern cook - with everything from cup cakes to certosino, brownies to bagels, peach cream pie to pizza, game pie to blueberry boy-bait, from rhubarb schnapps to Barbie cake - not to mention children's cooking, festive foods, pickles and preserves.

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Amazon.co.uk Review
Those who love comfort food have cause to be grateful for Nigella Lawson's book How to Be a Domestic Goddess. Cause, too, perhaps, to wonder that she isn't the size of a house, since baked comfort foods typically encompass large quantities of butter, cream, eggs, sugar, chocolate, nuts, cream cheese and all the other foodstuffs to which with dreary inevitability attaches the deadly word "sinful". But in Nigella Lawson's hands these dangerous, even feared, substances are transmuted alchemically into the healing balms of the goddess, who presides (perhaps a little ironically) over a harmonious kitchen realm.

The recipes are suitably divine, covering cakes, biscuits, pies, puddings, breads, with special sections on cooking for (and by) children and Christmas. Most are sweet, though there is a choice selection of savoury pies and puddings--Pizza Rustica, Steak and Kidney Pudding, Cornish Pasties. The sweet things range from the airy elegance of Pistachio Macaroons, through the luscious spiciness of Norwegian Cinnamon Buns, to the trailer-trashiness of Coca-Cola Cake.

Nigella Lawson's poise never falters, whether she is discussing serving mulled wine with mince pies ("Don't fight it") or a strange passion-fruit liqueur required for one of her trifles ("the most divinely camp liqueur you could ever come across"). She plays a kind of game with her readers, insisting constantly on her greed, but really invoking our own. What a fascinating book: hints of obsessiveness revealed behind the beautifully projected personality of a laid-back voluptuary.--Robin Davidson

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Customer reviews

review by: Deb date: 2008-09-29 rating:
Baking Flavoured Genius!!!
I absolutely love this book.

Mouth-watering recipes with honest & humerous additions and explanations to encourage you through them. Although some of the recipes look & sound a little advanced you never know until you try, and as the author explains some of the most wonderful recipes are created by mistake.

Admittedly i've mostly attempted sweet treats but the Cornish Pasty recipe was divine, I substituted the mince for butternut squash and made a vegetarian version. Thats another bonus of this book, many recipes have variations at the end, meaning once you've got your confidence you can experiment safe in the knowlegde that it wont ruin it by changing bits.

My book is covered in splashes of this & that and chocolate thumbprints as the recipes have been used over and over.

Theres a store cupboard chocolate orange cake, which again sounds scary when you discover the main ingredient is a jar of marmalade...but as my dad always said "try it before you screw your face up in disgust".

My favourite has to be the moist chocolate loaf which requires stirring in 250ml of boiling water!!! It did look very very watery and like a disaster waiting to happen.....but my god it was gorgeous!!! Have faith and attempt it more than once and you'll find you're constantly baking these favourites for everyone and their mother!!!

I've never managed to make a decent cheesecake and this book has a genius recipe for mini BAKED cheesecakes which turn out perfect every time - there's even advice on how to get the damn things out of the tins (which was as Nigella warned trickier if you're trying to eat them before they're cooled).

I love the little hints & tips - e.g. the butter cut out biscuits recipe makes absolutely tons of yummy biscuits (not a problem in our house) but as suggested you can put half the dough in the freezer and make a second batch later, it even explains how long to defrost it for! Also if she says use baking paper, dont think you know better! If it defies "non stick" for Nigella you and your supermarket brand bakeware wont stand a chance. But if you like eating your food straight from the baking tray or scraping it off into a messy heap...be my guest.

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review by: Ania date: 2008-08-01 rating:
More like Domestic Failure...
Nigella Lawson goes out of her way to convince the reader that it is oh-so-easy to bake mouthwatering cakes and achieve a wonderful sense of satisfaction as a homey domestic goddess...unfortunately, after trying 70% of the recipes in her book and following them exactly, the only thing I feel like is a frustrated domestic failure. I don't know why everyone else raves about this book so much, but I suspect it might be just because it looks good on the shelf, and there's no doubt about it, the photos really do look wonderful. But I'm not convinced that all the positive reviewers have tried many of the recipes, and if they have I would love someone to let me know how I could modify them so that I too can feel like a domestic goddess?

I have tried the chocolate cake - made it for a special occasion and it was a disaster, the entire centre sinking from 5cm to a mere 1cm; the sour-cream chocolate cake was actually unpleasant; the almond cake with fruit was burnt to a crisp by the time I took it out the oven 30 minutes later than the cooking time specified; the polenta base for a fruit tart which was supposed to feed 6 came out so small that it barely fed me and my partner and I was left with a tin of cherries that would not fit on the base; the peanut butter biscuits which were said to be heavenly were ordinary and I got bored of having to eat them after 2 days; the banana muffins didn't rise at all; the lemon cake had to sit in the oven 35 minutes extra before it cooked inside while the outside was hard and brittle. All these failures convince me that most of the recipes have not been tested prior to being published. I use the Leith's baking bible regularly and everything always turns out fine, just as it should - nothing burns or needs to be baked for an extra half an hour or sinks after being taken out the oven.

Two stars only because of the lemon and rspberry muffins which were rather nice (although of course also flat and did not rise at all...and yes, I have checked the validity of my baking powder!) Overall, a book with wonderful potential and beautiful photos - if only someone tried the recipes and modified them so that they actually work.

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review by: date: 2007-11-25 rating:
Truly Comforting
This book reintroduced me to the kitchen after long avoiding it (it's amazing how long you can survive on cold spaghetti hoops and sandwiches). I admit I was entranced by the cover picture, and for about two weeks it sat wrapped up on the side with me wondering what on earth posessed me to buy it.
When I did finally pluck up the courage to read it I was so glad I did. It not only serves as the most wonderful food porn, but it's non-patronising and really easy to follow.
Not only do I love lusting over the sound of the confections, I really really enjoy baking them. I've had only one item go awry-the courgette cake-but even as a sunken mess it tasted fantastic.
I think anyone who loves cakes should have this on their shelf.

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review by: date: 2007-08-03 rating:
Wonderful, Simply Wonderful
I've had this book ever since it came out, but the only reason I'm writing this review now is because I feel the need to defend Nigella's recipes. Any person who says her recipes are 'guesstimates' either doesn't own this book or hasn't ever cooked from it.Of the 100+ cookbooks I own, this is the one I've used the most and have yet to come across a recipe that has failed. If you love to bake then you must have this book and if you love to cook, then it is imperative that you own all her books.



review by: AML date: 2007-06-29 rating:
Enjoyable to read but...
I don't think the quanties in the recipes are right. I have watched Nigella on the T.V. and she rarely measures things out. She cooks like my Mum, by sight. Therefore, like my mum, the quanties in the recipes are 'guesstimates'. I much prefer Mary Berrys books as you know if you follow exactly as she she says you'll get the cake/meal etc she promises.

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Similar categories

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Books . Refinements . Language (feature_browse-bin) . English
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Accessories

Braun MR5550 M HC&BC Multiquick Professional Hand Blender
Kenwood KM001 Chef Stainless Steel with glass liquidiser
Kenwood compact chrome food processor FP116
Russell Hobbs Breadman Rapide
Nigella Lawson Living Kitchen Bread Bin Beech/Cream

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