I was feeling a little burnt out. I had to bake for Ellie's class party, bake for her birthday, bake for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, blah blah blah. Sometimes I wish we could just eliminate the some of the pressure that comes with the holidays. It's such a wonderful time of year, but unfortunately it's become this stress-filled pressure cooker. Let's just all close our eyes & think about Jesus. Ah, that's better.
Anyhow, I happened upon an article in the paper around this time. It was documenting the release of this oh-so-fine gluten free cookbook. I can't resist cookbooks. Can't. Just generally have no willpower at all. The schtick is that this Anne Byrne character has an Actual Medical Degree in cake mixes! Who knew such a degree even existed??? And, lucky for us, she has laid her healing hands upon the gluten free community.
The thought was tantalizing; being able to make a cake recipe by just dumping in one bag of cake mix instead of 3 flours & xanthan gum would be heavenly. I had my mind set on easy recipes and was ready to sacrifice quality in the process. Especially since I'm able to pick up the cake mix at the Jewel a few blocks away instead of making the trek to Whole Foods for various flours.
Imagine my shock, then, when I discovered these recipes aren't mediocre cake mix recipes. These recipes are really great, no, they're kick ass. Yes, that's what they are.
Ellie requested the Fresh Strawberry Cake (yeah, strawberries in December, I know) which was delicious. I also made the Darn Good Chocolate Cake & the Peanut Butter Cookies. OK, maybe I shouldn't rate a cookbook based on 3 recipes, but I was very happy & I am very optimistic about the rest. I'll be trying 2 new ones for the kids birthday parties, so I'll report back.
Oh, and the book has color photos of each recipe. If you're going to write a cookbook, the only decent thing to do is to show us what the recipe will (not) look like when we make it ourselves, don't you agree?
