cooking

How to be a Domestic Godess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking is certainly a fun book anyway. Nigella takes you through all kinds of festive AND practical baking options with aplomb and a good dose of humor.

The illustrations in the book are positively mouth-watering. I'm especially enthralled by a photo array of four layered cakes (a boston cream pie, butterscotch layer, a zucchini cake and something called a Victoria sponge which looks like what you eat at tea time in an E.M. Forster book). I think I need to throw a party so I can make these things...

Some of the more particularly British sections, like savory pies, steamed sponge puddings, and trifles are intriguing, but possibly not likely to be made by your average American. Steak and kidney pie holds zero appeal for me, I have to say, but other savories like mushroom tarts do.

The book isn't a step-by step manual of how to learn to bake. Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook is way more informative if you need that. Nigella assumes her readers have a good amount of basic skills before they pick up the book, but it is certainly inspiring.